Question

What is going on with OpenStudy??? D:

Answer 1

Sometimes, special characters don't work.. they just show up as a diamond with a question mark inside..
Also, I swear, like every 15 minutes I get the message saying "Uh-oh, lost the connection"... Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy? D:

Answer 2

Oh, and randomly, some sections won't load, they'll just keep loading forever unless I refresh, then sometimes I get that "lost the connection" message again. .-.
Is OS having server issues, or what is causing this?

Answer 3

Or am I the only one who has these issues?
I know that several other users are having issues with the special characters, but I don't know if others are having the other issues that I am having.

Answer 4

Hmmm. I am not seeing anything. Anyone else?

Answer 5

Hi, @Preetha ,

I am being disconnected here and there, but nothing major.

@Whitemonsterbunny17 , the reason Special Characters won't load is a problem based on your script. It happens to everyone and isn't an issue with OpenStudy.

Answer 6

@Compassionate, how do I fix the problem with the script? Do you know why it started happening to everyone all of the sudden?

Answer 7

It's not happening to me. It depends on the browser you're using and your connection. Some characters don't display on certain browsers. I'm using Opera, so I don't see the same errors you do. Try clearing your cache and restarting your computer.

This issue is only likely in Google Chrome.

Answer 8

Ah, I see. Yeah, I'm using Google Chrome.
I'll try clearing the cache and hope it works. I was just curious because I've seen other users asking about why they were having the same issue.

Answer 9

But about the connection issues.. you said you were having them too? @Compassionate

Answer 10

@Preetha could probably do a quick check on that, actually. The connection issue may just be a high volume of traffic. School started back this week for millions of students, so the sudden influx may be causing this. Again, I'm not sure, Ms. Preetha can check the vital statistics.

I mean, it may just be server lag, but there has to be a reason e.g., influx of students or an error somewhere in the program.

Answer 11

I am experiencing the same problems as @Whitemonsterbunny17.

Answer 12

using Firefox.

Answer 13

Can you view these special characters on other sites? Are the special characters in someone's name, or in general posts? Because I know @ObeySoph▲ 's name showed up as "ObeySoph???" for awhile. This is because you're not supposed to use symbols from Character Map in your name because the way these characters are written messes up the identifier in your name and causes glitches.

For example, the all-time famous: ***ISURU*** Glitch.

Answer 14

I'm talking to ObeySoph right now, and she says, "It's still a triangle," however, we see it has three diamonds with a question mark. This proves that the issue is based on the user-side.

However, people with these special characters often get, "Uh-Oh, Lost Connection, Trying to Reconnect Now."

This happened awhile ago with ISURU. It's almost an identical case.

Again, never use special characters in your name. It really hurts the ID Tags.

Answer 15

I can view them on other sites perfectly fine, yes, but on OpenStudy they show up like this:

Answer 16

Yes, I'm almost certain this is the same situation we had with ISURU.

I'm a computer science student and took various courses in programming. When you create an account, you're assigned an ID. This ID acts as an identifier and log for all your information. When someone uses symbols from Character Map, it can mess up these identifiers.

<span id="me">This is me</span> vs <span id="me">**This is me**</span> It's drastically different because your engine may eventually process the code and break it down into other symbols, which ultimately flows over.

This "breakdown" is known as unicode. For example, the Unicode code point for "€" is U+20AC. So if someone's name is "€ Compassionate €" and that's used as an identifier, then suddenly the engine changes it to "U+20AC Compassionate U+20AC" this can cause problems.

A few things that should be looked into to fix this problem are: ( @Preetha )
What version is OpenStudy's mysql database?
What version OpenStudy's PHP?
Does OpenStudy have access to the mysql.ini file?
Does OpenStudy support UTF-8?

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8 ]

Answer 17

Your DataBase and all your tables should be utf8_general_ci and this is crucial for all of us using other than latin characters

Answer 18

So this is happening because of the people who used special characters in their usernames?

Answer 19

It's happening with me too, also earlier when i bumped my questions, i was able to see them at the top in real time but now i have to refresh the page.

Answer 20

@Whitemonsterbunny17 the problem with the special character gets solved when you refresh the page.

Answer 21

True, @Abhisar, but it is still a weird issue.

Answer 22

\(\Huge\frak\rlap{\color{black}{\heartsuit~Welcome~to~OpenStudy!~\heartsuit}}{\color{red}{\; \heartsuit~W}\color{gold}{e}\color{lime}{l}\color{cyan}{c}\color{blue}{o}\color{purple}{m}\color{blueviolet}{e~}\color{magenta}{t}\color{orchid}{o~}\color{red}{O}\color{gold}{p}\color{lime}{e}\color{cyan}{n}\color{blue}{S}\color{purple}{t}\color{purple}{u}\color{purple}{d}\color{purple}{y}\color{purple}{!}\color{blueviolet}{\heartsuit}}\)\(\hspace{-270 pt}\Huge\color{red}{^*:}\color{gold}{_･ﾟ}\color{lime}{^✧}\color{cyan}{_*}\color{blue}{:}\color{purple}{^･ﾟ}\color{blueviolet}{_✧}\color{magenta}{^*}\color{orchid}{:}\color{red}{_･ﾟ}\color{gold}{^✧}\color{lime}{_*}\color{cyan}{:}\color{blue}{^･ﾟ}\color{purple}{✧}\)

Answer 23

See what i got
http://prntscr.com/4h7t7b

Answer 24

But when i refresh the page it gets normal. I think it will be fixed soon :)

Answer 25

I see the same thing :p
Yeah, hopefully it will be fixed soon. I've noticed it's not just special characters like "❤", it is also characters such as divison and multiplication signs, which makes it harder to help with mathematics.

