Why are these forums so horribly broken?

[Fred47]

I get the database error message, but my posts go thru without issue. Kubuntu 20.04 LTS and Firefox 88.0

[dequire]

Same issue still persists. Can not get beyond page 1 of most threads. Therefore I deem these forums utterly broken atm. What all is involved in the upgrade?

[woodsmoke]

Hi
It took four times, I think, to log in today, the message was that I had logged in before.
woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Hi
I'm running FF on Kubu 19.04 and have had zero problems. I don't post much but do pop in.
woodsmoke

[rdonnelly]

Yea seems like some kind of forum software version upgrade is likely required, which, I believe was mentioned above or in anther thread are coming eventually.

Some of the best running forums are using Xenforo, it behaves well on the desktop, and on a phone browser.

https://xenforo.com/

[rdonnelly]

1. I get a "Database error" every time I make a post. The only way to see the post after it's made is to refresh the page.

2. I cannot access any page beyond the first page of any thread. I tried to add "/page2" at the end of a url and this makes the url end with "/page2" but I'm still looking at page one.

3. I was responding to the thread entitled "Common Sense", but I'm out of this conversation because I can't access page two of the conversation - everything I try keeps taking me back to page 1 while the url reads "page 2".

I hope someone can answer my question before it changes pages.. otherwise I won't be able to follow from page 2 onward.

I'm using Kubuntu 20.04 with all default software.

I am having the exact same problems, as above, also I can't get to page 3 on this thread. https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...hift-yet/page3

[Don B. Cilly]

It's still doing it.
It really does seem to have to do with "page changes" though.
Like a thread changes page, it gets stuck at the one before.

[dequire]

Yea seems like some kind of forum software version upgrade is likely required, which, I believe was mentioned above or in anther thread are coming eventually.

[ThorstenNY]

FWIW, the forum has been basically unusable for me with Firefox, so I switched to Chromium (to come here), which is still buggy, but at least it?s usable. (I still get a DB error message every time I post a comment, e.g., but then the comment will show up when I reload the page.)

What?s a much bigger problem for me is the lack of consistent UTF-8 support. Whenever I post a message (even in an ?advanced? editor), all non-ASCII characters are replaced with question marks, and I then have to fix this manually (by editing the post.)

edit: it happened again. While composing and in the preview, all the quotes and apostrophes looked fine. But after posting, only ?s.

[Don B. Cilly]

FWIW, I really like vBulletin.
SMF has nicer smileys and a few handy features (like it warns you if there have been other posts in the thread when you go to post yours ;-) but overall, vB is just about my favourite - except maybe Xenforo, which is really very useable.
I just really wish the KDE forum wouldn't insist on using something as bad as phpBB

[EDIT] Just for general (dis)interest, my favourite Australian car form recently moved from vBulletin to Xenforo. The transition was smooth, I kept all my stuff. I just lost my half-a-gazillion Likes - which I give half a gazillion figs about - but they're not used here, so...

[Goeroeboeroe]

For me the problem seems to be solved. I've had this kind of issues too. Forum updated, but the hoster still used an old version of PHP.
And by the way, I think this forum is technically one of the best, maybe even the best, I've ever seen.

[Snowhog]

And.. the problem is back. I just made a post here and received a "Database error". I clicked on the "2" to go to the next page of this thread and it took me back to the first page - but the URL bar in Firefox still says "page2" at the end of the URL. I want to ask what I'm doing wrong and how I broke the forums again, but I wouldn't be able to see the answer because it's on a page I cannot enter (page 2). If I broke something again, I'm really sorry.

Well of course 'you' didn't break our Forum. We are experiencing some 'issues' that crop up sporadically. These seem to be associated with the version of MySQL we are using (8.0.23), our version of PHP (5.6.40), and the version of vBulletin we are running (4.2.5). Of principle note, vBulletin 4.2.5 is EOL (End of Life), receiving NO updates, security or otherwise. We are aware of this, and plans to install vBulletin 5x are in the works. But until that happens, we are highly likely to continue to encounter issues.

Why? When we upgraded the OS we run on from 18.04 to 20.04.2 LTS, MySQL was also upgraded to Version 8.0, as prior versions aren't available in 20.04. However, PHP could not be upgraded, even though newer versions are available in 20.04, because vBulletin 4.2.5 isn't compatible with PHP versions higher than 5.6.

So these issues in KFN are almost certainly the result of certain conflicts between MySQL and PHP.

[revmacian]

And.. the problem is back. I just made a post here and received a "Database error". I clicked on the "2" to go to the next page of this thread and it took me back to the first page - but the URL bar in Firefox still says "page2" at the end of the URL. I want to ask what I'm doing wrong and how I broke the forums again, but I wouldn't be able to see the answer because it's on a page I cannot enter (page 2). If I broke something again, I'm really sorry.

[revmacian]

Ummm... you DID ask to have your account deleted last evening.
It was.
Those original posts were not removed, however (as is the usual practice), but they now don't have the original account to be associated with. Your new account, is literally that - a new account, that just happens to have the same username field as the deleted one.
I am sure that they could be associated with a different account, but my guess is that it is not worth manually diving into the database to do so. Or safe to do.

Yes, this was my fault, please accept my apologies. I've corrected the problem so it doesn't happen again. Thank you for helping me improve myself. You folks are awesome!

[claydoh]

Ok, it appears that the forums just "forgot" my entire account? My profile needs to be edited and I have to wait for the appropriate number of posts in order to do that.. despite the fact that I've created dozens of posts already - several in the Common Sense thread. Oh, and I'm the creator of this thread too.

Ummm.... you DID ask to have your account deleted last evening.
It was.
Those original posts were not removed, however (as is the usual practice), but they now don't have the original account to be associated with. Your new account, is literally that - a new account, that just happens to have the same username field as the deleted one.
I am sure that they could be associated with a different account, but my guess is that it is not worth manually diving into the database to do so. Or safe to do.