[FIXED] Haven't Received Confirmation for FTP Password

[Dr Neo Lao]

Correct.

@ comiccracker - This saga has been going on for way too long. Thank you for bearing with us. A new problem has come up that I was not aware of that will affect you. User accounts that start with a lower case are unable to access SiteAdmin. You will need to either create a new forum account (your comic account is not affected) where the first letter is a capital (you might also need a new email account to use) or drop a pm to either Kisai or STrRedWolf and ask them to change your username. Note that you will not be able to create an account like ComicCracker, but you can do something like Comic_cracker or Comiccracker2.

With your current username, comiccracker, you will never be able to log into SiteAdmin. You will either need to re-register your forum account (this does not affect your comic account) or get an Admin to change your username to Comiccracker.

[Smug]

Wheee! Lots of new users, lots of new problems!

Okay, here I go:

Password Activation emails are not being sent out! This is not deliberate, nor are we trying to annoy you. Hopefully, STrRedWolf will be able to fix it in the next day or two, but I can't promise anything. Apologies for the inconvenience.

@ Aldran - Lamentably, this is a site-wide issue. Two separate parts of the code send out emails for different reasons. One was recently fixed, the other still has not. So everybody that was waiting so long to get their accounts set up have had their accounts set up but still can't access them. Our bad.

@ Thuselah - The activation codes have not gone out, due to the problem mentioned above. This is affecting all new users. We ask for patience.

@ Dragon69 - This is a known bug for IE. There is an extra exclamation mark in the default template which makes the page show up as all black with no images or text in IE. This will be easy to fix - once you can get FTP access to change the templates. I'll add a tutorial to the Wiki on fixing this soon.

(Incidentally, I wrote most of the tutorials on the Wiki, seen here. It is probably a good idea for the new people to read them for two reasons - one, to understand how CG works and two, to check to make sure they are clear and easy to understand for people who have not used CG before. Feedback appreciated.)

@ Necrospawn0 - hopefully, in a day or two. In practice, there is no schedule at this time. STrRedWolf will know how long, but he does not usually post an ETA, he just fixes the problem.

@ comiccracker - This saga has been going on for way too long. Thank you for bearing with us. A new problem has come up that I was not aware of that will affect you. User accounts that start with a lower case are unable to access SiteAdmin. You will need to either create a new forum account (your comic account is not affected) where the first letter is a capital (you might also need a new email account to use) or drop a pm to either Kisai or STrRedWolf and ask them to change your username. Note that you will not be able to create an account like ComicCracker, but you can do something like Comic_cracker or Comiccracker2.

@ DoGeeseSeeGod - keep an eye on this thread.

@ Smug - you are (sort of) doing the right thing. When you log into SiteAdmin, it'll prompt you to add your comic. However, since you don't have your comic's FTP password (yet) you are unable to proceed. If you can get into SiteAdmin then that's great. For the time being, ignore it. Once you get your FTP password, you'll be able to add your comic in SiteAdmin and get going.

To all: apologies for the delays. We'll hopefully get everyone sorted soon.

Please be aware that most forum staff (like myself and the mods) are all unpaid volunteers. The two admins (Kisai and STrRedWolf) are the only to people who have the ability to change code and fix problems like this, and they do it as a part-time job. They still have their normal day jobs they have to go to to pay the bills.

Your patience is appreciated.

I'm sorry to sound like a pest and I appreciate everything you're doing. But just for peace of mind, how long would you estimate it would take to be given a password? It's just I'm really anxious to get my comic up and running.

Smug

[Dr Neo Lao]

Once the email thingy is fixed, it'll be near instant (probably a few minutes).

When the email thingy will be fixed? I have no idea. You'll need to ask STrRedWolf.

[Doxaviera Forum]

First i didn't get the e-mail for my password, now I can't even make my password...man, someones really keeping us from starting our comics lol. well i waited a month for the first problem to resolve, so I guess i can wait longer for this too.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Yes. We're sorry about the delays. I'm not sure if the weekend makes it more or less likely that the problem will be fixed. Hopefully STrRedWolf will work out a solution soon(ish).

Oh, and I accidentally lied earlier:

Please be aware that most forum staff (like myself and the mods) are...

I'm actually not on the staff any more, though I was for a while. I still know how everything works though.

[DrakeGrey]

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Neo Leo!

[Night Haunter]

thanks Neo Leo

[Dr Neo Lao]

No worries.

Thus far, no sign of STrRedWolf so I am assuming that this won't be fixed this weekend. Maybe Monday?

Maybe there is reason to worry...

[Mitz]

I know this is probably not a suggestion that will thrill people, especially given how many accounts are in question (including mine, by the way)... but would it be possible, while the program is still mangled, to confirm passwords by hand? Tedious and time-consuming, I know... but even so, it might help keep things going.


Mitz
Eternal Flame
Account name: eternalflame

[Night Haunter]

I know we are all eager to get going, but lets just give them time. in answer to the previous statement, I've had a to verify accounts on my own site by hand myself, and even doing a couple isn't fun. I think it is unrealistic to hope for that seeing as to according to you there are many involved and doing that will take more time then just focusing on the problem. Every day the problem will only get worse and doing what you suggest would not fix the problem, only perpetuate it. Of course I have no idea as to the number of people affected so there might be like 10-20 or maybe 100+. It's a hard decision to make if one doesn't not the extent of the calamity. so I think all we need to do is wait a little while, I am sure the problem will get fixed soon.
The Night Haunter

[Necrospawn0]

would you rather they spend their time working on the mangled program or doing it the long hard tedious way?
ya, we're all eager to get our comics going... but im sure there's a good reason why this hasnt been fixed yet, maybe all the admins are trying to keep skynet from taking over the world or something

one question though... what happens after 90 days? i recall reading somewhere that sites that dont update in 90 days get deleted or soemthing

[Dr Neo Lao]

The 90 day thing is an op-out method of deleting a comic account. If an account has no updates, it is automatically deleted after 90 days. This gives the member a three month cooling off period in case they want to keep their account.

