GTAF Change Log / Known Issues (when applicable)

[Spider-Vice]

This thread outlines any major or interesting changes happening to the forums. Everything under this spoiler tag is old and non-applicable anymore.

 

 

Spoiler

Invision Board released an update yesterday that made a few changes and introduced a few new features we're not using at least yet. We usually let updates mature a little bit before doing them, but because this one included some security and vulnerability fixes, it was decided we should update. Obviously an update that removes and introduces things, especially by Invision who seems to have a mixed bag of priorities every single update, will introduce some issues, especially with custom themes like ours. While we were at it, we also updated the versions of the services that power the sites, such as PHP, MySQL, etc.

Here's a list of current known issues we're/we'll be investigating:

 

• Invision removed (well... "moved") custom member titles (e.g. writing your own message below your name) and classic post-count based ranks in favour of a new Achievements feature that not many people on their own forums are happy with (and there's more posts than that)... Although we've updated to a version where Invision made a compromise and allowed administrators to keep post-count based static ranks (in our case they're point levels from GTA San Andreas), they still deprecated the custom member titles feature and moved it to a custom profile field. This means that for the moment, all custom member titles will show above your flags/medals until we find a solution. We're investigating as Invision custom fields are not intuitive to work with... We've thought of something but it makes it show in two places at once, so still investigating.
  • We admittedly haven't seen many complaints about this and I'm personally getting kinda used to it, if we can't find a solution it may be thrown to the backburner
     
• This likely can only be fixed by Invision, but every time you visit a profile, you may see it fully loaded for a split second until a loading circle appears and reloads the profile. There is likely nothing we can do about this as it seems to be on Invision's side. 
• You may not be able to click the name or avatar of the Newest Member on the Member Statistics widget at the bottom of the forum. This might be an Invision caching bug... Sigh 2.
   
• A corrupted text string may appear when attempting to go to Account Settings > Privacy and you accidentally enter a wrong password. This is an Invision issue as I have seen it in another 4.6 forum. We will have to wait on them
   
• The splitting posts database error is now fixed, however, the post location in the affected users' profile never changes which means the link will still redirect to the old topic (invalid) instead of the new topic. May have to talk to Invision again.
  • The LAST post that was split from a topic updates correctly, all others (if more than one) don't.

 

FIXED/BETTER?

Spoiler

 

• (Moderation Only) A database error occurs when splitting a post into another topic. Possibly, HOPEFULLY an Invision issue. The post is split correctly but the search index and the "last poster" name/indicator are not updated correctly, logging an error in the logs about a database entry being duplicated.
  • We have found this is an issue with code related to one of the new database tables Invision added to the new update, that seems to be used for post statistics. We have opened a support ticket with them, hoping they can help us as it is their problem. Modifying their code and removing the problematic query resolves the issue, but we obviously want them to fix it - if they don't fix it we will hack the code ourselves until they do;
  • Splitting posts into a new topic works correctly. Splitting posts between topics does not, the process will not fully finish and some data won't update, and the user may never know their post was moved.
  • To clarify, if, e.g. a recent post is moved into a topic that hasn't been posted to in 3 days, it will still say "3 days ago" in the topic the message was split to, and the user will never know as it also does not update on their profile. Despite this, the post is still split, but incompletely.

 

• Advertisements not always respect the rules we set for them - show on top, below the first post, and footer. This means that at random page loads or refreshes, they may bunch up at the bottom of the page. This is happening on other GTANet sites so we suspect this is related to another update. Investigating...

 

• Timestamps in quoted posts are showing in full dates instead of e.g. "2 minutes ago", "4 hours ago", we're investigating as this doesn't happen in Invision's default theme, but we have never changed anything to do with time in ours... Sigh.
  • Still no progress on this one as of the latest edit.

