Teleconference ghosting bug

[BlaZ]

I have been meaning to report this for a long time, although it's probably a known issue. Whenever you use the WL/ML Teleconference and someone uses a module that "removes" the person from the teleconference without them actually typing "x", it will ghost their account in the Teleconference even if that person logs off the BBS.

I first noticed this with "The Major Jail" INFMJ. If you "arrest" a person while they're in the teleconference, they can not come back into the teleconference until the BBS is shut down or cleanup runs. It continues to show them as "in the channel" with you.

Today I saw this happen again when someone used ELWAFK and then hung up before "un-AFKing" themselves. Their account was ghosted in the Teleconference and they weren't able to enter again.

Obviously this isn't an INFMJ issue, but a Teleconference issue. Therefore I feel confortable reporting it now. I guess (knowing nothing about the dll itself) the solution would be to remove any account from the teleconference that isn't still online. Is this something that's possible? And is it something that can be done relatively easily?

BlaZ

[BlaZ]

To expand on this bug a bit--just noticed something else accidentally. If anyone logs onto the channel # that the ghosted teleconference account WAS on, they get all the messages the ghosted account is receiving via Teleconference regardless of where they are on the BBS or their level of access. If I send a whisper to the ghosted account, it will tell whoever is on that channel (no matter who it is) that i am whispering to "you". It's VERY weird. Happy to help recreate it for anyone who wants to see it.

BlaZ

[Duckula]

I will gather more information from you in Teleconference and we can look into it.

[Montroze]

Hi not sure if this has anything to do with the ghosting, when I log in I go straight to teleconference with no way to exit it...have to shut down the board, its closer to being put back online. Thanks

[BlaZ]

That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Do you have your TOP menu setup to be an auto-select menu? If so, it's going to pick the first option the user has access to every time they hit that menu. If (T) Teleconference is your first option, that'd be why. Turn the auto-select off.

[Duckula]

The ghosting issue is strange but not surprising given the layering of Teleconference modules, where GALTELE sits on top of GALTLC and GALTLCW sits on top of GALTELE. It's a minefield.

I'm surprised Teleconference works at all half the time!

I have a dream.. to have a single Teleconference modules but who knows when this will happen.

If you were to think of a solution, what would you recommend? A timeout? A supervisor module that monitors for this?

[Questman]

Kill the channel - shouldn’t need to restart the system.

The layering of modules are just using the new teleconferences API to add the worldlink/majorlink functionality

We have to trace the chain of disconnection calls to each module and see if there’s a conflict when a module highjacks state like afk or jail that prevents the system from completing the clear out and reset of the channel

[daniel_spain]

Duckula wrote:
> The ghosting issue is strange but not surprising given the layering of
> Teleconference modules, where GALTELE sits on top of GALTLC and GALTLCW
> sits on top of GALTELE. It's a minefield.
>
> I'm surprised Teleconference works at all half the time!
>
> I have a dream.. to have a single Teleconference modules but who knows when
> this will happen.
>
> If you were to think of a solution, what would you recommend? A timeout? A
> supervisor module that monitors for this?

you could write one in no time at all to be honest. i have a generic one called "arctic teleconference" on my system that is only there
in the event anyone actually wants to chat, implemented actions and private channels too... no web stuff, no c/s stuff, just a simple
talk, be heard, and talk back addon.