Freedomain Radio

Several members noticed strange behaviour on forums (in this thread: http://freedomainradio.com/BOARD/forums/p/22400/185043.aspx#185043). 

If they click on a members name to display his profile an error occures:

Not Found: Resource Not Found

Profiles affected:

PhillipJ http://freedomainradio.com/board/members/mcphilthy/default.aspx
Richard Deziel http://freedomainradio.com/BOARD/members/NO_5F00_coercion/default.aspx
Victors http://freedomainradio.com/board/members/cmcpheed/default.aspx

Possible reason:
member has changed his name (not all references in database have changed properly).

I realize that this has to be a frustrating issue for people since this is rather frequently reported.

The problem is related to the use of "Favorites" in the board software.  Each time this is reported, it becomes necessary to go into the database, locate the offending post IDs, and remove them from the person's "favorite" list.

It takes 5-10 minutes to fix a profile in this way, sometimes longer.

I don't know of any way to fix this permanently.

I don't often look at people's profiles; can people tell me how they use the profiles?  If it is really important and there is no workaround, then I can budget more time to fixing this issue.  Otherwise, it strikes me as a relatively low priority item, though quite noticeable, that doesn't impact using the board in general.

I wanted to send a personal message to a friend and I couldn't because I was unable to view his profile. 

Now that I know what can cause it, I will not use that feature of making favourite list (but other uninformed users may do so). One ugly solution may be to disable the favourite list :-)

For me it is significant. I feel annoyed when something is not working as it should. I don't know how may other users feel the same. If it is just me, then please don't waste your time. I am a programmer so I can immagine how unpleasant the fixing of such an issue can be.

I really do appreciate your response

Here's a workaround for sending a personal message: you can send a personal message to a friend by locating a post of theirs and clicking "Contact" on the post.  If you "start a conversation," that will send messages back and forth within the board software.  "Send an email" does just that.

I also can appreciate the annoyance when something isn't working like it should, and I wish I knew enough about the board software to take a whack at fixing it (though I do have an idea; I will inspect the template that renders the profile and see if I can put in some logic to prevent this).

It seems that it is caused when people set a favorite that is not publicly accessible, such as a premium podcast.  Why the software does not handle this without completely bombing out is beyond me.

JamesP:

Here's a workaround for sending a personal message: you can send a personal message to a friend by locating a post of theirs and clicking "Contact" on the post.  If you "start a conversation," that will send messages back and forth within the board software.  "Send an email" does just that.

Thank you for the workaround tip.

JamesP:

I also can appreciate the annoyance when something isn't working like it should, and I wish I knew enough about the board software to take a whack at fixing it (though I do have an idea; I will inspect the template that renders the profile and see if I can put in some logic to prevent this).

I hope that you will find a solution. You will save frustration and time both for you and for board members. Good luck and thank you for your time and what are you doing for running the boards and sunday shows (thats what I know about what you are doing :-)).

JamesP:

It seems that it is caused when people set a favorite that is not publicly accessible, such as a premium podcast. Why the software does not handle this without completely bombing out is beyond me.

That it is a problem of user rights make sense. Is the board software a payed service? Or is it some kind of open source? Or it is made completely by hand by somebody from FDR?

Thanks for your comments

ronky:

That it is a problem of user rights make sense. Is the board software a payed service? Or is it some kind of open source? Or it is made completely by hand by somebody from FDR?

The source code is publicly available for most of the board functionality, but I personally wouldn't call it "open source" because the company that maintains it controls the available features via licensing.

There's also some customization, but I don't know exactly how much or where it is.  I've done a few things, but they're relatively minor--just some template tweaking.

JamesP:

The source code is publicly available for most of the board functionality, but I personally wouldn't call it "open source" because the company that maintains it controls the available features via licensing.

There's also some customization, but I don't know exactly how much or where it is.  I've done a few things, but they're relatively minor--just some template tweaking.

What is the company name? Maybe they know the solution to this problem, or the just do not know there is a problem. Maybe they will appreciate when somebody lets them know. I can do that, but I am not sure if my word will change something, because I am not their customer.

ronky:

JamesP:

The source code is publicly available for most of the board functionality, but I personally wouldn't call it "open source" because the company that maintains it controls the available features via licensing.

There's also some customization, but I don't know exactly how much or where it is.  I've done a few things, but they're relatively minor--just some template tweaking.

What is the company name? Maybe they know the solution to this problem, or the just do not know there is a problem. Maybe they will appreciate when somebody lets them know. I can do that, but I am not sure if my word will change something, because I am not their customer.

I finally got around to doing some research and it turns out that it's a known issue and it has been fixed, but not in our version of the board software.  I do not know if we are in a position to apply the fixes or not.

Try it out now...

I did not fix the favorites continuation pages, but at least the profiles should be showing up for people now.

JamesP:

I finally got around to doing some research and it turns out that it's a known issue and it has been fixed, but not in our version of the board software.  I do not know if we are in a position to apply the fixes or not.

That sounds like a good news. I hope that the patch can be applied. 

JamesP:

Try it out now...

I did not fix the favorites continuation pages, but at least the profiles should be showing up for people now.

Hmm, I tried the three links which I have posted earlier, I have also tried to view profile by clicking on a friend in my profile in friend list, and I have also tried to view profile in the "contact" section in post. But I got the same error.

Maybe there is also a workaround of which I am not aware of. Have clicking on the mentioned links worked for you? How did you view the members profiles?

Alright, then it doesn't look like something I can fix in that way.

I don't know if/when we can apply the patch to the board software to fix this issue.