Freegle Tech Report 19-08-31

Freegle Tech Report August 2019
Messages 27380-27543
Members 113

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General

Edward started to upgrade our website this month. It is hoped we will be able to provide a faster more streamlined service. Some minor problems have been spotted, and quickly sorted. He wants everyone to be on the lookout for any blips as it is easy to overlook some connected code.
We also had a mail pile up for a couple of days when we got backed up.
He is looking into whether we can get rid of all but strictly necessary cookies, and avoid the popup. We need to investigate what we use, and what effect this would have on the Google ads we show first though.
We have added job ads into the What's New emails. This might be a better fit for us . First impressions are favourable and we are receiving a similar amount of money. If you see ones which you don't think we should be showing to anyone, please let Edward know offlist.
Spam to owner and volunteers addresses has been increasing lately. Usually they all get through before being reported and automatically removed, but will get posted out and should be ignored. Edward will be doing more work aimed at reducing the amount but some will always get through.
He has done a quick fix so that if the same email address sends a mail to more than 20 group volunteer addresses within the last 24 hours we'll treat subsequent messages from them as spam. Some groups will still see those spam mails, which have probably been sent out already by email. And if they were sending in alphabetical order it will be the same groups . Bulk mail going in spam from members email addresses . Marking them as spam as can affect our spam standing, and and mail to owner addresses may end up there Just delete or ignore them.

Direct

Someone asked about being able post without logging in, which received the explanation below.
"If you're a completely new user (i.e. an email address we don't know), what happens is that we create an account for you, email you a password, and log you in. They can change their password, and they can log in via other methods (e.g. Facebook) later on if they like. It does have the downside that if they prefer to log in with Facebook and use a different email then they will have two accounts.
If you're an existing user (i.e. an email address we know) then you would usually be logged in automatically. Not always - that wouldn't be the case on a different device, or if you'd logged out, or a few other things. In that case we don't force you to log in when posting, though you would need to do so when seeing chats etc.
The reason it's like this is to try to make it as simple as possible for new users, which is where things need to be very very easy otherwise people give up and we never get a chance to persuade them. Once we've got their email and they've posted, then they'll start getting emails, and so we get more chances to keep them engaged.

Chats
I deleted the Freegle Central Chat from MTs by mistake when I was clearing out some spam. Will it come back when someone posts to it or will someone have to add it again for me?
Edward will have to re enable it for you.
Chat arrived but does not contain any information
This is usually because it has been forwarded from another account. They are less likely to make it through into chat, because of the way we strip out reply text, which tends to strip out the forwarded part. If you need to see the original mail you'll need to forward it to a real email account rather than the volunteers address. I have a todo item to allow mods to see the original email on chat messages which would help with this
I occasionally glance at a chat on MT’s where I’ve replied by email to the Owner address notification I get. The text inserted into the chat is often slightly different to the text in the mail with some bits missing, sometimes they are important omissions.
A Thanks. That one looks like you've copied an email address into it, and the stripping/tidying has gone awry. I will look into it.

Multiple posting.
We had a discussion about whether to allow members to decide when and what groups to post their messages to or whether we are more qualified to decide for them.
At present all our code has to be reworked so any changes will not happen quickly. What you see after you post has become too complex already.
You'll probably get two popups. One about availability One about sharing or donating
Once you dismiss those you'll see:A banner of info about the group
A message about what happens next and the FOP
A message asking you to check your spam folder
A "Give something else" and a "Find something" button
A button to continue to the Home Page
And there's already the menu on the top with all the options on there for people who want to start posting.
This is a good example of not practicing what we preach, and is getting out of control without adding more.
Further discussion will take place after the present work is complete.

We have now changed the posting procedure by members so that they do not have to go through all the info pages for each post if they are posting lots . It was pointed out that this will not work if they wish to post some to different groups as it misses the location page. You can If you want to post another message from scratch, you can click on the Give menu option. But that isn't very clear, so it is suggested that if we skip the first stage we should be able to change that info on the second stage. Edward agrees and is thinking about how to do that without cluttering too much.

Drafts
I have a member who double posted yesterday. He tells me today that when he posted, it kept saving his post as a draft copy. He said; It would'nt go through alright, kept saying 'DRAFT' .. .. so l don't know whats wrong with me posting items.
I tried putting other things on, but the process ends before l'm finished.
A. Thanks. I'm improving the way the drafts are handled so that shouldn't be a problem in due course.

Q & A
The description that appears on the group page is showing if you visit a group using explore but not from the My Groups link.
A Sorry fixed now not sure went it disappeared.
Q. A member says her auto repost keeps disappearing
A. Yes I fixed this this morning
Q A Members posts are not appearing in his Myposts tab
A Fixed now

Events
How do I edit an event on behalf of a member please?
A On FD. Click where you see it to view more details, and then you should see an Edit button.

