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TechRepublic seems to be having problems

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38 replies

by epepke

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
All new discussions between the 9th and the 18th appear to be gone.

38 replies

by bob2001

I am new to discussions and I have problems with posts. "Haphazard" and work sometimes or sometimes very late and not at all sometimes. And the points are not as described as they do not show up. Is this running on another system than Microsoft?
I do not know, but it doesn't work as planned.
And now discussions are gone? Is this a good place for proffessionals?

by generalist

I hope that the recovery process doesn't clobber the new data.

I'd also be curious as to what happened. Will TechRepublic explain the problem as an example for the rest of us? Losing data from the middle of a database is odd but not impossible.

Come to think of it, there is a chance that some of the postings from the 19th are missing too. I responded to somebody talking about age and IT and that post is missing.

by epepke

I have noticed for some time that posts have been being lost at random. Perhaps they have a flaky disk, and it's taken this long for the BIG flake. Or perhaps they have some archival and/or indexing processes that can get into race conditions.

Anyway, though it's fun to speculate, we won't know until someone from TechRepublic tells us what happened.

by bert57

I reposted the discussion on age on the 20th.
It is located under the "home" tab under "more hot discussions.
I too was wondering what happened to the post.

by rredmond

I don't understand all these problems. Are you subject to hackers? All your data is messed up, so this is a possibilty that they have infilterated your system. Are you forced to keep quiet because of "hacker policies" at your work? Please answe as you can. Thank You.

by csmith

The techs at TR deserve a lot of praise for keeping this site running, because it is NT based.
There have been problems in the past, and they have always managed to get around them.
(Remember, User Deleted?)
This is a good site for Pros.
I wouldexpect some changes, because TechRepublic has just been purchased by CNET.
Regards, Chris

by whoiskevin

It isn't NT based.

Guess that means you'll have to come up with another brilliant idea. Perhaps one with merit.

by admin

articles, which were listed as new. Unless I go back again and find my eyes are playing tricks......

by epepke

it looks like some discussions are coming back, but the hierarchy looks a bit weird. Interesting.

by e-fellow

Hey we all make a few suggestions and then TR deletes our stuff. Who is in charge here?
I want my money back,,, ahhhhhh ok more points then.....Did we say something wrong?
I had some pretty funny discussions going and now they are all gone, ok TR please give us back our stuff, we will be good ;).
I cannot take this, I cannot remember what I wrote,,, I am going crazy. TR giveth and TR taketh away. Bow down before TR, we are not worthy. SHIT JUST GET THSI SITE GOING BEFORE WE ALL LEAVE, PLEASE!

by packratt

Come on, do you really think that TR cares about what you have to say? Sheesh, you're luck they let you enter comments to their story let alone that they don't delete those comments that counter their general propaganda themes.

So what, some lametechies had days worth of unimportant commentary summarily excommunicated to the digital hereafter. Who cares? TR??? Bwahahahahahahahaha... If you really think they care about what you think I have a bridge to sell ya, and a couple routers too... Muahahaha!

Oh, this is too rich! TR has never, EVER, explained any outage or deletion or problem of any sort. This site isn't here for you to LEARN. TR is here to sell stuff from vendors and to cram the industry line down your techie throats. And you think that since CNET acquired them that things will be unbiased or that the focus here will change? Oh you are just giving me a sore stomache from laughing so much.

If you want a site that cares about your opinion and doesn't sell out to the ITAA and the highest paying vendor then make your own. Just keep hoping that TR continues to let you VOICE your opinion even if they don't care about it. Don't cry too hard if you get silenced every now and then with no explaination either.

Remember, TR does not make mistakes, it's your fault the data is missing! Hahahahaha!!!

by admin

1)they let me be a part of a community of peers.
2)they allow some silliness and absurdity.
3)they encourage critical thinking.
4)they provide a serious place for answers to real tech questions.
5)they let me see what others are doing in the real world instead of just running articles that are really advertisements.
6)they are responsive if you e-mail them.
7)they sent me a t-shirt.
8)they follow the threads of articles and respond.
9)the community here helps me realize that there are aLOT of different types of tech people. I didn't realize we were so diverse, and I enjoy different views.
10)They haven't kicked me or banned my ip yet.

