CAPTCHA strikes again... see the two screen-shoots attached...
[quote]
Cannot contact reCAPTCHA. Check your connection and try again.
[unquote]
A first hit for a Google search indicated problems with Google's invisible recaptcha with Joomla at the web-server end...
Now that's a misnomer if ever their was one *** invisible*** - far too visible as far as I am concerned
Checking your page sources it looks as if you quite possibly use some sort of Joomla/Kunena/EasyDiscuss combination for ClearOS...

Have no problem with other web-sites that utilize CAPTCHA such as www.noip.com which uses it to check a robot is not auto renewing ddns when due for confirmation...

Thanks Dave - will login every once in awhile to see what progress is being made...

My original appends might seem like an over reaction, but years of waiting 12 - 20 seconds (verified by using the browser's page load timer plugin) to fully load and input to be accepted for every page change has finally exhausted my patience... clicking on captcha street signs was the last straw...

Use many forums that are far better than these here, but have no idea if they meet your requirements. Before retirement was involved with IBM mainframe software such as CICS, IMS, DB2,TSO etc and programmed in REXX - far removed from the world of web based forum software...

Thanks for your input Tony. We do truly value your input and participation in the community. There are so many things that exist at a lower priority than the forums. It is not the last thing on our mind, not by a longshot.

The original website was released in 2009 and then it was revamped in 2014. About every 5 years is what we can afford to muster when it comes to a full refit so it is about time and things ARE lining up for that anniversary refit. So yeah, it is an understatement to say it is long in the tooth.

Now is the time to be very involved as we work on the plan to switch. If you know of a forum technology that will work well, let us know your preference. Here is what we are looking for:

- Must support OAuth
- Must be amenable to a authentication transplant.
- Must be able to migrate old posts and allocate ownership of posts to original post makers.
- Must be able to use BOTH usernames and usernames based on email addresses (similar to GItlab and others)
- Must support CSS stylization.

There are a bunch of desirable things, some of which you mention:

- Better CAPTCHA
- Optimal loading
- Elasticsearch
- Bug escalation mechanism and resolution integration
- Feature request integration

Nick - Don't need to feel "loved" - but it would be nice if the forums were "loved" enough by those responsible for them to actually improve them... can understand Peter, Daryl and Ben not wanting to get involved in trouble shooting problems caused by users. That is not the issue here. No concerns there and suspect the devs had nothing to with the forum software selection and probably don't like them either. When I reported a problem with Multi-Wan caused by a ClearOS upgrade to 7.5 recently got a private response from one of the devs, which was great...

Dave - thanks for responding, and good to see ClearOS developing and moving forward... the sort of news we like hearing, but...

There are going to be some changes that will eventually reach the forums

When? - 8 years later and another statement that change is coming... That indicates to me that the forums are at the bottom of ClearOS priority list - and that is where they seem to stay - there will always be something more important coming along to preempt forum changes, it seems. Anyway - it's your business - not mine, your dirty shop window - I don't have to look at it. Enough from me...

My choice is whether to use the forums or not. At the moment have decided to ignore them and use the time for something else more pleasant that waiting for pages to load and that horrible orange circle at the bottom right hand corner to make it's appearance, sometimes seconds after the rest of the page has loaded as the whole page is 'locked' until then. It doesn't even have an 'X' to be able to dismiss it and at times covers up text and the need to scroll the page to get to read what's under it... yuk!

I know that the captcha is there for new users but it shouldn't bother existing accounts. I'll look into it.

I don't like the forum software either but we implemented it at a time when we were trying to get other things integrated. We've been so focused on innovations (GLASS VM Minebox, others) and some significant 'big projects' that the forums have not gotten the TLC that they need. There are going to be some changes that will eventually reach the forums that are on the roadmap, and changing out the forums is part of that roadmap so let me cover where we are and what is on the short-term docket.

- For those who have noticed, ClearVM 2.0 now uses the ClearSDN for authentication. While this doesn't affect forum users (yet), it is worth noting since it is a milestone for changes coming to the forums. We are working towards collapsing authentication across forums and the SDN. In the future, only your SDN account will remain and the forums will be subordinate to that. That makes for a bit of a 'historical post' mess with the data. We are working through that.
- Documentation is changing. Unless you develop apps for ClearOS, you may not have noticed that we have transitioned from Github to Gitlab with the repos now here: https://gitlab.com/clearos . Along with this, gitlab has tight integration with bug tracking and with documentation which we plan to leverage. Ultimately, the bug tracker and milestones will go there as well as documentation which is using 'markdown' instead of 'dokuwiki'. To begin, documents associated with application development are moving there. Ben has been working hard to make this a reality and if you are interested in developing apps for ClearOS, the process is getting easier and easier at a rapid pace. Soon we will have the ability to make the documentation for an app directly associated with the project. This will allow an application maintainer to ALSO maintain their documentation without the convoluted process we have today for documentation.
- The websites are being reworked. One thing that is also happening is that the number of pages for 'all things ClearOS' are going to become more simple and less of them. The new direction is 'simple' and 'to the point'. This work also includes the forums but the forums is quite a bit more complex as well.

Please don't feel totally unloved. I didn't respond initially as I had not seen the catchpa and I was waiting to see it. Like you, I keep my system automatically logged in. Last night someone from Clearcenter asked me if I'd seen the post and for my comment, so I investigated. Firefox does not let me log out so that test failed. I tried IE as I never normally use that. When I didn't see the catchpa I then responded to you. Perhaps someone had taken notice of you comment and responded accordingly. Unfortunately what seems to be missing is feedback via the forums. I have already raised this as an issue that feedback would be appreciated, but the devs are concerned about being dragged into a lot of troubleshooting.

Thanks Nick for your interest... Don't follow the forums anymore but was made aware of your post by an email subscription to posts I have contributed to...

As I suspected would happen, nobody at ClearOS responsible for this sloowww mess of a website has enough interest to even bother enough to respond, let alone do something positive to fix it...

Just over 8 years ago Michael Proper promised "huge improvement" (his words) for the forums.. we are still waiting and still having to put with Clear's miserably poor choice of crappy slow awful forum software.. see his append in this thread... Improve forums

To answer your question..
Was on the Community Forums page... Forums Wasn't logged in at the time of the captcha appearing - but as formally used to have my browser log me, that process may have started... I had previously noticed a box outline that appeared very briefly, then disappeared, when going into the forums. Thinking about it now suspect that may also have been the captcha screen as it was about the same size and position of the one with the street signs...

Anyway - the problem is solved for me at least... will only respond in the forums if I get a thread subscription email - and they will die very quickly as the forum discussion moves on...

Hi Tony,
I've never seen this but I tend to stay logged in. If it is true I tend to agree with you. On which page are you logging in? I don't see it at the bottom of any post or if logging in from the top of the forums. Perhaps it has been removed now.