Help needed with forum tech

Hmm, not good, at least something might get done. We will see....

CHEERS!

Good luck, Gov'na. Dealing with malware can be a pain in the butt.

Depends what you use. I have found Malwarebytes to be very effective, though occasionally problematic after hardware changes and after it updates itself.

CHEERS!

Thank you, Stryker and Roger. It is the "friendly" type of malware but I am on high alert. I am considering doing a system restore in the hope of resetting to an earlier clean system. And it all installed although I had the wherewithal to decline its installations offers while installing Chrome. Here's a lesson learned...

If it's a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) you can check your quarantine to see what it is. Sometimes perfectly legit programs can get flagged and you need to tell the software to exclude that file when it next does a scan.

What are you using?

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:If it's a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) you can check your quarantine to see what it is. Sometimes perfectly legit programs can get flagged and you need to tell the software to exclude that file when it next does a scan. What are you using?

Windows Defender, but that's not the issue. It is a PUP but not flagged. I realized there is something fishy when it would not uninstall when I tried to uninstall it. Two programs, apparently related:
Workgroup Inc Product
PrUpdater

I did some web searches, and it appears it is the sort of malware that tries to bombard you with ads, etc. So not technically a virus, but pretty shady and annoying. Of course the easy uninstall suggestion requires downloading pay antivirus software that is itself commercially extortionist in one way or another. They do provide step by step instructions, but I gather they are intended to be so lengthy and discouraging (and potentially compromising your system) that you should be convinced to get their software. I just hope that a system restore is a viable shortcut.

I see, I ditched Defender for Malwarebytes years ago. Back then you could buy a lifetime license for their Premium version, now it's renewable very couple of years.

Not sure what steps you could take

CHEERS!

HI all, I'm back. Busy Saturday as usual, and then got to watch my stupid Bruins lose to those even stupider Leafs. So not in a good mood to begin with. I'm "glad" to know it's not just me or that I did something wrong to cause this issue if it's true that others have been experiencing similar issues with PB and FM. That said, I do NOT like that FM pushes a servimg account automatically on you without your consent. Three times last night servimg sent me emails saying my account was created for me without my ever asking for it, and all three times I signed on and immediately deleted it. So far it hasn't tried again. While on that site briefly working through the deletion process each time, I was hit with three separate malware redirects/intrusion attempts that my AV flagged and blocked. I'm sure those of you using it are doing fine with it, but I refuse to use it and do not appreciate Forumotion's attempts to force me to sign up by automatically create an account for me, using my same email and password. It's almost like FM is trying to block PB users to force us to use servimg, but maybe that's just my conspiracy theorist coming out.

I get that most of you hate PB for what it did last year, and I was none too happy with it either. But after a bit of reflection, I realized I had gotten a free ride from them for over 10 years, and the new fee is basically just over $1/day to continue using something that simply works with just about every site and that I have a ton of pics already loaded on. Actually, it's still free to use, it's just the hotlinking that one has to pay a lot for, but it was worth it for me. I'm used to hobbies that require I pay money (sometimes a lot) just to enter a flying field (>$100/year, which is actually cheap; I think most fields charge closer to $200, not including AMA dues) or step on the ice ($12-$15/session for stick and puck $20-30 for games, which adds up), so I accept it as just another cost I have to bear if I want to share my 1/6 hobby with others. (That doesn't include all the money spent on hockey equipment, airplanes, electronics, field equipment, etc.etc. Having fun is expensive!!)

So, if the only way forward is that I have to "host" the pics here (which means servimg), or switch to another service (flickr/imgur/etc.), I don't think this is going to work for me.

But I will wait until we get some word on what's going on from the FM people. Until then I'll lurk a bit.

Thanks to all for trying to help. I do appreciate the support and effort!

So sorry this has happened, I never got any emails from servimg, nor have I ever tried to use them. I didn't realise that you were paying to use PB and now I know that's the case, I can better understand your frustration.

I'm also sorry that I don't know enough to be of help on this occasion

Hope something is sorted soon

I am now using imgur which I find very simple, seems to work everywhere I post, and is pretty much the same as PB used to be but without so many adds and pop ups.

