MIss Schedule… is there a better solution?

Why is this broken? This is something core to wordpress, a basic concept. Who screwed up the code?

Can you provide some specific examples of how it was behaving in 3.8.x versus how it is no longer working for you in 3.9?

It’s therapeutic to a point to wax philosophically and rhetorically like this and if that’s all you’re doing then you’re in the right sub-forum. If that’s the case then I’ll walk away from this topic too.

Before anyone replies with “See! That’s the problem with [ insert support person’s name HERE or WordPress ] attitude” keep in mind that I’m asking as someone providing free support. It’s fine to vent in the Requests and Feedback forum. ??

But if you actually have a demonstrable problem then perhaps you’d like assistance with that issue.

I am using 3.8.3 right now.

What happens is you write a post for a future release (say tomorrow morning), and everything is fine. It’s marked as scheduled. The next day, the post doesn’t get added, instead it gets marked as “schedule missed”.

The solution that I have seen here so far is some sort of cron job that runs every 5 minutes that checks the posts and resets them somehow. That appears to be closing the door after the horse got out. It’s something that pre-3.8 seemed to work fine. Now in 3.8.3 it seems to be a regular occurrence that posts “miss schedule”, even on sites with more than enough traffic to trigger the event in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, the volume of visits to the blog seems to have no effect either way.

(oh, and to answer you mod thing… I asked for wordpress support. That you volunteer to do it for them but have no real control over the product isn’t my fault either!).

There is no “them”. There is only “us” – the larger WordPress community. Even core developers are unpaid volunteers.

It’s something that pre-3.8 seemed to work fine.

Actually, if you search the forums, you will find that the odd person has this problem pre-3.8.3. That’s because it’s a site specific issue – not a core one. Can you replicate the problem using the default Twenty Fourteen theme with all plugins deactivated?

“. Can you replicate the problem using the default Twenty Fourteen theme with all plugins deactivated?”

Umm, no, because I am not going to take a functional blog and disable all that makes it acceptable to Google in order to track down a core coding issue. I don’t run a ton of plugins, all of them well aged and respected.

Switching a blog to 2014 and no plugins long enough to detect this problem would pretty much be death in Google to that blog, making it pointless to find the solution.

(as for the us and them, the difference is that the core developers actually do have influence in the product, where board moderators are regular people who have taken up the position of well informed person. If’s the difference between someone who can tell you how to drive a car and someone who actually drives one)

Unrelated to your scheduled posts question:

(as for the us and them, the difference is that the core developers actually do have influence in the product, where board moderators are regular people who have taken up the position of well informed person. If’s the difference between someone who can tell you how to drive a car and someone who actually drives one)

Hey, thank you for clarifying that. I had always wondered the difference between a forum support person (who volunteers on their own time) and a core developer (who also volunteers on their own time).

But you’re still mistaken. ??

This is a community effort and often the people who do contribute code also work the forums and vice versa. Your analogy of the difference between someone telling you how to drive a car and actually driving doesn’t work. The whole community is driving.

Back to the problem you’ve raised.

Umm, no, because I am not going to take a functional blog and disable all that makes it acceptable to Google in order to track down a core coding issue. I don’t run a ton of plugins, all of them well aged and respected.

Ah. So you’re not willing to work to solve this problem but somehow you… what? Expect support or development to solve this or offer a recommendation based on your defining the problem?

That’s fine. As I’ve said above

It’s therapeutic to a point to wax philosophically and rhetorically like this and if that’s all you’re doing then you’re in the right sub-forum. If that’s the case then I’ll walk away from this topic too.

The scheduled posts issue is impacting a number of users such as your self. A quick search of the forums easily verifies that.

As an alternative you can also consider trying this plugin or one’s like it.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-missed-schedule/

Now if you can actually “drive” (recycling your analogy for a moment) and know where the problem lies in the code then I am sure that the other effected users would like to hear from you. I don’t believe just stating “Problem. Screwed up code. Fix it.” really is going to work or motivate anyone.

Jan, in a world where Google revisits sites often and punishes the slightest transgression with weeks of pain, it is very unwise to take a site and make significant changes to it in order to “test” something. This would require leaving blogs without SEO, without design, and without the structure created by the combination of themes, widgets, and plug ins, just to test your hunch. I tell you the same thing I tell my ISP when they suggest that I remove all of my networking equipment and install their connection software directly on a PC, which is: I can do that, but I would have to charge you for my time to do so, and any losses I incur as a result.

Put another way: If you think that a theme or a plug in has the power to disrupt, block, or harm a core feature, then perhaps it’s time to consider protecting core features from the plugins.

“The scheduled posts issue is impacting a number of users such as your self. A quick search of the forums easily verifies that.

As an alternative you can also consider trying this plugin or one’s like it.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-missed-schedule/”

I looked at that plug in, and the end result on a server with 100 blogs would be a ton of extra resources used to constantly be scanning for missed posts. I appreciate at least that you didn’t suggest to fix it with CSS this time, a marked improvement! Seriously though, that isn’t a fix, it’s a crude band aid to try to cover up a core failing. Post scheduling is something that shouldn’t be affected by plug ins or themes, it’s a basic core function (and a relatively simple one at that, from everything I can see).

