Automatic log out too fast?

[Negflar2099]

Has anyone else noticed that the automatic log out on this site is very quick? It seems I can log in and maybe read a few posts and that's it and then I'm automatically logged out and I have to log back in. Recently it logged me out in the middle of a post! Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Absolutely. I usually can't even make one post without getting logged out. I log in, and get logged out. So I have to log in after making the post or risk losing it all. Then, when I get done posting and do actually want to log out I click to log out and it tells me I already am logged out. And I even got logged out while doing an EDIT ... and I got a little box that says that the error may be because I'm using the cyberstreet address ... which I'm not.

So, that's my experience. And yes, to post this I will no doubt have to log in again.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

See that little block to the left of 'Remember Me?'. Put your mouse cursor over it and click it before logging in. That'll solve the problem.


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[Merkuri]

See that little block to the left of 'Remember Me?'. Put your mouse cursor over it and click it before logging in. That'll solve the problem.

That's what I do, but it's not a good solution, if you ask me. The people who haven't checked that box probably haven't done so for a reason. Maybe they're on a public machine and they want to be sure they don't stay logged in after they leave.

I work in tech support, and this is what we call a workaround, not a solution. The question is why it logs people out too fast. Do any of the mods know what the lifespan of the login cookie is? Can it be extended to at least an hour?

I know that my boyfriend doesn't like to stay logged in all the time (maybe he doesn't want me to be able to sit at his PC and read all his personal messages, I dunno) and he's actually lost posts a few times because it took him too long to type stuff up. He logged in, typed up a post immediately, and when he clicked the "post" button it said he was logged out and he lost everything he typed. This can be a serious annoyance for people and might make them less willing to post for fear of wasting all of that typing to a logout problem.

 

[Morrus]

I work in tech support, and this is what we call a workaround, not a solution. The question is why it logs people out too fast.

It's not a "workaround" - it's exactly how a vBulletin forum is supposed to work.

Clicking the "Remember Me" box keeps you logged in until you log out.

If you don't click it, you are logged out after 15 minutes of inactivity. If you're getting logged out despite activity (which includes page view, etc), then there's an issue somewhere that we'd need to look into.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

He logged in, typed up a post immediately, and when he clicked the "post" button it said he was logged out and he lost everything he typed. This can be a serious annoyance for people and might make them less willing to post for fear of wasting all of that typing to a logout problem.

Copy and paste is where its at. I've learned this from experience. Due to various issues on my own part; site outages, wireless issues, site maitenance, whatever.

If you type up a long post, copy it over to a text program like Notepad or Winword. Don't let that post get away from you. Be sure to back it up before hitting submit.

 

[Merkuri]

If you don't click it, you are logged out after 15 minutes of inactivity. If you're getting logged out despite activity (which includes page view, etc), then there's an issue somewhere that we'd need to look into.

That's the impression that I get. It seems to be taking much less than 15 minutes. When my boyfriend complained of this problem it seemed to take less than five minutes to log him out.

If somebody complains to us in tech support that a certain feature doesn't work right and we basically say, "don't use that feature, use this feature instead" then that's a workaround. The issue is still there - that the feature doesn't work. It may get you around the problem, but it doesn't fix it.

That is what I meant when I said that the "keep me logged in" checkbox is a workaround. The problem (that it logs you out too soon) is still there, you're just telling people to avoid it by not using the feature.

 

[Merkuri]

Hmm, I've been trying to test without having the "remember me" box checked and it's still letting me stay logged in a reasonable amount of time. I've tried both FF3 and IE7. My OS is Vista x64. I'm posting both to say my results and to see if it'll somehow log me off just as I post.

What browsers and OSs do other people have who've been having problems?

Edit: Nope, didn't log me off. (But it did remove the linebreaks in my post for some reason - let me try to put them back. And it put smiley faces between a bunch of random sentences. IE is weird.)

 

[Orius]

If you don't click it, you are logged out after 15 minutes of inactivity.

That's what keeps me making little more than short snarky comments around here; I'm afraid of getting cut off. That and brevity is indeed the soul of wit.

That and I haven't trained myself to mark it when I log in. And mark all messages as read when I log out either.

I have learned that with IE at least, if I do get cut off with out copying my reply beforehand, that I should just log back in without hitting Back. If I hit Back, everything I typed if lost. If I just log in, then my message doesn't get lost.

 

[Knight Otu]

I've also gotten the impression that auto-log-out happens too fast quite a few times. I'll keep this reply window open for a few minutes before posting as a test.
Edit: Stayed logged in, a bit more than 5 minutes. I guess my impression was wrong.