I took a break from posting pics at all after the PB thing went on and only started to post pics again here when the forum opened.

As to my old posts its a shame that they now don't have pics but I don't see that as my fault.  I really doubt that anyone will ever read most of them again anyway, and I still have the original pics on my Computer.

I would happily pay extra for a hosting service, paying for it is not the issue for me with PB.  It was the way in which they decided to ask me to pay, which was tantamount to a ransom demand on all of my previously posted pics, And that they made the change overnight with no warning to people using their services.  Its the company I object too, not the fees.

If Imgur asked me nicely today to start paying for hosting then I would have no hesitation in saying to them how much?  But I will not pay money to an immoral and bullying company like PB.

I simply had to post pics, so when PB did what it did, I knew I needed somewhere else and fast. Shovelchop had been using Imgur and I have ever since. You can use forum code to get the pic here and it's here without needing to link back to them. I also had all the originals stored, but, certainly didn't want the hassle of going back through old threads that didn't get read much just to put pics back that wouldn't get seen much anyway.

Being as money isn't the issue it used to be, I too would pay to use Imgur, if it came to it.

CHEERS!

Here's something odd that may be of use to TankGirlFuzzy:

From my Imgur account, I copied the BBC url code, and as I was typing the last entry in my Man Cave thread, I simply pasted what I copied into the box where I was typing (bypassing the menu bar above completely -- i.e., didn't use "host an image" or "insert image" buttons), and it worked. Picture is visible for me. However: I DID NOT try to "Edit" that post again (I seem to encounter weird things with my pics of late if I try to correct the usual "auto-correct" so-called fixes.

Tank Girl, like I tried to explain before, the overly direct association between Forumotion and Servimg was probably intended for convenience. I would imagine that if you tried the Host an Image function (which goes through Servimg) which has been working as a workaround, the system automatically initiated the opening of a Servimg account. And while that may have been unexpected and intrusive, it was probably not nefarious. The other issue, about those annoying ad redirects, is an unfortunately frequent reality with pay and free sites alike; sometimes our anti virus and ad block features keep it at bay but occasionally something sneaks through and we have to ignore, close, or get back from it. I have encountered it very rarely with Servimg, which does not detract from how annoying and unsettling it can be. But Servimg itself is not malware and I don't think there is a conspiracy. Given the amount of work you have posted on Photobucket and the amount of money you pay them, I cannot blame you for insisting on being able to use images hosted there on this forum. I hope the issue will be resolved soon, and we will keep you (and everyone else) posted.

Stryker2011 wrote:Here's something odd that may be of use to TankGirlFuzzy:

From my Imgur account, I copied the BBC url code, and as I was typing the last entry in my Man Cave thread, I simply pasted what I copied into the box where I was typing (bypassing the menu bar above completely -- i.e., didn't use "host an image" or "insert image" buttons), and it worked. Picture is visible for me. However: I DID NOT try to "Edit" that post again (I seem to encounter weird things with my pics of late if I try to correct the usual "auto-correct" so-called fixes.

Do you mean you used the Copy function from Imgur's 'Get share links' menu? If so, that's what I've always done, even with PB.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Do you mean you used the Copy function from Imgur's 'Get share links' menu? If so, that's what I've always done, even with PB.

CHEERS!

No. In the BBC code window where it shows the link address, I just copied that and pasted it like I was copying and pasting text. Worked just fine.

Yeah, [img ]your pic[/img ], that kind of thing, that's what I meant.

CHEERS!

Oh. Yeah. Exactly that.

I posted a follow up to the query with the image code from blackpool's thread to see if that may shed some insight.

No update yet.

4/22 UPDATE

The Forumotion tech is asking if we/the member with the issue contacted PhotoBucket?

I replied as far as we know all is fine on PhotoBucket's end.

Can Tank Girl or blackpool contact PhotoBucket to inquire if they made any changes on their end recently affecting how image links are not properly showing up specific to Forumotion discussion groups?

Stryker2011 wrote:Oh. Yeah. Exactly that.

