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Another Automattic Mess....

  1. henkvansetten
    Member

    Since about a week, all kinds of things are going wrong with the Dashboard pages again. Maybe this is another one of those quirks where things that work fine for American users, won't work for second-rate Europe-based users like me?
    When opened directly, the new-style Stats page often fails to load completely, or hangs indefinitely at some point halfway (usually at 27 out of 30 page elements). Often the only way to get it loading, is to click through from the main Dashboard page, and then go through the old-style Stats page first.
    And the layout is, well, just one big mess... Want to see a screenshot? Here it is:
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8233092/another-automattic-mess.jpg
    But of course we all know why these things happen. Our snazzy Automattic Boys have been way too busy developing those silly snowflakes that react to the direction of your mouse movements. No time for duller chores.
    Yes, I understand! It's all a matter of setting the right priorities!

    The blog I need help with is stayontop.org.

  2. timethief
    Member

    If you are not running one of the browsers and versions listed at http://browsehappy.com/ please try upgrading or switching first.

    Note: If you are using an IE9 browser in compatibility mode that makes it render as IE7 and IE7 is not supported. To disable see > http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

    If you are, please do these four things:

    1. Try clearing your browser’s cache http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=32050

    2. Make sure that you have third-party cookies enabled http://en.support.wordpress.com/third-party-cookies/

    3. Try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.

    4. Try enabling HTTPS: http://en.support.wordpress.com/https/

    If you are not successful let us know which browser (and version of it) you’re using and post any error reports you get.

  3. henkvansetten
    Member

    @timethief - thanks for your quick reaction.
    (1) tried that already, also tried clearing out all old cookies
    (2) did that, no effect
    (3) am using no extensions or addons whatsoever, none at all
    (4) as my screenshot shows, I already am using https
    (5) using a very recent Opera version: v.12.50 x64 internal build 1546 - this browser does not produce this kind of problems on any other site that I know of.
    So, exactly what kind of error report would you like to see? If you tell me more precisely what you need, I'll try to get it...

  4. timethief
    Member

    Thanks for taking those steps and also posting your browser version. I have tagged this thread for Staff attention.

  5. henkvansetten
    Member

    Forgot one relevant bit of information: until about a week ago, everything worked fine with the very same browser version. So it looks very much like the weird effects (not meaning the snowflakes) have been caused by implementing some specific change at the Automattic, or at least the server side of things.
    I'm sorry that I cannot recall the exact time when I first noticed this, which I guess would have been a more useful pointer...

  6. timethief
    Member

    Would you like to isolate whether or not this is a browser related issue?
    If so, then you can download either Firefox or Chrome here http://browsehappy.com

  7. henkvansetten
    Member

    Maybe there are two unrelated problems here that just happened to coincide, (a) the page load failures and (b) the layout mess (CSS mess, I suppose).
    Anyway, I tried IE9 v. 9.0.11 and it showed the very same page load failures, including the same backdoor route eventually working, but once there IE9 managed to produce a correct layout.
    I then tried SRWare Iron v. 23.0.1300.0 (170000), the German don't-phone-home browser with a codebase fully identical to Google Chrome, and I was surprised to see this Chrome-clone did show none of the two problems.
    So maybe you're right, and this could be a browser-related problem after all - or to phrase this differently, if I may, a problem caused by testing things mostly in Chrome and not thoroughly enough in less popular browsers...
    I'll be happy to provide more info if you want me to.

  8. timethief
    Member

    Let's wait and see if Staff can work with what you have provided already or if they need more information.

  9. zandyring
    Happiness Engineer

    Hi there @henkvansetten,

    You will be pleased to know that not all Automatticians are boys!

    Your original post shows that you were using Opera v9, instead of the latest v12. We do recommend that you use Firefox or Chrome with WordPress.com, but it should work in any standard operating system (including Opera). I just want to clarify that you are still experiencing these issues when you did upgrade to Opera v12?

    Could you try the same actions in either Firefox or Chrome to see if the problems persist for you in a recommended browser?

    Please know that all of our users are important to us. And many Automatticians are based in Europe, as a matter of fact.

    Let's see if we can't clear up these issues for you!

  10. henkvansetten
    Member

    Hi zandiring, thanks for your attention. And I'm happy to hear that you specialists are not discriminating by gender ;-)
    BTW, as I clearly stated in my second post in this thread, I am certainly NOT using Opera v9, but on the contrary using a very recent Opera version: v.12.50 for x64 internal build 154. This is new enough to be still in beta, but with no known issues that are relevant here. A few days ago I tried the latest official edition (12.11) to check, and it showed the same problems.
    In my last post here, I pointed out I doublechecked things with two more browsers: Internet Explorer v. 9.0.11 and SRWare Iron v. 23.0.1300.0 (which is in all respects equivalent to the latest version of Google Chrome).
    Well, now to the issues. It looks like they are partially resolved. The page load problems have gone since this afternoon (forever, I hope). So apparently they were caused by a temporary glitch in the process of moving from an old to a new Dashboard pages setup. You'll hear me yelping loudly if these page load problems return....
    As for the layout mess, I've been searching for possible causes myself. As this problem (unlike the page load problems) appears to be Opera-specific, my hunch right now (but I may be wrong) is that perhaps this may have something to do with the way Opera handles inline frames.
    Can you perhaps tell me if there are inline frames involved here (see my screenshot) that formally could be considered (by Opera) as frames with ***OFFsite*** content, so not from the same server as the rest of the page? If your answer would be "yes there are such inline frames" then I have an idea how to test further.
    Thank you again, and give my regards to the boyz!

  11. zandyring
    Happiness Engineer

    Hi again!

    I've asked "the boyz" for more clarification on whether there are inline frames and if there are known issues with Opera.

    Cheers!

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