Servers

This is an automated list of the changes to the client code in the last month. If you have any questions about them, please contact Geeks@ Nil ...and here are the ones which are minor, or only affect volunteers in ModTools, or are internal changes that you wouldn't notice: Tweak jobs page
Add jobs page
Change mutuals link to FCA
Change "is interested in" to "has asked about". This suggests a lower level of commitment which might set expectations better.
In MT, add confirm to the "Hide all Groups" button
In MT, clarify that Admins go to Admins->Pending Admins
In MT, should be confirming affiliation more often
In MT Edits, Chat button opens wrong type of chat which may then disappear
Space out chat menu dropdown and resize icons
Volunteer ops with dates expiring wrongly
More work on job ads
Change Google signin button
In MT, show support chat name
Improve jobs display on mobile
Remove mention of LiveIntent from privacy policy now we no longer use them.
Add progress bar during submit
Add transition to fade next button in when giving
Delete button not working for multiple posts
Allow easy post of multiple offers
What's next page
Rework compose store with an eye to easier submission of multiple messages
Tweaks to post page
Autocomplete bug on item

This is an automated list of the changes to the server code in the last month..Geeks@ilovefreegle.org

• Remove email ads from LiveIntent and replace with Job Ads from AdView
  

... here are the ones which are minor, or only affect volunteers in ModTools, or are internal changes that you wouldn't notice:

UT fixes
Newsfeed threadhead wrong.
Yahoo login for new FD version
Commit project
In ModTools, phantom edits
Reverse backup reliability change - it does make it more reliable, but it's also costing us more. Increase the gsutil retries in .boto instead
Speed up Support Tools Find User a lot
Block multiple messages to volunteers on different groups from the same email fairly recently
Reduce radius on job search to 5 miles. (2 days ago) Speed-up: when fetching messages in FD, only search for messages > 90 days old. No point in showing more recent ones and this keeps the search much faster.
Bug in jobs links
Ensure we don't issue slow searches for message fetching
Not randomising job ads correctly
Remove debug Return group name consistently when listing messages
Shuffle job ads
Some text in chat messages can cause omissions in what's shown in the client
Reduce space in job ads
AdView bug
Add IP to adview script
Switch to job ads in emails
Add function to get nearby jobs, which we will use in email digests
Proxy to serve job ads
Add proxy to access job ads
Speed-ups: newsfeed digest
Don't send stories to inactive users - generates lots of mails and also hits spam traps
Ban't see own posts due to bad binary data returned from server
Another OOF message
Extremely rarely, message lost from My Posts
Typo in event emails
More on chitchat replies to replies
Next version of FD will support replies to replies in chitchat; enable this on the server side
Add new client to git changes email
Convert item field when posting into an autocomplete
Rotate/delete photo when posting
) Add photo upload to post
Improve styling of postcode dropdown
First pass message post
Store postcode during compose
Back out perf improvement that is a bit flaky and probably not needed
Nits
Insert comments with component names in dev
Style fixes and tweaks
Display open offers/wanteds in message info
Click on message photo broken
Fix autocomplete bug on enter with no results
Show autocomplete list on focus
Grab autocomplete into our project so we can tweak it
Start work on Give flow Rework TODOs to flag design issues
Fix problem where deleted chitchat entries still appear by not persisting newsfeed in store
Post photos on chitchat
Improve scrolling in chat when image uploaded
Button to maximise popup chat
Remember last home page
Own message not showing after posting on chitchat
Previous change broke infinite scroll
Disable Vuex strict mode which kills performance in dev
Image upload in chat
Remove sanitizer - not needed Chat fixes
Minor style tweaks
Multiple popup chat windows
Add images in chat
Popup chats initial pass

Mod Tools

Mods changing group settings. This was raised again and the settings have not yet been changed.

