The warnings that have been mentioned in this thread all relate to ongoing changes in both vBulletin and the underlying PHP language that vBulletin is written in as PHP is in the process of deprecating a number of historically very common practices in PHP programming.
It is important to know that none of these warnings are actual errors of any sort and will not interfere with the normal operation of the site -- with the sole exception of possible page formatting glitches -- as they are just advisories that things will change (and eventually break) in a future release of PHP.
In the previous update of vBulletin I had manually fixed a handful of such warnings only because they had affected page layout and formatting on a couple of pages that might affect members and/or Staff, but I have seen no such instances in this most recent patch with the exception of the "
Search" feature. The only place I have seen or heard reports of these warnings as of late has been on the intermediate pages that are typically displayed by web browsers for at most a couple of seconds before the target page is reloaded and are of no consequence -- with the
notable exception of the "
Search" pages, which are affected on the main pages, though only the Advanced Search page is severely affected formatting-wise in any way. These interim pages are of no consequence as they only inform the user that their submission or request was successful and the next page will be loaded momentarily -- many users will never even notice these pages if their web connection and browser are sufficiently fast as they may only be visible for as little as a few hundredths of a second. I have not seen these warnings appear on any normal page that I have visited as yet.
In time I will disable the warnings (now that vBulletin has finally introduced the option,
provided the feature works) but only once I am certain that there are no actual errors anywhere as I don't want any real errors to be masked by turning off errors and warnings.
Andy,
The warnings you have seen are related to the above.
However, your getting "stuck" on pages is generally the result of an unreliable (even if only transiently) network connection. The pages you refer to getting stuck on are the intermediate confirmation pages that most often are unseen by members because they are loaded and then redirected from so quickly after a completed submission, often visible for as little as a few hundredths of a second with a fast enough browser and internet connection.
The warnings should never result in a blank page and do not prevent the remainder of the page from loading in and of themselves as they are purely informational in nature and not actual errors.
Although the interruption in internet service could occur anywhere on the internet between the server and the member, this is particularly common when using wireless networking
(either WiFi or cellular). The TCP/IP protocol that the web runs over is pretty good at hiding unreliable connections (even wireless) up to a point as it provides for automatic retransmission of lost packets, but if lost packet counts grow too high and too frequent then even the retransmission requests start getting lost and either the PC or the server, or both, will begin to encounter problems when trying to reassemble a complete transmission stream from out-of-order and repeatedly missing packets. This can lead to tremendous slow downs and even outright hangs
(e.g. your browser getting "stuck") when one side or the other times out and gives up on the connection with no reliable way to signal the other end that the connection has been dropped at the opposite end (due to lost packets).
In the case of WiFi there are countless events that can make a seemingly reliable WiFi connection intermittently unreliable -- including the use of BlueTooth devices, cordless phones, a microwave oven
(which is the whole reason the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands are of no commercial interest), or even a neighbor's recent installation of a new WiFi access point of their own
(especially newer MIMO '802.11n' type access points) -- all of these devices operate within the exact same 2.4GHz band as typical WiFi. Additionally, most any home will also have weak or dead spots in WiFi coverage where such dropouts also become more likely. These are often very difficult to troubleshoot and are just one of the things we have to learn to live with when using wireless network connections as these wireless bands are essentially unregulated and devices are perfectly free to interfere with one another.
I hope this clears up any confusion.
