Some Green Links Not Working September 3, 2011 2:43 PM   Subscribe

Very often I can't open random green questions from my iphone4. HALP!

I have an iPhone 4, no special jailbreaking or anything clever.... and I'm on Vodafone for the 3g and sometimes, for no particular reason I use wifi (Internode) at home.

These things are not in any way important but I'm sure someone would ask.... anyhooo... every day or so, whether I'm on wifi or 3g some of the AskMetafilter links to "more inside" don't work.

The weird thing is it's not every post. It's not the long posts in particular. And sometimes I can click the new comments and it will work. Or sometimes there is absolutely no way I can get in to look at that post.... not favourites, no way at all. It just won't load.

Ok, so now it sounds like a net problem. But it's not. If I click on a post (always one I'm not interested in) three seconds afterwards, it loads just fine. Then I go back to the one I'm interested in... no dice. Back to another completely different uninteresting one.... works perfectly.

Here is a link to one that I couldn't even get to see by making a favourite then viewing that way.Did I play this right?

I restart my phone, move it from 3g to wifi or back again.... and it still doesn't work. I go to my laptop and it's all fine and dandy. It doesn't happen much on other sites. Sometimes on Facebook I have problems updating... but that seems to be the app's problem or when I'm having network coverage issues.

Does this happen to anyone else for the green? Any tips on how to fix it?
posted by taff to Bugs at 2:43 PM (26 comments total)

Urgh. I sound like a bit of a drongo.... The things I'm saying are not important, may be. I feel like they are not. But I have no reason to say that. Just a hunch. If this is the case, please tell me to shut up.

And when I say it doesn't happen much on other sites.... it doesn't happen at all on other sites, as far as I can tell. Apart from the Facebook glitches, which I have always had, long before this started happening on the green.
posted by taff at 2:52 PM on September 3, 2011


when you say "doesn't work" - does it give you a blank page? and error page? doesn't change off the current page? loads and then reloads the current page? can you go to the next post and click "newer" or "older' and get there?
posted by nadawi at 3:16 PM on September 3, 2011


Doesn't load then gets an error message after five minutes. Trying the older link just worked...eventually. Any thoughts?
posted by taff at 3:37 PM on September 3, 2011


What's the error message? Have you tried logging out and back in?
posted by pb (staff) at 3:59 PM on September 3, 2011 [2 favorites]


It's says it's a network thing if I leave it ticking over long enough. But all links before and after work. Haven't tried logging in and out. Will try that.
posted by taff at 4:16 PM on September 3, 2011


Hmmm. I logged out then in again. Obviously...but now I'm on a train so testing it won't be according to the scientific method. I haven't found another non-working link and the original one now works. But I'm on my way to the Lunar Festival and it might be a different phase of the moon now!

Will try again at home this afternoon. One other thing I noted...when it's misbehaving, sometimes the page that does eventually load is all weirdly formatted, and not the mobile site.

Anyhooo...any other suggestions/spells/slaps up the back of the head are welcome.

Will pop back soon.
posted by taff at 4:46 PM on September 3, 2011


drongo
posted by Sailormom at 7:23 PM on September 3, 2011


"HALP!" is the new "hope me".
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:07 PM on September 3, 2011


DR RON GO, PHD
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:59 PM on September 3, 2011


dogs bollocks.
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 11:33 PM on September 3, 2011


I don't understand drongo. How a drongo? Why a drongo?

Sailormom's photo looks a little like a corvid, though we can't see his feet. Do drongos say things that are unimportant? Please hope -- ew, HALP.

FWIW, drongos look like very engaging birds.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 12:18 AM on September 4, 2011


You all make me laugh, cheeky buggers.

As to my AskMetafilter problem...it appears to have resolved with the log in/out/in thing. Who knew it could be that easy? On the other hand, it could have been the Cabramatta Moon Festival that did it. There was a lot if incense around. And dancing lions. Hardly a drongo to be seen though.

I'll return and nag again if it reoccurs. Any ideas why it might have happened if that was the fix?
posted by taff at 1:12 AM on September 4, 2011


I don't understand drongo. How a drongo? Why a drongo?

Drongo was a racehorse in the 20s that never won anything (apparently from 37 starts).
posted by pompomtom at 5:06 AM on September 4, 2011


MetaFilter: The things I'm saying are not important, may be. I feel like they are not. But I have no reason to say that. Just a hunch. If this is the case, please tell me to shut up.
posted by hippybear at 5:59 AM on September 4, 2011 [2 favorites]


Any ideas why it might have happened if that was the fix?

No, but sometimes that can help clean things up by resetting your cookies. It sounds like standard intermittent network flakiness to me. MetaFilter doesn't have any servers in Australia, most of the big sites like facebook probably do. So there's probably some network lag routing requests around the globe coupled with the standard problems of data over cell networks.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:05 AM on September 4, 2011


You obviously need newer phones.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:23 AM on September 4, 2011


Have you tried accessing nonrandom questions?
posted by Eideteker at 7:31 AM on September 4, 2011




You know, there was actually a question on the green that adressed this very problem.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:27 PM on September 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


Looks like you have an invalid URL there, furiousxgeorge.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:55 PM on September 4, 2011


Maybe blame this on restless_nomad being such a sourpuss?
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 8:48 PM on September 4, 2011


Maybe blame this on restless_nomad being such a sourpuss?

Don't.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:45 PM on September 4, 2011


Maybe blame this on restless_nomad being such a sourpuss?

Don't.


don't blame the restless nomad
who passes you by night
his thoughts are on the road ahead
and on that distant light
the light so far away
the light you've long forgot
you get back to your kitchen now
and stir your little pot

the restless nomad has no roof
nor bed to call his own
and yet he's richer than a king
upon a golden throne
and you my friend, are you so rich
your soul enough at rest
to cast away your happy home
and be a nomad's guest?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:23 PM on September 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


Really? I think she sounds smart and funny and cool. Restless nomad is the thinking member's sex symbol.
posted by taff at 11:24 PM on September 4, 2011


This has been happening to me too on my iPhone, and only on the green.
posted by avocet at 3:35 PM on September 5, 2011


Does logging out and then back in help you at all, avocet? Do see any pattern to the failed links at all?
posted by pb (staff) at 5:43 PM on September 5, 2011


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