Problems on simtropolis

evarburg · January 29, 2019, 08:00:51 PM

I have no access to anyone on the site so I am posting here. This is what I see when I try to answer any post anywhere (below) Hitting refresh doesn't change anything. I also noticed that I don't have the usual access to the images when DLing a lot (normally I click on it, it opens another page on which the image is drag&drop) ; and when I tried to DL a lot right now, it stopped halfway. On a previous lot, the dependencies where not clickable either (the recent one, with the buses)

It's been at least three days. I may have problems with my computer, (hard drive and such) -- not confirmed yet --, but this is just ridiculous...

Could someone here who is also on Simtropolis please get in touch with the admins and signal the problem for me ? Thanks you in advance.

Terring7 · January 30, 2019, 02:21:05 AM

As a Simtropolis moderator, I've informed the rest of the team of mods and admins. Be patient

Update: It seems like you're not the only one having this issue. I guess you'll have to wait for a while.

evarburg · January 30, 2019, 07:20:36 AM

Thank you, Terring. Somehow it is comforting to know I am not the only one -- as it might mean that my computer is not suffering from advanced senility

Gwada971 · January 30, 2019, 07:30:18 AM

I also have the same problem as philforhockey51 and tariely following the maintenance of the site this weekend, I think.
No access to the editor on posts or profiles to leave a message, comment or leave an image, no access to images on download pages. No carousel on the Downloads page.
I attach a copy of the Web Console with errors common to all pages.

Thanks to evarbug (tariely) for opening this post, I hadn't thought of it!!! and to Terring for forwarding it.

bradf_50 · January 30, 2019, 10:47:57 AM

As of today 1-30-18 I have not been able to access any editor or message text body for the last 3 days. It seems here lately after a maintenance session things go bad. This may have to do with the website provider more than Simtrop personnel. Which Cyclone Boom has himself mentioned.

Wiimeiser · January 30, 2019, 03:13:08 PM

I'm not having a problem, maybe it's because I'm on Chrome... I do sometimes get similar bugs, but refreshing fixes those.

AsimPika3172 · January 30, 2019, 03:51:21 PM

Hmmm....

I also got this few days or week or months when I click Write Review or Add Comment. Something I saw comment editing or just nothing (showing only "Drag files to attach or Choose Files" without comment editing). It was random...

Terring7 · January 30, 2019, 11:26:12 PM

This situation is something we're aware of, and we apologize for the prolonged inconvenience. Dirk has been informed via the admin hotline, but he's often busy throughout the week, so we don't know when he'll get around to investigate and respond. Last time it did resolve itself after about a week later, so It's likely to resolve itself this time as well, but we don't know how quickly this is achievable. Also, there are additional things which Dirk can look into when he gets the chance.

Simtropolis admin Cyclone Boom in the "Diagnosing" section of his prior post last year HERE has made a few listed suggestions that may help, although previously it didn't seem to. That might be worth linking also just in case, but we think this is a a network CDN issue, so clearing caches is unlikely to help matters. Still, give it a try.

Right now the only thing we can do is wait until Dirk have the time to look at it. We deeply sorry for the hardship and thank you for the patience

Wiimeiser · January 31, 2019, 04:24:19 AM

Just FYI I've posted a reply in the ST thread with a link to this thread. I also posted that I'm having no problems, and that resolution of the content area should be the first area of investigation.

evarburg · January 31, 2019, 08:13:55 AM

Quote from: Wiimeiser on January 31, 2019, 04:24:19 AM
Just FYI I've posted a reply in the ST thread with a link to this thread. I also posted that I'm having no problems, and that resolution of the content area should be the first area of investigation.

Thanks for doing that. I've noticed that the content areas seem impacted in many different ways --not only on the Exchange (comments etc.) but in the creators' content pages ; I am in the process of tidying up my stash (as I can't play because of computer problems) and I am screencapturing those contents to check what I might have missed, and attribute my present material to its proper creators, when in doubt ; it used to be easy, as only a picture of a lot or mod was shown, with a vey brief summary (if any), so each capture covered at least 6 entries ; now those pages show the entire presentation text of each entry, which makes the screencapturing a long and ultimately not very useful process.

Philforhockey51 · January 31, 2019, 01:26:56 PM

Part of me is glad I am not the only one having an issue, sorry but at least I now know it's not my side of things that is causing the issue if you know what I mean.

Gwada971 · January 31, 2019, 06:35:42 PM

Everything's okay on my side. The site is now up and running.

evarburg · January 31, 2019, 07:16:03 PM

Quote from: Gwada971 on January 31, 2019, 06:35:42 PM
Everything's okay on my side. The site is now up and running.

Yes, it seems everything's back to normal, although with a little hiccupy page loading (begins... stops... wait... and then zoom, charges.) ; let's hope the bandaid holds this time !

(or better, that it is not a bandaid and that the site won't have problems again. Or not in a long time.)

Bravo and thanks to the valiant admins !

evarburg · February 03, 2019, 06:44:22 AM

aaaaand... SImtropolis is [expletive deleted] again. Full page presentation of lots, no access to the Reply to Post window... Is the site cursed or what ?

