| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Complaint about bugs at ProZ (Staff: Update on the software upgrade process) Thread poster: Christel Zipfel
|
|---|
In my whole membership (about 20 years) I have never experienced such a mess! When someone complains about "the problem of the day" we are regularly told: thank you for your patience, we are checking/fixing it. And so on, day in, day out. We have gone on like this since months without really any melioration and have been very patient, I believe. And without knowing since the beginning what was going on! Actually, once a problem seems to be resolved (but then, it really is?), there's another one ... See more In my whole membership (about 20 years) I have never experienced such a mess! When someone complains about "the problem of the day" we are regularly told: thank you for your patience, we are checking/fixing it. And so on, day in, day out. We have gone on like this since months without really any melioration and have been very patient, I believe. And without knowing since the beginning what was going on! Actually, once a problem seems to be resolved (but then, it really is?), there's another one that suddenly arises or maybe old ones reappear, who knows.
I don't want to be used as a guinea pig for the everlasting "maintenance update", as I am paying for a service that continues to leave a lot to be desired.
I don't know whether all this could have been avoided, it's none of my business. But anyway the extent and the duration of this "maintenance update" must have been largely underestimated as the site and many features (see notifications) are still unreliable after so many months - this is a matter of fact!
I am wholeheartedly thankful to ProZ because I really enjoyed my very first years of membership and even before (I registered in 2001); there was no "Support" or "Staff" that needed to repeat every day the same meaningless phrases. Yes, I know, times have changed, ProZ has grown and things then were easier, I suppose, as we were only a few tens of thousands, but we should anyway have got beforehand and should still get at present more and exhaustive information about what is going on. And I don't remember to have seen any apologies neither, which I would have expected over the time. I believe we all, "users" and members, would have deserved and deserve more esteem and transparency.
Therefore, if ProZ offered at least an appropriate reduction of the membership fee for the months we suffered all these inconveniences, once everything has come back to normal (if ever), this would only be fair and I would definitely appreciate it.
P.S. Just to remain on topic: BBcode doesn't work neither!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2024-01-08 12:05 GMT]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2024-03-05 20:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member for the following reason: Empty post | | |
Hi Christel,
Thank you for your long membership with ProZ.com!
I feel your frustration and I can tell you it is shared by our support staff. ProZ exists to support you and all of our members, so I sincerely regret that we have inconvenienced you and others (and our own support team!) to the extent that we have. It is true that we underestimated how long it would take to upgrade our software, and yes, quite a few bugs were introduced. More than anyone, I am to blame, per... See more Hi Christel,
Thank you for your long membership with ProZ.com!
I feel your frustration and I can tell you it is shared by our support staff. ProZ exists to support you and all of our members, so I sincerely regret that we have inconvenienced you and others (and our own support team!) to the extent that we have. It is true that we underestimated how long it would take to upgrade our software, and yes, quite a few bugs were introduced. More than anyone, I am to blame, personally. So I apologize!
You mention a lack of transparency. We have nothing to hide about the work we have been doing; maybe it is the technical nature of things that has prevented our support team from including details in their responses. In short, we have been going file by file and line by line through about a million lines of code, making changes that would allow the whole site to be run under a more recent version of PHP. (Version 8 instead of 5.) We started that process in earnest in the spring of last year, and did not get through all of the code until the end of last month. (I would like to credit Benedict from our team, who selflessly and tirelessly led this herculean task. Kevin and many others on the team also made important contributions. (By the way, we expanded the team from four to ten members over the last 18 months, in part to do this update.))
Thanks to the guys, we are now running version 8 of PHP on all of our servers. This is a good thing, since the site is a bit faster and our developers can now make use of more modern technologies. This puts us in a better position to do new development this year, making changes on the front end, rather than the back end, which will deliver more tangible benefits to our members. (Already, in the fall, we turned the corner on our processing of the request backlog; it had been building up, now we are chipping away at it.)
We are aware that some of the bugs that got introduced in the upgrade process, remain. We are going through those as they are noticed or reported. You mention notifications. I'll check the support tickets to see what sort of notification is not working for you. Also, you report that BB code is not working. We'll look into that.
