Too many warning in error log!

Hi @darkwolf,

You’re not giving us anything to help you with.

As noted earlier, this is not our main support venue. Please submit a support request at the WP-SpamShield Support Page. We never received a support request from you there. If you would like an issue to be resolved, we need you to provide specifics of your site setup.

The original issue reported in this thread was with an earlier version, and that issue was resolved. Now this thread is long, and posts are no longer about the original issue. It’s been marked resolved, since that issue is resolved, and there is no more we can do for that issue.

WordPress gives developers the freedom to provide support in any way they deem best. Using the forums is not a requirement. It’s not even a requirement to provide support at all. (Yet we do.) It’s far more efficient to do one on one support and we solve issues fast when this is followed. If you want help with further issues, we are happy to help, but we need you to follow our support process.

If you don’t want to follow our tech support process, there isn’t a lot we can do to help you.

Otherwise you’re blaming us for not solving an issue, without giving us any details to help solve the issues on your specific server.

There’s more to it than just providing a line with the error message. It only occurs for a limited subset of users, so we have to run backtraces on which function is called in which order, and under what conditions.

If you want to submit a support request as we’ve requested, you can be part of the solution.

– Scott

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by redsand.

Anything? I’ve report line, a quick provisory fix? Various feedback, and u consider this as nothing?

What u more than this? A five star review for a plugin i can’t install and a total debug/rewrite with codefix send directly with fabulous contact form in your website??

Is the 3d release you promise a fix. I need to report everytime In your website what happen? Really?
What u don’t have understood?

First install: Warning in log;
Fixed with some @ by me, u have rebug with a unauthorized update;
Uninstalled to attend new “really fixed release”;
Finally a new release, but this contain more bugs than before: Fatal error/error 500 = website offline cause by this new “fixed” release.
–
And, with this, u can really co,sider this topic subject as fixed? Are u serious?
–
So, something went wrong here.
Maybe issue with dev, maybe issue with a unhappily release series… But continue with flag as resolved (and not, isn’t resolved) and with “go in our contact form to report what u and many other users have already report here, is really unuseful” … Best, is useful just to best understood who are you (you = authors plugin) and is really best to check other (u can continue to flag as resolved, but I accept resolved only when other user below confirm bug really is resolved – if isn’t resolved I continue to flag as unresolved).

Good life.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Anonymous User 357386.

Scott, it is tremendously helpful for other users of a plugin when these errors are posted in a public forum.

In general, when I get an error message with any theme, plugin, or upgrade – often the first thing I do, before requesting support, is to google that exact message — and my google search often leads to public forum reports. Very often this leads to a solution without my needing to make another request — for example, someone might also report a plugin conflict or explain how that resolves a problem.

We understand that for you to debug a problem, it is important for you to have more specific, private information that should only be posted to your support forum — but please keep in mind that those who are reporting their problems here are only trying to help others.

For the community of people who are using your plugin – or want to use the plugin – this information is tremendously helpful.

(I am not experiencing problems with the new update but have subscribed to this support forum)

Hi @abigailm,

I hear you.

Scott, it is tremendously helpful for other users of a plugin when these errors are posted in a public forum.

I think that’s true if the developer doesn’t provide direct tech support, or if the developer isn’t dedicated to problem solving. If a developer is content to leave odd issues or quirks in place, then forums can be helpful so workarounds can be created.

The best though, is when the developer has an intense commitment to solving problems (like we do). In that case, using forums for tech support is much slower, and can create a lot of confusion. Also, posting tech data and logs to forums is not a real secure option. When doing support directly, logs and system data reports can be sent to the developer tech support, and issues can be resolved more quickly.

@abigailm, @darkwolf:

Just to give you a little background: People don’t realize it, but we literally won’t sleep until issues are resolve. You may notice that some of our tech support responses occur at all hours of the day. Our tech support team gets alerted via IFTTT (and a number of other methods) on our phones (and computers, etc) when a new support thread is posted on the forums, or when a new support request comes in.

We have WP_DEBUG running 24/7 on every site we manage, and on our test servers. We have scripts running around the clock that report to us every time an error shows up in the log files. We also get IFTTT alerts (and other alerts) for these within minutes of these.

We run every new release through tough pre-flight debug regimen. I’ll be happy to break that down in a blog post later on. Even with the best process, there can still be issues for a certain subset of users, due to the variety of site configurations.