The standard answer of “remove all plug ins and use a default theme” may be function from your stand point to get a potential answer (or find someone else to blame for the issue) but really, it’s not real world practical. As wordpress becomes more and more of a commercial CMS as well as a personal blogging software, you will find it harder and harder to convince people to shut down their sites or make significant changes just to try to troubleshoot what has been broken in an update.

You have enough people complaining about this situation, perhaps having a look at the code (and looking at differences to past versions) might help you spot the problem. If something can determine that the schedule was missed, you would think it could also actually post it.

This would require leaving blogs without SEO, without design, and without the structure created by the combination of themes, widgets, and plug ins

The actual tests may only take about 10 -30 minutes. I seriously doubt that you would suffer any negative effects from Google for that.

just to test your hunch

Not a hunch. Just basic troubleshooting. Remove all unknowns to get back to a known state and then re-test. As we’ve tried to explain, this is a site specific issue, so something on your site is causing this. Could be the theme, a plugin or the configuration of your server. But we can’t tell – or help you – unless you are willing to work with us on this.

esmi, if it was something that I could trigger “just like that” I would just set up a test blog and make it happen. It’s not consistent, it doesn’t happen every time, it might not happen for days. In order to test it, I would have to basically operate a blog like normal, put future posts on it, and then wait until finally something did or did not post.

“Not a hunch. Just basic troubleshooting.”

The issue here is that the known state isn’t really “known”. The problem appears to be either a coding error in the core or unprotected code in the core, either of which is best fixed by… fixing the core. Your hunch is that it is a plug in, yet there is no indication of this, my installs tend to use minimal plug ins, nothing bleeding edge, and nothing that has any similar reports. Clearly with a number of other people experiencing the same issue, there would be some sort of report in any offending plug in by now. There is not.

” Could be the theme, a plugin or the configuration of your server.”

Yes, and but it’s more likely to be a core issue, as it’s something that changed with changing version of wordpress itself. Assuming it’s always someone else’s fault is never a good starting point.

The problem appears to be either a coding error in the core or unprotected code in the core, either of which is best fixed by… fixing the core.

If it was a core issue, we’d be flooded with these reports. Yet we haven’t been. It’s site specific.

Your hunch is that it is a plug in

No. There is no magic bullet in these situations. This is just the start of basic troubleshooting – a process of elimination deliberately designed to locate the root cause as quickly as possible by first removing the most obvious and common culprits via a series of (often) temporary steps.

Sadly, what you think of a temporary steps are enough to cripple a blog in Google for weeks. Since this isn’t a 1 minute “works or it don’t” thing, it would essentially require a series of steps with upcoming posts, removing and then slowly adding back themes and plug ins until “boom” you hit the right one – over a period of days. Worse, because the problem is NOT consistent, the process could yield nothing, a false positive, or a false negative, because it’s not a yes/no 100% of the time issue.

Thus, your idea for troubleshooting doesn’t really cut it. It might work for someone with a blog that get a few dozen visits a day an no search engine attention, but for sites getting thousands of visitors and plenty of search engine love it’s just not a logical step.

Sorry I raised the point. There is a bug in wordpress, but I am not going to pay for it with my business to find it.

your idea for troubleshooting doesn’t really cut it

Then I’m sorry but if you are not willing to work with us, then there is nothing else I can do to help you.

Good luck with your site.

esmi, sadly your answer is the best way to discourage people from participating. A single minded “this is the only way to troubleshoot, no matter how much it hurts you” won’t cut it with commercial customers. You can’t tell someone to stop doing business for an undetermined amount of time while you play around. It’s not practical, it’s not sellable, and it’s certainly not something people will tolerate.

I think you probably went well past your moderator mandate, can you just pass this thread on to a developer instead and let them consider it? Clearly there is an issue if there is a plug in to band aid the issue, don’t you think?

won’t cut it with commercial customers

Sorry? Commercial customers? WordPress is free. It does not have “commercial customers”.

The bottom line here is – do you want a site that is working effectively again? If “yes”, then try working with us so that we can help you get to the bottom of the issues on your site. If you cannot do that, then there is nothing we can help you with.

I think you probably went well past your moderator mandate, can you just pass this thread on to a developer instead and let them consider it? Clearly there is an issue if there is a plug in to band aid the issue, don’t you think?

Sorry, but you really do misunderstand the volunteer community and how it works here. Moderators are here to help and keep things moving along in the forums. I’m not sure what you think the “moderator mandate” is but that escalation is something that you can do yourself if you feel so inclined.

If you really want to bring this as an issue for the developers then please feel free to submit a trac ticket.

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/

Your ticket may get marked as a duplicate and I suggest you search before you submit it. I’m confident that such a ticket exists and I am equally confident that you can locate that with only a little effort.

Jan, I suggest you re-read Esmi’s post above yours. Your moderator is out of touch with the reality on the ground.

As for the TRAC, all I have found is tickets that suggest it’s something that might get looked at long in the future, that it’s not considered an issue. Moreover, I doubt that any fix to the core on this issue will be rolled back to 3.8.3.

I hear you and Esmi plain and clear now, sorry I tried to help wordpress with issues.

My last post. Thanks for your “support”.