Fix FindRetros Redirect Loop

[React]

I've seen this issue discussed on the forum, with various suggestions, but none have worked. The redirect loop keeps happening, preventing many of us from accessing our retros, which is really frustrating. Is there any chance for a permanent solution?

For instance, last night I tried to log into my friend's hotel multiple times using different browsers and clearing cookies and caches, but nothing worked. I even flushed my DNS and restarted my computer, but still no success. This morning, I tried again with the same results.

Then, I went to a relative’s house and used a different laptop connected to their Wi-Fi, and it worked fine. I think this is a problem with FindRetros. Since it’s a site people use every day, I hope there’s a way to fix it. Repeating these steps over and over without any results is really annoying.

 

[Joe]

It’s been happening for years, ask the hotel owner to allow people to bypass it if they’re getting stuck

 

[React]

It’s been happening for years, ask the hotel owner to allow people to bypass it if they’re getting stuck

You’re right, it’s been happening for years, so why not create a permanent fix, then owners won’t have to keep making temporary solutions or using Bypasses to get through.

The sites been around long enough, it’s used daily by hundreds of people, i’m sure something can be done about it.

Just because it’s been happening and people have became used to it doesn’t mean that they should settle for it.

 

[Joe]

You’re right, it’s been happening for years, so why not create a permanent fix, then owners won’t have to keep making temporary solutions or using Bypasses to get through.

The sites been around long enough, it’s used daily by hundreds of people, i’m sure something can be done about it.

Just because it’s been happening and people have became used to it doesn’t mean that they should settle for it.

I get what you’re saying but multiple people have raised similar concerns, I’m not sure why it hasn’t been fixed (or if they can figure out how, why it’s happening).

 

[Puffin]

You should be able to bypass the vote by doing /?novote on most hotels running Atom v1/orion. I agree with you, but FindRetros is long abandoned, the only effort they bother to put into it, is switching the theme once a year. It's already been demonstrated on this forum that the owner has no interest in resolving this issue lol

 

[Object]

I think this:

You must be registered for see links

demostrates pretty well that there's no interest in either maintaining nor allowing contributions towards Findretros and the chances of creating something similar that will be picked up by the community and replace it is close to none (unfortunately).

There's been various much more throughout developed platforms but they were never picked up.

I guess a solution to the redirection issue would be to log every time a user of yours hits the part of your cms that redirect them to findretros, and if they have hit it more than X times due to the constant loop then simply delete their logs and force them into your client skipping findretros.

By deleting those so called "logs" they'll start fresh in-case it happening again, allowing them the same attempts.

By doing it this way, you'll at least make a bit more "fluent" while maintaining your vote count for the majority.

 

[React]

I think this:

You must be registered for see links

demostrates pretty well that there's no interest in either maintaining nor allowing contributions towards Findretros and the chances of creating something similar that will be picked up by the community and replace it is close to none (unfortunately).

There's been various much more throughout developed platforms but they were never picked up.

I guess a solution would be to log every time a user of yours hits the part of your cms that redirect it to findretros, and if they have hit it more than X time then simply delete their logs and force them into your client skipping findretros.

By deleting those so called "logs" they'll start fresh in-case it happening again, allowing them the same attempts.

By doing it this way, you'll at least make a bit more "fluent" while maintaining your vote count for the majority.

This is a good idea, however what if you're not the owner/developer of the retro, instead just an everyday user. If FindRetro's is not going to be maintained further, they should at least allow someone with the time, dedication and right experience to work on it, or carry it on themselves. Otherwise it's just redundant and wouldn't be fair for someone who wanted to potentially do something the same or similar.

I just think that it's not a huge ask, I understand there's ?novote option and I am fully aware of it, but not every CMS is setup to allow this, FindRetros has categories for all versions/types of retros and therefore should cater for them the same way.

Post automatically merged: Today at 9:22 AM

You should be able to bypass the vote by doing /?novote on most hotels running Atom v1/orion. I agree with you, but FindRetros is long abandoned, the only effort they bother to put into it, is switching the theme once a year. It's already been demonstrated on this forum that the owner has no interest in resolving this issue lol

Unfortunately not every single hotel does use Orion/Atom, though don't get me wrong, I know what you mean those are the majority of setups. As I said to Object, if they don't want to work on it, they should allow someone who'd like to and has the appropriate experience maintain it. It's unfortunate that we' face these problems because of the decision to discontinue any work on FindRetros, instead of just adding a fix.

