# (Fixed 1/2/2018!) - Not Logged In, Can't Post? - Try This



## tallbm (Dec 28, 2017)

Hi everyone.  If you came to this thread then you are having problems and I believe I have a "work-around" for you that will allow you to navigate and post replies as well as new posts/threads while remaining logged in.

*Issue #1: *I try to reply to "Recent" threads/posts but I cannot because I am not logged in.

*Steps:*
1. Simply go to Forums->"Your Activity" and click it.  Notice you are logged in because your username is in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

2. Click the other "Recent Posts" link and you get some recent post to pop up.  Notice you are still logged in.  Now if you click a post to read and reply to you will remain logged in and able to reply TO THAT POST :)

Again it's not perfect and not 100% the same as the "Recent" link to at the top of the screen (to avoid for now) but it should keep you in the ballgame seeing new posts and being able to reply to them :)










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*Issue #2: *I cannot create or "Post New Thread" because I am not logged in.

*Steps:*
1. Simply go to Forums->"Your Activity" and click it.  Notice you are logged in because your username is in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  THIS STEP KEEPS YOUR LOGGED IN as long as you navigate from here.

2. Click the "Open Quick Navigation" icon and the "Quick Navigation Menu" window will pop up.

3. You can now navigate/choose a forum category "General Discussion", "Blowing Smoke", "Poultry", etc. that you would like to Post New Thread in.  Notice you are still logged in

At this point you can post a new thread and notice that you remain logged in.  See the image below where I Post New Thread, and fill out the Create Thread screens.







In short as long as you start from the Forums menu at the top of the screen and you click from within it you can remain logged in.  If you click anywhere outside the Forums menu/section (like the Recent section) chances are you will no longer be logged in and you will be unable to post.

I hope this helps some of you because I have seen a bit of decline in activity on the site over the past week or two with this issue.  Work is slow for me so all I have is time to scour every inch of the site to try and kill time... which gets tough when no one is participating hahaha.  Best of luck! :D


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## gmc2003 (Dec 28, 2017)

I've been using the new post link under forums. Not perfect, but it beats going thru every forum.

Chris


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## tallbm (Dec 28, 2017)

gmc2003 said:


> I've been using the new post link under forums. Not perfect, but it beats going thru every forum.
> 
> Chris



Yeah that one will help as well.

For an experiment do the Forum->New Posts (like you are doing) and then do the Forum->Your Activity->Recent Posts and tell me the differences you see.

You should noticed that the recent posts approach gets you fresher/newer and different results than the New Posts approach :)

I don't know why but it just does.


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## idahopz (Dec 28, 2017)

It looks to me that *New posts* only shows the list of topics in which you have not seen the new (latest) posts. *Recent* appears to show a list of all of the latest topics and their posts regardless of whether or not you have seen them.


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## tallbm (Dec 28, 2017)

idahopz said:


> It looks to me that *New posts* only shows the list of topics in which you have not seen the new (latest) posts. *Recent* appears to show a list of all of the latest topics and their posts regardless of whether or not you have seen them.



Thanks for the insight!!!  I didn't know what the exact difference was.
I hadn't spent any time figuring out the differences I just noticed that at a glance that "New Posts" didn't have my latest contributions or posts so I wrote it off as being broken or acting quite different.

I think you have solved the mystery for us! :)


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## TulsaJeff (Dec 28, 2017)

The "Recent" link in the top nav bar has now been fixed. It was still showing http at the beginning instead of https. Technically, this should be redirecting but for some reason, it wasn't. I have hard coded it in and it seems to be working as it should now.


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## tallbm (Dec 28, 2017)

tulsajeff said:


> The "Recent" link in the top nav bar has now been fixed. It was still showing http at the beginning instead of https. Technically, this should be redirecting but for some reason, it wasn't. I have hard coded it in and it seems to be working as it should now.



Thanks for the fix and the update Jeff! 
It is working like a charm for me.  Now I hope it results in a lot of activity because work is sloooooow and I have plenty of time to poke my nose into everyone's posting :D


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## tallbm (Jan 2, 2018)

Hi everyone.  Looks like some issues are back again.  Here is a simple work around for getting the "Recent" link to basically behave properly for you.


Click the "Recent" link
Delete the "*www.*" from the address in the address bar (yep that is what it is all called)
Hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard when the address looks like the following without the "www." *https://smokingmeatforums.com/find-new/281221/posts *
Observe that you are still logged in :)
See the image below for a visual.  I hope this helps some of you out there until things are squared away :)


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## TulsaJeff (Jan 2, 2018)

Thank you 

 tallbm
 for the help.. I have went into the system and removed the "www" from the link.

If this fixes the problem then that was way too easy;)


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## tallbm (Jan 2, 2018)

tulsajeff said:


> Thank you
> 
> tallbm
> for the help.. I have went into the system and removed the "www" from the link.
> ...



Hi Jeff.  That seems to be doing the job!

My guess is that there are some issues with some routing somewhere in the area of the DNS routing/mapping, load balancer, and/or the web servers.  It is easy to copy and paste an incorrect address or to accidently append a www. prefix in those areas.
It was cool to see that www.smokingmeatforums.com resolves in addition to the zone apex (naked domain name) of smokingmeatforums.com.

I'm not a networking or load balancing professional by any means but I run into a little of that stuff from time to time when working with physical system architecture.  I'll try and contribute work arounds and little fixes as best I can if I run across any issues that can be navigated.  I think it may also help to narrow down the areas that are acting up in the system so you can apply such a quick fix like this issue today :)


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## hellasteph (Jan 2, 2018)

I posted this in the other thread but I wanted to post it here in case anyone missed it. When you visit this site, please do the following: 

1. Make sure your browser goes to this URL:* https://www.smokingmeatforums.com *
2. then log in with the above URL only
3. Do not forget the www.

We have updated our security protocols so it's important that you have www. and the https: in all your bookmarks, saved image URLs, and any other links you have to the site. (If you don't, your images and embeds won't show up properly.)

Thank you all!


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## tallbm (Jan 3, 2018)

hellasteph said:


> I posted this in the other thread but I wanted to post it here in case anyone missed it. When you visit this site, please do the following:
> 
> 1. Make sure your browser goes to this URL:* https://www.smokingmeatforums.com *
> 2. then log in with the above URL only
> ...



Thanks for the update hellasteph.  Resolving all addresses to www.smokingmeatforums.com should help so there is no session confusion like I think was happening when some portions of the site were going to the zone apex domain of the site rather than www.


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## hellasteph (Jan 3, 2018)

tallbm said:


> Thanks for the update hellasteph.  Resolving all addresses to www.smokingmeatforums.com should help so there is no session confusion like I think was happening when some portions of the site were going to the zone apex domain of the site rather than www.



Yes, certainly. Thank you very much for being so helpful to our members! You certainly didn't need to be nice to us (it's our responsibility to fix the site) but appreciation is due. Happy surfing the not-broken site! :)


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## tallbm (Jan 4, 2018)

hellasteph said:


> Yes, certainly. Thank you very much for being so helpful to our members! You certainly didn't need to be nice to us (it's our responsibility to fix the site) but appreciation is due. Happy surfing the not-broken site! :)



It's no problem at all.  
Me complaining wouldn't help you solve the issues any faster.  I understand how tricky this stuff can be and offering up any meaningful information that helps only gets the issues resolved faster :)


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