About re Captcha and Some of You that Need a Time Out
Two days ago most likely due to the fact that FireFox automatically updated your browsers if you use it without asking (good job FireFox guys) or possibly for some other reason a plugin we use called re Captcha broke and began showing up at the top of the site.
I discovered this early in the AM the day it occurred, I immediately deactivated the plugin and the problem went away at least as far as I could see. I located a new spam protection plugin called clean talk, unlike re Captcha it is a paid solution and I spent the money without a second thought to keep the site running.
Problem for some of you is you visited during that time and apparently have the jacked up version cached. If this is you hold down control and hit F5 this will clear the problem for you. At this point I have removed the plugin from the server, so if you have this issue it is ON YOUR END, there is nothing more I can do. Again a reboot or a control F5 will solve your issues.
Now about that time out. One annoying coward made some nasty comments that will never be seen. This is no big deal as what persistant pain in the ass cowards do is always ignored.
That said I did get quite a few angry and confrontational emails from some of you claiming that I did this to capture your personal information and other such nonsense. Please understand I run this site on my own. I do have two wonderful guys that help me with server level issues but day to day, I produce shows, answer emails, handle all your customer support and yes manage and run the technology on this website.
Sometimes shit breaks, it just does, it is how things like this are. All I can do when they break is fix them. After 8.5 years if anyone really thinks that anything I do here is designed to be nefarious, I have a solution, go elsewhere!
I actually had no idea that some of you still saw the broken site until this morning when Blake who is developing the TSP Business directory told me he saw it still on his browser. That is when many of your emails even made sense!
I got a few dozen angry emails and site contact forms that were largely incoherent! Here is one example…
From: xxxxx
Subject: Weird sign in
Message Body: Help
Look guys if you have an issue I need more than that, weird sign in to what, where, causing you what problem? I mean I am not picking on the guy that sent the above email but when I am working my butt off this doesn’t tell me what I need to do to help you.
But at least this is just a guy asking for assistance, this one was actually more useful because at least the information I needed to know the problem was included but seriously?
From: Bite ME
Subject: No more reCaptcha
Message Body: Turn this POS recaptcha off when all I want is to view a page!
Here is another great one!
From: Joe Smith
Subject: Buzz off
Message Body:
I can only assume Joe Smith is a fake name and buzz off is due to the captcha problem, who the hell knows.
Anyway if you guys ever have a problem, please just fully explain it so I can actually do something to help you. And some of you need a fricken time out, heck I think some of you need a damn quaalude or at least to dig the wad out of your panties or whatever has you irritated.
Final thought – you know how sometimes I am short with a commenter? And you are like why is Jack so harsh at times, yea well this is the type of thing I deal with a few times a week and sometimes that person you see me be harsh with, yea they are part of a chain of events like this. At other times I may be hard on someone who didn’t have anything to do with anything like this. I try my best not to be tough on people but when you deal with crap like this daily at times you simply get tired of people bitching at you.
In any event I will continue to do my best to provide a great podcast and a great choice in online communities for you guys. If something is messed up again please tell me but please give me some details about your issue, don’t assume I see what you see. And also again after more than 8 years together, try giving me the benefit of the doubt when a problem pops up and say an hour or so to fix it before you go getting a case of the red ass at me. Thank you.
~Jack
I had no idea what it was, but it’s fixed now. Thanks!
Hey Jack,
Anyone complaining about something this simple has lived to soft of a life!
Keep up the good work,
msb member,
z
Thanks for the fix.
Hi TSP.
With all your crappie happenings, I just want to say thank you for all your efforts and information you provide on your site for us. It is appreciated very much and whatever your loyal base can do to help, just let us know. Again, thanks for you valuable work.
Thank’s Jack.
Good grief, people and their first world problems. Oh boo hoo this free website full of useful info that I visit on my own free will isn’t working perfectly and posses a minor inconvenience, I know I’ll write a nasty e-mail and show him!!
I had the Firefox problem. Ctl-F5 didn’t work for me, so I went to Options->Advanced->Network->Cached Web Content and hit Clear Now … that did the trick! I wouldn’t have figured that out if Jack hadn’t explained the problem – thanks, Jack!
thanks for that tip. i had to go to this option to clear it also. thanks for posting the information in the comments. cheers!
Thanks, Jack.
If only people would put energy into something productive instead of bitching about things, they would live that better life…
I just ignored it. The site worked fine anyway. It showed up on my android phone when I use “internet” instead of Chrome. I’ll fix it eventually. What’s the big deal?
LOL I saw that for awhile and was like… I bet Jack fixed this and its still cached. Ctrl +R does wonders folks…. quitcherbitchin
It is sad that we have to try to stop the automatic programs from getting on site. Some of the largest sites require Captcha to get on.
It makes me sad that you had to write about this, but it makes me happy to hear your show every day. Keep up the great work, Jack!
The upset ones need to just get older. My dad when he turned 60 said to me, that he no longer engages with the drama. As a 20 something, I didn’t understand how he could say that, but the older I get, I find I have less energy to deal with people who want die young and who waste their energy by exploding, fretting and getting angry. Peace rests inside as an inside job, and those who come running up to put their **** on my plate, get a whopping helping of peace heaped overflowing back on their plates in return. Those people are no longer hills to die on; they can keep their tantrums and storms; I’ve got only hills to enjoy with the warm sunshine. Not letting them in, I have a private preserve.
A) I had no clue what it was but since I could still use the site I was like “he’ll fix it, I’m sure”. I do appreciate the tip for the “ctrl” F5 as I’m not as computer savvy as I used to be so didn’t know to do that.
