Threads that are not resolved should no be closed.

[Douglas]

George, this issue has not been resolved and is still occurring with all current releases. If you are gonna close it and not fix it, you can send mea refund now and I will look for another product that priovide what your plugin claims but has not done since early October……

Everyone on the tread has been forced, to manually import sines this issue was opened. Over three months of manually working around the issue, as well as all of the test senerio said that have been requested and effort as users that we have put it n, is in my opinion a very bad customer service move.

I have a test system with just the event calendar, jet pack, and 2016 theme that still duplicates the problem. If anyone wants to review it, it is available for debugging.

George wrote:

Hey Bryan,

There is not a substantive update at this time. Sorry to bear that news 🙁

This thread has grown quite large, but was originally posted back when our products were at the 3.12.x release family, and has not been updated since November 2015.

So I will close up this thread now.

If any issues, comments, or concerns arise, open up a new thread and we’ll get to you as fast as possible 🙂

Thanks,
George

Post Link: https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/facebook-events-importing-duplicates/page/2/#post-1054964

[Eric Unkauf]

I agree, that response is the first that has made me seriously reconsider using this calendar and logged in here expressly to say I think that is bullshit. The thread grew quite large because of the number of people who have encountered this problem and tried to supply you with information to help address the issue. You had another thread opened last month for exactly the same problem. I would rather see this addressed than add new features.

I will work around the problem as long as it appears that you are taking this seriously and working to fix the problem. This takes a lot of my time, between manually importing all of the events and the time spent deleting duplicate events, event images and organizers if I forget to remove everything from FB import. I have no idea why you cannot duplicate this problem when so many of your users have the same problem.

[George]

Hey @Douglas, and @Lourene,

I’m sorry about the frustrations arising from that issue, but to be clear, my closing of that thread is not the end of the discussion and dialogue around this issue.

Nico has been out-of-office for a while and may be for up to another week, and so having a two-page thread there that cannot be as easily maintained is not an efficient way for us to help address the problems.

To review the nature of this issue, I would like to point out what @Lourene mentioned in her last sentence above:

I have no idea why you cannot duplicate this problem when so many of your users have the same problem

We do not know why this is happening so inconsistently, either.

@Douglas, please understand that we are taking this bug seriously and trying to fix it. But it’s like a game of whack-a-mole, it seems; some of the time, some of our team members can recreate some of these duplication issues. Other times, though, the issue cannot be recreated, or only intermittently, or only one facet of the issue. Also, while that thread – from October 2015 – did have several customer voices in it, recently there have not been many reports of duplication issues at all.

The issue is very confusing and we have yet to definitively pin down the problem – furthermore, there is the factor that we have to work with what the Facebook API gives us, and so this is one more constraint on the problem.

---

Instead of tracking this problem as it stands now in a thread that is long, assigned to someone out-of-office, and originally posted back in October 2015, I have made this new thread so that we can actually attend to the problems of this issue even more effectively.

Does this make sense, @Douglas? How about in your opinion, @Lourene?

Your patience means a lot and I am very sorry for all of the headaches here.

Please let me know what further thoughts you have on this matter and where things stand now with these issues on your site(s).

Thank you,
George

[George]

@Douglas – can you share your “System Information” on your sites where this is happening? You may have shared this before, but I’m curious about the specific information as of now. Here’s how to share system information → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

Next, can you share some specific Facebook events pages that you are attempting to import from?

Finally, can you confirm if this issue only happens now if you set up an auto-import on a schedule? Or does it happen if you do manual imports, too?

Thank you,
George

[George]

This reply is private.

[Douglas]

George, I have not been able to generate a database dump from my server because I do not have the tools to do so. Spent more time thanihad trying.

I have provided system dumps for both my production and the test server that I created to prove it is a vanilla issue

Eastcounty.rocks. Production

Eastbay.rocks. Vanilla test server.

To create this server, I installed latest wp, plugins from theeventcalander,and added the following facebook id’s to the Facebook settings.

