Found a Bug or Site Problem? Let us Know! Here's How

[Joshua D.]

Earlier today we fixed a problem that we were notified about last night. The problem, though, is that that issue had been happening for almost a week!

If You Find a Problem with the Site, Let Us Know!
Don't assume that we know about the problem, unless we mention it here in the Announcement forum.

If we don't hear from you, we may not know that the problem is happening.

Often times, these problems are very minor, and are limited to a specific browser or operating system. We can usually fix them right away.

How To Notify Us of the Problem
- Get in touch via the contact us link at the bottom of all pages on the site.
- PM me.
- Create a thread in this forum and let us know what is happening.

Some Keys in Letting us Know What is Wrong
- Make sure you are DETAILED in your message.
- Include the URL of the page in question of what is wrong.
- Include the Browser (IE, Firefox, Safari) your are using (including version) and the Operating System (Windows Vista, Windows XP, OS.X, etc.).
- Send us a screencast of the problem as it happens on the site. This is VERY EASY to do using the free website: http://www.screenr.com/. Just go to that site and click record. In a new tab or window on your browser, open BiggerPockets and demonstrate the problem. Finally, email the video to us at the address above.

[Nick J.]

That will be helpful instead of my horrible descriptions of the problems.

Good stuff, be glad to help out when I notice issues.

[Joshua D.]

Patrick - Gravatar exists so EVERYONE can have an avatar. Just set up an account there and link your email to your pic. It takes about 3 minutes to get set up, and then when you comment on ANY Wordpress blog, you'll have your pic appear.

[Steve Babiak]

Originally posted by Patrick H.:

...
Also, I was wondering if there is a way to bookmark a discussion or a blog post back to your dashboard for future reference? often I read something that is extremely informative that I'd like to reference later. Is there a way to do that?
...

Patrick H. - since Joshua Dorkin didn't touch on the question in that quote, I'll give you some ideas.

Each thread in the forums has a"monitor" checkbox at the top of the page. You can check that box, and then the thread shows up in the "My Watched Topics" tab of the forums.

If you're on an iPhone and using the BP App, then you won't see that "monitor" checkbox. So, you can post something simple to a thread from the App, and then that thread shows up in your "My Discussions" tab of the forums. Then when you view it with a browser, you can check the "monitor" checkbox to put it under "watched".

The blogs do not have anything like that, so you'll have to use browser bookmarks / favorites to accomplish that. Josh had another idea on that where you can leave a note on your dashboard for stuff like that, but I imagine it could lead to cluttering the dashboard to have lots of blog posts you want to refer to.

[Patrick H.]

Thanks Steve Babiak
I've been using Monitor to watch different conversations, but I hadn't thought of it for bookmarking. I don't typically use bookmarks because I use too many different devices. I guess I could use evernote or something similar.
It would be cool to be able to save a specific post/response or even if some of the best answers to typical questions could be archived in some way. There is so much great information written in the forums.

[Bill B.]

@Joshua D.

I want to echo Patrick H's comment. On some tech sites that I used to use, a "briefcase" was available to store links to relevant or important content on those sites. BP is the kind of site that is BEGGING for such a feature. I currently monitor a BUNCH of topics and I've been using work arounds for blogs and such. It would be very, very helpful to have all of this in one place and in ways that I can organize the content in ways that are relevant to the user. (set up folders or groups to which I can drag and drop forum posts, blog posts, podcasts, files I've downloaded, etc, etc) I think, for newbies especially, having a "briefcase" or something similar on the BP site (that can point to the blogs on WordPress, too) would GREATLY help newbies.

I've also been a manager and worked in IT, so I know the list is always long and growing. But, if a major release is planned in the future, I'm sure many users of many different levels of accomplishment would find useful. Again, the newbies would arguably benefit most.

As always, THANK YOU for a GREAT site. BP is changing lives for the better. Please pass on the thanks to the entire staff (employees and contractors). (the unsung who are rarely seen but always missed when "it" hits the fan.)

[Joshua D.]

Look, I want this site to be as valuable as possible to you guys, so if we can better how you find and save things, I'm all for it.

Simply having a drawer to save stuff doesn't make sense to me because once you save 5-10 things it starts to get a little unwieldily. There needs to be more to it -- like a complete organization system. That starts to get a little more complex.

Where do we stop? Do we let users save/organize stuff on site only? What about off site pages/links?

I'm not discounting the idea -- just asking the questions I ask before we do anything.

How do you guys see this thing working potentially?

[Bill B.]

@Joshua D.

