Post your tech glitches, errors, issues, etc. here.

Anonymous

exbrnxgrl - Not enough quality testing. You test what could be impacted by changes, but you also should have general tests.

The default avatar is new. I had wondered if this was adding to the page load time. It could if the default avatar is generated as the page loads. The faster way is to set the avatar used at the data source.

serendipity09

Thank you mods for getting my account back up.

AliceBastable

What on earth is going on now? I got on the site, hit the log in, and instead of the usual blank page, got a place to actually log in - but my auto fill name and password weren't there. So I submitted my email address to get a new password link to be sent to me. Nope, no incoming email, even checked spam and every other category. So I backed up to the sign-in page and thought that as long as I was here, I could at least read a few things. On the forums first page, it looked like it does when I'm not logged in, with no unread post count under the topics. So I clicked this page, and was surprised that it (eventually) sent me to the last page - and there's my icon, and this message box. So... the "fix" just made things screwier than they were?

DivineMrsM

I AM NOT ABLE TO GO TO A PREVIOUS PAGE ON A THREAD. WHEN I TRY, I ALWAYS GET THE CURRENTLY POPULAR APPLICATION ERROR PAGE. FOR EXAMPLE, RIGHT NOW I AM ON PAGE 95 OF THIS ALSO TRENDY GLITCHES THREAD. IF I TAP THE NUMBER 94 PAGE, NO GO. IT HAPPENS ON EVERY SINGLE THREAD. SO THERE IS NO WAY FOR ME TO GO BACK INTO A THREAD TO RETRIEVE OR RE-READ SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE MOST CURRENT PAGE.

I GUESS IT WOULD BE AKIN TO LOSING YOUR MEMORY. NO RETRIEVAL OF PREVIOUS INFORMATION PERMITTED. YOU ARE HERE —-> NOW.

DivineMrsM

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT WHEN GETTING THE APPLICATION ERROR PAGE, IT SAYS “OUR SITE IS CURRENTLY DOWN." THAT IS INCORRECT. THE FIRST X NUMBER OF TIMES THIS PAGE CAME UP FOR ME, I ACTUALLY BELIEVED I COULD NOT PROCEED FORWARD ON THE FORUM SO I MOVED ON TO OTHER INTERNET THINGS. EXCEPT THE ENTIRE SITE ISN'T DOWN WHEN YOU GET THAT MESSAGE. HOWEVER, I CAN IMAGINE A LOT OF USERS THINKING THEY CAN'T ACCESS ANYTHING FURTHER FROM BCO WHEN THEY READ THAT, SO THEY, TOO, MOVE ON.

WHAT'S IT BEEN NOW, ABOUT 10 DAYS SINCE THE ILLUSTRIOUS NEW FORMAT CAME OUT? NOT THAT I'M COUNTING OR ANYTHING.

RollWithIt

Missing URL links for Research Articles section

From the top menu select Learn -> Research News

Topics listed do have links to the articles. However, if you select an item from the list under the "More from this topic" heading there is not a link to the article, but only a link to the main page. So you are right back where you started.

This should be an easy fix.

p.s. Just noticed my details are missing..funny, there were there a few days ago (*sigh*).

SummerAngel

exbrnxgrl - testing was most likely done on a limited basis in an environment that didn't actually fully mimic the production environment. It looks like a lot of the errors happening on the site are CORS errors (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/...) or similar resource errors. This doesn't surprise me if they moved to AWS or a different AWS instance and didn't test correctly. My company recently had to move several applications to a different AWS instance and we saw quite a few of these types of errors in our testing. So, in order to go live we did 3 "trial run" deployments to production (after doing 2 trial run deployments in an integrated test environment). Each time we found and corrected errors until we had all of them fixed. We did these trial runs after working hours and did the switch for a couple of hours only, then switched back to the old site. Once we went live and did the switch for good everything worked as it should.

As for "reskinning", I agree that this can't be a reskin alone. Stylesheets are easily changed, which is actually a fun thing to do. It's easy to change font sizes and weights and colors, and this doesn't touch the actual functionality of the site or app. I'm wondering why the developers for this site haven't at least changed the font size and weight of posts, it's a simple thing to do and would help a bit.

Kikomoon

Mods, how are the fixes coming along? This is crazy all this barren white space and small black text. It's pretty unanimous that this new format is not friendly at all. My email was set to "public" so I had to change it to a junk email address, not sure what is going on there.

kathindc

I'm so frustrated with this site. Get the message the site is down. Play around going back and forward and lo and behold the next thing I know I've hit upon a live page. Poof like that, I'm in. This feels like something a grade schooler did begging to do web design. Don't even try on the iPad anymore. Sorry, not sorry! 🤷

Edited to take out an emoji the site put in for me.

cyathea

exbrnxgrl, I don’t think they tested the new site with a replica of the database. Instead, to save money, they probably tested the system with a limited database, which wouldn’t have had the glacial load times that we are all experiencing now. It’s baffling to me because it actually isn’t that hard or costly to spin up a database replica on AWS. The cost would have been well worth it.