I don't think it is possible to manually approve everyone in the classic sense because the server keeps passwords encoded. The admins couldn't get access to the passwords even if they wanted to. However, manually applying a new password to all the new accounts is (theoretically, I don't know for sure) possible. It'd just be really time consuming. All new accounts since December are affected by the "no password" problem. As a ballpark figure, that's about 140 odd comic accounts. And I think the admins would need the same snippet of code that is currently failing anyway.

As a bit of history, it used to be that the Welcome email also supplied the default password (you may still find references to it in places). However, many, many people had trouble with it and couldn't get it to work. So the default password was removed from the Welcome email. Now, if only we could get the new password thingy to play nice with the new email sender thingy then all would be sweetness and rainbows.

[starfallcomics]

Yeah.... i've read all this, and that sucks.... well hopefully it get resolves soon, i would really like to get my comic up soon. im starting on another comic to . lol well hope it gets resolved soon. thanks.

[Tvman]

Hey. Just throwing my name in the password-failure hat so I get an email notice when this gets fixed.

rhetoriccomic.comicgenesis.com

[Imatron]

O_o theres always something to give you plenty of work to do isnt there?

My site, bluebookofdoom.comicgenesis.com , gets the message below when I try to bring it up in internet explorer:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/2.2.9 (FreeBSD) Server at bluebookofdoom.comicgenesis.com Port 80

Ive gotten the email saying the account is ready and that it should have been up already/within 24 hours, and Ive fallowed the instructions in the email to have the pasword issued. Is the site being "forbidden" as a result of the password issueing being in limbo, or do I just need to wait for the site to finish being proccessed as a seperate issue? Also, you said the passwords should be emailed out near instantly, does this mean passwords weve filed for are already in the system waiting to be unclogged, proccessed and sent, or do we have to wait until it's fixed and re-apply for the password issue?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Odd.

For some reason, the index,html file was not generated. In theory, the server should try and update your comic once every 24 hours, so it might come good after the next update. However, since there are no new comics in your account, it might not update. So no, it's not the site itself that is being "forbidden". It's an artefact of how http and servers work.

The good news is that the account is running, so once you do get the FTP password, you should be able to fix the problem, run an update and get it all going.

Also, you said the passwords should be emailed out near instantly, does this mean passwords we've filed for are already in the system waiting to be unclogged, processed and sent, or do we have to wait until it's fixed and re-apply for the password issue?

0.o

That's a very good question. I have no idea.

It depends on how the code is structured and where the problem occurred. I see two possibilities: the emails were never generated and so were never received or the emails were blocked and there is a buffer somewhere that is full of emails waiting to be sent.

If it is the first, then when the system does work, everyone will need to re-apply for passwords (and probably break the system again from overload *sigh*).
If it is the seceond then everyone will check their email and find X number of emails with password confirmation requests (where X will vary depending on the number of times they tried to get a new password).

If it is the second, then the good news is that you'll be able to simply confirm the last one and ignore all the others.

[Night Haunter]

Forgot to do this
* Your COMIC USERNAME: niteside
* The date you signed up: January 26 2009
* The date you verified: January 26 2009 I verified the code on first email
so yeah there you go
I want to post my stupid one liners and terrible art!, is there a way to inform us when the problem is resolved? if so sign me up

[DeadCaL]

I'm gonna be honest and say that if this problem isn't fixed soon, I'm probably going to have to go with one of the other comic hosting options out there. Comics Genesis was my first choice, but waiting 2 weeks to a new account to activate is a bit silly.

[Imatron]

Do what you think is best to get your webcomic going, but I will stand behind comicgenesis since despite the setbacks ive had with them, theyve got a great community and dedicated staff who have both been very helpful and supporting. From my experience with them on making and working on my original site, I feel they are worth the patience.

An update to my site:

I still dont have the access to get it running it seems, but it's gone from the forbidden 404 page to showing an all black page with no apparent options to click or do anything. When I right click and view the source I can see the coding I would expect to see on the site working properly, but Ive got nothing there just like the other member a few posts back (on the first page I think). Im going to see if anything is letting me in and try to do an update, and see if that fixes it.

[Mitz]

I've already gone to another site. Using one of the default templates, I was up and running with complete access in five minutes. Maybe as much as ten to set up all my buffer pages.

One of the things that sold me on the other site? Going through the forums, and finding a thread similar to this... only, each time a person posted they hadn't gotten verification, there was a post shortly after by one of the admins that the problem was corrected. Occasionally it took a day or two, but usually it was corrected within hours. No whining about it being too time consuming, too hard, too whatever. Just taken care of.

Compare that to this problem, which they have admitted has been an issue since December, and is still not fixed, nor any options provided, nor any update on progress.

I'm sorry. CG was my first choice as well. But this does not fit my definition of helpful or supporting. Nor do I have to accept it and expect to feel grateful.