Stake calendar item does not display in certain wards

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
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lajackson
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Stake calendar item does not display in certain wards

#1

Post by lajackson »

We have two units who insist that they never saw a stake meeting that was posted on the stake calendar. When they called up their calendar the meeting was not there for members in two of the wards in our stake.

Other units can see the item just fine.

I have already confirmed that it was peculiar to this item. The stake calendar has not been suppressed or unsubscribed by the members who did not see the item. Other stake calendar items show up just fine.

The item was placed on the stake calendar over two months ago. It appeared at lds.org and downloaded to my iTouch as recently as two days ago. (I am not in one of the two affected units.)

Thoughts and ideas welcomed.
russellhltn
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

Is it very close to the month start/end? I'm thinking of the printing bug that tends to trigger empty pages. I wonder if the side effect is cutting off events that very close to the line. However, it seems like this would have to be something very early or very late in the day (close to midnight) so it seems rather far-fetched.

Have you confirmed that the issue is following the wards and not just a couple of individuals who happen to be in those wards?

When you say "other stake calender items" you're talking about the same calender? Any noticeable pattern based on the location or resources used?
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lajackson
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#3

Post by lajackson »

RussellHltn wrote:Is it very close to the month start/end? I'm thinking of the printing bug that tends to trigger empty pages. I wonder if the side effect is cutting off events that very close to the line. However, it seems like this would have to be something very early or very late in the day (close to midnight) so it seems rather far-fetched.

Sunday, May 29th. The 7:00 pm event displayed but the 6:30 pm event did not.
RussellHltn wrote:Have you confirmed that the issue is following the wards and not just a couple of individuals who happen to be in those wards?

I tagged an unsuspecting individual from each ward who was not involved in the complaint and had them check their calendars. No 6:30 event.
RussellHltn wrote:When you say "other stake calender items" you're talking about the same calender? Any noticeable pattern based on the location or resources used?

Same calendar, same location, same resource in the buildling. The 7:00 pm event was there. The 6:30 pm event was missing. Both were entered onto the same stake calendar several months ago at about the same time.
mtwerner
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#4

Post by mtwerner »

It's a great example of why we're not yet using the new calendar. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I spoke with a support person who said his group recommends that units NOT use the new calendar yet. (He didn't know why someone seems to be so actively promoting it.)
lajackson
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#5

Post by lajackson »

mtwerner wrote:It's a great example of why we're not yet using the new calendar. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I spoke with a support person who said his group recommends that units NOT use the new calendar yet. (He didn't know why someone seems to be so actively promoting it.)

Well, the support folks need to communicate with the rest of the known universe. And I will stop there, other than to say that they ought to use some of their precious time and get to know the system so that they can help us effectively move to it.

Because we have been encouraged to use the new calendar through official channels, we are trying our best. But is has been nothing but struggle and frustration for the most part.

Our biggest problem is that we have folks who are barely learning how to manage a login and password a la LDSAccount who are now trying to understand a complicated, multi-layered calendaring system that does not choose to reveal information to the folks who are trying to run it and use it in a way that will assist them in their callings.

Nevertheless, we have also been told that the old calendar will go away at the end of the year. Now, by my calculations, that is in about six months, which worries me, because we have been struggling with the new calendar for more than six months and still cannot make it work well unless we are retired and have that as our sole calling in the Church, neither of which is the case for me.

So, we will continue to struggle and contribute to those tens of thousands of help requests as we go. And in the meantime, we have almost made the decision to publish a paper stake calendar for the remainder of this year, because the on-line calendar is not yet sufficiently operational to support our activities.

As for a followup to the specific situation that caused this thread, we now attribute the problem to users who do not understand that the new calendar has a tendency to hide things, and who were not aware that they needed to go fishing for information just in case it was there.

Unfortunately, these are our front line priesthood leaders who are technically savvy and would have found what they needed if it had been presented in a way that would have allowed them to know it was there.

So we also attribute the instant problem to the calendaring system itself, over which we have no control, and over which my browser seems to have precious little control, either.

I would have made the same mistake these two priesthood leaders made if I had not known that the event was supposed to be in the calendar. There was absolutely no indication on my computer monitor screen that more information was available below the radar for that particular date.

