Name field pop-up view shakes and shimmies, very distracting
There's no way to do a screen shot (I've tried) to show you what's happening because it can't be captured so I'll do my best to explain what I'm seeing.
When I click on the Name field for PID#LC5B-QVF, a pop-up opens. The info on the left side of the pop up is static but the info on the left side, showing the list of sources associated with that field has a *really* bad case of the shakes that takes time to settle down and be static. I tried to work around this with a right click to open up a new window but this does not appear to be an option for this field.
I can't replicate this in other fields or for her father's profile. I didn't look at others. When I went back to Parmelia's profile, text still shakes like the dickens.
I have periodic issues with dizzyness/vertigo (no known cause, I call it my IBD, Inner Blond Disease) and this type of thing sets me off big time. This little bit has likely ended my efforts for the day. Please figure out why this is happening and correct it. TIA!
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I tried to duplicate that by going to Search then Family Tree, and Find by ID. Everything appeared stable. But then I tried clicking on her name and then opening up her Person Page. The main window went blank with the usual rotating "waiting" symbol, but instead of a quick connection to her page, that symbol kept moving up and down on my screen in the otherwise blank area filling most of the screen. Then after perhaps 15-20 seconds, a quick window briefly popped up (and quickly disappeared) that basically said that person doesn't exist or is restricted (?) in some way (can't remember the term that flashed on the screen for only 2-3 seconds and disappeared).
I have been unable to duplicate that oddity again several times. I suspect there's a glitch at their end, not yours. With all the changes going on within FamilySearch right now, there's no telling who was working on something at that time when you were trying to bring up Parmelia.
If you can get to her Person Page now without difficulty, I'd suspect it's one of the many glitches that we're all seeing these days from time to time. I'm reminding myself of the Serenity Prayer daily .
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. 😉
--Chris
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I've seen the weird shaking/flashing a few times, and I'm on a desktop computer with a monitor, using Chrome. I think it happened when I clicked on a hyperlink from a tab I had open.
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I reported this behaviour, when trying to open a source from here or the Sources section, and was advised it has been passed on. I don't think it is directly connected to the new person page - it's the "new" Record page that is the problem. Regardless, this problem was driving me crazy yesterday. Even though I don't have a specific eye problem, I had to keep looking away from the screen, as it was really disturbing (to my eyes and balance) to watch that flashing for up to 20 seconds.
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Though I have not seen that particular malfunction, the descriptions are very concerning. The descriptions suggest something that could be triggering for either a migraine headache or perhaps even a seizure in some people. That's a safety issue, and should warrant immediate priority resolution.
Interestingly, as I type this, the "Save Draft" and "Post Comment" buttons at the bottom of this comment window keep flashing back and forth from normal color and density to a somewhat washed out appearance. In addition, the "Save Draft" botton becomes longer (wider) by about 1/8". As I stop typing and just sit here, it does not seem to occur - only while I'm typing. The actual wording itself changes from "Save Draft" to "Saving draft..." when the anomaly occurs. There is an upper case "S" in "Saving" but a lower case "d" in "draft" with the three dots at the end (ellipsis) in the anomaly.
I was able to grab a screen shot. I also noted that if I type quickly and continuously to add a long line of type (a long sentence or more), I can see it occur multiple times after I stop typing, suggesting some kind of keyboard buffering issue. That may correspond to the flashing reported by others.
I'm currently using fully updated Windows 10 22H2 on a large, wide screen monitor, with Firefox as my browser. I just tried changing screen resolution, and it does not resolve the problem using two different display sizes from the full monitor size screen.
@Paul W @Annette Morgan and @LisaAlbert1
I'm wondering if some of the other "flickering" reported by others is happening only when those people are typing, and stops while simply watching the screen with no additional keyboard input. That and my observations above may give clues to the programmers/engineers. My experience here is in the Community comments page FWIW.
--Chris
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The flashing anomaly is just a sign that the Communities website is autosaving your draft. It's notifying you that the site is actually working as designed. Why the programmers of this site (who are not FamilySearch) want to give that notice, I couldn't tell you.
