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Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:32 pm
by jwhouk
Hmm, something's missing here on the wapsisquare.com website, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:58 pm
by Atomic
Ya, it's like Firefox flushed all my logins and passwords.....

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:08 pm
by jwhouk
Try this:
PabloWapsi (on Facebook) wrote: As so many folks already use adblockers, this may be a meaningless message, but for everyone else, Wapsi square is now an ad-free site. *tosses small handful of confetti in the air*

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:30 pm
by Dave
jwhouk wrote:Try this:
PabloWapsi (on Facebook) wrote: As so many folks already use adblockers, this may be a meaningless message, but for everyone else, Wapsi square is now an ad-free site. *tosses small handful of confetti in the air*
Wow!

(Dave humbly suggests that a regular contribution via Patreon or PayPal would be a great way to thank Paul for clearing the ads from the site.)

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:33 pm
by Dave
Atomic wrote:Ya, it's like Firefox flushed all my logins and passwords.....
I noticed a few weeks ago that the main Wapsi site no longer retains my identity...I have to re-enter it each time I want to comment. And, this isn't a Firefox issue... it affects Chrome.

I wonder whether this is a reaction to the new EU privacy rules, which seem to require an explicit opting-in for a lot of things involving identity tracking or use.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:25 am
by Atomic
Nope - didn't notice the (lack of) ads, but Wapsi forum was the fourth site tonite I had to re-enter my login/password combo. Must be the season...

And yay confetti!

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:55 pm
by Nimrod
:?: I had sort of fallen off the wagon and not kept up with Wapsi for a while. Then about six months ago I happened to see a sketch by Paul in Deviant Art and decided to catch up on about a year of past comics...

Well, has anyone had difficulty viewing strips that are older than about a week. I seem able to see today's strip, and a few days back...

Then all I get are white blank pages. No buttons, no nothing. The HTML address is there, but nothing else.
If I try and go to the archive section I also get a blank screen.


I have been able to catch a few of the older (last 18 months) strips by using The Wayback Machine website, and I can view a strip there and a few to either side, and then I start getting blank pages again.

I can not view the comic via the Wapsi website. (except for a few random days)

Could it be some manner of setting or browser? I've got the current version of Firefox and not add-ons or plug-ins on a Windows 7 machine with all updates as of today.
Sometimes, when I go back to the site, comics I had just seen show a blank screen, even within the same browser session.
This really feels like some basic problem. Why would I be able to see today's page, then leave the site, come back a bit later, and that same page will not load or show? Very odd and it is inconsistent. The only thing that is constant is I can now not progress further than about a week back in the comic before it goes to a blank screen, as if the CSS form or something is crashing.

Unfortunately, ever since Paul started using named files (years ago) and not sequential numbering for his comics I can not just type in an approximate file name to attempt to land on a page. Using other comic linking sites such as Comic Rocket, do provide a listing, so that is something of a work-around however when I follow the link from there back to the Wapsi site I often get a blank screen.

So, I can only see a small handful of the comic now, not even the old archive stuff and even the current comic will fail to appear.
Has anyone else had something similar?

For Example: The recent strip called "tell me about it" appeared and I was able to go backward about two more days before getting a blank white screen, I then used the browser back button and when I moved forward back to "tell me about it", that page appeared as blank?!? I had viewed it just moments prior. If I then jumped to the current strip and attempted to move backward to "tell me about it" I might get a blank page one strip prior or not at all until afterward, but never more than about 6-7 days before going blank. If I then jump back to the current strip, now it is blank! What!

(I just did this and typed the above as it happened) It is random and makes no sense.
The comic is essentially broken for me and I can not read (or attempt to read) it in this current situation.

From the few bits I have been able to see, like around two dozen strips sprinkled over the past two years of so, it looks like things are going in a much different direction, but I can't tell as I'm only able to see about a random 5% of the entire Wapsiverse now.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:57 pm
by Dave
I haven't seen any such problems in any browser I've used, on any system... Linux Chrome, Firefox, the Android version of Chrome. I just stepped back through the strip as far as late August, then went to the archive and opened a new older strips at random... 100% success rate.

The problem might be with your browser (malformation in the cache?). Clearing the cache completely and restarting might fix it.

It might be an ISP/connectivity problem. Some ISPs try to run "transparent" proxies, caching and serving out local copies of pages from the web, trying to reduce their WAN bandwidth usage. If those caching proxies have a problem, your browser may be fed garbage or empty pages.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:43 pm
by Bookworm
Nimrod wrote: Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:55 pm :?: I had sort of fallen off the wagon and not kept up with Wapsi for a while. Then about six months ago I happened to see a sketch by Paul in Deviant Art and decided to catch up on about a year of past comics...

Well, has anyone had difficulty viewing strips that are older than about a week. I seem able to see today's strip, and a few days back...
Just as a quick test, I opened up another tab in Firefox on Windows 7, and went back to August 9th. No issues seeing all of the pages and images.

