DocAndersen
I have been an IT consultant and an IT delivery person for the past 30 years. In that time I have operated and managed solutions that were used by 400,000 or more people. I traveled the world building systems for a lot of organizations. Based on those years of experience I tend to approach things a little differently than most people do, regarding what is happening around them. Based on that, however, I did want to say pump the brakes. That is, what you do when you are driving, and are unsure of what is happening around you. Lately, there has been a lot of angry, frustrated posts about the editorial and administrative functionality presented by the Virily site.
First, everyone has the right to complain. But it is really important that when you complain you understand the reality of that complaint. “I hate.” is the phrase that pays. When you hear that you know what comes next is an opinion. “This doesn’t” is a phrase that normally is followed by a diatribe about what isn’t working. You’ve all read these statements many times. In fact, I know, there are so many things thrown around about Virily that I am beginning to realize, it doesn’t matter anymore. Since Virily pays writers, we are nominally 1099 contractors. As content creators pm the store we have a res[pmsob; out t psi[[prt the ad, om tea, as they work to improve the site. And most important, we get in return what we bring to the admin team. I see so many posts on Virily talking about problems with the site. But I don’t see all the variables covered upfront first. Let’s start with some of the variables we need to consider (and if possible remove) before casting blame on the site itself. Just looking at the easy variables even before we get to Virily there are so many things to consider.
- The browser you are using. TRUST me each of these browsers operates completely differently than the others.
- EDGE
- Chrome
- Mozilla
- Firefox
- Internet Explorer
- Safari
- The computer operating system you are using
- Mac OS pre 10
- Mac OS post 10
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Wdinwos 10
- Linux all flavors
- Android Tablet
- IoS Tablet
- iPhone
- Android Phone
- Another phone
- Type of internet connection
- Satellite
- Cable Modem
- Dial-up or modem based
- Internet café
- Provided wi-fi work
- Provided wi-fi coffee shop
- Fiber Optic
- DSL
- ISDN
- Consideration of your pc
- Corrupt
- Clean
- New
- Old
- Virus Scanner
- Commercial
- Free
- Malware Scanning
- Commercial
- free
Just to be clear, there are versions of number 1 and that causes issues. Edge doesn’t always work with everything. Chrome, Safari, IE, FireFox, and Mozilla all have known issues with various things.. You can have Java installed (old), or Java installed new. Or you can have no Java. There is flash players from Adobe, old and new or not installed at all. You can have the .net framework old or the .net framework new installed. All of this is the easy stuff. Your virus scanner, or malware and so on impacts the ability to interoperate with the system you are using. Virus scanners can impact your browser, your computer, and YOUR internet connection. There are at least 30 companies that release Virus scanners, and you can be way out of date with that as well.
Troubleshooting problems based on just these five variables is really hard.
So pump the brakes.
Make sure when you have a problem, post the answers to all six of these questions. Tell the admin team I am using Safari on MacOS 11, McAfee virus scanning connected at my local Starbucks.
Just listing that will help the admin team be more successful, thereby keeping Virily in business longer!!!!!
Thanks so much for this article.
You are most welcome, and thank you for the comment!
Not only that, but all of these things should be included in a bug report and I forgot to mention any of them…
In fact they should, and many more. Like what is the model of the PC, what is the patched version of the OS, what processor are you running? How much memory do you have? What type of hard drive does the system have. I just wanted to get people thinking about the fact that it isn’t always Virily’s problem.
If they’re server-side issues then I don’t know how much any of that will matter. Client-side issues could need all manner of specs before the problem is understood
I’ve seen bugs that only happen on certain days/times
Actually, Alex, knowing the client environment makes a huge difference for the server side as well. Since each OS, and each browser type ask for information differently this can make server-side issues worse.
Most importantly removing variables when troubleshooting issues like these are the only way to get to fixed!
You are entirely correct with your assertion. Many of these issues will fall into that category; but the failure to calculate the dashboard or provide most recent posts will almost definitely be server side problems and this will be easily verified by making that query across multiple browsers
I suspect that some of these issues are based on malformed queries or possibly overloads, neither of which can be addressed with browser compliancy (barring cases where the browsers are causing said exceptions, in which case I would still consider it a clientside bug)
There is a huge difference between declaration and suspicions in the first place. My gut is there are a number of factors on the server side causing a number of the issues.
I just want to make sure everyone understands that is maybe the majority (I think it is) of the issues. It is not, however, all of the issues.
I suspect the query issue dinks the site for many things. As much as they are doing, there are a lot of moving pieces.
Thanks 🙂
Absolutely! I’ve been saying that since day one. When I complain about the hierarchy, which we all do from a black box stance, and while I continue to suspect these are ultimately failures on the backend, everything just seems to be a house of cards
That having been said, my black box assessment must be suspect by definition
If you are an apple user and facing any issue with any devices, software , hardware issue then contact with apple support uk.https://applesupportnumber.net/apple-support-uk/
I am not sure that pasting a link into a response is a good idea. Plus Apple cannot really help you with connectivity issues to a website.
Great points and tips for all of us. The more information the quicker they can help with the problem.
Your hats remind me of Crocodile Dundee. 🙂
I also wanted people to understand that an issue, doesn’t always impact everyone.