BUG: Forum software putting posts out of order

[+hzoi]

I've seen a few instances lately of the forum software putting a post that quotes an earlier post before the earlier post itself.  Seems to happen more often when the posts are close in time together.  For recent examples, check out this page of the what/where thread in off topic.

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, hzoi said:

I've seen a few instances lately of the forum software putting a post that quotes an earlier post before the earlier post itself.  Seems to happen more often when the posts are close in time together. 

 

It seems especially bad about that today.

[+kunarion]

test

 

[+cerberus1]

I think it's all on kunarion's end.   

I posted twice (in another thread), with no one else yet replying, but kunarion's was above mine.   

Edited September 21, 2017 by cerberus1
to add...

[+kunarion]

I don't know why, after publishing a post, it would ever sort a new post above other ones. Maybe a server is about to go down.

But I already have a Bug Report about how the Forum displays time in a surreal way. 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

And ... a "test" appeared above mine too, with my "time" changed to it.  Weird.   

Could be  I'm Mister Cellophane today , or  it's "train your dragon" day I guess... 

[+Viajero Perdido]

I think this happens when the forum page updates without reloading.  Such as, it shows a notification, "kunarion has replied...", and you click Show.

The timestamps on the earlier posts aren't updated in that case, even though time has passed while you've had the page open.

EDIT: Oh I see what you're talking about now, over in the Slightly Off thread.  Never mind!

Edited September 21, 2017 by Viajero Perdido

[+kunarion]

15 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

I think this happens when the forum page updates without reloading.  Such as, it shows a notification, "kunarion has replied...", and you click Show.

The timestamps on the earlier posts aren't updated in that case, even though time has passed while you've had the page open.

EDIT: Oh I see what you're talking about now, over in the Slightly Off thread.  Never mind!

 

Maybe it's a combination of things.  But I've never noticed this effect til today.

[+niraD]

Maybe there are multiple servers, and their clocks are not synchronized. Depending on which server handles a particular post, the timestamp of the post could vary by several minutes. Then the posts are displayed in order of their timestamps, which does not match the order in which they were posted.

It's just a guess, but I've seen out-of-sync clocks cause similar effects.

[+hzoi]

Happened twice in a row in the same thread today, starting with this post.

 

[+kunarion]

22 hours ago, niraD said:

Maybe there are multiple servers, and their clocks are not synchronized. Depending on which server handles a particular post, the timestamp of the post could vary by several minutes. Then the posts are displayed in order of their timestamps, which does not match the order in which they were posted.

It's just a guess, but I've seen out-of-sync clocks cause similar effects.

 

I guess so.  But the glitch manifests itself in a weird way.  I make a post, it's shown in its correct place, and I can even refresh, all is well, say for about 20 seconds total.  Yet when the post is permanently set in place, when the glitch occurs, my reply is sorted before the post to which I replied.  It's been so intermittent, I've never paid attention to the time stamp to see how it changes.  Anyway, the original post's timestamp is always right, within the reply that the server thinks occurred "before the original post".

Come to think of it, the issue may even be related to the several ways the system handles posts.  See this, where the system seems to arbitrarily show a post in "minutes ago", or today's date without minutes, or "just now".  Also it shows some with date and time, but in a yet another date format.  I was guessing it was merely a goofy display decision and that the server can keep all of that straight.  Turns out, it can't.

Edited October 13, 2017 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

I just had two, where the reply to my posts was above them, even though they were entered a minute or two later.  Weird. 

[+cerberus1]

Just got another minutes ago (forget a pen thread), where the reply to my post is above mine, yet the time being a minute later.

 

Edited to add  - that the reply to my post is listed as last on the topics page too (though above mine).

Edited October 19, 2017 by cerberus1

[+kunarion]

I watched this effect occur just now in another thread.  I replied to the most recent post, and after submitting it, all seemed well for a moment.  The post was there, followed by my reply.  Then the post appeared in view, yet I had not refreshed the page.  It came into view below my reply.  At this point there was the post, my reply, and the post again.  Upon page refresh, the post was below my reply, just that one, looking as if I had replied before the post to which I was replying.

This is in IE11.  Various things pop up or appear in real time, in this Forum.

Post scrambling seems to happen when replying to a post that was submitted just moments before the reply.

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by kunarion

[+hzoi]

1 hour ago, kunarion said:

I watched this effect occur just now in another thread.  I replied to the most recent post, and after submitting it, all seemed well for a moment.  The post was there, followed by my reply.  Then the post appeared in view, yet I had not refreshed the page.  It came into view below my reply.  At this point there was the post, my reply, and the post again.  Upon page refresh, the post was below my reply, just that one, looking as if I had replied before the post to which I was replying.

This is in IE11.  Various things pop up or appear in real time, in this Forum.

Post scrambling seems to happen when replying to a post that was submitted just moments before the reply.

 

Seen the same thing in Firefox.