Also, I should say, while the PHP upgrade is "done" (pending ongoing resolution of bugs), we still have the database (MySQL) upgrade to do. We'll do our best to complete that with as little negative impact on members as possible. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
We know what's going on...  That said, I don't envy you. Upgrading the PHP is one of the worst experiences ever...
| | | |
Thank you very much for your reply and clarification!
I didn't send any support tickets for lacking notifications. Why would I do this, as it seems to be a general problem? Anyway, for my recent threads, I got at present 0 notifications for the maybe 16 replies.
And since months, like everyone, I think, I didn't get any comments on my KudoZ answers nor notifications of closed questions.
Earlier last year, though, I sent in some support tickets for different problems.... See more Thank you very much for your reply and clarification!
I didn't send any support tickets for lacking notifications. Why would I do this, as it seems to be a general problem? Anyway, for my recent threads, I got at present 0 notifications for the maybe 16 replies.
And since months, like everyone, I think, I didn't get any comments on my KudoZ answers nor notifications of closed questions.
Earlier last year, though, I sent in some support tickets for different problems. Only with hindsight, months afterwards, I realised that your update process must have started then, and you confirm that circumstance, but the support team didn't explain anything about the ongoing (or just started?) process. It is frustrating when you are told that your "issue cannot be reproduced" for example, but you are still having it! Surely I wouldn't have expected to be told all sort of technical details, but knowing that there were general problems all over the site for this and this reason and they were not only mine would have helped at least! It was only much later, when bugs and problems started to become the order of the day, that we learnt little by little what was going on. That's not what I would call transparency! Since then I stopped to send further support tickets other than for strictly administration questions.
Anyway, after nearly one year, I hope this situation will now soon come to an end. That is my wish for all of us! ▲ Collapse
| | | | ibz 
Local time: 00:50
English to German
+ ...
Hi Henry,
As to bugs, notifications about my KudoZ questions and discussions only work randomly - sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. I did send a support ticket and was informed that this problem was fixed, though it's not.
BTW and seeing that you're active on the forums again: What happened to your promise to remove ChatGPT's profile? As far as I can see, it's still there, the bot keeps giving wrong answers in KudoZ, inventing explanations and irritating people. It can'... See more Hi Henry,
As to bugs, notifications about my KudoZ questions and discussions only work randomly - sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. I did send a support ticket and was informed that this problem was fixed, though it's not.
BTW and seeing that you're active on the forums again: What happened to your promise to remove ChatGPT's profile? As far as I can see, it's still there, the bot keeps giving wrong answers in KudoZ, inventing explanations and irritating people. It can't be so hard to just block this "contributor", can it? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Barbara Carrara
Italy
Local time: 00:50
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
| More on ChatGPT and bugs | Jan 10 |
ibz wrote:
What happened to your promise to remove ChatGPT's profile? As far as I can see, it's still there, the bot keeps giving wrong answers in KudoZ, inventing explanations and irritating people. It can't be so hard to just block this "contributor", can it?
Re. ChatGPT's presence on ProZ and in KudoZ, how come ITS explanations are always in English, no matter what the pair is? This wouldn't be acceptable or accepted if used by us, mere human translators in KudoZ. So, why is ChatGPT being allowed such privilege? Surely, given ITS translation skills and expertise, ChatGPT would be able to formulate an answer in ANY language.
Re. the software upgrade, were we ever informed about this before it started, or was Henry's 8-January post the first time ProZ shared that information? Does anybody know? Thanks.
Back to bugs, here's the link to one of the latest apologies from ProZ staff in the Forum area re. issues with the app,
https://www.proz.com/forum/prozcom_mobile/363271-prozcom_app_not_available_in_some_countries.html
As you will notice, Henry, the thread was started on 6 August 2023, and the reply from a ProZ staff member was posted only on 9 January 2024.
Personally, I don't think a six-month wait to get a reply from ProZ on issues that are affecting ProZ members on a daily basis is acceptable. Do you?
| | |
|
|
|
ibz
Local time: 00:50
English to German
+ ...