B) Thanks for all you do!
I noticed it but ignored it and I was then looking for “I am a robot” since I work for govt. and write code all day /blarg
Thanks for the quick fix and thanks for all the great information.
I work in IT support. I see the laziest side of people every day. My favorite ticket description is “my computer isn’t working.”
I feel your pain.
Can you fix mine, because it’s broken too. 😉
I am running Chrome, and it was timing out trying to get to your website earlier this afternoon. As you said, stuff breaks, and as I used to work for an ISP and local phone provider, I know all too well how stuff can break. I figured you were on the problem and it would be fixed as soon as possible.
I am so glad I don’t have to deal with jerks, like you detailed above, anymore. Early retirement fixed that problem.
Keep up the great work Jack!
This is one of the funniest posts I have ever read from you Jack!
Help! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
don’t push control f5 on a mac. It put up a little black box I don’t know how to get rid of. Live and learn though right 🙂
People can be so mean for no good reason.
There are a lot of us out here that really appreciate what you do.
To the people who gave you crap: you suck and are lazy… go do something constructive with you life.
Keep up the good work Jack!
Half the western world that uses the internet needs to be put into time out. Too many little children who can’t handle minor inconveniences while using an amazing technology.
lol, I saw the form at the top of the site, and completely ignored it! Didn’t know what it was, didn’t need to fill it out to listen to the podcast, so i didn’t.
Websites do weird things sometimes, my phone does weird things sometimes…. i just let it flow over my head. Probably exposing myself to all sorts of hacking, oops.
Thanks Jack for fixing it.
I didn’t see this problem today apparently because I have my Firefox setup differently: no automatic updates. To turn OFF your automatic updates too, do this:
(Top of your webpage on the Firefox menu bar) –> “Tools” –> “Options” –> “Advanced” (left side) –> “Update” (One of five header tabs in the middle of the page) –> Select the second option: “Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them.”
Sweet, take control back for yourself (like a good anarchist?)
If I used that second option myself, I’d simply wait a couple weeks before updating to any new versions, in order to to let the Firefox jokers work out the kinks. Never accept/buy the first version/model of anything.
Personally though, I am computer savvy and get tired of the constant reminders popups that Firefox will display when using the above option, so I use the third option instead: “Never check for updates (not recommended: security risk)” because I use various older versions of Firefox for many months sometimes, because they still work for all my cherished extensions and plugins. I have NEVER had a “security risk” as they warn. Hogwash. But, note that I do run other programs that block all sorts of terrible things (i.e. a priceless one is “PeerBlock,” if you set up the right list of IP addresses to prevent. It’s truly amazing (scary) how many corporations, local AND foreign governments, universities, etc. can try pinging an average computer on any given day.)
Hey how about this constantly since this stupid update, my logins to my sites keep getting unlogged in. Any idea what setting is doing that? I looked but could not find one.
I saw it… I ignored it (after being confused by it for maybe 30 seconds)… then I decided I was going to be paranoid & pissed. When I see you face to face at the November Workshop I’ll be sure to give you a good bitching to…. and maybe even a beer. Rock On Jack.
Hilarious. I have no idea why people act the way they do online especially over things just so stupid.
The worst I think I’d ever say (which would only be outloud) is… “he needs to get his shit together”. So somebody’s site is down at the moment. OH NOEZZZZ.
Jack: About your websites getting unlogged in…not sure what that means, but I would simply reinstall the last Firefox version that you used. A hard to find webpage of ALL current and previous versions is here:
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
After a year at v32 or 33 (can’t remember exactly), I’m now running 41.0.2 (the EME-free version) and have no reason to upgrade that I can see at this point for a while.
BTW – Side note: I just typed the above comment all up, and then went to submit it. But right before I did, I did this:
* hit [CTRL+A] to select all the text in the box that I typed,
* then hit [CTRL+C] to copy it all to my clipboard.
The reason why I did that, and do that just before I submit ANYTHING that is more than a sentence long, is in case it gets screwed up somehow. In this case it did, because I didn’t have the CAPTCHA code correct. I popped up the screen saying “WRONG CAPTCHA CODE”and when I hit “back” to come back to this page, all my text was gone. No problem. All I did was type my name and email again (which auto-filled for me anyway) and then clicked in the comment box and hit [CTRL+V] to paste in my previously copied text back off my clipboard. BOOM, all back instantly. No retyping of anything. Entered a new CAPTCHA code and “Post Comment” and it was all good.
Moreover, if I’m ever typing anything longer than a single paragraph, I will periodically select all the text, copy it, and then paste it over in a blank Notepad or Word page, save it to my desktop or wherever, just to have a separate copy somewhere. I’ll do that little procedure with every additional paragraph I type, just in case the whole web page, web browser, or even computer crashes in the middle of all that typing. (I just did it now actually with this chunk of text here)…
I hope it helps everyone. Otherwise it sucks when you type for 10+ minutes and then end up losing it all! There’s no reason for that with good protective habits like this one.
(I just selected-all and copied this whole paragraph now. [CTRL+A] & [CTRL+C] takes only 1 second, and can save you tons of time if things go wrong! Right before I go to “Post Comment” now…)
—
(Which just saved my ass, because I had the wrong CAPTCHA code again.)
—
(Twice! I think something is wrong with CAPTCHA itself at this point…or my eyes…)
I didn’t realize that was an issue. I just scrolled down to get to what I wanted, the podcast! Keep up the good work. BTW, really enjoyed the interview with Tamara Wolfson.