EDIT: Good info, ma'am, but the coarse language doesn't square with your wonderful MD. We get the point in any event. -David

Oupse. Apologies. The ups & downs are getting to me (SC4 is my only escape these days...)

Wiimeiser · February 03, 2019, 05:57:30 PM

Happened to me when I opened the page with Chrome's download bar up, but I closed it and refreshed and it works now. The dimensions of the content window almost definitely seem to be a factor in that case...

evarburg · February 04, 2019, 07:23:12 AM

It comes and it goes. It's back for now. Unfair to the admins, that it keeps on happening like that !

jjeffrey · February 05, 2019, 09:37:55 PM

When downloading as a guest, you get a short advertisement. The ads vary and you can skip them in a few seconds. Problem is, twice in 3 days I have been hit with a virus announcement saying my credit card information is being sent to the virus people. I assume this is a virus or a very bad ad for virus protection.

Both times I immediately cut power to my pc. Upon restarting, a virus scan found no problems.

Thank you,
Jeffrey

Terring7 · February 05, 2019, 10:25:22 PM

Not sure if it's a fake alert from your antivirus, or an ad from a fake antivirus. Just to be sure, I've passed your problem to the rest of the mods and admins of Simtropolis.

mgb204 · February 06, 2019, 02:30:01 AM

Quote from: jjeffrey on February 05, 2019, 09:37:55 PM
When downloading as a guest, you get a short advertisement. The ads vary and you can skip them in a few seconds. Problem is, twice in 3 days I have been hit with a virus announcement saying my credit card information is being sent to the virus people. I assume this is a virus or a very bad ad for virus protection.

Let's just think about that for a second:

How would your Anti-Virus software know your credit card number?
Is your credit card number saved on your PC? That's a recipe for problems right there, if not, how could it be stolen?
How can your Anti-Virus software "interrupt" a browsing session, i.e. appear in your browser or spoofing an Ad?
Clearly this is a scam ad, intended to get you to click on it with some nefarious intent. It is not your AntiVirus and unlikely to be an actual Virus either.

QuoteBoth times I immediately cut power to my pc. Upon restarting, a virus scan found no problems.

I would seriously advise against such a knee-jerk reaction. In any event, removing the network cable, turning off your router or simply disabling the internet on your computer would all have the same effect. Only these do so without any risk of corrupting data being written on your HDD, screwing up Windows or even breaking hardware. The reality is that any message can appear in an ad, from "buy our car" to "the world is ending". Such scare tactics to get you to click on the ad are common and come in many forms. But, provided you don't open them, there should not be any real risk of harm. Afterall, had that ad managed to get malware onto your PC in the first place, re-starting the computer would be unlikely to fix it.

Such scams are prevalent on the internet and not limited to Phising e-mails or malware. The best protection comes from being able to spot something dubious and leave it well alone. Although having some security software to protect you is a sensible precaution also.

Sadly, Simtropolis needs money to fund the free services it provides and that necessitates having ads. As a site, we can not simply choose which ads you will see, like all sites, we have an agreement with a third party that handles this. Sometimes inappropriate ads or scams make it through, when this occurs and we're made aware of them, we can report those to the provider. But ultimately sites have very little control over what content ends up in ads. The real problem is that companies that serve ads, don't really care about protecting people or blocking spurious content. They are willing to turn a blind eye, in order to make money, as has been seen again and again on the internet. That won't really change without a better regulatory system to protect end users.

mattb325 · February 06, 2019, 11:02:10 AM

Quote from: mgb204 on February 06, 2019, 02:30:01 AM
Quote from: jjeffrey on February 05, 2019, 09:37:55 PM
When downloading as a guest, you get a short advertisement. The ads vary and you can skip them in a few seconds. Problem is, twice in 3 days I have been hit with a virus announcement saying my credit card information is being sent to the virus people. I assume this is a virus or a very bad ad for virus protection.

Let's just think about that for a second:

How would your Anti-Virus software know your credit card number?
Is your credit card number saved on your PC? That's a recipe for problems right there, if not, how could it be stolen?
How can your Anti-Virus software "interrupt" a browsing session, i.e. appear in your browser or spoofing an Ad?
Clearly this is a scam ad, intended to get you to click on it with some nefarious intent. It is not your AntiVirus and unlikely to be an actual Virus either.

jjeffrey was quite aware of the possibility of it being a spoof ad, and I have highlighted his words "or a very bad ad for virus protection" for your reference.

As such, starting your response with this: "Let's just think about that for a second:" is quite unnecessarily condescending. You may get away with that sort of behaviour on Simtropolis, but if you want to wear the 'moderator' badge I would suggest being somewhat more helpful and maintaining the implicit values of both sites, such as advising the user that he can avoid ads altogether by logging in prior to downloading or by asking for more information about the ad in question so it can be, as you say, reported by staff as inappropriate to the third party hosting site.

While many people, yourself included, have a lot of broad computer knowledge, many do not. It is neither a crime nor a point for derision if an individual falls into the latter category.