Intermittent issues on Community platform- missing avatar, feedback score, listings

[sheila@ebay]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to let you know that Khoros is aware of the intermittent issues where avatars, feedback scores and listing have gone missing. I know that this is impacting some users or all users. It's not a fun experience!

There's an issue with one of Khoros' servers. I don't have an ETA on when this will be fixed but I'am pushing to get this fixed sooner than later.

[a_c_green]

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@dhbookds wrote:

@a_c_green   Thanks for the thoughtful answers!!! It really does help me understand the process or lack of it, as the case may  be.  I have a tendency to think programmers "get" notification of things that go wrong.......and naturally they will look into it and fix it.  Obviously, not necessarily true.....

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Well, there's a pecking order, or I guess multiple pecking orders, in terms of how existing (operating) software gets revised. You can't have multiple guys all working on the same modules without some kind of traffic management, because one programmer could introduce something that breaks code elsewhere. Similarly, you can't have two guys updating their own copies of a module simultaneously and then both trying to apply their changes at the same time.

Just referring to the procedure at our place, though it's similar elsewhere: one member or working group can "check out" a chunk of code for troubleshooting or updating, during which time no one else can get their own independent copy (except for Read Only browsing). Whoever has that portion of code checked out needs to eventually either release their hold or upload a revised copy for testing, once it's been built into a new release and then tested to ensure that (1) it's performing as intended, and (2) hasn't broken anything else.

That outcome (2) above is what can burn you, big-time. Insufficient peer review or QA testing can leave unexpected problems undiscovered until the new release goes into Production, at which point you might see phones ringing off the hook in Customer Support, high-level customers pressuring your management for a fast fix, and you need to get Engineering back to their keyboards to figure out what went wrong. Your options at that point are to either ram through an emergency patch, assuming you can solve it, or roll back the update that's not working out as intended. 

Most of the above is not shared with customers. The best you can do is maintain communication, because the only thing that can make your unhappy customers even more unhappy is to avoid talking to them or replying to them. The challenge, then, is to figure out what you can say, beyond the obvious such as, "We're working on it!"

Our strategy with our own (contracted) Support customers was a lot more transparent than how eBay or Khoros choose to do it (which is understandable to a point, since they have more customers out there to placate, especially eBay). We would send periodic updates to the affected customers (the ones who reported the problem originally) to let them know the progress on troubleshooting, or theories being explored, or even to request some specific samples or tests to be run on the customer's own installation. In other words, we didn't stonewall them until a fix was discovered; we shared the problem-solving process with them, at least as far as proprietary software would let us go.

I have to say (again) that a lot of what worked for our company (a subsidiary of a major corporation that you have heard of) would not necessarily scale to something the size of eBay, in terms of how much you can share with the outside world, but I wish they (and Khoros) would do more in terms of testing their updates before release, and communicating about those changes both before and after they are made.

Over the years I have had occasional back-channel communication with eBay programmers behind the wall, and I wish they could expand that practice to more of us (I know I'm not the only one who's had this type of contact), release the virtual chokehold on communicating with the outside world, and see if fires can be put out a bit more effectively as a result. (Pardon all the fire analogies here, but it's the 150th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire today. Now go out and set fire to something... 😁)

[dhbookds]

@a_c_green   Darn I missed the Anniversary of the fire........lol. 

Communication seems so important, logically, it's hard to understand why ebay doesn't use it more efficiently......both in quantity and quality.......  I've often said they need a PR expert that understand HOW to communicate with a large # of people as well as an intelligent proof reader (witness the media fiasco message).   People can still get mad at a change/enhancement........but if you can explain it well, most will accept it.   

I do hope we hear something from Shelia........even if it bad news, after her hopeful statement Fri.......

[klhmdg]

sheila@ebay 

Another day and no news is not good news.

Is there any updates on this issue?

[tev4all]

Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. 

[maxine*j]

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@dhbookds wrote:

... I never realized how much I used the information before..........

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Just today, someone on one of the boards asked people to take a look at his/her listings to see if there's a reason for lack of sales.   Sure, I could go to Advanced Search to find the listings.  (The direct link to which, by the way, was removed from the forums some time ago, in  an annoying and senseless move by Khoros/eBay, so I must leave the forums to do so.)   But why should I go to that much trouble when one click is all it needs to be and used to be.

=

[sheila@ebay]

@klhmdg no, no...good news will come. It's just going to take some time to resolve is all. I'll give an update by the end of the week.

[valueaddedresource]

sheila@ebay  it has now been a week since the issue was identified and we were assured a fix was imminent.

I understand that eBay has been a bit busy this week with all the category and item specifics issues, but that should in no way prevent Khoros from doing what they need to do.

So, here we are again early on Friday and "hoping" to hear something before the weekend....what is going on?

[sheila@ebay]

I was hoping to share some good news with the Community today before the weekend, but I don't have an update to share today other than Khoros needs more time to work on this issue.

I know that this isn't the answer you were looking for and I'm really hoping we can put this behind us soon. Khoros is well aware of how this is impacting Community and they know the urgency of fixing this issue.

We'll post an update next week.

[klhmdg]

sheila@ebay 

Feels like we are beating a dead horse BUT week 3 of this and no movement...

Maybe if eBay stopped paying Kronos until it is fixed they would "fix" this issue.

I know it is early Monday but most of us dont take weekends off that sell here. 

[wastingtime101]

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@klhmdg wrote:

Feels like we are beating a dead horse BUT week 3 of this and no movement...

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It's been over a month. There are posts reporting this problem dating back to September 15. Two more days and we'll be at five weeks. 

[evry1nositswindy]

I wouldn't exactly call it intermittent when these issues are ongoing and long term.  Our hands are tied with helping many posters, especially when using devices.  Many of us help while listing and just don't want to take the time needed to perform functions that were just a click or hover of the mouse away.

[sheila@ebay]

The latest update is that Khoros is going to test the solution this week on our eBay Australia and India Communities. Since they're smaller Communities, and the US is the biggest Community, Khoros is going to deploy the fix there first and then Khoros will run some tests. If all is successful, we'll deploy the US fix next week.

[dhbookds]

sheila@ebay   well, that's something.........hope it works

@downunder-61  could you keep a watch on the Aussie board and let us know what happens...........

[coffeebean832]

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@dhbookds wrote:

@downunder-61  could you keep a watch on the Aussie board and let us know what happens...........

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@downunder-61 

Fixing the tag for you.

[velvet@ebay]

Hi everyone - sheila@ebay is out of office for an event this week but asked me to post an update about this issue to let you know that this is still top of mind with Khoros. They have identified the root cause and are working on deploying a fix. We don’t have an update on when that will roll out, but we are confident that once it does it will resolve the issue. Thanks!