"How come chat is not working on OpenStudy anymore?"
Sometimes websites have issues. Servers go down. New apps have bugs. Heavy traffic slows things down. There is not much that you can do when these things happen but wait for them to get fixed. However, a lot of times these same issues are blamed on the website when the real problem is your browser.
Browsers are notorious collectors of garbage. Even good browsers *cough cough not Internet Explorer cough cough* accumulate junk over time. It's not junk at first. In fact it makes your browser experience faster by storing stuff so it does not have to be downloaded every time you visit the site, but as time goes on those little files get outdated and start conflicting with other newer files, especially when there have been changes to the website in question.
I was baffled once when I was working on one of my websites. I made some changes to one of the pages and uploaded it to the server. I went to the website and then to the page and the changes weren't there. I hit refresh. Nothing. Re-uploaded the page. Nothing. I was at a loss for a minute then figured since I tried everything else I'd clear my cache. Hello! New page came right up. Problem solved. I used this example because it shows that when a website has changes in it's content, it is possible for you not to see those changes in some cases. Therefore, it is important to clear your browser's cache once in awhile, especially when having unusual issues with a website.
The procedure for clearing a browser's cache is different from browser to browser, but I won't leave you hanging. I will cover the clearing procedures for the four big ones (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and *ugh* Internet Explorer).
Chrome
- In the upper right hand corner of the Chrome browser you will see a wrench icon. Click it.
- On the menu that appears select Tools.
- On the tools menu select Clear Browsing Data.
- In the window that opens you can put a check in all of the boxes if you wish, but the only ones that you really need to have checked are Empty the cache and Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data (I personally also check Clear browsing history, but this one is really not necessary).
- Be sure it says: Obliterate the following items from: the beginning of time to be sure you remove all of the files associated with the site.
- Click the Clear browsing data button. Depending on how much junk has accumulated this could take a while so be patient your browser has not crashed, just let it do it's thing.
FIrefox
- On the menu bar, click on the Firefox menu and select Preferences.
- Select the Advanced panel.
- Click on the Network tab.
- In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now.
Safari
- Click on Safari in the menu bar and select Preferences.
- In the Preferences window click on the Privacy tab.
- Click Remove All Website Data.
- Click Remove Now on the next pop-up.
Internet Explorer
- Click on the gear in the upper right corner.
- Select Safety then Delete Browsing History.
- Select Temporary Internet Files and Cookies. You may also choose any of the other data to delete, but these are the only two you need to worry about.
- Click the Delete button. Be patient, it might take a while.
And there you go. After clearing your cache, if you are still having problems, more than likely it's on the server side, so just be patient. The web master(s) are probably aware of the situation and are working to fix it. If it is possible to leave feedback to the developers, you might do that and give them a detailed description of the problem including the browser and operating system that you are using. Please note that the instructions I have given above are for the most current versions of the respective browsers at the time of this writing. Steps vary from one version to the next (especially in Internet Explorer). If you are having trouble with the version of your browser you are using. Leave me a comment and I will help you for your specific browser version.
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