Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#1

Post by bayareaguy » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 1:45 AM UTC

I'm seeing this a lot more often these days, even when just pressing "More" at the bottom of the main page without being logged in.

It makes me think the current continuation-based session scheme isn't enough to guarantee a good experience.

What do you folks think?

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#2

Post by xenoterracide » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:23 AM UTC

Haven't noticed it. but I mostly access YC through rss.

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#3

Post by rms » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:28 AM UTC

I usually only get it if I have a comment reply open for a long time before clicking add. Feels like the continuation lasts for about 20 minutes.

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#4

Post by pius » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:33 AM UTC

They've been hard restarting the server a lot lately, so the sessions are getting lost more frequently.

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#5

Post by tstegart » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:44 AM UTC

definitely having problems with the more button

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#6

Post by ericb » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:44 AM UTC

I edit my replies a lot. I rarely manage to post without seeing expired link and needing to refresh.

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#7

Post by andreyf » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:45 AM UTC

It usually isn't a big deal, because the fix -go back, copy, refresh the page, paste- is trivial. For a less technical audience, this would be absolutely unacceptable.

Are there elegant solutions to fix this? Could someone link the explanation to how the continuation sessions work, please?

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#8

Post by aston » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:47 AM UTC

rms wrote: post #3

I usually only get it if I have a comment reply open for a long time before clicking add. Feels like the continuation lasts for about 20 minutes.

Pretty sure that's what pg's said it is. Personally, that's way too short, as I'll leave threads open for half a day without reading it, then can't comment.

I don't see any fundamental reason why continuations have to expire so fast.

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#9

Post by aston » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:50 AM UTC

andreyf wrote: post #7

It usually isn't a big deal, because the fix -go back, copy, refresh the page, paste- is trivial. For a less technical audience, this would be absolutely unacceptable. Are there elegant solutions to fix this? Could someone link the explanation to how the continuation sessions work, please?

It's pretty similar to other session-based systems. Users get an id that they resubmit at some point to the server, and the server pulls the data associated with that id. In the case of Arc, that data is a closure (basically, a function and its bound variables).

Re: Poll: Unknown or expired link on YC

#10

Post by gnaritas » Tue, Apr 15, 2008, 2:53 AM UTC

aston wrote: post #8

rms wrote: post #3

I usually only get it if I have a comment reply open for a long time before clicking add. Feels like the continuation lasts for about 20 minutes.

Pretty sure that's what pg's said it is. Personally, that's way too short, as I'll leave threads open for half a day without reading it, then can't comment. I don't see any fundamental reason why continuations have to expire so fast.

Because they take up ram on the server. 20 minutes is standard session timeout for most session based web frameworks.