New forum - activily hostile behaviour to discourage use?

[Paul King]

I note the new forum seems to log users out quite quickly due to inactivity, and worse than this, it has no failsafe protection against data loss due to these time outs, and gives the user no visible warning or even reason to guess that they have been logged out when it happens (after all, the user's logged in profile avatar remains visible at top right)

I have several times been logged in and reading a thread, perhaps leaving the forum open while attending to one of the constant stream of small tasks every user must juggle while online (such as answering the phone or an important email), then composing a message or reply to the forum, only to be directed to the login page when hitting the 'post' button. 

On logging in again, I am not returned to the thread, and when I manually do navigate my way back to that thread, all my typing has gone.

This is clearly not ergonomic behaviour, and because there is no indication whatsoever that I have been logged out mid way through composing a post, there is little I can do to defend against this hostile behaviour except copy pasting every post to a separate text file as a backup, before hitting 'post'.

This is not just a browser shortcoming - I have hosted and operated two different browser based forum platforms myself, neither of which were subject to this problem; by administrator setting, timeout can be made quite long, or users can generally simply remain logged in until they explicitly log out, or close the browser window. 

It is not as if we are disclosing our bank account numbers or other critically sensitive information here, where  viewing by someone without an account might actually have consequences.

Forum administrator, can we please ditch this behaviour?  (also, can you please provide a direct 'Contact Us' link for more efficient communication over real or apparent forum bugs - for obvious reasons)

[Stress Co_]

@Paul King wrote:

 can you please provide a direct 'Contact Us' link for more efficient communication over real or apparent forum bugs - for obvious reasons

---

This was posted in the FAQ tread:

Spoiler

“17. I have a question which is not mentioned above. How can I get help?

Feel free to send your questions or concerns to us on community-support@graphisoft.com and we will try to answer you as soon as possible.”

Edit:

I didn’t intend for that to be a “spoiler“, but I’m going to with it.

[Paul King]

That would require the user to know about the FAQ (there is no landing page link to that either), and to have memorized its contents, and to not be experiencing a bug or problems accessing the forum content in the first place!

Certainly the normal/expected place for a Contact-Us link is at the bottom of the webpage footer, along with the other legal stuff (Terms of use, Privacy Policy etc) 

[Laszlo Nagy]

The question mark icon in the upper right corner will take you to the Help page which includes the FAQ as well:

[Paul King]

Thanks - found it. 

That said, being two steps removed from default/expected location, and at the end of a list,  it would take someone a bit of committed searching (and a bit more faith than I had, that it even exists!) to find that 'Contact Us' link...

[vistasp]

Yes! Being forced to log in repeatedly is a pain in the backside.  I think this used to be the case with the (separated) GDL forum at one time, until the setting was changed.

Admins, could you please allow us to remain logged in until we explicitly log out (or let it be a user-preference if that is at all possible).

[Noemi Balogh]

Dear All,

This was reported by other members and moderators as well, and of course, we see it too. At the moment we are investigating this issue and working on a solution. 

I would like to ask all of you to be patient until we find the right solution.

Kind regards,
Noémi

[Paul King]

A further user hostile behaviour is the login dialog. 

This appears to block browser from remembering user credentials, forcing the user to remember and retype username and password every time, or log in to a password manager to retrieve this information every time - adding unnecessary inconvenience to the process of accessing the forum.

If this was a banking website, I would applaud such behaviour, but because forum discussions are effectively in the public domain, there are no privacy concerns addressed by a login dialog that prevents browser password retention - this dialog really only needs to exist to identify the user who is posting, collect activity statistics and act as a barrier to spam bots.

[Noemi Balogh]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. An update will be implemented soon to keep you signed in, then we will check the other issue (credentials are not filled automatically by browser / password manager).

Noémi

[mthd]

Hi, I am still having auto time out issues to this day.

I am automaticity logged out, I try to log back in several times but I have to wait for up to 30 min or so for the system to recognise me and log me back in.

Is that normal behaviour ?

[DGSketcher]

I have noticed this recently. Initially I put it down to system maintenance, but from other comments there may be an issue with logging back in after a time-out.

I also had several copies of Safari open yesterday while looking at different threads and started seeing “Authentication Failed” notices while trying to post.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Not getting logged out or having issues logging in here, either mthd.  I do have to use Chrome on my Mac as Safari has some glitch that prevents me from editing posts and more.

Are you using a VPN that makes you appear to be in different countries or running some software that might be deleting the Graphisoft Community cookies (which are what keep you logged in between sessions)?

[Paul King]

I do have to use VPN while connected to the BIMserver operated by the company I freelance to - in other words during office hours  - exactly when I am most likely to try posting a question here!

[vistasp]

On my system, it's been working as expected ever since the update was made, so not sure what is logging you out, @mthd.

[mthd]

I have an iPad and I also use safari and I am regularly being asked to allow cookies so Karl has a good point. 

My ipad is quite old and I do have a mobile modem that I am connected to but I don’t have a VPN set up at present.

I have to log in every day and some times a few times during the day. After I enter my email and PW I have to wait up to 15 - 30 min usually to get back in.

I put up with it, it maybe because my iPad has an older version of IOS and GS is nearly always up to date with digital technology ?

I don’t have problems with my other CAD talk forums though ?

Thanks for the support, much appreciated.

[DGSketcher]

I also have an older iPad and have noticed I can try to log in but it looks and acts like I am still logged out and then at some random point it shows the logged in icon.

[mthd]

Yeah ditto lol !

[Noemi Balogh]

Dear All,

Those of you who are facing with such issue these days and willing to participate in an investigation, please contact me in private message with the following information:

• current IPv4 and IPv6 (if available) address as per https://whatismyipaddress.com/
• whether if they use or do not use VPN
• OS (e.g. macOS 10.15.6 or Windows 10)
• browser (e.g. Chrome Version 107.0.5304.88)
• short summary of when they experience the issue (every morning or whenever they switch device or whatever happens)
• whether if switching device / OS / browser / network helps or not

Thank you,

NB