Unidentified Forum Error

[peter]

I had thought that he might be able to pass the information back to the development team that created that software in the first place. Surely they must take pride in what they have produced and would appreciate being informed of the failings of the message produced. I am unable to contact them myself as I do not know anything about them whereas Peter has had dealings with them in the past.

We're running a very old (but stable) version of the forum software - there would be no point reporting issues to the developers unless they involved security or data loss. I decided not to upgrade because what we would gain would be counter-balanced by what we would lose.

 

[Bob Spiers]

what is the point of displaying an error message that is meaningless to the user who sees it? It might as well not be part of the product.

Me thinks you doth protest too much. What part of "wait 59 seconds" needs explaining? It is what it is, caused by whatever action that triggered it. If I had a pound for every error message of its type encountered -or the computer going into 'hang' mode with no error message - I would be a rich man. They are all par for the course in computing caused by a myriad of gremlins, some external, some internal as you will know. Only if they repeat and become a nuisance is it worth seeking a reason and are able to provide a screen shot to assist.

 

[Bryman]

I am sorry Bob, it is just my professionalism showing through. The error message was incomplete and did not give any information as a result of poor coding. What is normally called a bug. When I find such an error, I normally try to report it in case there are further implications that the developer may wish to correct. I have no knowledge of who that might be nor any other circumstances that Peter has referred to. That is why I asked if he would pass the information on in my place, if he deemed it appropriate. It is always worth asking for an explanation if a message does not give the required information and it would be foolish to wait until multiple instances have occurred in case each causes untold damage. I did attempt to obtain a screen shot but for some unknown reason it was not forthcoming so I did my best to describe what was displayed instead.

The above description is my explanation of what I did and why. I have no wish to get into a more detailed argument about any aspect but will try to answer any questions that I think might help anyone trying to correct the error. However, memory of the circumstances is fading fast.

The "wait 59 seconds" was in addition to the error message (outside of the red box) and did not need any further explanation, although strange to be so precise.