As important as testing is for developers, it is even more important that testing is done by REAL users. I don’t recall ever hearing an announcement that contained a link so that we could test the new site and provide feedback before “Go Live”.

When tech disasters like this happen, it is expected that users hear from “those at the top”. If I were running this project, we would have had a pop-up banner with communication from the project manager, the director of software development and perhaps even the CEO. No one expects perfection, but when there is a failure, the best thing to do is to be transparent about the causes, open about the solutions being tried, and truly sorry for the negative consequences that resulted from the failure. It is painful and hard to do, but that’s how we learn and grow.

The 2021 financial report has not been released on the website yet, but some numbers in the 2020 report are interesting:

IT Support/Internet Connection: $26,218 in 2019, $35,139 in 2020

Website Maintenance and Development: $48,845 in 2019, $34,403 in 2020

Software Licenses: $74,483 in 2019, $71,544 in 2020

Program Consultants: $1,364,788 in 2019, $819,601 in 2020

I don’t know whether the consultants were IT people or not, but if they were not, then perhaps some of that budget could be used to make the site functional again

exbrnxgrl

serenitystat, summerangel, and cyathea,

Thank you for the explanations. I find it mind blowing that this may not have been tested on real users. I am not going to get myself upset or stressed over this. For as much as bco has been important to me this unfortunate mess is not worth stressing me out in any way

wrenn

I didn't bother trying to visit the site for a couple of days to give BP a rest. It is stunning to me to see added glitches on day 10. What a waste

exbrnxgrl

Because my brain is always seeking to find humor, even in less than humorous circumstances, I have been endlessly amused by my funny log in attempts. I think I have it worked out. Hit “log in” see the log in page flash for a second then go blank. Go back to drop down menu hit “Join our community “ and voilà! I am somehow logged in with doing anything else. No password, no touchID! Quite amusing 😂. BTW, if I go straight to “Join our community “ it doesn’t work. I must get the blank log in page first and then join our community. It is so strange that I just have to laugh 😂.

Sadiesservant

Forever the optimist, I thought I would have a peak yesterday on my iPad but navigated away immediately when I saw exactly the same thing I have been seeing for over a week. Today I thought "surely there have been some fixes!". Nope. sigh.....

emac877

I'm quite sure whatever I say here has been mentioned but I have found that by far the most frustrating aspects of the site are the slow loading times and the glaring white background with small black lettering. I'm also not sure why the first 1/4 of the page is just empty shoving everything to the right hand 2/3 of the page. It is very hard on the eyes to read through. I second that there seems to be a lot of old data and posts from years ago that might be best served archived in some way. Perhaps that would help with some of the loading slowness?

I am using Chrome with Windows 10. I have not tried opening with IE. I will say that like others have expressed I'm sad that the site is having an ongoing failed launch. The connections I feel with other members have been a lifeline on really hard days and I hate to lose that but we already had discussions of people leaving for other social media sites because this launch is so frustrating. The biggest thing is the color scheme. I haven't bothered to explore the rest of the site because I find it so hard to read.

DivineMrsM

YES, I FIND THE SMALL PRINT ON A COLORLESS PAGE HARD TO READ, SO I’VE RESORTED TO TYPING IN ALL CAPS SO I CAN TELL IF I HAVE A TYPO BEFORE I POST. IT USED TO BE SO EASY TO NAVIGATE AROUND THE FORUM BUT NOW IT FEELS LIKE EVERYTHING HERE HAS BEEN COVERED IN MOLASSES MAKING ANY AND ALL MOVEMENT SSSSSSSSLOW. IT REMAINS EXCEEDINGLY FRUSTRATING TO THE POINT THAT I FEEL VERY UNCONNECTED TO AN INTERNET SITE WHERE I ONCE FELT I BELONGED.

wrenn

I kept coming back to check because I deluded myself into thinking that things would get back to "normal" but I guess this is the new BCO and we have to accept it or move on.

It is sad because I have got so much over the years both personally and watching how it helped others. I delude myself when there is a loss I don't want to accept.

zogo

Wish there was a Like, or Love, or Care button.

(I agree with all the recent posts on this thread lately and would gladly hit a button on each one)

LW422

What a disaster. I have never seen such a poorly-executed rollout of a new platform, and in my IT career I've seen plenty. This is far beyond unacceptable.

Earlier I attempted to correct my signature stuff (diagnoses and treatments) and found that area totally messed up, too. Somehow my entries got messed up, parts are missing, etc. I'd like to just delete all of it but there doesn't appear to be a way for me to make changes.

wrenn

I'm tempted to remove my history from here but over the years I tended to use it as a diary where I could see how things went at each stage and how people helped me cope. I wish we had had a warning that it was ending.