I can actually think of more, and I contribute to several boards, but this is by far the mostwell rounded. Thanks for working on the equipment too, obviously every system needs serious maintanence sometimes :)

by kima

I haven't got a T-shirt yet,but everything else I agree with you. Although I am a little dissapointed with the technical difficulties they are encountering. I love coming here and posting messages, is fun... and I learn a lot from others as you said...

Kima

by packratt

I never said that TR is a bad site, it does have it's good points. Yet, they have faults and I believe that my points have some validity.

TR could be turning a service outage or technical problem into a positive event by providing the users of this site, mostly technology professionals who see these things all the time as well, a glimpse into the workings of TR and how they handle their problems. Instead they show all of us how NOT to handle difficulties by attempting to play hush and denying that a problem exists by ignoring it.

Also, my other points are valid as well, TR does have the tendency to support some very flimsy reporting by some of it's columnists. Usually these problems weigh heavily in favor of the ITAA and individual companies almost to the point of being advertisements without fair comparisons. While this may not be as severe as it is on other sites it is still a problem that I would like to see TR work on in order to become a more respectable site for professionals.

However, I will take one thing back in order to be fair. TR is, at times, responsive to it's user base and I don't really have a fair gripe about that.

By the way, TR has supplied me with a rather nice shirt as well but they do still owe me a mug. I had also let them slide on giving me a second shirt that they owed me because I already have one and thought it would be more equitable if they gave that to someone who didn't receive one already.

by epepke

I toyed with that paranoid conclusion some time ago. I am probably as defensively paranoid as anybody--when the NSA tries to recruit you three times in your life, you get that way.

However, I noticed that there was no pattern to which of my postings that were disappearing. Some of the more obnoxious ones stayed on, and some trivial ones disappeared. Now, however, since postings are disappearing wholesale regardless of content, I think that any hypothesis of nefarious behavior is effectively disproved.

TechRepublic has historically been lax in explaining problems, but I would personally cut them some slack. Not only is it a fairly large task to maintain what must be an abstusely linked database on software which, according to rumor, was developed by Microsoft, but they are going through a buyout process through the end of this month. I have experienced this kind of thing personally, and "due diligence" is HELL.

However, I still think it is valuable to bring problems to their attention, which is why I started this thread. The intent is not to bash them but to help them do their job by pointing out difficulties.

by marshallkeithusa

I don't know why everyone is getting so defensive . . . I don't think anyone said anything bad about TR. . . and I think all of us have been in the position where the S@#t hit the fan. But I also don't think there is any thing wrong with polking fun at the situation . . .after all we are polking fun at ourselves . . . I do think that they should let us know what happend though it could keep the rest of us from having the same problem and after all that is why we are all here to learn from others. . . .

by vncoder

G'day,
I didn't get any t-shirt or any mug? Where are my t-shirt and mug?

BTW, despite the problems occurred (I thought my browser was playing up) TR have done a great job so far, esp with all those quotes I get regularly to brightenup my boring techie life. TR should deserve a pat on the back.
G'on ya mates.

Regards,

AussieGuy

by packratt

Ok, alright already... Sure they do alot of things right, it is a great site and I have been a member here for quite a long time so that should indicate that they are doing something right.

I still say they can do better and that when they do something wrong it should be pointed out so that they can continue doing great things and not become complacent.

Sure, maybe I shouldn't have phrased it so harshly at first... I blame that on personal stresses after a great interview that will go nowhere and almost 4 months of unemployment and a family to feed...

Sorry TR, you guys are pretty good, so please take my ribbing a little more lightly than usual this time. I bow to the wisdom and generosity of my peers on this one.

by epepke

It would be nice if they did provide some articles which were case studies of problems they had to fix. Sometimes I get the impression that they run short of material. This would provide a good source of material. For example, the case of User Deleted postings, which has been ameliorated but not eliminated, is a good lesson in how (and how not to) order processes in a chain. It ties into other interesting problems such as the topological sort, event ordering, and security.

I haven't gotten a T-shirt or coffee mug, but then again, I'm not surprised. I'm not exactly Mr. Congeniality around here.

by dmast718

C'mon everyone...lay off TR a bit. I've been using this site around a year and this is the first time I noticed things not working near perfect. Sure there have been some glitches here and there, but for the most part, it's been pretty damn good.I wish the idiots I work with would be able to keep something up and running for a month, let alone a year!

by epepke

This an interesting response to one of my postings, as in another posting in this thread I pointed out that bashing TR was *not* the purpose of bringing up problems, and in another I pointed out that I, personally, would cut them some slack.

