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General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:51 pm
by ratammer
First off, thanks Snide Sniper for the new forum! So grateful <3

The 6 KiB limit on avatars is quite restrictive, as are the size ones - obviously you're hosting this yourself so I wouldn't demand that you change it, but do you think it would be possible to give us a bit more?

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:59 pm
by The Snide Sniper
Oh jeez, is it really small? I kinda just left it at the default value. Lemme go change it real quick.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:03 pm
by somitomi
Oh yeah, this feels better.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:07 pm
by ratammer
Hmm, I'm having trouble uploading one that matches the new restrictions. Uploading one at the old size still works.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:40 pm
by The Snide Sniper
Is anyone else having issues where it logs you out after only a few seconds?

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2021 11:03 pm
by somitomi
Well, I don't. I've been logged in for hours now.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:24 am
by chridd
I've gotten logged out at least once, maybe twice, even though I'm pretty sure I checked keep me logged in.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:26 am
by heuristically_alone
Same here. It won't keep me logged in. When I come back to the tab and refresh the page, I'm logged out.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 5:21 am
by ratammer
I've found that I get logged out if I browse to the main page via URL (rather than the link at the top), but otherwise I stay logged in.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:19 am
by balthasar_s
If you browse to any any subforum, thread, whatever else, theurl looks like this:
"https://ramenchef.net/nxf/posting.php?mode=reply&f=2&t=7&sid=8c997a7f9a161a993ef82d9b9ca19c26"

The "sid=" is the important part here.
After you successfully log in, the forum assigns you a random 128 digit number (32 hex digits), the SID.
The SID is then added to every forum URL presented to you by the server.
If you click the link your browser sends a GET request and the URL in that request includes the SID number.
If the server notices the correct SID number it will know that you are you, and that you are logged in.
(that's the only way how the server recognises people).

If you remove the SID from the URL and use the modified URL in the browser you will notice that you are no longer logged in.
(because the server didn't recognise that it was you)
But if you put the SID back, you will be logged in again.
If you put someone else's SID (which you don't have), you will be logged in as them instead.
(i think, but I did not check. There is a possibility that the server checks other things too. Maybe if correct SID comes from wrong IP it will be rejected? I don't know)
(also don't bother using the SID from my example, I generated a random number)

With this mechanism, when you log in,
as long as you click links on the pages,
you will continue being logged in.
But as soon as you go to a place here somehow else (from external link)
You will not be recognised any more.

This is not the only possible mechanism used by phpBB forums.
The SID doesn't have to be transmitted by URL.
The more common mechanism is doing it by cookie.

Cookie is the server's way of saying "remember this information for me, because I won't".
When the SID is stored in cookie,
then the browser will send it back to the server, regardless how it got there.
Then even if you followed an external link, you will still be recognised and continue being logged in.

For unknown reason this forum seems to not be using cookies.
I would like some cookie :)

I keep entering my old password...

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:36 am
by chridd
Also some of the time avatars haven't been showing up for me (like, it just says "User avatar"). If I right-click and choose view image and then refresh a few times, some of the time it'll give me a "Not Found" page.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:50 am
by ratammer
balthasar_s wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:19 amThe "sid=" is the important part here.
Wait, so if I shared a link with the sid still in it, someone could end up logged in as me? (I haven't, but just checking.)

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 7:03 am
by balthasar_s
ratammer wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 6:50 amWait, so if I shared a link with the sid still in it, someone could end up logged in as me? (I haven't, but just checking.)
Looks like the SID alone is not enough.
I copied the link to validator.w3.org and selected show html.
The page that validator received indicated being logged out, even though it contained my SID.

So the SID is required, but it is not enough.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:26 am
by somitomi
ratammer wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 5:21 am I've found that I get logged out if I browse to the main page via URL (rather than the link at the top), but otherwise I stay logged in.
I managed to get logged out by reloading the page after a long while.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:42 pm
by The Snide Sniper
Okay, I think I figured out what was wrong with the cookie settings. Should be fixed now.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:44 pm
by ratammer
It does seem to be working now - thanks!

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 4:04 pm
by The Snide Sniper
It appears Google has found the forum.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 4:26 pm
by pseudoidiot
And so it begins

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:21 pm
by ratammer
I've just noticed that, if I'm the latest poster in a thread, I have the option to delete my post. That's probably fine in General and such, but in Forum Games it would be quite disruptive - is it possible for it to be disabled in that forum specifically?

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:27 pm
by The Snide Sniper
How would it be disruptive?

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 5:42 pm
by ratammer
The Snide Sniper wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:27 pm How would it be disruptive?
Many of the games rely on how long it's been since the previous post was made. If it's possible to change that, it could mess with the scores. IIRC, deletion wasn't allowed in Forum Games in the old forum.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 8:02 pm
by chridd
ratammer and somitomi are saying they can't access this forum right now
ratammer, on Discord wrote:I just get "this site can't be reached" as if it wasn't a real URL
ratammer, on Discord wrote:So like... not working in Europe or something?
somitomi, on Discord wrote:I just visited it using a free proxy to the US

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 8:20 pm
by ratammer
Yeah, I'm having to access through a US proxy right now too. Looks like USians can access fine and Europeans can't - we don't have a sample of anyone else yet.

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 9:01 pm
by ratammer
Ah, it's working now!

Re: General meta thread

Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2021 10:27 pm
by The Snide Sniper
Must have been a problem with my host, because I certainly didn't touch anything.