 

[RastaLulz]

@React Can you ask your friend what your IP was when connecting to their server, and then compare it to the one found here?

You must be registered for see links

 

[React]

@React Can you ask your friend what your IP was when connecting to their server, and then compare it to the one found here?

You must be registered for see links

I’m not sure about my friend, but for me I was using my own IP address all night, this would not work nor change at all, no matter what I done. It only worked when the developer of the retro told me to try to use a VPN which he had to allow, that did work. But using a VPN to get to a retro that you otherwise have no issues with is not a viable solution. I’ll check and compare though.

Could I also ask why you wouldn’t or maybe don’t want to make a permanent solution for this redirect issue as it does appear to be frequent, i am just curious.

 

[RastaLulz]

I’m not sure about my friend, but for me I was using my own IP address all night, this would not work nor change at all, no matter what I done. It only worked when the developer of the retro told me to try to use a VPN which he had to allow, that did work. But using a VPN to get to a retro that you otherwise have no issues with is not a viable solution. I’ll check and compare though.

Could I also ask why you wouldn’t or maybe don’t want to make a permanent solution for this redirect issue as it does appear to be frequent, i am just curious.

Votes are currently tied to an IP address. When you vote on FindRetros, it stores that. Then when you get redirected back to third party server, they make a request to FindRetros with the IP address that you connected with to their server, and check if that IP has voted on FindRetros. If there's a mismatch, it'll return false, and redirect you back to FindRetros, and thus a redirect loop is created.

A solution that I could potentially implement, is that when FindRetros redirects back after a successful vote, it could provide a one time use code via the query string, that the third party server could check, instead of an IP address.

 

[React]

Votes are currently tied to an IP address. When you vote on FindRetros, it stores that. Then when you get redirected back to third party server, they make a request to FindRetros with the IP address that you connected with to their server, and check if that IP has voted on FindRetros. If there's a mismatch, it'll return false, and redirect you back to FindRetros, and thus a redirect loop is created.

A solution that I could potentially implement, is that when FindRetros redirects back after a successful vote, it could provide a one time use code via the query string, that the third party server could check, instead of an IP address.

Thanks for explaining, I hope you can and will do something about the redirect issue.

I noticed last night when it was loading back to the FindRetros screen it just gives the “you have already voted, you can vote again in X amount of hours” but there’s absolutely no way out of it.

What about adding a “Proceed to site anyway” button or something along the lines.

 

[RastaLulz]

Thanks for explaining, I hope you can and will do something about the redirect issue.

I noticed last night when it was loading back to the FindRetros screen it just gives the “you have already voted, you can vote again in X amount of hours” but there’s absolutely no way out of it.

What about adding a “Proceed to site anyway” button or something along the lines.

I can't really do much to prevent it, as it's the third party that is determining whether you should be redirected to FindRetros or not. They're making a request to us, and assuming that the same IP was used, and then redirecting you. I can't do anything to prevent that. I could check for a redirect loop and display a helpful message (before your browser does), but that's about it. If I were to implement the code solution, that would likely be more reliable, but once again would require the third party to utilize it.

 

[React]

I can't really do much to prevent it, as it's the third party that is determining whether you should be redirected to FindRetros or not. They're making a request to us, and assuming that the same IP was used, and then redirecting you. I can't do anything to prevent that. I could check for a redirect loop and display a helpful message (before your browser does), but that's about it. If I were to implement the code solution, that would likely be more reliable, but once again would require the third party to utilize it.

What about a 1 time token, that appends to the URL and have it make a request to findretros instead of the IP address. If FindRetros then can validate it and ensure it is connected to a succesful vote, wouldn't this remove the dependancy for IP address matching? granted the token is short-lived.

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:22 PM

What about a 1 time token, that appends to the URL and have it make a request to findretros instead of the IP address. If FindRetros then can validate it and ensure it is connected to a succesful vote, wouldn't this remove the dependancy for IP address matching? granted the token is short-lived.

I just realised this is basically what you said, but I don't mean it in the same sense

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:30 PM

What about a 1 time token, that appends to the URL and have it make a request to findretros instead of the IP address. If FindRetros then can validate it and ensure it is connected to a succesful vote, wouldn't this remove the dependancy for IP address matching? granted the token is short-lived.

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:22 PM

I just realised this is basically what you said, but I don't mean it in the same sense

I mean instead affix a temporary session token, when the retro or third party recieves it and verifies it with FindRetros then have the token expire immediately so it can't be reused or redirected.

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:30 PM