 

• The online guests count (guests specifically) is acting erratically and in nonsensical random peaks and troughs since the update, not matching our previous normal activity. The online user counts may not be accurate until a solution is found or it fixes itself, or Invision fixes it. There is (hopefully) a chance this could fix itself if it's some sort of cache issue and every new visitor needs to refresh it over the next few days.
  Main bullet-points of this investigation and things we've done:
  • Ensured everyone can access the forums from every country using a VPN to exclude regional issues;
  • Checked Invision and server settings such as session cache durations, they were not changed from the previous values (30 minutes);
  • Cleared all Invision (and other) caches to ensure nothing was broken or still using old data (Cloudflare still might);
  • We've found out Invision has made quite a few changes to the code that handles sessions (logins and guest visits), there could be a bug in this, or new undocumented behaviour;
  • Session data in the SQL table for sessions is intact, this seems to be a front-end issue;
  • We used to have a very clear dip in activity by 9-10am BST (most are asleep/working) and a peak between 5 and 8pm BST (American lunch time and Europeans going off work), the numbers are now almost stable overnight which is very clearly incorrect, with guest numbers at 10am almost matching those at 9pm - which never happened before;
  • Activity across the forums has not changed whatsoever - daily registration, post and topic counts are the same on average as the past few days, so the dip in the guest number does not correspond to a real dip in activity from members and guests who are registering with us, proving that the online guests number is very likely inaccurate.

 

 

 

Green - Lower priority/minor issue

Yellow - Medium priority/minor but important issue

Orange - High priority/an issue that should be looked into soon, may or may not affect functionality

Red - Very high priority/affects functionality or should be looked into ASAP with Invision or ourselves

 

Edited November 30, 2024 by Spider-Vice

[Spider-Vice]

Updated list (27th June 2021 4:00am BST) with a new issue and some bullet-points about other issues.

[Spider-Vice]

Updated list (28th June 2021 1:10pm BST) with a new moderation-only issue, and added colour scheme for issue severity.

[Spider-Vice]

Updated last most severe issue (30th June 2021 4:00am BST) with some steps we've taken towards resolving it, hoping Invision help us as they have been hit-and-miss while reporting issues that are their fault, and end up fixed in future patches because they probably realise we were right all along...

 

Also adjusted severity of a couple of issues.

[Spider-Vice]

Update 30th June 2021 6:11pm - Invision has released an update that fixes the topic splitting issue. We will be applying the update later tonight during downtime.

[Spider-Vice]

Update 1st July 1:10am BST - Invision Board updated to version 4.6.3. The post splitting issue is now FIXED and moderators can split posts again at will. Woop.

[Spider-Vice]

Update 2nd July 3:53pm BST - Added new issue related to Invision's "attempt" with fixing post splits...

[Spider-Vice]

Update 2nd August 2:46pm BST - Fixed relative date issue in quotes. It will now show "2 hours ago", etc. as usual instead of full dates on recent posts.

[Spider-Vice]

A long-standing issue with page redirects after clicking certain page elements has been finally fixed/improved.

 

Moderators:

• Selecting topics for moderation using the checkboxes in forum views should no longer redirect you to the topic, and you should no longer have to press Escape. This also makes it a lot better to use on mobile.

Everyone:

• Selecting elements in certain account configuration pages such as Ignored Members should no longer redirect you to an error, or the previous page.
• The issue where one would not be able to use the first set of options while creating a Poll should now be fixed. You will no longer be redirected after clicking the text boxes.
• In forums that use tags/prefixes, such as the Bugs* forum or the Mod Showroom subforums, clicking the row to visit the topic should now correctly redirect to the topic instead of the Tag/Prefix search page.
• Marking forums as read should no longer refresh the page either.
   

There might still be pages where this can happen, but it shouldn't anymore in the most commonly used pages. If you find any please feel free to report. The way the plugin works needs us to add pages to a disallow list instead, as most Invision rows use the same CSS/DOM classes.

 

Cheers!

Edited December 27, 2021 by Spider-Vice
Added one more fix.

[Spider-Vice]

Edit and report post buttons have been moved out of a menu. Invision moved both of those buttons into a separate menu in one of the versions, which reduced report engagement and caused a few questions about post edits or being able to report posts.

 

You should now be able to see Edit post and Report post buttons at the bottom of each post. Edit will only appear on your own posts.

[Spider-Vice]

The text editor now has a "Clear Contents" button (), which should help with working around an issue on mobile devices wherein users can't remove quote blocks or other similar content.

 

Pressing the button will instantly clear everything, so be mindful of that.