Do the administrators not want me on this site anymore? (Resolved, and I'm sorry)

[CHA0SXIII 408]

To the people who run this website, this is the SECOND time in as many days that I have had to reset my password just to log in - and no, I DID NOT TYPE MY PASSWORDS WRONG EITHER TIME. Yesterday I had to make up a new password, today the site emailed me a new password (which went on about like this "fhasdkfhasjkfhkljfhlskfhklsjhksjfhskldjfhsklajhskljfhskjfh;kfjhskdjh" to give you an example), I imagine tomorrow when I attempt to log in that I will no longer have the option to reset my password at all, and my account here will be effectively terminated. Now, this may seem somewhat 'inconvenient' to you, but to me, this is devastating as this site is the ONLY place that I have ANY friends in the world so losing access to this site means I lose access to ALL of my friends. When I joined this site some months ago I was in a pretty dark place and this place helped me get through it and I know that I'll be right back in that dark place without my friends, so I'm really hoping that this is just a glitch and it will be fixed in a few days...that's what I'm hoping, but it wouldn't be the first time I was ostracized from a group or something like this for one reason or another so in the event that this isn't a glitch or the 'ofical' story is 'its on your end, deal with it yourself', I just want to know why? Did I complain too much, did I post something I shouldn't have? In all honesty, I doubt anyone with the authority will ever read this or care enough to help so fine, do what you must. I guess this is goodbye.         

[Guest]

The site was just updated and there are a few bugs, this may be one of them. Chill out.

[Steve Piranha 29,420]

I haven't experienced such issues, but since the site has been recently updated, there has been a number of expected bugs. Problems to log in seems to be one of the most persistent right now, as reported 

[CHA0SXIII 408]

6 minutes ago, Lektra Bolt said:

I would like to help.

I don't know if you will read this, but if you did not request a password reset it looks like someone is trying to get into your account. IMHO you can ignore the password reset emails you did not request if you truly did not request them and continue using the password you had before

Every time I put in my old password it told me that it was 'incorrect' and I DID request a password reset, it's just that I shouldn't have had to because my password was correct.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

[Mercury 454]

Just to be sure, you're clicking on the login with Poniverse button right and not trying to log in using the MLPF login section, there was a bug that made the old login page show up because it broke our login app, so make sure you're clicking log in with Poniverse.

[Jeric 46,851]

@CHA0SXIII the staff is certainly not out to get you. The Administrators are quite laid back and approachable blokes, so you have no concerns about us ostracizing you. 

To speak to your issues, we updated to the newest version of IPB (the software we use for our forums), and because we have some custom code these upgrades will occasionally break things. Usually they are minor. All day yesterday myself and three of the development/tech team worked to get the site back to what you are used to. 

The login issue you experienced should be resolved. What was happening was the login page we saw for most of the day is not actually what we use for authentication to access accounts. What should happen when you click on login is you are taken to the Poniverse page and you log in there. Then you are redirected back to MLPF logged in. That was what was broken. Uses were not being shown the real login page. The effect was some tried to reset their passwords when they didn't need to. 

Tomorrow, when you try and log in, if it fails jump on discord and ping me. I'm in the main Poniverse chat. 

[CHA0SXIII 408]

Just now, Jeric said:

@CHA0SXIII the staff is certainly not out to get you. The Administrators are quite laid back and approachable blokes, so you have no concerns about us ostracizing you. 

To speak to your issues, we updated to the newest version of IPB (the software we use for our forums), and because we have some custom code these upgrades will occasionally break things. Usually they are minor. All day yesterday myself and three of the development/tech team worked to get the site back to what you are used to. 

The login issue you experienced should be resolved. What was happening was the login page we saw for most of the day is not actually what we use for authentication to access accounts. What should happen when you click on login is you are taken to the Poniverse page and you log in there. Then you are redirected back to MLPF logged in. That was what was broken. Uses were not being shown the real login page. The effect was some tried to reset their passwords when they didn't need to. 

Tomorrow, when you try and log in, if it fails jump on discord and ping me. I'm in the main Poniverse chat. 

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be a jerk it's just I've been treated pretty badly by people before often enough that I've gotten to where that I just assume that that's how people will treat me at this point, I'm used to it I guess. Add to it I got tossed out of several other groups on different sites because of glitches over the past couple days, so maybe you can understand why I'm starting to feel like I'm being targeted.

I have a discord, but I've never used it before so how exactly do I contact you through? Sorry, I just haven't had a chance to ever use it, so I may need a bit of guidance.

[Jeric 46,851]

@CHA0SXIII no I get it. Especially since you've created connections with people here. That's pretty much what we are all about. 

To get in our Discord server just click here. Once you are in you'll see a list of channels (the start with a hashtag). You will see one that says #talk_with_staff. Both Mercury and myself are usually on Discord constantly so if you @ mention me (type '@' and start typing Jeric and you'll see me) I'll get a notification on my phone. 

Managing your expectations, if I'm driving or in a place where I can't talk, just be patient. Also, you might make an extra friend or two chatting on there. 

 

 

[CHA0SXIII 408]

Just now, Jeric said:

@CHA0SXIII no I get it. Especially since you've created connections with people here. That's pretty much what we are all about. 

To get in our Discord server just click here. Once you are in you'll see a list of channels (the start with a hashtag). You will see one that says #talk_with_staff. Both Mercury and myself are usually on Discord constantly so if you @ mention me (type '@' and start typing Jeric and you'll see me) I'll get a notification on my phone. 

