for some reason, the board's cookies thought I was someone else!

About This Message Board
#1

This morning, when I went to the board, I was very surprised to see that the board apparently thought I was Silver Fire, and the date was Mar. 22 at approx. 1:24 PM (-5 GMT). I didn’t understand this, and tried to reload the page… same thing. (only the time was -6 GMT) Needless to say, I did not post anything under the name of Silver Fire… I wouldn’t do so anyhow.

After some time, I decided to log out and log in again, thinking that this would maybe solve the problem. It did, but only temporarily. Then I decided to clear out all my cookies on my computer, thinking that i might have a lasting effect… nope! Finally, after a half hour or so, the board recognized that I was indeed Flamsterette_X, and not Silver Fire!

I haven’t had any more problems yet today, but I was wondering what happened there. This is the first time I’ve had this problem, so I want to know if there’s anything I can do should this happen again. (besides the stuff that I already did, which admittedly is trial-and-error)

P.S. I did read the FAQ, but it didn’t seem to cover my problem.

#2

What exactly did you see on the screen to indicate that the board software imagined your were Silver Fire? I don’t suppose you know poster Silver Fire, and s/he sometimes uses your computer.

#3

No, I don’t! In fact, I know nobody on this board, and much less do they use my computer! (unless they can use it remotely, which I don’t think will happen, but you can never be too careful)

Right below all the function buttons, I saw “Welcome back, Silver Fire”. The time was completely wrong, as well… I use GMT -8. That was enough indication for me.

#4

Now this is a spanner in the works and no mistake.

Suppose the “feature” becomes commonplace. Imagine the horror!

pan - at least as far as you know

#5

I seem to recall this happening in the past. I’m trying to search for the thread, but am not having a lot of luck with the search engine at the moment. I remember there was a poster in the past who had the same problem with seeing someone else’s screen name, but can’t remember if the cause was found.

#6

I’ve never had this problem.

Esprix

I have spoken directly with God, and He is concerned for my happiness.
Evidently, I rock.
Ask the Gay Guy! (Part I, II, III & IV)

#7

Don’t do that! :mad:

Esprix

#8

Yeah, it’s confusing as all get out! :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

#9

I found this thread, is that the one ?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=24677

#10

Seems to be the one, all right. I don’t think there was any cause found for the problem, at least not from what I read in that thread. Oh well. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

#11

Actually, the thread I was trying to find was a different one, and I finally found it by searching on my own posts --I was trying to do a keyword search and got an error message every time, very frustrating.

Thhis thread, which in turn referenced this thread

In that case, in between the tantrums, it appears that two posters were using the same proxy server, and that accounted for the confused identities. Any possibility that might be the case here?

#12

Well, I did read both threads, and I’m not sure that this is the same scenario. It could be, though… I don’t know Silver Fire, and I am the only one using my home computer; however, as far as I know, it could be that we are on the same proxy server. Then again, I don’t know much about that side of the whole computer thing.

However, I did check Silver Fire’s profile, and it said that s/he is in Pine City, Minnesota! Since I am in Vancouver, BC, Canada… I think that would rule out the “same proxy server” theory. I could be wrong, though.

#13

:eek: Ummm, hi Flamsterette_X. Thanks for not raising hell using my name.

I’m the real Silver Fire (cross my heart) and I have to say this makes me pretty nervous.

#14

Hi, Silver Fire… this made me really freaked out as well for some time because by then, I had been around the boards enough to know that there was indeed a poster by the name of Silver Fire. Even if I hadn’t known that there was a poster with that name, it still would have freaked me out, though perhaps to a lesser extent.

How did you know that your screen name was being discussed? Did you just stumble across the topic or (more likely) did someone on this board alert you to this topic? Just curious, that’s all.

#15

Well, so far there doesn’t seem to be any indication that it would be a bug in the software, so it must have been caused by an error when the server was overloaded. We will ask the IS department of the Chicago Reader if they can do anything about it, but I very much doubt it. Unfortunately, all we can do at this point is hope it doesn’t happen again, and ask posters, if it occurs to them, to please behave as decently and responsibly as Flamsterette_X did.

#16

“s/he?”

I assure you Sarah is most definitely a female.

[sub]Silver, didn’t I help you out of a pair or pants once…?[/sub]

#17

Well, it’s been happening again… a few days ago, the board thought I was ResIpsaLoquitor. As soon as I saw the different name and times, I hit “refresh”, which got rid of it. Now it’s happened at least three times in the past two days. :confused: Luckily, hitting “refresh” seems to take care of everything; afterwards, I am recognized as Flamsterette_X and not ResIpsaLoquitor. :slight_smile:

[sub]I’m sure both Silver Fire and ResIpsaLoquitor are perfectly nice people, byt all I want the board’s cookies to do is recognize that I am indeed myself, and not someone else![/sub]

#18

I just wanna say, if you ever open the board and it thinks you’re me, I give you full permission to go post some craziness under my name.

#19

Sorry, all I can do is repeat what I said before:

#20

When you’re “recognized” as Silver Fire or ResIpsaLoquitor, can you tell if you’re actually logged in as one of them, or is the board just reporting the wrong name? For example, if you look at the “edit profile” under “user cp”, whose profile do you see?