Ok, well, in that case, maybe TGF can try doing that and we'll see what happens.

CHEERS!

In a private message Tank Girl mentioned she has sent an e-mail to Photobucket. Apparently she is still waiting to hear back.

Ok, Stryker reckoned he could see the pics again, but I couldn't.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee wrote:Ok, Stryker reckoned he could see the pics again, but I couldn't.

I have already posted this in several places but see here:

Looks like they fixed the issue. Curious detail: when I tried to view the photos (I'm using Firefox in Windows 10), I would see them flicker every time I reloaded this page, but then they would hide. I thought it had something to do with my ad blocker, but it didn't. Eventually I got them to show by disabling (yes, disabling!) one of my two photobucket image fix add-ons (the one called "Photobucket Embedded Image Fix", as opposed to "photobucket embed fix").

TGF's pics are visible for me again now.  I made no changes to my set up (Safari 11.1 on a Mac).

Just thought it would be helpful for you to know they work again for me.

blackpool's and TGF's PB hosted images are now viewable on all browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) with no issues and no need for any PB "fix" extensions.

Hopefully, blackpool and TGF will chime in further to verify on their end as well.

I posted this in the other sticky thread, but the issue is spread over so many threads I wanted to make sure my feedback was seen:

Everything is working for me now across all devices. For my laptop, I did literally nothing and the pics started showing again. For my iPads, I had to clear the caches (website data) and everything showed up again.

So, here's the interesting thing, it may not have been Forumotion's fault after all. I received an email reply this morning (Monday) from PB support and here's what they said:

Thanks for reaching out.

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with your embedded images. We did experience some issues on Friday where some of the embedded images stopped displaying. However, this issue was resolved immediately.
[emphasis mine]
I also checked the thread that you shared and I was able to view all your images/gifs. If some of the forum members are not seeing your images, they may just need to clear their browser's cache and cookies to see the updated page.

Let me know if you still continue to see issues with your images after clearing your browser's cache and cookies.

Thank you,

However, it was odd that my PB pics were showing up on OSW, SSF, and 6thD/SAG, but not Forumotion. So it seems something specific to PB and how it is read by Forumotion was an issue, but PB is acknowledging that they did have a problem on Friday (which is the exact day I noticed it and started posting about it). I take their claim that it was "resolved immediately" with a pound of salt, since it actually only started working for everyone this morning. I guess by "immediately" they meant "by the next business day," which is unfortunate since it was over a weekend and we were all tearing our hair out for almost three days trying to find a solution.

All's well that ends well, I guess. I apologize for wasting people's time and energy trying to chase down a solution, and for causing a bit of drama, but I'm thankful for all the genuine concern and effort by all who pitched in. I suppose the good thing is there is now a knowledge base here about how to best post pics, what works and what doesn't, and some of the specific quirks of each hosting service. Both Forumotion and Photobucket support responded rather quickly to our enquiries, which is good, although in the end it was really nothing that we did that caused it nor fixed it (other than fiddling with our specific devices and clearing caches, etc.).

Thanks again to all, especially for GFan's patience, DFC's relentless pursuit of FM's support, and all the other members who chimed in and tested and posted to get to the bottom of it (Stryker, rogerbee, Kukolka, and everyone else I'm neglecting to mention (this is like an Oscar speech!)).

Technical issue. There doesn’t seem to be a way of removing a poll choice. I ticked a choice in the ‘which should we produce next?’ poll without fully reading the next post and their expectations on the thread.

MarkEl wrote:Technical issue.  There doesn’t seem to be a way of removing a poll choice.  I ticked a choice in the ‘which should we produce next?’ poll without fully reading the next post and their expectations on the thread.  

I think this is just a limitation of the system.

GubernatorFan wrote:

MarkEl wrote:Technical issue.  There doesn’t seem to be a way of removing a poll choice.  I ticked a choice in the ‘which should we produce next?’ poll without fully reading the next post and their expectations on the thread.  

I think this is just a limitation of the system.

--

So I decided to create a poll and . . .



https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t211-test-poll-for-my-own-edification-and-probably-some-of-you