Managing your expectations, if I'm driving or in a place where I can't talk, just be patient. Also, you might make an extra friend or two chatting on there. 

 

 

Thank you, and I'm sorry again I know you're not after me, but like I said very similar things have been happening to me over the past 72 hours, so I hope you can understand my reaction. Here's a question which is scarier? Being hit by a bullet 9 times in a row because someones after you? Or being hit by a bullet 9 times in a row because of coincidence? That's kind of what I'm going through right now.   

[Mercury 454]

10 minutes ago, CHA0SXIII said:

Here's a question which is scarier? Being hit by a bullet 9 times in a row because someones after you? Or being hit by a bullet 9 times in a row because of coincidence? That's kind of what I'm going through right now.   

I personally think you've exaggerated the issue because you're frustrated with having to reset your password due to a bug. If we had any problems with you there are official ways of knowing. We issue warnings, send PMs and generally notify users before actions happen to their accounts, we're not really in the business of shadowbanning people here. 

I apologize that we weren't quite ready enough this upgrade, it's an unfortunate thing because IP.Board's upgrades aren't always sane so thorough checking still results in a few missed things here and there whenever they make sweeping changes under the hood. 

Just, please be aware in the future before making a post in a panic like this that you'd always be contacted first if we were issuing warnings. 

EDIT: seems that it wanted to eat the word upgrade.   This is an argument pointing towards logic, in case that's not clear. 

[CHA0SXIII 408]

Just now, LadyMercury said:

I personally think you've exaggerated the issue because you're frustrated with having to reset your password due to a bug. If we had any problems with you there are official ways of knowing. We issue warnings, send PMs and generally notify users before actions happen to their accounts, we're not really in the business of shadowbanning people here. 

I apologize that we weren't quite ready enough this upgrade, it's an unfortunate thing because IP.Board'srades aren't always sane so thorough checking still results in a few missed things here and there whenever they make sweeping changes under the hood. 

Just, please be aware in the future before making a post in a panic like this that you'd always be contacted first if we were issuing warnings. 

I am trying to apologize and I'm not blaming/attacking any of you now. I'm just trying to explain where I was coming from. I have had the same kind of issue on other platforms and either idea of it being under someone's directive or being completely out of everyone's control are both equally scary, and dealing with this scenario for like the 11th time kind of got to me. I have been targeted by people elsewhere though, still, I am truly sorry.     

[Mercury 454]

Yep, I understood and I was just trying to make the appeal to logic is all. No hard feelings on my end, don't worry too much about that. I just found it a little over the top, so I figured I'd make a strong appeal to logic so that you might be able to look at the situation if anything happens on the site in the future and have a better understanding of how we generally operate. 

I'm sorry that not all platforms try to openly communicate with their users, and I can see how it would make things seem a bit bleak if it seems stuff is repeating itself.

[CHA0SXIII 408]

Out of curiosity do any of you know if any of the programs or anything like that that go into this site are also used in xbox live or steam? Just wondering because when they updated things the other day, I could still log in, but the clubs that I was on there (both pony clubs) said I was no longer a member and the admens couldn't get me back in till yesterday. I know this seems a bit random, but I'm trying to see if maybe all three sites used something/did something similar to cause this 'anti-club' bug. 

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

I had a similar issue recently, to the right of the login box there is a link to 'sign in through Poniverse' (or something to that effect), try using that instead, it worked for me.

[Fhaolan 4,483]

21 hours ago, CHA0SXIII said:

Out of curiosity do any of you know if any of the programs or anything like that that go into this site are also used in xbox live or steam? Just wondering because when they updated things the other day, I could still log in, but the clubs that I was on there (both pony clubs) said I was no longer a member and the admens couldn't get me back in till yesterday. I know this seems a bit random, but I'm trying to see if maybe all three sites used something/did something similar to cause this 'anti-club' bug. 

 

Just as a possibility, but not a certainty, there was a legal privacy thing in Europe that just went into official effect called GDPR. A lot of software got updates to deal with it just ahead of the deadline that didn't get the QA testing they really needed (I know this because I was working for Microsoft until recently, and got a front row seat to their GDPR efforts). Not that the software companies weren't aware of the issue and didn't have the time to properly test the changes if they had started work right away, but that they were hoping it would get cancelled before they were forced to deal with it and ran out of time. So if there are a lot of login issues all at the same time in a variety of completely unconnected environments, I'm suspicious a lot of them link back to that.

[Jeric 46,851]

1 hour ago, Fhaolan said:

So if there are a lot of login issues all at the same time in a variety of completely unconnected environments, I'm suspicious a lot of them link back to that.

Considering how cookie handling has apparently changed, this is a distinct possibility. Invision posted a FAQ about that on their own site. 

[CHA0SXIII 408]

The issue has been resolved, and I apologize once again for any hurt feeling I may have caused. @Jeric I may yet try the discord at some point as your advice about making friends there is valid. You may wish to close this topic or may wish to keep it open for a little while longer as I don't know if anyone else is still dealing with this problem. If anyone would like to contact me about anything discussed here or about anything in general, feel free to pm me here or reach me through twitter (just bear in mind that I'm usually busy most days as I'm in the middle of trying to run a YouTube channel and write a large fanfiction, as well as helping my Aunt and Uncle around the house, but I usually can make time at some point through the day to stop by the forums and twitter so please be patient. Again I'm sorry for any trouble I may have caused any of you, and thank all of you for everything.