Young Writers Society

For a few people, YWS seems to randomly log them out. Since this happened on the old YWS too, I don't think it has to do anything with the site itself. And since it's never happened to me and doesn't happen to most, I think it's a browser setting that is acting weird.

But, I want to look into this further and find out specifically what is going on here. If you are randomly logged out, please give me very detailed info here. Remember, I'm not a psychic.

So include information on the following:
- Your browser AND the version. Since many don't seem to know what a browser is, please go here: http://www.quirksmode.org/js/detect.html which will detect your browser version.

- Your operating system. The above link will tell you this, but only very generally. Are you using Windows XP? Windows Vista? Mac OS X? Ubuntu?

- What (in excruciating detail) were you doing? If you were trying to write a post, in which forum? What page were you trying to access? What page were you on before?

- Do you have add-ons to your browser? Some time ago, one member was having problems like this, and it turns out it was a conflict with FoxyTunes for Firefox.

- Did you have windows/tabs other than YWS open?

- Does it happen repeatedly?

- How long had you been on YWS by this time?

- Anything else you can think of.

Trust me, no detail is too small (although don't be ridiculous; it hardly matters what you're wearing or drinking at the time). It's just too often, people say "This is happening" without explaining further.

- Your browser AND the version.

Safari 4 (This was also happening when I was using FireFox on my PC, FireFox being the latest version at all times. I believe that's 3.3 at the moment?)

- Your operating system.

Mac OS 10.5.8 (Leopard, latest update being yesterday) (My PC specs were Vista Home Premium. I'll get back to you on the exact version!)

- What (in excruciating detail) were you doing? If you were trying to write a post, in which forum? What page were you trying to access? What page were you on before?

I'm just going to list what I've been doing the past week when I've gotten logged out:

~ Posting a new thread in Research (I got logged out when I hit "submit" and had to rewrite the post. This logging out happened twice in a row) I had been on the page for about ten minutes the first time, five minutes the second. Third time, I hit "refresh" on another page to make sure I was signed-in and copied the info to my clipboard.

~ Navigating between blogs (This is so common, you can pretty much list what I've been doing by the features. I've been logged out going to the blog page, moving away from the blog page, commenting on a blog, selecting an old blog from a member, editing a blog post or a reply, creating a new blog post (although I think that's only happened to me once, and not recently) or just saying on the blog page over ten minutes)

~ The second or third time I change pages after I've put the computer on "sleep" (this will happen even if I'm navigating the blog page, or I left it on the blog page). How long the computer is in sleep mode doesn't seem to determine how many pages I can navigate before I get logged out. Although the number usually stays under 4.

~ When I have multiple tabs open on YWS, one of them usually on a member-only area (blogs, Inbox, Groups) and suddenly changing the page on the member-only area tab (I hope that made sense... Pretty much whenever I leave a tab open on a member-only area, then go to change that page later, I get logged out)

~ When I navigate to, from or between groups on the My Groups page (I don't use the general group index enough, but it does seem to happen there as well)

~ When I've ignored any YWS page by chatting on MSN for more than five or ten minutes (sometimes 30 seconds in worst-case scenarios, which has been lately)

- Do you have add-ons to your browser? Some time ago, one member was having problems like this, and it turns out it was a conflict with FoxyTunes for Firefox.

I have not installed any that I know of. I do not use any Internet music sites, and the only video sites I use are YouTube and AOL Video. Oddly, YWS doesn't sign me out as often when I have one of those sites open.

- Did you have windows/tabs other than YWS open?

Like I said before, when a tab is open to a different site YWS is better for not logging me out. Although, usually it's only a video site. If it's anything other than those two, I don't get signed-out as much but I still get signed-out if I ignore YWS too long.

- Does it happen repeatedly?

At worst, it's once every two minutes for about ten minutes. Sometimes I get logged out every five to ten minutes for an hour and a half. On good days I get logged out once every hour (good days being when I don't have an MSN conversation going/MSN open).

- How long had you been on YWS by this time?

I'm not exactly sure on this question, but usually my problems with signing-out start anywhere from being on the site thirty minutes to being on it an hour and a half. I get signed out less in the mornings, when I don't have MSN open.

- Anything else you can think of.

I've noticed that MSN seems to play a bit of a part in this. Member-only areas also play a big part. It's usually worse when I'm inside a blog or submitting a post. And if I hit "refresh" on another tab set to one of the public areas (such as the index, Literary, or anything under Comunity. Not so much Writer's Corner) then I don't get logged-out and can submit the message just fine. Although, I think for blogs it has signed me out once or twice on the other tab when I try to do that.

The problem mostly arises when I've spent a lot of time on one tab (such as during a review) or in member-only areas. This goes for posting or editing comments as well (since they can only be done by members).

I tend to get logged out less when I have more than one window open on my browser (these windows could both be YWS, or one window is for what video I'm listening to) but I get logged out more when I'm switching between MSN and my browser or Word and my browser.

This problem has been going on for about two or three months, steadily getting worse. On my PC it would only log me out maybe once a week, now it's logging me out about once an hour if I'm using the computer. But I never really leave YWS on one for more than forty-five minutes at a time, and that's because I'm going to dinner and know about when I'll be back.

And I just checked this now, but I spent five/ten minutes writing this, with no other tabs open. I just went to the header and selected "Writer's Corner" to see if I was still signed in and I wasn't. I haven't switched windows at all, nor have I switched tabs until I checked to see if I was signed-in. I'm signed in to MSN and have gotten a new e-mail at this time, but I have not opened up this e-mail while I was typing the message.

*

Heh, hope that's enough detail for you.

Thank You Rosey! Thank You!

I'll start looking into it. It does sound like a cookies problem, but you've given me a lot of info so I can look in the right places.