The Glowfic Constellation

[DanielH]

Bug report:

When I went to https://glowfic.com/posts/413?page=31 (on my phone, logged in), I saw edit and delete icons on the replies. I clicked the edit button on the first one, intending to see if I actually got an edit screen but not to break anything, and I was redirected to the first page of the thread with no editing options visible. I also no longer see the buttons if I go to page 31.

I would expect you had noticed and rolled back or fixed whatever caused the bug, but that would mean you got to it in the ten seconds between me loading the page and clicking the button, which is implausible. If you did, then I just happened to look at the wrong time; if not, you should probably investigate.

Edit: and now it’s down so I hope this is your active attention.

[Marri]

I have all sorts of active attention. I have been fighting this damn cache code for an hour or two now, it keeps having weird race conditions in new and exciting ways, and of course I have to do all the debugging in my head cause I can't reproduce anything locally without about twelve other people using it simultaneously. I have just turned it off for the night, and will revisit in the morning.

I am not super concerned about the edit/delete links specifically, they don't do anything unless you have permission, but there have been SO MUCH edge cases, caching should die.

[DanielH]

The advice I’ve heard is not to bother caching for logged-in users; it’s just not worth it. That’s what caused the Steam bugs last December, in fact, and they have more practice.

I’m glad it’s just that and not a permissions thing.

[DanielH]

I assume the post duplication at https://glowfic.com/replies/290660#reply-290660 is somehow the result of a site bug and not Diaeresis attempting to indicate Epic tried three conjurations in a row? Are they in the database normally such that Diaeresis can just delete two of them?

That seems like the kind of thing cache noninvalidation might cause, if it looks like a post is not going through, so this is probably not a new bug.

[Marri]

Nope, all the permissions checks are just fine.

Caching has been turned off. It was previously causing posts to display weirdly, and most heavily the most recent posts, so I'm guessing those duplicates were posted during that time when the cache issues made it appear that you had <previous post> <previous post> instead of <previous post> <post you just tried to make> so they'd retry. They are in the database and can be edited/delete as normal, yes.

The problem I have is that a lot of the slowest page loads are the logged in users, because they have their per_page set high. I need to refactor the partial I'm using so that the links are outside the cached bit, but, uh. That's unsurprisingly complicated xD I could also just show all the links to everyone and lean on the fact they've got valid permissioning, because with permissioning "I see edit links I shouldn't" is actually way less bad then "I don't see edit links I should". Or try to do something fancy with them and CSS somehow? Who knows, it's late and I have a migraine and this is very deeply waiting for the morning.

[Diaeresis]

yeah, i posted the first one and it showed as posted for me. lintamande said she didn't see it, so i refreshed the page. this caused the post to disappear for me too, so i tried reposting it.

[Marri]

Caching is terrible, kids. Fear its wrath.

[Ezra]

Can we turn off the registration secret yet?

[pedromvilar]

Do we want people who are not "invited" to join, yet?

[Unbitwise]

I'm inclined to think that if The General Internet Public gets on it will be stressed in all sorts of new ways, which means more work for Marri and Throne3d, more money, moderation/antispam systems, …

Therefore I'd like to see an actual invitation system rather than keeping or removing the secret. And it would fit the structure of glowfic: you invite your new coauthor.