A user defined file system would be helpful. For example, as a newbie I'd probably have files named "due diligence" "flipping" "buy and hold" "multi", "oh shi* avoidance" "systems" "inspiration" "read daily" (the cream of the inspiration posts). Some of the files above would be sub-files of "top level" files. i.e. it may be "flipping" "buy and hold" would be "top level" with files below that. I'd definitely limit it to BP content. (including BP blogs which I understand is hosted separately) I understand how just adding the BP blogs is adding a level of complexity that is probably NOT minor. Doing more than what is outlined above adds several orders of magnitude to the design and implementation and I believe is going too far.

The need? I currently have over one hundred forum threads that I'm monitoring. I plan to pare that back as I start building my systems. (reference the topic, include in my system, then stop monitoring) But, in a way I'd like to hold on until I test my systems, too. I could then post my experience on some of those threads with what I've learned. The point for this discussion is that one hundred threads is a LOT to look through to find "that one" that you are looking for.

I worked in IT supporting a dev team for a decade. I am under NO delusions of how "simple" this is. This is a BIG change for BP and will take some time. But I think this added feature will help users, especially newbies.

If I can answer any questions regarding the points above, please contact me at your convenience.

Thanks for your consideration, your time, and your efforts to provide BP.

[Bill B.]

While implied, I failed to mention explicitly that I'm copying URLs for blog posts that I want to follow. The same for pod casts. Sorry for the omission.

[Bobby C.]

Sorry to put this here but I'm working from my phone. The new update for the IPhone App is currently not working. It crashes on start up

[Joshua D.]

Hey @Bobby C. - We're aware. It worked fine through testing and once we pushed to Apple, it started crashing. We're working on it . . . sorry.

[Wayne Brooks]

The Edit function no longer exists(for 15 minutes or so after you post, to correct misspellings)???

[Joshua D.]

@Wayne Brooks - It should work still and in fact, we now allow members to edit their titles for 15 minutes.  The EDIT link is next to the post date.

[Wayne Brooks]

    Duh, see it now.  Thanks .

[Jordan T.]

Found an Issue with Keyword alert settings management, you cannot select/deselect individual keyword alerts... when I click on them only the top checkbox in the list toggles on and off.

First noticed the issue on my iphone and thought it was an "adobe flash issue" or something else due to being on mobile device, so I tried from my MacBook Pro using Chrome, then on Windows 7 with IE to no avail.

-Jordan

[Joshua D.]

@Jordan T. - I've alerted our team to your post and they will be reviewing and making any appropriate fixes.

[Shariyf Grevious]

@Joshua D. My monitored topics aren't showing up (all but one), instead I get the spinning wheel.

[Joshua D.]

@Shariyf Grevious - I'm not experiencing this across several browsers.  I'm wondering if it was a short-term glitch.  Is the issue still happening? If so, can you email [email protected] with a message about the problem (including your browser and version) and we'll get it rectified?  Thanks.

[Walt Payne]

Not exactly a bug, but it would be nice if the keyword alerts ignored, or had an option to ignore, @ references containing a name. I invest in Sebastian, Florida, and there are several people with that name, also. I'm sure a few other name/location dupes happen too.

[Joshua D.]

Hey @Walt Payne - I just want to clarify... Are you suggesting we make it so if someone has say, dorkin as a keyword, they don't get a message when someone mentions me?

[Walt Payne]

I think it would need to be an option per keyword to exclude @ references, since it is theoretically possible that someone might want to read everything someone posts, or posted about themselves. But the current way does make certain keywords useless. Especially with quotes and references and signatures all triggering an alert. What if you wanted to get alerts for Ft. Payne, OK and my posts kept triggering your alerts, too. A lot of worthless (for the purpose of the alert) posts to sift through.

[Michaela G.]

I don't get any notifications for topics that I've responded to and that I ticked that I wanted to get notified for new responses

[Joshua D.]

@Michaela G. - There was a bug that caused some followed threads to become unfollowed, but that was fixed last week.  We now have a MONITORED topic button on all threads and the functionality is working.  Try using the monitor button and let us know if that isn't working for you.

[Matt Devincenzo]

@Joshua D. 

I'm seeing the same thread multiple times in the "Recent forum post" page. For example this post is showing up twice for me but I only see one thread in the "Foreclosure" forum.

It may just be a slow refresh because now when I go back it only appears once on the recent posts list.... 

[Joshua D.]

@Matt Devincenzo - Is that happening when you scroll down the page and it loads new posts?

[Matt Devincenzo]

Yes now it seems that is when I see it. Earlier I thought some of them were closer together on the original screen prior to loading additional posts, though I can't say that it did for sure. 

This thread shows up on the original screen, and then again later farther after loading additional posts.

[Chris G.]

I just made 2 posts in 2 different threads and they aren't showing up.

The post count has gone up though, and they've been bumped to the top.

Threads in question:

http://beta.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/13...

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http://beta.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/13...