Hey Matt!

“I don't really use gmail, but I've used firefox forever. I haven't had any problems with gmail and firefox.”

“No intelligent reason for a non-power user non-developer that I can think of, no.
last edited: 9/05/06 9:13:34 PM”

“Thanks. I was getting a message that i was leaving an encrypted site (firefox) and a 3rd party could intercept(?) my gmail correspondances. Or something to that effect. My wife also couldn't open her work (outlook) page through firefox...”

“i have 3 computers that are really slow all of a sutton. started about 3 or 4 days ago. my kids computers too, and they ain't going on TT. seams to better today, but something ain't right. some weird virus we don't know about? I don't think it's TT.”

“blocked all cookies, allowed thebackpacker.com and seems to have taken care of things.”

“I was thinking I had a holy sheeyat bad virus since returning from over Labor Day. I'm on dial-up and there are times TT won't come up for five, 10 minutes... even longer. No, I'm not exaggarating. Thanks for all you do, Matt, but can you please figure out why this is messing up for so many of us?

Meanwhile... I'll go see about cookies...”

“Same problem here matt.

My machine locks up and I have to delete cookies to get it back when I post as 'Reverend Truth V Wicked'. As 'Violin' it seems OK so far.”

“I'm on cable. Seems to load slow and I lose my cookies regularly. ;-}”

“Cookies------my neighbor gave me some very yummy homeade cookies this morning!!! :)”

“I just got the adware detonation as well.. I'd just wiped out the cookies, too.

Firefox doesn't have that problem though. Just exploder.”

“TT started pegging my CPU again. So rather than delete all my cookies yet again (a royal PITA) I went and deleted suspicious ones one cookie at at time, re-launching the browser on TT each time, until the CPU stopped pegging. There weren't many left after I blocked cookies from all those ad vendors that push cookies on me for using this web site. Anyway, I got it down to one cookie and when I deleted it the problem went away.

There are two cookies from thebackpacker.com that get put on my computer for using TT.

The first appears to be the cookie that remembers your login ID so you don't have to type in your login/password. I have seen this cookie before and recognize its contents.

The second seems to be some sort of encoded cookie with metrics in it, probably tracking metrics to keep track of my connection type, IP address, etc. I'll have to crack this cookies encoding to figure out what it is. I'll post more once I have done this. That said, once I delete this cookie the web site starts to work again. I don't recall seeing this cookie in the past. I also haven't checked to see if there is a compact privacy policy associated with it that would explain it's use and intent.

This is a real PITA and it's not a "personal problem". Other people are having the same bad experience. We shouldn't have to flush our cookies or switch to another web browser to use the web site.

I would NEVER complain about a free service, but the only way anything is free is if it's worth nothing. So obviously there is something of value in our using the web site and having a good experience. In the world of marketing the consumers are the product... we are your product. So this is not a free service and I feel I have a right to professionally and politely express my frustration.

I say this adding that I totally dig your service and respect your business.”

“Jimmy,
I'm fairly transparent about how I run the website. I'm not trying to trick anyone and put voodoo cookies everywhere. If the cookie in question starts with "__utm", then that is a cookie from google. I use google to do my traffic reporting, and they set those cookies.”

“c_cats
N%2CL%2CT%2CC%2CG
thebackpacker.com/
1536
774421120
29813155
904382480
29807120
*
__utma
227814616.496960824.1157587049.1157587049.1157587049.1
thebackpacker.com/
1600
2350186496
32111674
906082480
29807120
*
__utmb
227814616
thebackpacker.com/
1600
1722183296
29807124
906082480
29807120
*
__utmz
227814616.1157587049.1.1.utmccn=(direct)|utmcsr=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)
thebackpacker.com/
1600
4062681728
29843832
906182480
29807120
*

it's that thing they used to call urchin, isn't it?
last edited: 9/06/06 9:56:26 PM”

“ok, so i have had a bad night. i work with buggy software for a living so i am jaded and suspicious. i'll put a sock in it.”

“the c_cats cookie just remembers which thread categories you want to view, the rest are the urchin/google cookies.”

“After doing a search, the date range got set to "all", so after I made a post and returned to to the thread listing, it tried to load all of the threads, instead of defaulting back to 1 day as I had it set before searching and stuff.”

“okay...I hate to say it...but it's true...somehow TT is slowing everything down. I had to reboot my office computer twice after going on the site.

i did delete my TT cookies on the home computer, and it works fine right now.

weird.”

“Hey matt, my pics from the Quehanna trail were deleted when you switched servers. Anyway to get them back, or do I have to re-upload them?”

“To add to this, still very bad loading. At times it will say the website is "not responding."

