Bitcoin Forum

Hello

Recently I have started receiving a red message "session expired" when I try to post a new message to the forum. Was there any change or something is wrong with my browser?
I have never had that problems before, but recently I have started using extension "Vytal" which manipulates geolocation data (https://vytal.io/). Could it be related to that?

When I've come across this it's because I've taken a while to write a post (sometimes I think it's happened if I hit refresh too) if either of those can be done from the extension then there's a chance (or if it alters cookie/site data but I think that's unlikely).

I've had them too lately, and much faster than it used to be.

Usually you will see such warning message if you decided to post and took a longer gap let's say an hour before hitting the post button, but if this happens to you everytime when you didn't take that much time before hitting the post then the problem should be with the browser, better clear cookies and restart then it will work normally as in the past.

To complement jackg, as far as my understanding goes, this is mostly related with sessions[1][2] and in this particular case time based expiration. According to Wikipedia:

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Perhaps Theymos tweaked the time for the session to expire recently? There doesn't seem to exist a consensus on time, so I guess it's up to whoever is running the website to decide how long each session lasts.

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[1]https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2731565 (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2731565)
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_(web_analytics) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_(web_analytics))

It happens to me when, i let the new reply tab open for a long time then comeback to hit the post button after opening/closing browsers, clearing cache, etc.

It might also depend on what data theymos set to make session and the validation i guess.

My surprise is that you have never had such problem before, I have known about this since when I joined this forum that if I wait for long before I post, 'session expired' would be displaced as notification. But I did not see it as a problem because if I press on 'send' again immediately after 'session expired' is displaced, the post would be successful.

I don't think so, because it doesn't happen all the time. It's weird: a few times it told me my session expired just shortly after I clicked the link and typed a message.
I've also had Merit links (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;msg=60442289) tell me the session expired, and those links don't even have the "sesc=" in the URL.

Unless there's a strong reason to have session expire, it would be nice if it can be extended to a much longer time. I often take hours before I post something.

Refreshing the page is the solution to this issue. It happens because of inactivity, I also encounter this sometimes if already clicked the reply button and left the new page unposted. Probably, the browser you're currently using and the Vytal extension you installed have nothing to do with this.

You will also get "session expired" and "cookie error" kind of errors if extensions have disabled cookies on the whole browser or just a single website, so please check your extensions and ad-blockers to make sure they are not turning off cookies on Bitcointalk.

Maybe we've all experienced it because a session will expire if left too long without posting it. The simplest solution I've come up with is hitting the preview button a few times so the session will update automatically and you don't have to rewrite your post. I've had it a few times so far and it has helped me.

By the way, how long does this session last without expiry. Anyone know how long the expiration date is? Is it 10, 15 or 20 minutes when we leave it open? I've never tested it.

That doesn't help: even after days, the Preview button works fine. But you can't Post it without reloading the page.

Maybe, I haven't repeated it so far. But before that I can.

I tried how long this session works, but it looks like this session can still be active for more than 45 minutes. I posted it 45 minutes ago opening this session and it still works without preview.

Yes, I confirm. I may press 'post' several times, no change, still session error. But calling Preview works instantly and it unblocks posting.
But still we do not know - was there anything changes on the server side? I cannot say a post is edited/written very long time, 1 minute maybe?

That's not my experience: even after Preview works, Post doesn't.

Right, from my understanding when you preview after your session becoming invalid, it wouldn't be sending it to the server. So, when you press preview in this state, it wouldn't be saving in the drafts either.

I've only ever run into it when allowing browsers to keep tabs open after closing, if that makes sense. So, when launching it back up, it'll revert to your last session, with all the tabs that were open. If you try to do any actions without refreshing, you'll run into the session invalid or expiration whatever the error message says.

If you managed to post it after hitting preview then you have the same experience as me on this issue. I'm saying something based on experience, but I don't know if anyone else has (LoyceV and Whales confirm no). It might be good to prove it here again in case I experience it again sometime.

Anyway since it's not a very pressing issue then I think we can copy all the posts to paste back in the same thread for a different session. So it shouldn't be the server's fault.