@darkwolf: If you would like immediate relief, you can comment out the following line in the wp-spamshield.php file that have WPSS_Utils::append_log_data. Lines 2642, 7323, 7393 are the only ones you would need to edit. Just add “//” to the beginning of the line. (To anyone else not familiar with editing PHP files, just make sure you’re using a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++, and don’t use any Microsoft, Office, or word-processor-type apps. Also, always back up the original file first.)

We’re moving the append_log_data() function into the main file in the next update. It’s an upgraded version of the function that was previously in the main file. It was initially moved to the WPSS_Utils class, but that’s been an issue on some servers due to the firing order. Unfortunately including the WPSS_Utils class before rs_wpss_getenv(). runs creates other bigger issues. That’s part of the rub.

Here’s a bit more of an explanation, @darkwolf:

Particularly the info we need is an RS System Diagnostic Data report. If you want to install it, and post a link to the temporary report URL, you can do that. (When you change the URL, it will disable the previous URL.) We have to put together a pattern of the characteristics of the affected servers so we don’t cause issues on these in future updates.

As I mentioned above, there’s a bit more to resolving an issue than the providing a line with the error message. It only occurs for a limited subset of users, so we have to run backtraces on which function is called in which order, and under what conditions. If we don’t get all that locked down, then even if we change the line with the error, it may not fix the actual issue. We also have to make sure that the fix does not create a new issue.

Asking us to basically “just fix it” without providing any real diagnostic info about your setup…doesn’t get us anywhere. Of course we’re running our own tests, but if users can get us diagnostic data, we can narrow down the specifics a lot quicker.

Some of this may seem unnecessary or redundant, but we ask users to do the following:

1. Work through the Troubleshooting Guide and FAQs. Even if you can just skim through and run a mental checklist, this is important.
2. Check for known conflicts. This will help rule out any known issues.
3. Submit a support request at the WP-SpamShield Support Page. In your support request, if you can provide any error logs, please include those (it’s best not to post them on forums). It’s even better if you can provide data from RS System Diagnostic Data plugin in your support request, it will expedite things. (The form is secure and encrypted, so that’s another reason why this is a better process.)

I realize this can be annoying or frustrating, but we just ask our plugin users to keep in mind there are far more plugin users than there are of us, so if each user can take a few minutes to work through these guides before submitting a support request, it allows us to solve support issues much more quickly. The process works, and we always get to the bottom of the issue, it’s just a matter of how quickly. The more info you can provide as a plugin user, the quicker we can solve things. Thank you!

– Scott

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by redsand.

, using forums for tech support is much slower, and can create a lot of confusion.

In this case there are bugs in the code that clearly have impacted thousands of sites, and many of the people posting are not seeking support, but trying to share information about the nature of the error.

Sometimes crowd sourcing a problem is a better way to go, especially when so many are impacted. If everyone who had a problem ignored theses forums and went straight to your site, then you would be swamped with many more requests for support.

But many people who read about the problem here will recognize that the problem is still unresolved, and disable or roll back the plug-in, to wait until a stable release is issued.

For you, this situation has become an urgent matter requiring diligent effort to fix as quickly as possible. But for many of your users, the best course of action is to simply wait things out until the matter is resolved. And this forum is the best source of information for users to determine whether or not the issue has been solved.

All great word but if this is your support can be an idea to close support here, put a form inside admin setting (wp rocket style) and provide support by email.
Otherwise remain an eternal unuseful set of reply: I post like many other users and u reply at all to post again via your contact form.

Also, autoupdate story: U need to update spam-filter? Why not put – antivirus style – autoupdate just for (spam)filter?

Just my opinion/feedback.
But I’m just an user, like everyone.

UPDATE: Version 1.9.9.8.7 has been released. All issues should be resolved.

If anyone needs further tech support, please visit the following:

1. WP-SpamShield Support Page
2. Troubleshooting Guide
3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

@abigailm : Thanks for the hint with plugin version number. Actually I did it like you said, but I just entered 1.9.9.8.6 – so I got the latest 1.9.9.8.7 on autopilot. Even more interesting, the 1.9.9.8.6 was overwritten on another blog. That version crashed the backend of that blog (I haven′t had the problem we all had with THAT installation). So I renamed the plugin via ftp and I was able to get back into the admin. Than I updated via ftp to latest 1.9.9.8.7. It works now.

So, I disabled auto-update via plugin setting. I can understand the arguments why RSMG made it that way – but this event showed me, that it is better (for me and my installations) if I am able to perform the updates by myself! Because I have customer blogs that have a lot of traffic, and I don′t want them crashing and get to know that maybe hours or days later…

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Farbweiss.