I thought I had posted yesterday from work and this shows how bad it is. That post didn't even go through. And at work I'm on a Mac (as opposed to a PC at home) using Safari (as opposed to IE) and on broadband (CenturyTel telphone somewhat high speed) as opposed to dial-up at a major provider at home.

It started acting bad at work yesterday. I had to "force quit" Safari. Opened it back up on other websites just fine.

I will note, at home, I have not deleted cookies. I can't even remember where to do that, so help there would be good. (Under accessories? Or under control panel???)

I, too, love the service, but sumthin' ain't right!”

“I'm reinstalling Winpatrol, that's for sure. It tracks every cookie and makes it very easy to remove them.”

“It is amazing the lengths we will go to for our TT fix. 8-D”

“Matt - What is this supposed to do?
Number of Attendees: (view all)

The link does not appear to do anything except to put the title of the trip string in the "Back List." The "List of Attendees" appears later on without clicking on "view all." When we click, it is nice to see some sort of action.

In fact, I would like to see the List of Attendees there without any extra clicking.

Thanks.
last edited: 9/07/06 10:23:41 AM”

“for those cookie problem people, once you have cleared your cookies, does the problem start again?”

“It has not recurred for me. IE or Firefox.”

“mine seams to better after I cleared them, at least right now... so far so good.

matt thanks for not yelling at us. :) we are a bunch a spoiled babies I know it.”

“it does after about 1/2 a day of using TT on and off. That was when I went and deleted one cookine at a time, re launching TT between each deletion, until I got to the cookie I posted.

Then the problem went away.

The problem! The problem, Patsy! I MUST HAVE FRUIT!”

“Yes - Only under my Rev. handle.”

“i work from a laptop so I can tell when this happens because my CPU fan kicks in... funny. sort of going into overdrive.”

“I cleared the cookies about 9 am est, and it has since seized up again. I cleared the cookies a second time, and no additional problems.”

“If you bake the cookies at 350F for 20 minutes then Trial Talk gets that nice warm gooey taste to it. Just don't eat too many prune-filled oatmeal cookies, or you are guaranteed a seize-up the next day.

I just think your cookies are underbaked, Matt. Maybe a little more flour, too.”

“I just know cleared my IE cookies. I was askeered to try and open it before.

Firefox doesn't seem to run as well, scrolling is choppy...”

“I am not having problems at work, but at home, my CPU just locks up.

I will try deleting cookies on that machine later tonight and see if the problem goes away.”

“I should clarify that firefox runs slower on all sites I visit.”

“Well it just happened on this handle too.

It was trying open http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N3815.Tribal_Fusion/B1802968.2;sz=120x at the time (there may have been more, that's all I could see).

My CPU usage was pegged at or near 100%. When I deleted my cookies, it immediately dropped to 0%.”

“It happened again. That ad didn't seem to be the problem this time.

Hope you figure it out soon.

Sayonara!
last edited: 9/07/06 1:23:44 PM”

“No one liked the joke? :(”

“Matt - If violin is having troubles with this, take your time with it. He deserves all the trouble he may get. He thought that link of his, which hung our computers, was a joke. It was not, expecially when it hung computers that were not our own. Also, when we had time limitations, like on a library computer, it was no joke to us. So let him play with his cookies a while longer. Even forever is too short a time for him. Thanks.”

“Matt, I found a problem. If I bring up an old thread from the archive and post to it, it resets all of my views and causes fresh tankage.”

“My laptop just froze up again right after I posted on the cancer thread. I was using Firefox. Deleted all the cookies, again.”

“I am really thinking it has to do with a particular ad trying to load. If you think you are about to crash, look at your browser status barat the bottom of the page, and see what is trying to load.”

“I also stopped animations, that may be helping?”

“The status bar typically says it's transferring a bunch of crud from google right before it seizes.”

“the "# messages" column looks sloppy. Split it into 2 or something.”

“Bringing up an old thread from a search and then posting to it DOES do something.
It reset my date range to 'all' and then it takes forever to load TT.”

“it told me upstairs that this page is running a script that could slow down my computer.

[yes, it started again] it's still good on the home computer.”

“cool! it loaded every thread ... ever on the main trailtalk page. computer bugs are cool

i think the # of views should go on the page of the thread, not the main page

peace-out”

“BTW could I take Eugene on a TTA hike with me on Sept. 23???”

“I dumped the cookies on the laptop at home. No problems tonight, but last night was a nightmare.

Strange thing is, I never had a problem at work. Must be something about the T3 span or our firewall. Heck, I don't know, I just barely know how to turn these things on.”

“Dumped the cookies at home and much, much better.

Will try on the Mac at work tomorrow. It would lock up Safari in 3 to 4 minutes when I tried to go onto TT. Oh yeah, it is Mac OS 10.”