I still hate the time out feature.

[quote user="Paddywakk"]WHY

(Sorry about that.  Add to everything the fact that my computer decides when to configure updates.  I hate Vista.)

Anyway, the primary reason I don't sign in until responding is because of the occasional ingrate reading the board.  They don't like an answer, consider us to be the creator of the law, and come up with insipid comments like, "I see you have no life." 

I guess I also had no life when I was on three separate BODs contributing time.  The difference is that those involved travel time, too.

The problem is that "signing in" involves too much.  I understand it if it involves posting.  But if we want to see which response is directed to whom, we have to sign in.  It's going overboard.

P.S. -- The system is only letting me quote Why from Paddywakk's post.

nt

Cica:

Add to everything the fact that my computer decides when to configure updates. I hate Vista

Not intending to go off on a tangent, but you can turn off automatic updates.

Click Start.

Click Windows Update.

Click Change Settings.

Choose "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them."

Click OK.

You'll get a frequent reminder that updates are available. You can ignore the reminder until you feel like looking.

I usually install updates every month or two.

Recently MS has been pushing IE8 through its automatic updates. Word on the net is that IE8 has lots of problems so you might not want to continue with automatice installs lest you get stuck with IE8.

I'll try this!  I'm pretty much stuck in the Atex world from back in the early '80s.  Fooling around with today's programs, well, admittedly it's an outright phobia. 

Is there any update on the time out feature?

I have had a couple of posts that I responded to get wiped out because my session timed out and just decided to not respond and go to the next post.

When you went on to the next post, do you recall if you were you still logged in? If the message timed out, your login session should have been cancelled as well.

The request is with IT for review and determination on how changes could be implemented.

The update r... would be a program change to the "bones" of the forum program. We previously extended the timeout to help. The timeout function is set for two hours with activity during the first hour ignored. Activity during the second hour (accessing or submitting a message) the program should be extending the session for an additional hour from that point. If activity (which could be either opening a new message or submitting a post) during the second hour isn't extending your session please let me know.

Thanks.

Denise

I just submitted a post well less than an hour after opening the message and hitting the reply link for it—it still sent me to the log-in page again. And the post was, of course, lost. 

From what I've seen, the time-out feature is not working off the last click you make on the site, but something else, making it seem quite random. Sometimes I can be on the site for more than an hour and not ever have a problem; sometimes I'm on for less and I lose posts. That's part of what adds to my frustration with this feature. The longer this goes on, the more frustrated I get. I'm close to just abandoning this site. It's really not worth the hassle of having to compose replies in a word processor or constantly copy text from my replies to my clipboard before submitting them just to ensure that they don't get lost.

I always have to log back in and I m constantly switching posts - opening, closing and sometimes responding.

Like Taxagent I have noticed that I can be on for a couple of hours and no issues then all of a sudden get dropped. It varies from day to day as to how long I can be on before I loose my session.

I know I'm new here, but if I can put in my two cents.  I contribute to several forums and this is the only one that times out.  Some have a "remember me" checkbox that inactivates the time-out feature, some don't have one at all and (although just tangentially related) some have a "hide me" checkbox when you log on.

Just sayin. ;)

PattyPA:

I know I'm new here, but if I can put in my two cents.

That's more like 3 cents worth.

I like the ideas you put in here as well.

Cool, I got a raise. :)

Thanks.

"Like Taxagent I have noticed that I can be on for a couple of hours and no issues then all of a sudden get dropped. It varies from day to day as to how long I can be on before I loose my session."

It definitely depends on what you're doing on the site. If you're just reading messages in a particular forum or clicking on posts, you're keeping your session "open." Once you stop moving around the site (and depending how long you've been signed in) you can get logged out if you're just writing a message since you're not creating new activity.

While the old site may have been better in some regards, it had its problems, too, in addition to being 10 years old! 

And, as mentioned, it's also a fine balance to keeping users' privacy, and usability. Plus, if you stay logged in, your account can more easily get hacked or phished.

Kristin, Community Moderator (Admin):

if you stay logged in, your account can more easily get hacked or phished.

So what?

I've been on this site for 8 years and, as much as I enjoy participating, it's never made it to my list of:

"Things I worry about getting hacked or phished."

I have third party email accounts and other forums that I can stay logged in on for two weeks or forever, and they also didn't make it to the list of:

"Things I worry about getting hacked or phished."

So, if you aren't going to fix it, just be honest and say so.

It's been more than two months already.

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

Kristin, Community Moderator (Admin):

It definitely depends on what you're doing on the site. If you're just reading messages in a particular forum or clicking on posts, you're keeping your session "open." Once you stop moving around the site (and depending how long you've been signed in) you can get logged out if you're just writing a message since you're not creating new activity.

Actually that's not true - When I am on I am moving from post to post either reading or answering and I still get timed out. If I sat there for an hour and did nothing then I would not complain when I got kicked out of the system.

It does not happen all of the time either - there are days when I am on for hours before getting kicked out then there are days when i am on for an hour and get kicked out.

There is obviously something wrong in the code and if you choose to investigate it will take time to figure out what's wrong.