Whoa - security/cookie issues?

July 21, 2008 12:28 PM

Whoa - security/cookie issues?

Is it normal to be occasionally confused with another user? When I hit http://ask.metafilter.com - it tells me "welcome back" with another username...

If I click on the "My Profile" - it takes me to that user... But thankfully I cannot edit anything and at that point it recognizes my normal login.

Probably we are both using the same outgoing work proxy - but this seems rather weird.

posted by jkaczor to bugs at 12:28 PM (17 comments total)

Yeah, it happens now and then when folks are behind the same proxy server (and, I think? a couple of related rare circumstances -- Web Accelerator caching or whatever). You can never edit anything and it goes back to normal quick enough, but it's disorienting, yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much of a fix from our end, or at least anything that's a good tradeoff for eliminating the rare-and-harmless weirdness.
posted by cortex at 12:31 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

This happens quite a bit with work/school caches, and we added an entry to the FAQ about it: While reading metafilter at work/school, rather than seeing You're logged in as:USERNAME/logout I see some random person's username. What's up?. But there shouldn't be any security issues to worry about beyond finding out who your co-workers/schoolmates on MetaFilter are.
posted by pb at 12:33 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

You will not be able to post as that user or do anything as that user, so while the "hello SOMEONE ELSE" thing is unnerving, there's no actual possible mischief you can get away with with it.
posted by jessamyn at 12:36 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

When I hit http://ask.metafilter.com - it tells me "welcome back" with another username...

Is it "Kotter"? Maybe you're mistaking a question about the Sweathogs with an actual greeting?
posted by Plutor at 12:36 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

It happened for me a bunch of times when I was contracting out at Microsoft. It never followed through into postibng anything/editing the wrong profile or anything.
posted by Artw at 12:56 PM on July 21, 2008

*Is it normal to be occasionally confused with [having to constantly encounter someone else's intimate self]?
*If I [look at the person closely] - it takes me to [their outward persona]... But I cannot edit anything
*Yeah, it happens now and then when folks are [wed]
*You can never edit anything and [all the excitement] goes [away] quick enough, but it's disorienting, yeah.
*while the "hello SOMEONE ELSE" [when you wake up] thing is unnerving, there's no actual possible mischief you can get away with with it.



A lot of parallels with being married.
posted by cashman at 1:07 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:10 PM on July 21, 2008

Just think of it as a hug from the other user.
posted by Cranberry at 1:25 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

On a somewhat related cookies issue, I can't log in from my PSP anymore. It just hangs after I enter the password/ username and click log in.

I suspect something may have changed on the PSP browser side with one of the recent updates.

Out of curiosity, is there any way to see a page similar to Recent Activity when not logged in?

Something like http://www.metafilter.com/user/15055/contribute/activity/ or something? Because that would solve the problem for me as well.
posted by quin at 1:26 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

http://www.metafilter.com/activity/15055/comments/

It's not exactly what you want, but it will link you to all the threads you've commented in recently.
posted by carsonb at 1:29 PM on July 21, 2008

On a somewhat related cookies issue, I can't log in from my PSP anymore. It just hangs after I enter the password/ username and click log in.

Same thing happens with my Blackberry 8700, and I hear others with similar "smart" phones have that issue.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:31 PM on July 21, 2008

I cannot seem to login while eating a cookie.
posted by mattbucher at 1:36 PM on July 21, 2008

>It happened for me a bunch of times when I was contracting out at Microsoft.

Looks to be the case - trying a different machine that is not currently VPN'd in and it no longer occurs - the other user I was "confused" with lives in Seattle and works in IT - pretty sure they were/are using the same outbound proxy.

Thanks all!
posted by jkaczor at 2:25 PM on July 21, 2008

mattbucher:

I just had a whole bunch of cookies, and I'm getting in fine.

Check your recipe connection.
posted by SlyBevel at 2:40 PM on July 21, 2008

I would like a cookie.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:57 PM on July 21, 2008

SlyBevel writes "Check your recipe connection."

And remember to wait after mixing for at least 36 hours.
posted by Mitheral at 3:13 PM on July 21, 2008

Once metafilter confused me with a celebrity. I did not reload the page for a good 15 minutes of glory.
posted by ddaavviidd at 4:16 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]