Anyone else having problems opening or posting on this forum? I get a "Not secure" message when I open the site. Many times, it then takes literally minutes to navigate and open each page. I also had a problem the other day posting an image. The next morning it worked fine. A couple months ago when I tried to log in, the entire site was not available which has happed more than once. This is the only site on my computer that I seem to be having a problem with. Still getting the Not secure message this evening but I am able to post this message and hopefully an image. I also posted a request for drip rail molding information for my 66 Malibu wagon on the site yesterday and it would not load a picture or even enter the post. I still would like to find if there might be a vendor anyone may know that has the stainless drip edge molding for the 66 GM mid-size wagons. I need to find a pair with the proper curve in the rear.
Today, it's going unusually normal. The difference being like night and day. Of course, through browsing with Mozilla. Using the other browser caused the forum to ask for cookies
I've noticed the same behavior as well. Very fast (normal) loading and responsive. It's almost like a hard drive has bad sectors on it and can't read the data to serve it up. Yeah, I'm old school.
Here's an explanation on what https goes through. Adding Cloudflare would likely add even more barriers?: https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-happens-in-a-tls-handshake/
I don't think it's the handshake, because of two things: 1st, it also doesn't respond using regular http instead of https, which takes TLS out of the equation, and 2nd the handshake is persistent, meaning it does it once when establishing the connection then doesn't do it again. I can be browsing fine and going between subforums and all of a sudden it will timeout with no apparent reason.
Yep. I come and check in regularly, but often times I'm doing it as a visitor because I can't log in. I was afraid this is what was going to happen. Oh well.
I haven't had any issues with logging in since HotRodRacer let me know about the httpS thing. It is still slow most of the time and I have to keep adding the S back onto the end of http several times while I'm on, but other than that everything is great!
I try that too. I get the same error screen doghead posted regularly. I generally retry a few times throughout the day, it often makes no difference. I used to log on here in the evening and see all the posts that folks had made, I'd engage in some of them and usually add something. Now I only ever check it during the day, while I'm at work. Kind of a "between tasks" sort of thing. I "like" the posts that I find interesting. That's about it. It's a shadow of its former self. I don't expect it to make a comeback.
Well, we've lost several members through the years that just left the board that were previously big contributors either because of other members, site performance, or they just passed on. New people come here and see how creaky the site is and don't stay long. There isn't much back and forth on threads. It's mostly just somebody posting something and there it is. I still think the message board format is the best format for a group like this and it can still work, but there has to be actual participation from the members. For that we need members. For that we need a site that works. For that we need the person that controls it to show up more than once every five years and/or give control to the few left that still care which seems unlikely at this point.
I agree with both of you on all points. And like you both, I really like the site format and the content it has built over the years. To see it waste away from malnutrition really sucks. I wish I could do more.
I've never been administrator of a website or even a moderator who has access to settings. So, I haven't any idea as to what things look like on the other side. I'm not even a computer savvy. But I know that there are nerds out there who could get around such problems, using open source tools for someone to hack their own site, circumventing administrator-reserved locking out. I've got a neighbor upstairs who sits behind several computers he's got in his apartment. He started with Microsoft operating systems. So, he still knows how to outsmart any attempt of theirs to keep milking their clients with new obstacles. His main hobby is Linux. He regularly buys the two major publications of theirs, in order to keep up with new developments, and play with new operating systems of theirs himself. He started out as a carpenter and was turned onto computers rather late by his ex-wife who was working as a programmer of sorts. He's the exact opposite of me, losing his patience with fixing cars. I myself don't have much patience with repairing things which I can't see. So, he drove the bugs out of a used computer that I bought on-line and he installed a sort of Linux for somewhat advanced beginners. When he's got a problem with his car and starts ranting off, I'm there to guide and he follows my directions. Well anyway, if anybody, he could fix this forum's operating system, if he were to have a try. He has no problems sitting down for an entire day, hacking away at something that seems impossible. If I could get a hint as to what system is in need of a tweak, I could at least ask. Another idea would be to pose questions to Artificial Intelligence. I use Duckduckgo's A.I. and have gotten unsuspectingly surprising results on other topics. With A.I., you have to keep your questions as short and as clear as possible Some of even most of them might just not be posting. I'm sure, they're still getting e-mails. It seems, views have gone down altogether, because most have lost patience. To be able to post, you sometimes have to click back and forth on both return and forward arrows and maybe try different browsers