AKAConcerts
alamedacountyfair
AntiochAnimalServices
AxisArenaRock
bigdawgsrescue
cocowineco
crosstown5band
241450169249914
146962238799931
DowntownBrentwood
EastBayParks
FarmKitchen
flatbusted
FoxtrotMary
FurryFriendFoodReliefProgram
Giants
groovyjudyrocks
110213759065746
174201769438288
LiveNationBayArea
thelongduckdongs
MamaLuke.band
novabrentwood
OakleyCG
Raiders
Rosasattowerpark
SANFRANCISCO49ERS
SpiritedSanctuary
tailgatersafterdark
terrysheetsband
TracyRAP
TheBillyMartiniShow
ThePointRestaurantRioVista
UndeadBetty
TheWoodbridgeCrossing
levisstadium
eastcountyrocks

Set auto import on interval 1 hour and import to a pending status.

With all of this said. I would venture to guess at this point that we as users have spent more time and effort combined than you guys trying to resolve this problem. And we paid for it.. A premium product at a premium price when compared to other Facebook import products offered on WordPress.

The thread deletion justification is ludicrous. Everyone who joins the conversation as well as anyone who might turn on notifications in order to follow the problem in the background, loose their ability to follow the issue or the discussion without logging on and trying to start or find a new thread. Key here is frustrated and pissed off customers.

[George]

@Douglas, does anything change with this issue if you set your imported event statuses to a PUBLISHED status instead of a PENDING status?

[Douglas]

I have only tried pending. I believe other have said that they have had issues with published as well.

[George]

Thank you, @Douglas.

If you the published status on your sites, do the issues with duplication persist? Do they behave differently in any way?

Thank you,
George

[Douglas]

This reply is private.

[George]

I appreciate the sentiment and willingness to let us into your site, @Douglas, but we have a strict policy whereby we cannot log into customer sites for any reason whatsoever. I removed the login information you posted as soon as I saw it, and have not logged into your site.

To change the default import status, simply head into your wp-admin and go to Events > Import. On the main page there, you will see Facebook Importer settings, one of which will be the default import status. Here’s a screenshot for reference:

Set this to “published” and save the settings.

I would recommend letting several imports run. Watch the results of the scheduled imports, AND I would recommend trying some manual imports if possible.

How do things behave when you make this change?

Thank you,
George

[Douglas]

George, you do not get it… I am a customer and not part of your development or quality control support staff. I have invested as much effort and time this at my own expense to help you. I give you everything that you need to recreate the issue as I have done.

Build your own test accordingly and see for yourself.

This is not how you support a premium product to your customers.

[George]

@Douglas, you say “Build your own test accordingly and see for yourself.”:

1. are you stating that you believe that I have not done this? In your mind, do you think we do not have test websites our own and have not tested this issue?

I just want to be clear if this is what you believe or not.

2. Changing one option in your site’s wp-admin is nothing along the lines of development or quality control. As stated numerous times, this has not been an issue that we can consistently reproduce. In effort to reduce the variables of this problem, all I am asking you to check is if changing the status of imported events, and letting some imports run while you go about your life, then check on things later, does anything change with this issue?

Please address both items #1 and #2 here specifically.

Thank you,
George

[Douglas]

#1. Standard support response. Follow these instructions and see if the situation can be reproduced on a vanilla install.

In the previous comment as well as previous interactions with your staff I have given you a complete list of Facebook page IDS that have been duplicated continually on the vanilla setup. (That same information is included in the system dump that you also request when there is an issue)

I have no control over or knowledge of how you setup and run a test nor should I be required to tell you what you are doing wrong. This has been unresolved for over 3 months.

#2. I have spent hours of my time doing things to answer questions and try different things. Look back through the now multiple threads and the answers to your question are there.

