Possible temporary workaround for pages and sidebars not fully loading problem

[Jim Robinson]

I'm very sorry about the response time problems we've been having recently and now this page loading problem we're having today. I've called and left messages on John's phone, email, freepmail and facebook several times per day since Saturday. No luck. He seems to be off the grid. Don't know if he took a trip or his phone is broken, lost or turned off and he has no internet service in his new apartment or what, but I've been unable to reach him. Also do not have his new address. Hopefully, he'll check in soon and get it fixed. Don't mind telling you, I'm worried.

Meanwhile, until John finally checks in and gets it fixed, here's a temporary workaround:

At the top of the articles index page click: "Account" and then "My Preferences."

Set 20 messages per page
Set 20 results per page

Set them both to 20. You can change them back after John gets the problem fixed.

Direct link to preference settings:

http://freerepublic.com/perl/settings

Prayers up.

[Grampa Dave]

Re John being off the grid, and you being worried. As parents we do that forever.

One of our younger relatives will be taking a 4 day break from instant communication, starting tomorrow.

He calls his wife or texts her twice a day with a sat phone.

If any of us stop breathing, we are to be kept on ice until he gets back. Since, he isn’t a medical doctor, he is worthless in true emergencies. 911 works.

Hopefully, he will be decompressed and has taken out some wild pigs/hogs.

[Right Wing Assault]

Mine must be broken. I've been set at 50/50 and loading is sometimes slow, but I always get everything within a few seconds.

[luvie]

The only way I got a sidebar was to set comments to header instead of text. Don’t like it but it did help with the issue.

[T-Bird45]

Now it all works & I’m using my phone but the laptop wasn’t. Interesting.

[Jim Robinson]

Still have not heard from John, but it seems to be running full speed again. It ran deathly slow sat & sun then back to full speed on monday so thought John had fixed it... until it crapped out again today.

[Southnsoul]

Yes, it’s been running well today, but over the weekend it was terrible.

I adjusted my preferences to your recommendation, Mr. Robinson anyway, it’s okay with me either way.

[cmj328]

Sending prayers. Thanks for everything you both do.

[Boomer]

Not sure what happened but the forum is back up to speed even with my settings at 50/50 threads/per page.

One must wonder if someone isn’t messing with it. If so; I sure hope there’s a way to identify whom but the hackers today can make it look like the Russians did it but it was someone in N. Korea or downtown Toledo, OH.

The freakin’ Internet is such a wonderful thing but sadly it comes at a cost and prone to abuse.

It has been this way for almost as long as it has been widely used.

[houeto]

Because if this continues, your followers will be following someone else.

I won't.

but I am beginning to think he is in over his head.

I am beginning, I take that back, I am now completely convinced that after NINE years here, you are too ignorant to have the details explained to you.

[houeto]

I can’t imagine all the work it takes to keep this site up and running all the time. I don’t know what we’d do without it... but just want to thank you and John for all you do to let us have this outlet for fighting the rest of the world (it seems it’s the whole world) to save our Republic from the media and all who would destroy it.

I want to repeat every word you just posted frnewsjunkie. Thank you Jim. Thank you John.

[JustaTech]

Praying for good news about John.

Everything else is trivial - this is a commentary website, not crucial to life and limb.

[houeto]

Prayers sent for the health, safety and security of John Robinson. There are many elements of the vile, evil liberal left that would like to see you and John, along with Free Republic, totally destroyed. May God’s Angels protect you both.

[plain talk]

I can’t imagine all the work it takes to keep this site up and running all the time. I don’t know what we’d do without it... but just want to thank you and John for all you do to let us have this outlet for fighting the rest of the world (it seems it’s the whole world) to save our Republic from the media and all who would destroy it. I want to repeat every word you just posted frnewsjunkie. Thank you Jim. Thank you John.

Worth repeating yet again.

I for one am sick of the whining about the performance of this site. As much as I love this site and spend quite a bit of time here -- it is a political web site on the internet. If one cannot deal with its occasional ups and downs -- then get a life. Go fishing. Spend time with your love ones. Hey this is a radical idea. Actually spend time interacting with real living people!!

[CedarDave]

Not sure what happened but the forum is back up to speed even with my settings at 50/50 threads/per page.
One must wonder if someone isn’t messing with it. If so; I sure hope there’s a way to identify whom but the hackers today can make it look like the Russians did it but it was someone in N. Korea or downtown Toledo, OH.

Same here. I doubt very much that the system came back up to speed on its own. Either someone tweeked it (John?) or the problem was not with us but a broader issue clogging the net in the vicinity of San Jose. It would be nice (and encouraging) to have an answer and not just speculation that it was hackers at work.

And on a personal level, I hope Jim has heard from John.

[topher]

Though in the past we had DATABASE issues, I am concerned about the possibility of:

George Soros financed Cyber Attack

DNC/Liberal Media financed Cyber Attack

Obama NSA Cyber Attack

Hillary Clinton Financed Cyber Attack

Some Left Wing group working on a Cyber Attack of FR.

I think it might be possible.

I am not sure if it is likely.

[topher]

Maybe there should be a setting for a minimum of 10 and 10 in lieu of 20 and 20... Just a thought.

[Political Junkie Too]

I’m an old accounting applications programmer/analyst (dinosaur), not a techie...

Aren't many of us old-timers just that? ;-)

-PJ

[Rapscallion]

Mine comes thru Verizon and Internet Explorer.

[Albion Wilde]

John, call your parents. They worry.

[enumerated]

Jim,

I don’t know where to report other website problems so, with apologies, I’ll piggyback on this thread:

I have always encountered numerous editing problems when composing a FR response using my iPhone. I do not encounter these problems on other sites.

Rather than try to define how the touch screen cursor is supposed to respond to various taps and gestures, and what works and doesn’t work on FR, I’ll just list a few of the most frustrating problems I encounter here but not on other sites, and hope that John will know what may be causing it.

1) when trying to correct a word or sentence, I am often unable to place the cursor exactly where I want in order to use the back arrow. Instead, I either get the whole word highlighted in blue, or the cursor at the end of the word. A tap and hold does not always bring up the magnifier that allows one to drag the cursor.

2) swiping up and down scrolls the entire page, even when I swipe on the text entry window. This often makes it near impossible to scroll within the text entry window to access hidden areas of text. Sometimes clicking Done to hide the keyboard a few times and shrinking (pinching) the view makes it possible to scroll just the text entry content, but it’s tricky.

3) If I’m in the middle of composing a response, and I need to temporarily put the FR posting page in the background to look something up, answer a call, or whatever, there’s a high probability (at least 50/50) that when I return everything I’ve typed will have disappeared.

None of this is earth shattering of course, but I thought I’d report it in case it’s a simple fix.

Thanks