Notifications about KudoZ answers and/or discussion entries still not work and the ProZ website pops up in Italien, English, German or French ... seems to depend on the weather
And we're still waiting for an answer re. ChatGPT on KudoZ.
I won't renew my membership in August - I registered in 2001, same as Christel. Too many bugs and a lack of reaction to members' complaints and suggestions.
| | | | Barbara Carrara
Italy
Local time: 00:50
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
Wonder if any of you are experiencing any of the following, which I doubt are browser-related,
- 'Something went wrong' sometimes appearing when trying to open a KudoZ page, Forum page, Quick poll window
- After I commented on KudoZ entries from two separate askers, both keep disappearing and reappearing from the KudoZ list, and have to refresh the page multiple times to visualize them again. Same with Forum threads, even without contributing to them
- Kudo... See more Wonder if any of you are experiencing any of the following, which I doubt are browser-related,
- 'Something went wrong' sometimes appearing when trying to open a KudoZ page, Forum page, Quick poll window
- After I commented on KudoZ entries from two separate askers, both keep disappearing and reappearing from the KudoZ list, and have to refresh the page multiple times to visualize them again. Same with Forum threads, even without contributing to them
- KudoZ questions showing zero answers in list, but when opening them, not only have they received multiple answers, but have been closed in the meantime, with points awarded
- KudoZ/Forum/Quick Poll showing 18 January as the latest entry date, so I have to refresh them individually multiple times to visualize latest contributions.
Am I the only one having these issues?
Could they have to do with the (ongoing?) ProZ upgrade Henry mentioned in his 8-January post?
Hope this is not some sort of leap-year curse...
Unsurprisingly, I - as others I am sure - am still receiving no KudoZ notifications for Answers, Agree/Disagree/Neutral comments, Discussion panel comments.
And, equally unsurprisingly, we are still waiting to hear back from the ProZ management about the ChatGPT issue. ▲ Collapse
| | | |
@Barbara Carrara
Same here. My displayed font size also goes wild when viewing the website as a logged-in user vs. non-logged-in. And curiously enough, despite not receiving email notifications for KudoZ and jobs, I still got a message from ProZ.com about membership upgrade. But I have better places to be, so these don't bother me in the slightest.
| | | |
The day before yesterday I noticed that some jobs I knew had been there Sunday disappeared from the front page. Later that day they were there again.
| | |
|
|
|
Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 00:50
English to German
+ ...
I am tempted to ask someone how long it would take them to make this site finally usable.
The bugs of this site are way beyond is acceptable even when changing platform, release, server or system, no matter how challenging the move is. Years of bugs means lack of professionality and care.
Do you consider that in an UX oriented digital world every bug means n lost (potential and existing) users = lost money? Are you billionaires to afford the luxury to ignore all this?
| | | | ibz
Local time: 00:50
English to German
+ ...
| ProZ couldn't care less | Jan 24 |
They obviously couldn't care less. Critical opinions are systematically ignored, whether on ChatGPT or bugs. It's a crying shame ...
| | | | Anne Maclennan
Local time: 00:50
Member (2010)
German to English
+ ...
| Anomalies in versions of Jobs page | Jan 24 |
I have mentioned this before, but today, having read the comments of others on the bugs on the site, I decided to take a more detailed look. The two versions of the Jobs page are not at all identical, by which I do not mean the format, but the information on jobs on offer.
For example, a job, which is still open (admittedly only for a few hours), cannot be seen at all on the old version. Conversely, the new version does not display a job posted, according to the old version at 13.34 hour ... See more I have mentioned this before, but today, having read the comments of others on the bugs on the site, I decided to take a more detailed look. The two versions of the Jobs page are not at all identical, by which I do not mean the format, but the information on jobs on offer.
For example, a job, which is still open (admittedly only for a few hours), cannot be seen at all on the old version. Conversely, the new version does not display a job posted, according to the old version at 13.34 hour on 23 Jan, but shows only the preceding job posted at 16.57 hours on 22 Jan.
Do we really have to check both versions to see what jobs are available?
Even if you are someone who has given up applying through ProZ, it is not encouraging to see that current information is not available in one or other of the two versions. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Complaint about bugs at ProZ (Staff: Update on the software upgrade process) | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
| | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
