Authoring System Not Currently Showing

[Strident]

As highlighted in recent submissions by Garry, the "creation system" used isn't showing up on the game pages at the moment.

See the entire Adventure Master produced games for example...
https://solutionarchive.com/list/system%2C149/

This appears to be a sitewide bug/glitch.

[Alastair]

Curious. Looking at the edit pages for various games, the "Systems" entries for all of them are empty (they all show "n/a"), and yet all of the games show up on their relevant system lists. So the data is still in the system, which is a relief, but no longer shows up on the individual game entry pages.

To be on the safe side it may be best not to do any editing until this glitch is resolved.

[Strident]

As I'd been saying to Jacob, it was definitely showing correctly at the weekend (I was using the systems link on each page when I was updated various entries) so we'd be looking at something that has happened since then.

[Strident]

I've noticed that when, as an admin, you got into edit a game it often has "n/a" showing for the system rather than the system that is saved in the database.

As Alastair says, it may be a good idea to pause any edits for a period of time while the issue is looked in to.

[Garry]

Does this affect new entries? I'm trying to catch up on a huge backlog (as you've no doubt noticed). Perhaps you could add a new game and search by system.If it shows up, then I reckon it would be okay to add other new games. It feels to me like it's only updates to the system that should be avoided.

[Strident]

Yes, it is definitely affecting any new entries added... the "system" isn't actually being saved. For example, see the Forgotten Pyramid entry you recently submitted which isn't showing up on the Inform system list; despite that being added when the entry was created. That's the reason I think, like Alastair says, a pause on new entries or any edits is going to be sadly necessary until Jacob can look into things.

[Garry]

More importantly, updates are clobbering the system even if the system hasn't been changed. As an example, Goblin Decathlon and TastyBun Burgers have had updates to the notes when maps and solutions were added, but they no longer show up as Adventuron games when you do a system search for Adventuron. When I started doing all the Adventuron updates a week or so ago, there were (from memory) about 135 Adventuron games. Now there's only 128.

[Strident]

It seems to have been edits to the entries themselves (which those had) that has caused their systems to disappear; rather than the action of appending the solutions & maps; but I still think it's just probably best not to touch anything at this point.

[Strident]

Now there's only 128.

Only 126 now as someone seems to have updated the entries to The Beast, Unhallowed and Peanut Butter this evening.

[Alastair]

Does anyone know what system, or systems, Asylum uses? The picture needs fixing, doing so adds to the resources (just like maps, solutions, hints, etc.) rather than edits the page entry. If I knew the system(s) I could check before and after if adding and/or deleting resources also causes systems to disappear.

[Strident]

Probably Hisoft BASIC like Doppy & Pru, but I don't think either is listed under BASIC at the moment anyway.

[Alastair]

I checked on the Wayback Machine, there was no system mentioned. So I have updated the picture but doing so does not tell us if adding resources erases the system entry.

[Garry]

Has anyone followed up on this? Does anyone care?

I have a large backlog of stuff to submit, but I don't want to submit anything while I've got a lot of stuff in the queue. If it's not fixed by the New Year, I think I'll look elsewhere for a site to support. Somewhere like Moby Games. They have a huge team of volunteers, constant site updates and even their own Discord server, whereas CASA is going nowhere.

[Strident]

I've not heard anything about a fix for the current issues. It won't take us long to clear the backlog when the issue is fixed but I've not touched the database since it became evident we were losing data by amending entries. Hopefully Jacob will post some sort of update soon.

[Alastair]

As far as I'm aware only Jacob has the authority to fix the problem, but I haven't heard from him for a while. I'm not even sure that he knows of the problem, so I've sent him an email about the situation.