Although you say "everyone," you are responding to me. Why are you particularly upset with me?

This reminds me of one of the early surprises I got when moving from the world of science to the world of industry. We were being audited, and I found some discrepancies in the database that should be corrected in order to square things away for the audit. I thought the people in payroll would be glad for the opportunity to make everything shipshape. But NOOOOOOO! I was the enemy! Once I even saidto one of them, "This isn't an adversarial situation," and the response was "Yes, it is."

As someone who supports software, I LIKE IT when people tell me problems, so that I can make things better. I assume that the people at TechRepublic are the same, that they take pride in their work. If it breaks, they should know about it, in as much detail as possible, so that they can isolate and fix the problem. The only real mechanism I know for getting info back to TechRepublic in general is to start a thread. If there's a "Report Problems" button on this screen, I can't find it.

But I get the impression that about half the people on this thread consider reporting problems to be morally almost tantamount to gassing the headquarters withZyklon-B. I simply cannot grok why.

by epepke

In the discussions on the best programming book you've ever seen, some of the subthreads seem to be duplicated several times. I speculate there's something about foreign keys getting scroggled.

by generalist

I think the original 'best programming book' thread got completely trashed. It had been over 100 entries sometime on the 19th.

by marshallkeithusa

That wasn't aimed at you I too have a warped sense of humor I am the one that suggested linux or bsd . . . if it had been one of those I would have suggested Nt or Novell . . .it is just my warped sense of humor sticking out. . .Just like anytime I hear my xxxx doesn't crash I always say you are not working hard enough. . .I just noticed that a few people getting worked up . . .And suggested that they take humor for what it is. . . .

by packratt

See, I have this really dry sense of humor and I usually have to work quite hard to keep it from getting the better of me and others. When I am a bit grumpy it does get out of hand and it's nice when people tell me to watch it...

Though, it seemsthat some have taken me a bit too seriously, but I suppose that is the point as well... So what, we lost some messages, some where interesting, some weren't... But on the internet they are all so much etherial and insubstantial beasts in the scheme of real world things.

Anyways... Yes, it would be great if this and other problems could be a learning experience for all... But who am I to tell others such things?

Enjoy!

by admin

I agree, this should be a learning experience for us all. A nice article about it would be great, if anyone could or has time. Some of us may even be able to help or at least feel even more good about coming here than we already do when we read it.
I wasn't saying improvement wasn't needed, just sometimes I like to be encouraged at the same time I'm struggling with something, and I know they actually read this stuff and could probably use some reminders of this.

Anyway, I'm really glad you hang out here and I always like your posts and your sense of humor :>

by packratt

Really, you don't want to know... To put it simply I have updated my profile to reflect my current employment, (or unemployment), arrangements. It's for the better though, I've been out of work for close to four months now but I really think that itwill be for the better even though things are really tough financially right now. I moved back to my old residence because it's cheaper and I've had some very promising interviews for some really great projects and perm positions.

I've got the talent, usually when I don't get the job it's because of a budget freeze or bankruptcy. So odds are that some stable company will grab me at some point, hopefully before I lose the car. hahaha

Anyway, thanks for asking...

by generalist

I'm quite familiar with the budget freeze problem. When I was job hunting about a year ago I had one really promising job lead that got put on hold due to a budget freeze. And within days of learning about that I received a letter from a place I had written off saying that my application was being held due to a budget freeze.

by packratt

Man, I just got another call about a position I was picked for that got put on hold for at least 3 weeks if not longer! This is like the fourth or fifth time since I started looking this year! Out of 40 people interviewed I get picked and now they don't know if they can budget me in!!!

This is torture! I am getting so damn pissed off... I'm thinking about how to make it through next week and now I have to wait until next month at least because the other prospects I have are waiting that longas well!!!

Oh man this is so damn frustrating, to be good enough to help these organisations out but they just can't do it. I better not post for a while or else I'll raise another chorus of protests with the mood I'm in.

And the ITAA says weneed more H1Bs still... Aaaaauuuurrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!

---Now back to your regularly scheduled topic---

by epepke

One of the worst things about being a precog is predicting the future correctly.

I hope things get better.

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