AliceBastable

In the "New and Frustrating Ways to Aggravate Users" ongoing story, today I opened the site (on my phone, which is what I always use), hit the log-on, waited waited waited, backed out of the blank page I finally got, assumed I was logged in because that usually doesn't show right away, accidentally hit "all topics" instead of "active topics" and fell into a white hole that there was no way out of. I hit BACK multiple times and got nothing, until I finally found myself on the Google home page and completely off this site. Ugh, so I spent several minutes getting back on and to this page. Now I want to know if I've always had latent masochistic tendencies, because that's the only explanation I can find for enduring this every day. I've been panicking thinking, "What if something gets found on an exam or test? Who would I have to discuss it with?" Mods and whoever is above them, you seem to not realize just what a lifeline this site is to many of the members. I don't have anyone in my family I can share any darker thoughts with. I lost my cancer mentor and dear friend just over a year ago. This site is IT for me, with several members I've come to consider friends, and even more as mentors and counselors. And I'm not even in active treatment! I cannot begin to imagine the feelings of newer people who are desperate to reach out to people in the same situation, or who need someone who has gotten through it and can offer encouragement. I know I'm usually seen as someone who tries to be chipper about the whole cancer thing, but I have my moments of despair and that's when I read instead of post. And read. And read.

It's not nice to take that away from us.

Cowgirl13

I'll say it again as I did a week ago. I don't think it is going to get better and BCO is going to pay a very high price for this. My own opinion but I think this is going to sink the ship. It's just not worth it with the slow speed and I notice some people are not posting as much as they have done so in the past. Waiting all this time for every single thing to load just kills the spirit which has always been here. til now

Anonymous

wrenn - I've been using this site as somewhat of a diary too.

LW - I asked the webmaster to clear my signature and treatment details because removing them from my account details didn't work. Eventually they were able to remove them, but now trying to add a signature is failing.

Alice - Your support is appreciated by many old and new members. After logging in and always getting directed to the Announcement page, I've started to click on the bookmark again instead of navigating within the site.

Mods - It really is too long to still have these issues. I see the signature text is smaller than the post text, but we really want the post text enlarged. Also is the site running in debug mode? All these errors must be getting logged somewhere. The site down error message isn't really accurate. I reserve those when the site really is down (meaning the service is not running).

AliceBastable

One concrete suggestion I do have for the Mods: When/if everything gets up and running in a truly usable way, can you PLEASE send out a blast email announcement to let all the members know? I'm afraid there have been many who have already given up on the site, and I'd hate for that to be permanent.

7of9

new design is pretty bad. Can't find anything. Hard to navigate, type is too small. A tweak would have been good but I don't have time to relearn something else...busy working mom. Will come back later on an insomnia night but I know I'm missing a lot of good convo and if I am so are many others. Sorry but bad review!

Beesie

"BCO is going to pay a very high price for this" That's true. But frankly, at this point, I don't care.

In how poorly they have handled this, BCO have pulled the rug out from under the very people they claim to be here to support, breast cancer patients. First they decided on a redesign that is not considerate of their users, with small type, complicated navigation, and a focus on what interests BCO (donations and dragging people over to their info pages) rather than the needs of their user base. Second, they did not adequately test the IT changes, to the point of seemingly being unaware of what changes they were actually making, calling this a "soft launch" and a "reskinning". Third, upon discovery of the magnitude of the problems with the site, rather than address it head on with honesty and full disclosure, explaining to users what's really going on, all we've received are occasional canned platitudes, although mostly what we've received is silence. Problems happen (although admittedly after this number of days this goes well beyond a standard IT failure) and companies recover from those problems, or they go down, based on how they respond. In this case, the response seems to be almost as bad as the IT/design failure.

What I care about are the breast cancer patients who depend on this site as a lifeline. They are paying a very high price.

wrenn

Since the loud "DONATE" button and articles pages of the site have been working great since day one and the forums are still not I wonder whether it was intentional or at least less of a concern?

Even though I still see the loss of the forums with sadness it gets easier to accept that all things must end. I have had worse losses and will get over it.

I am sad for potential future users and those in active treatment who depended on the site for regular daily use but I am sure they will find other resources as well.

I can't see coming back if the forum was a main focus. The articles and medical information can be found anywhere. If anyone is donating to this site they must have a ton of throw away money. :-) So many good worthy causes out there.

Wonderland

What a HOT MESS! Ditto Ditto Ditto on all that has said about the site now. I've been on trips with women who I met here. Never would have met them if it hadn't been for the support and camaraderie shared here. Now the discussion board is difficult to understand, much less navigate. I don't want to lose these cherished relationships with women I have met and women I haven't met. They are my Sisters. Please hear the frustration and concerns in our voices. Please make this site open, warm, and inviting again. Now it's cold, sterile, and very uninviting.

Celand

Good Morning,

I find the new website design to be confusing, not as easy to navigate and very slow processing. I liked the older site much better, can we return to it?

Celand

magiclight

AGAIN:

Our site is currently down.

The Breastcancer.org community site is currently down. Please be patient as we work on the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you need immediate support, please be in touch with our community moderators at community@breastcancer.org or our community director at mjenkins@breastcancer.org.

Please check back soon.

Warmly,
The Breastcancer.org Team