Bug in the System

[tama]

Today and many times during my sesions i dont get any points for problems that i solve when im supposed to get +2 or +3 it says for a second the problems real rating like 1900 then it glitches to (0)0. Witch means the problem is (0) n it lost 0 points from me beating it, i think this is imposible.... and after words the problem is not even in by stats page.

I want my points!

Well i feel like this is a very important bug! and im not a newb to this site so u can trust what im saing, i think it could be from a delay time with the page like if it refreshs by itself. I think to fix this from ever hapening again you should make it so if your in the middle of a problem and deside to quite the page u can come back to the site n still be at that same problem.

[drahacikfm]

One time today I had just finished a problem, and boom!  I was logged out and my big board turned into the usual guest's small board, and the Username box was empty.  I had to login again.

Happened only one time so far.  Maybe this is the same thing that happened to tama.

[richard]

Hi tama,

tama: If you see this happen again please look at your stats page and tell me which problems are recorded before and after the glitch. Looking through the logs I see on example of where a long time drift occurred between how long your computer said you took to complete a problem and time elapsed on the server.  This is possible where either your machine, the network or the server is slow, but in these situations the problem result is not recorded.  However this doesn't explain your description of many attempts as the logs only show one of these.  Noting the problems that appear before and after the glitch will allow me to look more closely at the logs to try and determine what might be going wrong, also if you could give me the exact time in GMT that the problem occured that will also help.  I uploaded some changes yesterday which should not have required a login/logout but you may wish to logout and login and flush your browser cache just to make sure. How many times do you estimate this problem occurred (with the 0 problem rating)?

drahacik: If this happens again please note the exact time in GMT (or in local time and let me know your timezone) and I'll look at the logs to see if I can see any hints of what might have occurred.

Regards,
Richard.

[tama]

The moment this problem happends to me again i will post it, and so far it happend around 5 times for me in all starting this week, were i solve a problem and it is marked as a problem with rating 0 and i get no points, and i dont take long on any of the problems i solve the max i ever did was 10 min, on average i take 1-5 min.

[richard]

Hi Tama,

Do you recall approximately when the problem first started showing up?

Regards,
Richard.

[tacto]

This happens a lot to me also. Usually at the start. As if the first problem doesn't count /not rated.

[richard]

tacto: when did this start happening for you? I'm trying to work out of this is being caused by a recent change (likely suspects the 5 second delay on the start of moves or the session length changes) or something users have been seeing for a while.

Regards,
Richard.

[drahacikfm]

tacto and tama:  You should also check the Username: box on the top right corner of your screen after this happens again.  See if you are still logged in, or if that box is blank.  I got logged out when I had the problem.

[richard]

Thanks Drahacik,

Good advice. I looked at the code today and there are only two situations where this can occur, one is when unusual time lag happens and the server doesn't trust the clock so will not record updates (and a side effect is the new problem rating shows up as 0 - it is not actually zero as a check of the problem will show).  The second is when the user is logged out, this appears to be happening in surprising situations i.e. the user is currently active but their session appears to be expiring this logging them out.

I can't currently see where this is happening in the logs so if people can give me data on time and last problem done before the error occurred then I can zero in on the problem.

Regards,
Richard.

[tacto]

This has happened for a long time now. NOT becuase of the 5 second delay improvement.

This usually happens to me when I am doing my first problem but has occured on other occasions as well. I AM ALWAYS logged in when this happens.

Hope that helps.

[tama]

It has happend to me for as long as i can remember at least 2 a week. And  i dont get logged out i just dont get points for the problem and the problem is rated 0 But the funny thing is, it only happends when i get problems Right! lol imagin getting it wrong and it is a problem rated 0!!! -100

[richard]

Ok its useful to know it has been happening for a while, the time lag detection code has been there for a long time, but it sounded like tama's experience of having this occur many times in a session was a new thing.  Tama and tacta, what speeds are your internet connections? (it is possible this problem may be worse on slower connections).

Richard.

[xjamesbx]

Talking about bugs in the system...

I noticed recently you added a screen that popped up if you picked an inferior, yet winning, move in a position.  For those of you who haven't seen the screen yet, it basically says that the move you made is good, but there is a better move so you have to try again.  However, my problem stems from that.

I was doing problem 33824 (http://chesstempo.com/chess-problems/33824) and made an inferior move choice - Rxf8.  The aforementioned screen popped up, but it considered the problem failed and deducted 1.6 points.  I did not get a chance to find a better move.

[tama]

Yo i have already solved that problem in the past correctly but y does it say that 0 people have solved it?

And my internet connection is very good i have highspeed.

[richard]

Yo i have already solved that problem in the past correctly but y does it say that 0 people have solved it?

And my internet connection is very good i have highspeed.

Thanks tama, let me know next time it happens and all the time details and previous problems and I'll be able to look more closely at the logs.

Old problems which had alternatives have been replaced with new problems, so they are in fact "new" problems in terms of comments and attempts history. The only thing I copy over is the starting rating,average time taken and number of tags so you probably saw one of these "new" problems which have had alternative lines added.

Talking about bugs in the system...

I noticed recently you added a screen that popped up if you picked an inferior, yet winning, move in a position.  For those of you who haven't seen the screen yet, it basically says that the move you made is good, but there is a better move so you have to try again.  However, my problem stems from that.

I was doing problem 33824 (http://chesstempo.com/chess-problems/33824) and made an inferior move choice - Rxf8.  The aforementioned screen popped up, but it considered the problem failed and deducted 1.6 points.  I did not get a chance to find a better move.

Sorry this was a bug in the release, it should be fixed now (i.e. you should now be able to continue with the problem)...the new code will not load until you have moved from the tactics page and back again (but you shouldn't need to explicitly flush your browser cache to get the new version, just close the current tactics window and revisit the page).

Regards,
Richard.