Hence, the pending paper push to fill in the gap for now. Sad, but the meeting was a critical one and we only hold it twice a year. But more than 50 priesthood holders missed it because of this little problem.

As a stake, we will not let that ever happen again, no matter how widely we are pushed to support new technology.

So our feedback is probably number 46,898 in the queue.

That's why I am trying to get some ideas here to help our members use the new calendar more effectively in the meantime. Have I already listed all of the reasons someone would not find a calendar item? Training begins next Saturday. I would like for it to be thorough and complete.
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

lajackson wrote: Have I already listed all of the reasons someone would not find a calendar item? Training begins next Saturday. I would like for it to be thorough and complete.

Where is the list? I'd be happy to provide feedback, but I don't know what list you are referring to.
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lajackson
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#7

Post by lajackson »

aebrown wrote:Where is the list? I'd be happy to provide feedback, but I don't know what list you are referring to.
It is the list that I thought I posted to this thread between posts #3 and #4. I see several options.

I am certifiably insane. Highly likely.

I posted my followup comments to another thread. Possible with my current state of mind, but I am unable to search and find them.

Some posts are missing from this thread between May 31st and today, six days later.

I have not seen this happen before, but information I posted concerning this thread is either not here or in another thread somewhere. Unless I am bonkers, I recall posting one or two followup messages reporting on my findings as I have worked with the original members who identified the problem. I thought I posted to this thread. I will have to sort it out when I get home from work this evening and can do a better search.
lajackson
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#8

Post by lajackson »

Saturday evening, June 4th, around 9:20 pm (between 9:17 and 9:24 pm, to be exact), I wrote and thought I posted a follow up to the missing event situation, along with the list that aebrown referred to in #6 but could not find because, well, it is missing. Fits right in with this thread. Pulling from my foggy memory . . .

Followup. I was able to find a member in each of the two units who was able to see the "missing" calendar event. One said he was able to see in his browser that there were more events below the box on the calendar and was able to get to the event in question. The other said there was no indication at all that there were more events, but when he hovered over the box for that date because he was told the event should be there, a scroll bar appeared and he was able to scroll down to the event.

The two who originally complained about not seeing the event are priesthood leaders who are savvy computer users. They are both interested in determining if this was user error or poor calendar design, or whatever it was, and in figuring out what to do to make sure this does not happen again.

In response to their request, I began the following list (as best I can recall) which should have appeared between posts #3 and #4 in this thread. I asked for additional inputs to help with troubleshooting.

Reasons why a calendar event might not be seen on a calendar.

1. The event was not there. We know this is not the case in the instant case, because others were able to see it.

2. The user unchecked a display box or unsubscribed from a calendar and therefore did not see the event. Again, we know this is not the case, because all users saw other stake events along with their ward events.

3. There was no indication in the browser that there are more events than were showing in the box. This seems to depend on the browser. I have not gotten into browser/OS details, but we have learned in this case that this was true for the two ward leaders who did not see the "missing" calendar event. Each of the two wards had a full calendar for that day, and the stake meetings in the evening, including this event, were below the box for those two wards, and thus not seen.

4. The display is different for a regular calendar viewer than it is for someone who has calendar editing or approving privileges. The two who missed the event can edit some of their ward calendars. The two who found the event cannot edit.

5. ?

Other possibilities welcome. As I said, I will get back to these two leaders and we will figure out what to do to avoid this problem in the future. Too many missed an important meeting because of this little glitch, whatever it was.
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#9

Post by russellhltn »

Another possibility is that the event failed to sync to a mobile device. I know we've had problems syncing to Google calendar, but it looks like the work around has failed to work for me for several days now. Maybe longer.
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TinMan
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#10

Post by TinMan »

3. There was no indication in the browser that there are more events than were showing in the box. This seems to depend on the browser.

Can I just say "amen" to that one. I shouldn't have to "hover" my cursor on every full box on the calendar to see if there is a scroll bar that appears showing more events.

I just shouldn't.

Either make the boxes expand as needed, or automatically put the scroll bar on full boxes.
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