Answer 26

@Abhisar Latex worked for me, but the black rhombus with the white question mark appeared in @Whitemonsterbunny17 statement

Answer 27

Again, this is an UT issue.

Answer 28

Latex is working, the rhombus is due to the special characters only.

Answer 29

So @Compassionate, what do we do to fix the issue?

Answer 30

@Preetha or an Admin needs to check the aforementioned things. You can do this through phpMyAdmin. It would be helpful if OS could also access MyAdmin through Mysql

"What version is OpenStudy's mysql database?
What version OpenStudy's PHP?
Does OpenStudy have access to the mysql.ini file?
Does OpenStudy support UTF-8?"

Answer 31

@abhisar please tell me how i get these symbols ..these symbols from where i get

http://assets.openstudy.com/updates/attachments/53fe9ee2e4b0de29bf9d1062-whitemonsterbunny17-1409198116681-specialcharacters.png

Answer 32

Constant disconnection!

Answer 33

Particularly when answering questions that require more lengthy responses.

Answer 34

@ziqbal103 you can get those symbols from this website
[ http://copypastecharacter.com/ ]

Answer 35

@ziqbal103, the page of those characters is here: http://jafowletazanian.tumblr.com/post/5528389956/cool-characters-symbols

Answer 36

I've been having the same problem! But now it's working fine 4 me:)!!!

Answer 37

I'm still having connectivity issues. .-.
Anyone else?

Answer 38

♥
yeah This site is horribly programmed

Answer 39

@jiojioaaaa It was made by a diverse team that included many students. A group of professionals are now working on it and having all sorts of fun cleaning things up.

@preetha Actually, I emailed Alex about the character issue with some examples just the other night. Can't remember if I mentioned the disconnect, but I see that too.

Answer 40

@Compassionate You know that all your sql based solutuons are pointless on OpenStudy. I am not sure why you are even bringing them up.

Answer 41

Ooooh! Buuuuuurn!!! @Compassionate

Answer 42

@abb0t Yah, well, he knows it is a nosql database, so...

Answer 43

@e.mccormick , I'm going to have to refer you to rule six.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

Answer 44

I was probably told somewhere along the lines that we didn't use MySQL, but Compassionate doesn't remember stuff he should.

Answer 45

Remember when I was talking about MongoDB?

Answer 46

Yes, but I'm not familiar with MongoDB. Not sure if you could utilize both Mongo and SQL.

Answer 47

DA LAG ~

Answer 48

Okay, so OpenStudy wasn't working for almost the whole day yesterday..
It just kept loading forever no matter how many times I refreshed.
I talked to some other people and they said they couldn't even log in..
What happened???
Why didn't the "Owl be back" page come up?
Was anyone able to access OpenStudy for all periods of the whole day yesterday?

Also, some suggestions for when the site goes down..
Is it possible to implement a notification to all users BEFORE the site goes down to let everyone know that the site will be down for a while? Or is it too hard to distinguish when the site will crash?
I am curious because it would be a nice thing to add.. to give users at least a little bit of a warning before the site goes down.

\(\Large\bf\rlap{\color{red}{\bigstar~T}\color{gold}{H}\color{greenyellow}{A}\color{lime}{N}\color{cyan}{K}\color{blue}{S~}\hspace{0 pt}\color{purple}{F}\color{magenta}{O}\color{orchid}{R~}\color{red}{A}\color{gold}{N}\color{lime}{Y~}\color{cyan}{R}\color{blue}{E}\color{blueviolet}{P}\color{purple}{L}\color{magenta}{I}\color{orchid}{E}\color{pink}{S}\color{red}{!~\bigstar}}{\color{black}{\; \bigstar~THANKS~FOR~ANY~REPLIES!~\bigstar}}\)

Answer 49

If things are planned, they generally do a notice. If they are emergent, they just reboot without warning.

Answer 50

Ah, okay. I've never seen a notice, but that makes sense.
So what happened yesterday? Does anyone know?

Answer 51

Im having connections probs in chrome but when i transfer to firefox it works just fine...

Answer 52

Hmm.. so is it just Chrome users who are getting disconnected?

Answer 53

Nope, it can't just be Chrome users. It wasn't working on Explorer for me either. .-.

Answer 54

Yes that's true @camerondoherty !
Even i found the same thing

Answer 55

Welcome to OS xD

Answer 56

its the problem with me too..!! neither the hyperlinks r working nor the "BUMP" is working (gotto to reload) ! fix it please!

Answer 57

m a chrome user!

Answer 58

Everything is looking displaced !
See the Title, how it overlaps
http://prntscr.com/4hydk3

See the report abuse button, how it is displaced down
http://prntscr.com/4hye23

Answer 59

its fixed now but i would log in and i would see that page to select to view more subjects and i would click and it would never finish loading

Answer 60

I really can't tell you how it worked yesterday cuz I was outa town:D!! But earlier I've had really bad problems! It was just chaos.

Answer 61

im gettin the connecting message to

Answer 62

It does that to me too I don't get it I just don't.