Kbin's "Log in" bug is discouraging me from participating
Tetra@kbin.social to /kbin meta@kbin.social – 1 points – Every time I try to upvote or boost something, there's a solid 20% chance it'll link to an Error page titled "Log in". That percentage seems to increase the longer I've had my Kbin tab open without refreshing it.
Even more annoyingly, it regularily logs me off completely, forcing me to input my information again. It's especially annoying on mobile since it won't even remember my password for some reason, which was randomly generated, meaning it's a pain to re-enter it every time.
The effect is that it's making me interact with Kbin less and less, I end up just scrolling without upvoting or commenting or anything, and ultimately I also just use the site less overall.
I like it here otherwise, but this one bug is making Kbin a real chore to use, and I know a lot more people have been experiencing it for a while now.
Ok, so in the next few days, I'll be testing some things. It might be a bit worse for a while, but it will definitely speed up the problem-solving process. I'll be grateful for any feedback. I'm unable to reproduce it in local/testing environments, so it might be an issue with the cluster.
Apparently, the error condition might NOT be dependent on idle time (a period of time without any interaction). — Evidence: Periodic clicks on a vote button, scripted at 45-second intervals, did not prevent the error's eventual occurrence.
I'm not sure if it helps, but I wonder if this is linked to the inactivity error.
Load up any kbin thread or main page, open a new browser tab in the foreground, me around in the non-kbin tab for 15-30 minutes, and return to the kbin tab. Now any clicks on 'actions' (voting, posting, basically sending info to the server) sends you to an error page. Whatever info you were sending doesn't register (vote count or highlight, posts don't show up, etc.
I didn't have any logout problems at all until maybe a week ago. Since then I've been logged out 5+ times.
Not a big problem for me, but I could see it annoying others.
I've seen the same. Leaving an app or browser tab open for a while, then interacting, seems to cause it.
Slightly annoyingly spending 10min drafting a comment seems to cause the same on occasion. (I guess there is no activity outside the edit box).
Fortunately if I get an error after posting, usually going back means the text is still there, then it's usually copy the text, click through to the profile of the person I was replying to and post the comment from that page. So far that almost always works.
Weirdly I don't seem to get logged out, just randomly directed to a error page when interacting (e.g. upvoting or trying to comment).
Edit: I don't think I can reliably recreate this issue...
I've developed a habit of copying everything I write before I hit send, because my comments tend to take a long time for me to write/format to my liking. Not because I keep losing it, but just in case.
Usually when it times out in the comments, I get brought to a page containing my lone comment box and a notification about "something-something, this page is federated, click here to return to the comments section."
So I wonder if it's really related in part to the page's continually updating federation making whatever you're trying to interact with obsolete. Though that doesn't make as much sense to me on our timelines as it does in a comment section :/
I've only had to dig around in someone else's profile twice, and that was because the notification's link to whatever reply you're trying to check doesn't seem to be mixing with numbered forum pages. By the time I check my replies, they're usually on a different page than I'm being linked to.
I don't think this has to do away with the numbering, it would just require a different method of linking (right?). But it IS one of the finer annoyances, and that I usually consent to scan/reread the entire thread looking for my avvie speaks to how stubborn I am.
I'm having the same issues too. I've even had the scenario of writing a long comment on a thread and getting error-ed away once I hit "Add comment". I don't know why it happened, but it certainly made me stop using kbin for the rest of the day. 😅
It hasn't fully discouraged me though. I remind myself that it's early days so it's going to have a bunch of hiccups along the way.
Yeah that does happen too, in fact it didn't work the first time when I tried posting this very thread.
I used to browse some unstable forums back in the day so I've made a habit of copying any long comment I make, just in case, but that's definitely annoying too.
I'm not giving up on Kbin either of course, but this one bug is definitely making it a challenge, and it's been a thing since I got here.
I didn't have this issue at all yet, very rarely I do get logged out without me doing anything but that happens only while I am not using kbin at all so I just have to log back in and nothing is lost.
Errors while upvoting posts I do sometimes get and I'm thinking that the problem is that I'm upvoting something at exactly the same time someone else is. It leads me to an error page, I click the back button to get back to the post, reload the page and upvote again and it works.
But I never got sent to a login page as an error.
The error page I get sent to just says "Error" but the tab's name is "Log in", personally. That's why I assume it's some kind of log in issue.
This might actually be a helpful detail for @Ernest. Come to think of it I think I'd noticed this too, but when you hit back you are still logged in.
I'm using mobile, so don't see the tab name, but my name is replaced with 'login' from what I remember. I'll screenshot and edit this comment next time it happens.
Edit: ok I was wrong. On mobile it does still show my Avatar, not the 'login' text on the generic "Error" page.
Maybe. I just never really looked at the tabs name and just hit back 🤷. I was never logged out though so either we had different errors or it really was just an assumption on your side.
I'd need to re-encounter my error to check, but now that I want to re-encounter it, it won't ever happen again.
Edit: Actually ☝️🤓, I literally JUST re-encountered it, the page did indeed say "Log in" but I was still logged in and my profile picture etc still showed up in the upper right as usual.