It sounds like a caching problem of some sort.

Could you try going to the site in Internet Explorer or Chrome?

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:45 pm
by Bookworm
Dave wrote: Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:30 pm
jwhouk wrote:Try this:
PabloWapsi (on Facebook) wrote: As so many folks already use adblockers, this may be a meaningless message, but for everyone else, Wapsi square is now an ad-free site. *tosses small handful of confetti in the air*
Wow!

(Dave humbly suggests that a regular contribution via Patreon or PayPal would be a great way to thank Paul for clearing the ads from the site.)

Well, part of the reason there aren't any more ads is there is no more Project Wonderful.
:mrgreen:

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 1:13 am
by Nimrod
That sounded like a good suggestion.

I cleaned out the cache and tried to move through the website again. This time I could bring up the archive and it even showed the comics I had tried to view. Next I tried to move backward from the current page...

It failed and went to a blank screen on the first attempt.

It then went back to the archive, at if failed to a blank screen! I then tried to go to the last successful page (June of this year) and again blank.
The only thing that appears is the link of the page that is trying to appear.

Hummm, after cleaning the cache, it actually is working less. :(

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try a few more things, but it has been acting this way for some time now.
I will see if I can view it using a different computer to see if it could be a network issue.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 10:59 am
by jwhouk
Ah, the Project Wonderful thing. I think that's affected several websites out there from loading properly for some people.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:52 am
by TazManiac
I just posted this up; what happens when you try the links on my post?

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3681

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:52 pm
by Dave
All the links work for me, using Chrome on an Android tablet.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:13 pm
by Atomic
Worked for me, too. Firefox on a PC with NoScript and Adblocker Ultimate.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:04 am
by GlytchMeister
All links worked on iPhone.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:13 am
by Nimrod
Just tried that link.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3681
That takes me to the forum page with the embedded comic, showing comic 02072005, which I see in the forum.

When I click on the link to http://wapsisquare.com/comic/02072005/ on that forum page...
I get a blank white page.

I can not see any of the older comic or if I use the WayBack website I can sometimes (very rarely) get an older comic.
By older I mean anything over about a week old.

Just moments ago I went to the current page (2018-10-18) and I can see the whole website, the comic, the links, etc.
I started hitting the "BACK' button icon and was able to go back 4 more strips before I got a blank white page.

When I used Firefox to "view page source" to see what code is trying to run I get this:
<!-- Protected By IP Address Blocker - http://www.lionscripts.com/product/word ... rsion=10.2 --><br /><br /><br /><br />

I do not have any IP Address Blockers on my side, so I still think it is the site doing this.

I will also attempt to view the older (just a few days ago) strips in something like Microsoft Explorer to make sure it is not my system/network/settings.
I am starting to think that it might be something with Firefox, as I used a different computer (laptop) on a different network, running Windows 10, and only Firefox the only constant.
...

P.S. - OK, I just launched Explorer (and accepted all the defaults as I have not run it one this machine in years) and I get a blank white page for the 02072005 strip.
I then went to today's comic, and the whole page and comic appeared. I went back on strip and it was OK. I clicked "back" again and got a blank white page. This is worse than Firefox which did 5 days before giving a blank page.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:27 am
by Bookworm
I'll try to look at the settings in Wordpress tomorrow, but I'm not sure why you'd be getting blocked by IP address, unless you're SERIOUSLY moving fast through the site.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:11 am
by jwhouk
The given URL went right to the Katherine "where you belong" strip for me... Huh. Odd.

Re: Something's Missing

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:18 am
by Dave
Bookworm wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:27 am I'll try to look at the settings in Wordpress tomorrow, but I'm not sure why you'd be getting blocked by IP address, unless you're SERIOUSLY moving fast through the site.
A few thoughts.

The Lionscript blocker site suggests that the script can block addresses based on "suspicious activities"... they don't say what sort. Possibly too-fast accesses, possibly accesses to local URLs that are targets of malware exploits/scanners.
  • Possibly, Nimrod's system has some sort of dynamic web cache or optimizer, which is attempting to predictively pre-fill the cache by automatically following links. Such a cache or accelerator might be on Nimrod's computer, or at the ISP (a so-called "transparent proxy"). Might be exceeding the script's fetch rate limits. Might be trying to fetch images progressively by making multiple requests for parts of the image, or dropping connections parties throught a read.
  • Nimrod's system (or another on the same LAN) might have a malware infection that's probing the site.
  • Nimrod's system might be behind a NAT, sharing a public IP address with other users/customers. Activity by those other users would look like the same client to the script. "Carrier-grade NAT" can be a problem in this regard.
You may have to look at the server's and script's logs to see what's being blocked.

I also noticed that there are some complaints about the Lionscript blocker plugin not working well (although there complaints don't go into much detail about the failures)