Add to the list of problems

[coffeebean832]

I was posting this on the 8/19 chat, but due to super-slow page loading the chat was locked before my post went through. sigh

Add to that list of board issues- it cannot handle real-time chat any longer.

There are 6 posts currently not appearing on the chat  yet because of the lag. How do I know it's 6 posts that aren't showing yet? Tyler was the last poster according to the main forum page, but I can't see past post 40 by use_bay.

And the post count shows me it's 6 posts off. 

This relates to the issue where read topics stay bold and unread topics are not bolded- yet you can see the last poster to a thread indicates there are new replies.

I also got notification tags of at mentions- but when clicked on it took me to the chat OP since the replies I was mentioned in were not yet visible- caught in the lag.

That was really frustrating in trying to read and participate in the chat.

[rebecca@ebay]

Thanks for reporting this - it looks like it's sorted itself out now and the servers have caught up. I'm sorry for the frustration!

[coffeebean832]

Rebecca, I don't think it's sorted out because we see this on a smaller scale on a daily basis. As I said above-

This relates to the issue where read topics stay bold and unread topics are not bolded- yet you can see the last poster to a thread indicates there are new replies.

It's a constant lag we're dealing with. The chat happens more rapid-pace than your average thread so the problem is expanded there- but the problem is visible daily on the Selling board. This lag started a few months ago.

[pburn]

rebecca@ebay 

Rebecca, it happens constantly and consistently on virtually every thread. It's even been reported before on this board. 

Frankly, IMO, "it looks like it's sorted itself out now" is not really the kind of answer community users are looking for from the Director of eBay Community. It's more the kind of answer I might have posted to @coffeebean832's comment, not someone with responsibility for the community platform.

The lack of responsiveness from the community team when tagged on this board, as well as other boards, is pushing the frustration level up there pretty high.

[coffeebean832]

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@pburn wrote:

Frankly, IMO, "it looks like it's sorted itself out now" is not really the kind of answer community users are looking for from

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Right because all that says is the server was caught up in that moment after the chat was locked and after the replies stopped coming in rapid-fire. If the chat was still going, guaranteed new posts would still be lagging.

It doesn't say that the underlying problem was actually addressed in any way or fixed. Until that happens we're going to keep seeing these lag issues- for lack of better reference terms.

I wish I could add a positive outlook here, but between the massive 1099k issue and dealing with board issues while trying to get help- issues that are getting halfway responsive / halfway dismissive replies- I'm not in a great mood today.

[coffeebean832]

Add to that this post nesting-

Posts 3 and 4 are both in response to post 2. So why is post 3 way down there instead of just up above 4?  It's nesting out of chronological order which is so confusing when reading a discussion.

[rebecca@ebay]

I hear you and I wish that the servers were eBay owned so I could tell you for sure it would be fixed and when.

Instead they are run and managed by our software platform team Khoros, and we are beholden to their capabilities and the speed of their servers. They have been told about this issue, repeatedly. This begs the question of "why Khoros when their performance is imperfect" and yes, I agree that is the key question on the table.

In the meantime the posts don't get lost which is reassuring, though I understand it's frustrating to have even a momentary lag.

Thanks!

[coffeebean832]

I understand and appreciate your acknowledgement of the larger issue at hand rebecca@ebay. Hopefully either Khoros will make some big changes for the better, or if it comes down to it then eBay will.

Either way- and if you're not sick of my feedback yet- I'd like to make a general suggestion.

I know you guys test before you roll things out live. Have you ever considered inviting a few regular posters into the testing environment as a "stage 2" of sorts? After your team tests and before you go live- let a group here do some active testing to see if we have any feedback. Get a group of users who use different browsers and devices. I'll volunteer if you go that route.