YAT fever strikes again: Don't delete your old contacts, hide them!

Someone in Groove has made me a very happy person. I was very troubled about old accounts - to which pool I have contributed more than my fair share!

When an account becomes becomes redundant then what is the impact of deleting it? It is not only to remove it from your annoyances list, but it is also to remove the memory within Groove of who created what in your instant messages and all spaces. You will just be left with "unknown account" entries, or the like. Adding dead accounts to your hidden list on the other hand keeps the digital signature intact and yet removes the annoyance of being reminded that that account exists.

The way to manage your hidden list is not obvious. Right now you go to Options->Contact manager and then you can "move" accounts onto the hidden list. Hopefully at some stage "Hide me" will be an option form the context sensitive menu for any contact name.

But for now it works, so enjoy - and whatever you do don't delete me :-)

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 0:27

YAT (Yet another tip): A comprehensive guide to solving space sync problems

Mostly you may SUSPECT that one of your spaces is not syncing, but often it is dificult to prove. And even if you can prove it then it is even more disconcerting to resolve. Well here you go with my take on space sync resolution techniques.

Firstly how do you prove there are sync problems? Obviously the starting point is to do an explicit posting and ask others to confirm its existence, and vice-versa. If this does not work then you may have operating system, hardware, firewall or Internet issues. And it may be necessary or worthwhile reinstalling Groove VO. But first do the same test with other people and find out if it is your problem or your colleagues! (Note with this kind of problem it really helps to have three computers so you can decide which is the exception...)

But before you do any of the above dramatic steps the standard starting point is to shut Groove down and run CleanBuffers. I also like to restart Groove with the TrayOnly option. Then rerun your tests.

If you are still not syncing - then review your OS (eg WInXP SP2), Norton Security, ADSL configuration etc etc etc. In this note I do not want to spend time on thee subjects. I want to keep the focus in GVO. And anyway typically if Groove has been working these external influenses should not be where the problem lies.

Now double check your data: space sync problem could occur for a specific period of time. Look for missing data. This is a very difficult thing to check out - since you need to see both computers at the same time (let me kow how it goes!) Anyway the effect you are looking for may be missing entries for a certain time, say a day's worth. Believe me this is possible, I saw a classic instance first hand yesterday. And without taking further steps the situation will never resolve itself. What you are asking yourself here is WAS or IS there a problem, though actually WAS implies IS.

And you can imagine that probably most people (including Groove staff) are in denial that this could be an issue. But it is possible.

And now we are coming to the next steps. And lets take the most important tool - Discussion. Export to XML add a new Discussion tool and Import back from XML Does this work? Does the tool get added properly? Does the import get replicated.

My guess is that if you have continuing space sync probs then neither will happen. And so we come to what may be the turning point. Delete space from this (offending) computer. Then Get Workspace from the "nearest" other good computer. Exit Groove and restart. Groove will tell you about this last step.

My guess is that everything will be fine from this moment onwards & should solve around 99% of space sync problems.

For any remaining issues I recommend creating a new & temporary preview Groove account on the same computer. (Don't delete your existing one - at least not yet). In the new account see if that can replicate properly. If it does then it implies that your computer, operating system and internet connectivity are working. Can the two local accounts talk to each other properly?

If your old account refuses to budge then you need to retire it. If you have any spaces that ONLY exist on that account or you are concerned about some specific spaces then click File, Save Workspace As Archive. Once you have all your data archived go to options->preferences and the account tab. Delete account (from this computer).

Shut Groove down and restart. Note that account deletion ONLY occurs on startup. I know it is wierd, but that's how it goes.

The only final rider is that if you have the same account on multiple computers - and one of the others is working, then upload that to Groove.net and download into this computer and start again.

And that my friends, is everything you need to know.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 4:31

Tip: An easy way to invite loads-a-contacts to a space

Open a space and show the members panel. Then in launchbar open up your list of contacts. Select a few, Now drag them over to that members panel. That's easy, isn't it.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 2:31

When is someone in space, yet not in space?

Have you ever had a space installation fail? I reckon I have been party to around 10 in my Groove career. until today I did not think them a problem: today I changed my mind.

Today I witnessed first hand being in a space and yet not being in a space. This started because I sent an invitation to my colleague Steve. He complained about an error "cannot install space" or something. What is wierd is that on my computer he showed as in-space - and I received no error apart from Steve's verbal rendition.

This is bad. It implies that I think he is able to read content in a space that I think is important to him - but as far as he knows the space does not exist! This is a bug.

You might ask how could this occur. let's look at the process. Firstly when someone joins a space Groove re-issues all the security signatures. Not a problem there. But at what actual moment is the signature suite updated? The answer is when the invitation is finally accepted (by both parties). From that moment on the target user is officially a space member.

According to you they are a space member before they have the space. According to them, they are not a member until the space is installed.

After that moment a copy of the space is prepared for shipping as "deltas", These are sent over and assembled. And finally installed. Or not. Currently there is no positive affirmation that space installation succeeded to the sender. To the recipient all they get is a temporary notification. No permenant reminder is left in Message History. Once the temporary notification is gone, that's it.

Both parties are in total ignorance of the other's status. The sender thinks everything is rosy, and the recipient forgets space invite as not a problem "I will get so-and-so to send it another day and get another invite", s/he thinks.

But of course the sender NEVER ever realises the problem exists. So they never resend.

Even worse than that they continue to think the recipient is probably ignoring content or not wishing to contribute.

When and how does the sender or recipeint ever correct the situation? The answer is probably never and if they try then probably with great difficulty.

Dear reader. As a challenge may I ask you how YOU can confirm that anyone showing according to your members list actually is in space - assuming they never post. Assume the recipient is on the other side of the globe so you cannot see their computer. I think the only way is to post something and ask them verbally for confirmation. But remember they may think you are stupid. They are saying "What space? What is s/he ranting about!"

You might ask, "Andy, why don't you submit this as a bug." Well, dear reader, you and I need to know how widespread this problem is. The reason for this is that we are part of a community. If the community is dysfunctional we need to know. So please can you IM me if you think you have suffered and let us gather information - and solutions.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 12:46