FanFiction.NET issues

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Is anyone else getting their notifications with links like the following:


It's fucking horrible. Is it just me? I'm using Firefox, with uBlock Origin.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
I deliberately do not get email notifications from FF.NET, and I stopped using Office and Outlook in July (my workplace could no longer get Microsoft Office 2019 or later deals from Microsoft, and I refuse to get the cloud based Office 365 for my personal systems). So cannot say if it is just you... I do know they have been doing sever upgrades and migrations recently.

But in any case, what you describe would not be browser. That would be either their sending of emails, or your email client in conjunction with your antivirus.... I'm betting the latter based on the link itself.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
@PCHeintz72,

Are you talking about only the office suite of tools (Word/Excel/Powerpoint) or are also including an email server in your list? Reason I'm asking is that I do not trust google for important email (like banking/shopping/bills .. etc) and pay for a office 365 subscription for it instead. Am always on the lookout to know/hear what other folks do instead.

-chronodekar
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
I was, and to some degree still am, a long time fan of Microsoft Products.
- I used Microsoft Office Professional for literally over 2 decades 2001-2021
- I used Microsoft Visual Foxpro from between 1999 and 2010.
- I used Microsoft Visual Studio from 2003 to 2012
- Email I used Microsoft Outlook Free and Microsoft Mail from 2001-2009, and Microsoft Outlook from 2010 to 2021.

From 2011 to 2021, I even received business discounts on their software through my workplace, due to them being a Microsoft Certified Company.

The problem... Microsoft has been pushing hard to get everyone cloud enabled and using cloud based tools like Microsoft Office 365. And they've dropped any rebates or incentives on their non-cloud software. I am *NOT* a fan of cloud based tools, *AT ALL*.

So, since I upgraded all my systems earlier this year I changed around all the installed software as well. So... for all the main programs I now use:

- Internet - Browser - Mozilla FireFox (one of only a couple browsers left that still give a real menu bar)
- Internet - Downloading - DVDVideoSoft FreeStudio (plus addons)
- Internet - Email - Mozilla Thunderbird
- Internet - Feed Reader - QuiteRSS Team QuiteRSS (can be configured to look a bit like Mozilla products)

- Media - Burning - Canneverbe Limited CDBurnerXP
- Media - Codec - CodecGuide K-Lite Codec Pack
- Media - Metadata - MediaArea MediaInfo

- Software - Application - Jan Fiala PSPad (plus addons)
- Software - Application - The Document Foundation LibreOffice (I consider this slightly behind Office, but still quite good)
- Software - Image - dotPDN Paint.NET

- Utility - Anti-virus - AVAST Software Avast Free Antivirus
- Utility - File - Mareck Jasinski FreeCommander XE
- Utility - General - Glarysoft Glary Utilities
- Utility - Synchronization - Scooter Software Beyond Compare

- Portable Software - Drive - Bart Hakvoort G-Parted 32bit and 64bit ISOs
- Portable Software - Hardware - Malik Software HWiNFO Portable
- Portable Software - Software - Belarc Belarc Advisor Portable

I use other programs as well, but they are more specific utilities than full blown apps or suites. Like Raimond Eisele FanFictionDownloader.NET.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
That *is* helpful to know. Thank you!

Some years ago, I tried to move away from google-office to something either self hosted OR runs locally. The self hosting thing was troublesome to upkeep. Am still interested, but just do not have the time to maintain it. For running locally, I used libreoffice on Ubuntu for awhile, but that did not last long. Biggest reason was sharing stuff with family. i.e. at times we would be discussing something, I needed access to a file but it was not present on the nearest laptop we had lying around.

In the end, a compromise I did was to use the office 365 subscription we have for email. This is the business version of 365. There *is* a family edition available, but at the time I looked, it came with a lot of limitations that did not work for me - notably the lack of support for custom domains. A custom domain is probably not of interest to most people, but I wanted to own my own email. At the time, I was using Google for their free email, but their TOS always made me uncomfortable.

I won't say that o365 is a better email system. All I can say is that they aren't google. And if nothing else, Microsoft does not have a reputation for randomly (or at least without warning) blocking/banning their paying customers.

-chronodekar
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Biggest reason was sharing stuff with family. i.e. at times we would be discussing something, I needed access to a file but it was not present on the nearest laptop we had lying around.
In regards to that type of issue, that is a non-issue for me. For over a decade I have used 2 Synology storage units connected to my house network as local NAS storage. Each is RAID 5 and with 4 1.5TB drives in it running embedded Diskstation software, which is a customized Linux core. I use them for purposes of backup, for storage and archiving, and sharing and quick sync ups. They use a lot less power than a dedicated server and can hold them in one hand each.