Ps… I have done technical support, quality control and software development for a living with a Fortune 500 company for years. I clearly understand the difficulty of trying communicate and understand what the actual issues are. However, the support on this issue keeps getting dumped back on the users. It is time for the seller of the product to invest in the resolution beyond what has or hasn’t been done so far.. I no longer Have any incentive to do your work for you in order to get a resolution. Particularly efforts that have already been asked for and received. I have never seen a support area for a software product that is as access controlled and closing unresolved issues and demanding user with a problem to jump through such rigid processes. Again for a premium priced product based on other offerings of the same type of solution.

I have followed your instructions, duplicated it as you specify for support. Give you the system dumps as well as the entire list of Facebook page IDS that have generated the issue contiuosly for 3 months. Please follow your own instructions with the criteria provided and replicate the problem.

We all have a due diligence in the process and Mine is frustrated and used up.

[George]

@Douglas, I do not expect you to be happy and thrilled about the existence of a bug like this.

However, your replies have gone far afield from the realities of this situation. You are skewing the realities of this situation to fit a narrative that is not accurate.

I will reiterate the main points of this issue and hope that it can bring us back to the bullseye of the problem at hand so that our exchange can be useful.

---

1. Support threads are not a good channel for staying on top of updates.

Your central argument against my closing of your original thread regarding this bug was that the people in that thread would lose the ability to be notified of updates. This is not sound because threads are bad ways to stay on top of updates, and we actively close threads when there are no more moves on the board for the issue in question. (With rare exceptions, like if someone reports a bug that we definitely have a fix coming for in a week or two, for example).

This is because updates are published in two locations:
• The wp-admin dashboard of licensed users.
• The release notes published on our blog at http://theeventscalendar.com/blog

If a bugfix is included in a release, it is noted in the Changelog in either of the above sources. This provides two centralized, accurate locations where bugfixes and code updates are reported, which is much better for both users and for our support team than having a decentralized collection of individual threads all addressing different bugs/combinations of bugs.

So, this is why the original thread was closed, on top of the facts I described about such as Nico’s temporary absence while he’s away on vacation, and that basically all voices in that thread have been completely silent since Fall of 2015.

This is the accurate reason for the closing of that thread; there is nothing personal against you about closing that thread, or any intent to make things harder for anyone. Quite the opposite, in fact.

---

2. The bug you report is a bug that exists, and has existed for at least one year.

3. The bug you report is a bug whose specific cause we do not yet know.

4. The bug you report is a bug we have spent a very large amount of time investigating on the test installations of numerous team members’ websites; with feedback from numerous customers; and with events from numerous different Facebook pages.

5. The bug you report is a bug whose specific cause we do not yet know, even after the many hours of investigation.

6. Fixing a bug requires knowing what the specific bug is.

7. Since we do know the cause of the bug [see #3, 4, and 5], we cannot fix the bug.

8. Since the investigation is still open, more information from more users who have the bug is better than less information.

This last item, #8, is why I am asking for information about your website at this time even though, yes, you have been maintaining a dialogue with us in previous months and have been sharing information up to this point.

---

If you follow through the logic of items 1 through 8, here we are:
• In a new thread, not an old thread.
• Still investigating this very annoying, very frustrating bug, which we desperately want to fix.

I am genuinely sorry about this bug, @Douglas, I really am.

If you are genuinely interested in contributing towards the fixing of this bug, and would like to continue to work with me on this, then can you please do nothing else but simply change the Facebook Importer status on your website from “Pending” to “Published”? Navigating to the page, changing the status, and clicking the Save button amounts to three mouse clicks of effort.

Once the setting is changed, after a few imports do you notice any change in behavior with your issue?

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If you are not interested in continuing to work on this, I understand. However, I unfortunately cannot refund your orders because they were purchased too long ago for our payment processors to facilitate a refund.

The ball is in your court on how we proceed; however, if what’s chosen is not a cooperative effort to troubleshoot here, then there are no other options in regards to this bug except to close this thread, and wait for a proper bug fix.

Please review my response here and let me know what you think.

Sincerely,
George

[Author]

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