I often read the dope on the computer in my kitchen, which means I am almost always multi-tasking and frequently get up and leave the computer for short or long spells. But recently (and with no obvious pattern) I will try to respond to a post and I get the “you are not logged in” message. The weird thing is, it says that I am logged in at the top of the page (even when I hit ‘refresh’) and the green light next to my name is illuminated.
Why is it making me log in again? And why does it think I am logged out when I never logged out and the green light indicates I’m logged in?
This never happened until about 2 weeks ago, and now it’s happening all the time.
Do you check the “remember me” box when you log in? Otherwise you’ll get logged out after some period of inactivity (15 mins? I don’t know), and you’ll have to log in again.
The green light doesn’t update on the page you are viewing. When you load a page, it will show up as green, but if you’re past the time limit, it will continue to show green until you refresh or try and load a new page. If it still says you’re logged in when you refresh a thread page, then the page might be loading from your browser cache (a copy of the page on your computer), and not actually going back to the server to get the “latest” copy. I think this is a setting you can have on your own computer, in your browser’s “Options” menu.
Well, that explains that. I bought a new computer a few weeks ago and never thought to check the ‘remember me’ box when this started happening because the same thing was going on in the aftermath of the board’s server/software changeover, though not with the already logged in dialog. I thought we were just going through another period where Jerry was tinkering with the software.
Do you have your browser set to reject cookies? In order to remember you, the SDMB places a cookie on your computer, so that it can automatically log you in every time. If you reject cookies, this won’t work.
Are you all still having this problem? I suddenly have had the same thing happen over the last 2-3 days. I accept cookies, I click “Remember Me,” and I’m logged out anytime the SDMB window is idle for a few minutes, even if I’m browsing in another tab.
Is it a Firefox thing? Another website I visit infrequently can’t seem to recognize me in Firefox no matter how many times I log in, but in IE it functions normally. These are both quite recent problems.
I use Firefox with all of the correct privacy and cookie settings as far as I can tell. Up until a month or two ago I would be automatically logged in whenever I pulled up the straight dope message board. But now I always have to enter my user name and password when I first pull up the message board.
And, like others have said, if I pull up another tab and spend more than a few minutes away from the straight dope I am logged out and I have to enter my user name and password again.
I do not have this problem with IE, Safari, or Chrome…
Thanks but I already had that checked. And am accepting cookies. The problem does seem somehow related to this browser setting, though, because it isn’t filling in forms and the search bar like it used to do.
Often just clearing your internet cache, cookies, history, etc will solve problems like this. If you haven’t done it already, it’s certainly worth a try.
Yeah, it’s still happening intermittently, and I gave up trying to figure it out. I’ve grown accustomed to it now and when I’m trying to reply to someone and I get the ‘You are not logged in’ thing I just log in again…or blow off the post.
These are both quite recent problems.
but I already had that checked. And am accepting cookies. The problem does seem somehow related to this browser setting, though, because it isn’t filling in forms and the search bar like it used to do.