Which is also the main reason I use Beyond Compare, you can store comparison profiles and reuses them. I merely compare local directories to the NAS devices.If I download a new version of software for example, I can upload it to those units, then just walk over to the systems and install it from the copy uploaded. If I want to open a file not local on the other systems, I merely need to make sure it is current on the NAS, then open it from any system in house.

I could have done the same with cheaper units, but they are small, comparatively cheap, and power efficient and allow for individual passwords and profiles much like a server would for some security, though admittedly no where near the user security or flexibility of a full corporate server, which is not really needed for home situations..
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Anyone else notice some weird display issues and inconsistencies this weekend and even earlier in week with FF.NET? Mostly display related on the series story summary pages.

Currently for example, I'm seeing some old stories from 2 months ago in the recent lists mixed with current... I've seen two examples so far of a entry having no author listed, just a story name then the reviews.

Yesterday I was seeing stories that updated last week suddenly not showing the latest chapter in the description, but being ok when actually going into the story to check it.

A couple days back I was seeing in the descriptions some entires with the series name lighlighted with a wierd folder icen next to them, but entries above and below did not have that.
 
Been seeing the same for more than a week.

Can't remeber the exact reason given for it when it happened last time beyond something with one of the servers.
 

mgsaintz

Well-Known Member
There's also the one that for some reason a story would be on listed in the categories but is missing when you click on it or in the author's page, something is up with ff.net and been steadily getting worse.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Has anyone started getting story/update notification emails again? I didn't realize that I hadn't been receiving them for a while until the other day, when I suddenly got a bunch of them all at once.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Can't help with that... when the feeds stopped working I never bothered with story and author updates, I just went back to checking manually....
 
Has anyone started getting story/update notification emails again? I didn't realize that I hadn't been receiving them for a while until the other day, when I suddenly got a bunch of them all at once.
Are you using a hotmail account? Because I had to switch to my gmail account, since hotmail accounts stopped receiving alerts a few months ago.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
No, Outlook.
 
Same thing. For whatever reason Microsoft emails were all blocking ff.net's bots, without exception.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Explains a lot. Thanks, MoB.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Wish FFDownloader.NET would be fixed to work with FF.NET again... going crazy trying to keep track of all the updates... Have a master list to go through though when it does get fixed.
 

mgsaintz

Well-Known Member
For those who are wondering where all the email notifications for FFnet has gone, there is a new setting that asks if you want to receive email notifications. The default is no and it resets every 6 months. So if you want to receive email notifications go to account settings click on yes and save. Honestly I wish they would STOP trying to reinvent the wheel and just let it be.
 
That is such a genuinely stupid idea, I can not even begin to think of a reason why they would impliment it...
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Anyone having issues in just FireFox browser suddenly not being able to open stories. in just FireFox, I'm suddenly over last day or so having the browser window get stuck when going to stories, hanging on the check for authenticity. Works fine in Edge though.
 

AoMythology

Apparently a report-er
Anyone having issues in just FireFox browser suddenly not being able to open stories. in just FireFox, I'm suddenly over last day or so having the browser window get stuck when going to stories, hanging on the check for authenticity. Works fine in Edge though.
I've had trouble with loading times (on other sites, not necessarily ffnet) in Firefox mobile. As in, it takes over a minute for things that should have taken split seconds.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
It seems to be working just fine for me, on Firefox.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Hmmm... still crapping out on me for the authentication that occurs when clicking on or entering any story link, though browsing the site itself otherwise is fine. It is not a minute delay, but a full stopping, as a test I left one in a tab that way for over a half hour.

It could be something screwy with my Firefox installation. it did update several days back. Maybe I just need to do a uninstall, clean up, reboot and then a reinstall. I did have to do that once before for FireFox. I've never been a huge fan of FireFox, and find it a bit annoying, but it is IMHO among the best of the remaining browsers to still give a full menu bar interface across the top on a desktop rather than the replication of a single pancake menu from a dreadful gadget level device.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
I have not had any issues, is it still occurring? And what exactly are the issues? Note I do not subscribe to any emaill updates, so if that is the issue I would not know it.
 

mgsaintz

Well-Known Member
If it's email subscribe issue, you have to remember that FF.net made it opt in for email notifications and it resets every 6 months; so you have to turn email notifications on every 6 months.
 
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