Tech Chat

Jeni I've got 5 publicity posts showing on the Dashboard - but when I click on it, I've got 5 white boxes. I have a feeling it might be my new computer, which is doing some strange things evry ow and then. Anyone got any ideas of what I can do. I've tried logging out and logging back in again.
Wanda Ed may need to know what browser you are using and OS etc. Have a feeling windows new one, Edge, is not compatible but I may be wrong.
Jeni I'm using Firefox - have just tried Edge (never usually use it) but they are showing on there! Chrome is OK too - looks like Firefox is a problem at the moment OK solved - for some reason Blocking had come on! We live and learn ...
Elaine I have been struggling with a similar problem. It is possible to leave blocking on generally, but turn it off for particular sites only. If you open the site, then look at the site name ~(e.g. https://modtools.org/modtools) you will see a small shield in that box, to the left of that name. If you click on it, you can turn off blocking for that site only. It took over 2 hours to figure that out, once I had figured out it was the security and tracing options that were the problem, so this might save you, or possibly members, a lot of time and inconvenience!!
Wanda Happy to help.
Elaine I have been struggling with a similar problem. It is possible to leave blocking on generally, but turn it off for particular sites only. If you open the site, then look at the site name ~(e.g. https://modtools.org/modtools) you will see a small shield in that box, to the left of that name. If you click on it, you can turn off blocking for that site only. It took over 2 hours to figure that out, once I had figured out it was the security and tracing options that were the problem, so this might save you, or possibly members, a lot of time and inconvenience!!
Wanda Just curious, on the dashboard it is currently saying that we are having problems with delivering mail to just about every mainstream email provider.. Think it's been there 2 days.. is this something we can resolve or have they all ganged up on us in one go? lol This is what I'm seeing "The affected domains are btinternet.com, gmail.com, googlemail.com, hotmail.co.uk, hotmail.com, user.trashnothing.co m, users.ilovefreegle.org, yahoo.co.uk, yahoo.com" Bit disconcerting that our own domain is in there too ;)
David I have a member who cannot see his posts in myposts and I can see the same using support tools member email is dave_sox@hotmail.com on Reading and Henley groups
Wanda No I can't see them either when I impersonate him.... I waited a good while in case they were taking time to load and also checked for typo in email but nothing. .last few posts were on 13th. . also the blue info panel didn't load either...
David Thanks Wanda and he has just confirmed its this message: Tue, Aug 13, 2019 6:10 PM
OFFER: Deck Chairs
Dee Deck chairs don't show in the logs but do show in Posing History for yesterday.
Edward Hibbert Wanda - we do have a mail backlog, and I'm working on it.
Wanda Thanks Ed.. Just never seen so many at once showing on that page ;) Edward Hibbert That's because the problem was at our end, so it affects all domains. I've changed some stuff, and the backlog is dropping (down from 200K to 136K emails over the last 15 minutes), so it should be sorted in the next hour or so.
David Would that cause this (noting I am using this aol email to contact her) : Bounce for cwfreegle@aol.com: smtp; 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn't have a aol.com
Edward Hibbert David - no, it wouldn't. If I email that address I get a bounce back immediately - so I suspect that the email address you're using looks very similar but isn't exactly the same.
WandaThanks Ed, I did wonder if it was us as there were so many. . All the lovely conveyancing spam messages are coming thru now too. .lol a month ago
David Thanks Edward she has changed her email from cwfrecycle to cwfreegle and I was using the old one to contact her by email
John Nash Hi guys. A member has just contacted me saying that the app no longer notifies her of new messages and I wondered why that may be. Any suggestions?
Wanda@John There has been a recent thread about this in the mod tools group https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ModTools/info Not sure if Chris has resolved it yet but he will need to know app version, android or iOS and which version of those too. I can;t recall what was done exactly but I think the app needed to be refreshed to show notifications or restarted, I may be wrong as I only skimmed the thread. Worth checking on the group thread first for clues that may help your member and also to report the similar problems to Chris in there.
Just realised I can;t recall if the thread in there was/is about the Mod tools app or the Freegle app lol There's also the tech group too if it is more Freegle direct related https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Freegle-Tech/info
Elaine I have mentioned this to Chris, who has been looking into it, but so far he has been unable to find anything on our side that could be causing this. If anyone does get more info, he monitors the groups, but not this thread, so I alert him if anything comes up that may be his remit.
Sheila I don't think this has been resolved. I still don't get notifications on the app unless I open the app and start using it. Then the notifications show. Mine do appear when I log in, others have said they actually have to enter chat to get the notifications showing. By then you don't need a notification. It is something being looked at currently as far as I know. I'm just telling people to log in and check chat rather than rely on notifications. Members can now also set up text messages so they get a text message if a chat is waiting, so if people are having problems, maybe suggest they set it up. its free to the end user.
David Question from a memebr re what photo format and or size is best :Please can you tell me the best format to use for a photo - I have tried various ways of adding a photo to my listing but not getting anywhere! Many thanks
Edward Hibbert It handles pretty much most photo formats (JPG, PNG, GIF) and resizes them automatically. You probably need more info about the problem she's seeing.
Liz Hi folks I just received a chat message from a member reporting someone for selling stuff he'd gotten from them recognised him from a local car boot sale. Anyway I seem to remember that along with being able to reply via Chat that there used to be the option of replying by email? I wanted to let him respond with details privately Thanks Liz Enfield
Edward Hibbert If you want him to send them privately to you, then give him your personal email address.
Liz But what happened to the reply by email rather than on chat? I prefer not to give personal details on chat
Wanda@Liz Once we moved off Yahoo chat became the primary way to communicate on FD. Email notification is just an addition for those that want it. You can get the member's direct mail if you look for them in the member list unless they are a TN member where you can't see their email and never could.

Jean
Tech Report
August 2019

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