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@LisaAlbert1 Getting back to your original question, when I check on LC5B-QVF the name edit popup opens just fine. This means that this is one of those hard to track down browser dependent bugs. Months ago Safari was having trouble loading the popup with all sorts of resizing problems and they were able to get it fixed. In order to track down the bug you are seeing they really will need full information on your system.
(I have a text string saved so that every time I post a bug I can just paste it and not have to look it all up again, like this: iMac, Apple M1, Retina Display 24-inch (4480 × 2520), MacOS Ventura 13.2.1, Safari 16.3)
The other possibility is that you need to clear your cache and cookies. You may have a conflict between yesterday's version of the site cached on your machine and today's version.
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Given that the anomaly is still happening and has repeatedly each time I've checked since I first posted, I don't think it's because someone is editing the information at the same time. Additionally, I wasn't doing any editing. I was simply trying to view the information, nothing more.
I cleared cookies right before this happened. I do this fairly regularly for Family Search because I've discovered that doing so resolves all the weird glitches on the site. I don't have to do this for other sites, just Family Search.
I find odd comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one who has experienced this, and that it doesn't seem to be isolated to my browser.
I realize that a bug like this is really hard to track down to fix but I hope someone is able to do that because it really does set off my vertigo/dizzy spells and pretty much ends my research efforts until the spell passes. Sometimes that only takes an hour or two (or three), sometime it takes the entire day.
@ Chris Bieneman Schmink I've tried to respond to you about getting dual monitors on the other thread but the comment window kept eating my words. I start typing and suddenly a whole string of text is gone and the cursor is randomly in the middle of a previous sentence. And I can't seem to get a delete to stick so that I can start from scratch. Anyhoo, that's why I'm responding in this thread. I used to have a very wide monitor, one that allowed me to work with docs side by side. I intend to do that again, but the budget just won't allow for that right now. We just replaced my 23 yr old car and the car payment has me gasping.
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Unfortunately, Chris inadvertently muddled the issue with his typing / editing comments.
Hopfully, the engineers will get around to checking out this problem. I have found it worse when opening sources containing a lot of data (e.g. a census record, listing lots of names, etc.) as opposed to a simple baptism / burial one, where far less detail is included. Logical, I suppose, that a "bigger file" would take longer to open - hence experiencing the described effect for a relatively long period.
What I would wish to see is a whole new page design, whereby the format of the content presentation (especially for census records) is comparable to that found on other websites. As this effect was not produced with the previous format in which records / sources were displayed on FamilySearch, I think a change of page design would take care of this unwanted, "shimmering" effect, too. However, if it's all down to slow-loading of the page, why can't we see the old-fashioned "revolving wheel" instead of those horizontal, flashing lines?!!!
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Even if the minor issue I suddenly noticed isn't the same thing as what others are experiencing (described as "shimmering" or "shaking" or "flashing"), those should not be put on a back burner or in a long list of things to eventually address because those kinds of effects can be very significant for some.
--Chris
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Didn't mean to cause offence, Chris. Obviously I agree with you that the issue you are experiencing is in equal need of being addressed.
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No offense taken at all, Paul. 🙂 The issue I'm seeing isn't something I noticed before - I just wondered if it was somehow related to the obviously more significant issues you and others mentioned above. From the description, those sound significantly more troublesome. I'm fortunate to not be particularly impacted by those types of visual issues other than as an annoyance.
--Chris
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@Chris Bieneman Schmink The software behind these communities is not a FamilySearch product. There have been issues reported about some of the stranger features here in Communities that moderators then replied back on to the effect that the product vendor could not or would not do anything about them. The autosave feature with the "Saving..." notification is probably there to make it clear that you cannot post a comment while your text is being autosaved.
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Thanks, Gordon. I understand that. If an outside vendor is unable or unwilling to make changes, perhaps it becomes time to change vendors or take the Communities software back in house insted of using off the shelf software not specifically designed to function well for our purposes.
--Chris
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