R. Ann Parris – Site Problems?

 

Having Technical Problems? by R. Ann Parris

Preppergroups.com is a pretty simplistic message-board style site. If you’re having continuing problems using the site, you can always contact the admins [[email protected] or [email protected]], but there are a few things you might want to try first. (They tend to apply to any site or internet problem.)

1 — Clear your browser history. If you’ve viewed a lot of images or pages online, systems can end up gummed up. If we’ve used the back and forward buttons, especially, the browser and machine have a lot of memory being taken up.

2 — Refresh the page. After clearing the history, but before we continue onward (especially if it’s a login issue), hit that circling arrow to have the machine reload the page.

If that doesn’t work…

3 — Close your browser, and reopen it. It’s basically a mini reset for your system. I have no idea why it works, but it works so regularly it’s a go-to fix across the board.

And then…

4 —  Check your virus/malware protection system. It may be erring on the side of caution and preventing a page from loading, or loading completely/correctly.

And, finally, the ITT standby…

5 — Turn it off and turn it on. Again, I have no idea why computers/computerized devices are not like my truck and periodically need to restart for no good reason.

There’s some reasonable basis in the operating memory points that get thrown around, but sometimes — frustratingly — there has not been enough activity or enough open programs for this to seem reasonable. It’s kind of like how the computerized devices react differently when we “restart” versus “shut down” and then turn it back on manually. Makes no sense to me, either. I share the frustration.

And yet.

It works.

A lot.

I’m sorry. You have to bookmark/save your stuff, close it (or just hit the restart button and tell it to force close everything), and let the machine go to sleep and then come back on.

And, again, if you continue having problems, contact the site administrators. You can find the links on the site, or in the email you received when you signed up.

Login Problems

If you’re logging in and receiving an error message about the username or password (as opposed to a site/page error message, a page that shows up blank/funky, or a page that’s fails to load after accepting the password — those are technical issues) there are a few steps you can take yourself to resolve the issue immediately

If the problem is with a password — in that, the password isn’t working — that’s actually an easy fix. Right below the fields to enter that password is a link that lets you reset on your own.

(Heads Up: If you use the same password for similar sites, you’re going to want to change them or have to remember that it’s different here on out.)

First, though, check a couple of common mistakes.

The system is case and space sensitive. It doesn’t recognize peaceforall as Peace for All. So double check the username as well as the caps lock, and number lock.

Your preppergroups.com login is not your email address. It happens all the time. It’s habit for a lot of us, and I do it periodically, too.

Another really common error is using the password and-or username for another, similarly named site. Sometimes a site already has a user with your name, so you might end up with “Grizzly Adams” one place and “GrizzlyAdams” a second, and possibly “Grizzly_Adams” elsewhere.

If all else fails, tag an administrator.

Depending on your time zone, it could be a few hours before somebody is able to reply (which is why we want you to have as many options for a solve as possible before going that road). Somebody will, however, get back to you, and I’m pretty sure the site owner just doesn’t ever sleep, so the wait is usually pretty short. Also, check here too.