Does "basket time" vary?

[Guest]

.

[abc]

Ouch.

I was looking around at different borrowers just now,
and I *swear* it wasn't for long -- maybe an hour, tops --
and when I went to pay out, my basket was empty. I had four
different folks in there, and they were gone, gone,
gone. I managed to remember two of them, and one
had filled up, and then there's one I can't remember.
Ack, ack, ack.

Being a relative newcomer here, there's probably a
really good explanation for this. Can someone help
an old middle-aged lady out? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.
Ann

[Jan & John]

Hi Ann
I just did the very same thing - gonzo... but even my log-in is not staying
 (and I am using the new link to https)

hope these problems go away soon...
jan

(good way to keep under my budget tho - someone knew I wasn't supposed to lend today

[AccountAbility]

Welcome Ann - Yes the basket time does vary.  When you first put something in your basket, there is a message at the top that tells you how long it will stay there before checking out.  This has been as high as 4 hours in times past and down as short as 30 minutes when things are really active.

That's the norm.  Of course that does not address the problems some folks have been having in the last week or so getting cut off or losing what they set aside.
Hope you try again and have a better time of it next time.

Dan

[abc]

That was the puzzling  thing. According to the Basket Clock, so to speak, I had
two hours. And then, within 20 or 30 minutes, the contents had vanished. Humph.

Then again, I've been having that same sign-in trouble others have reported.
If I have more than two or three tabs open on my browser and they are
all dedicated to Kiva, I have to re-sign in every time I use any of them, even
if only a minute has passed since the last time that tab was open. Oh well.
No biggie.

For the time being, I guess I should just pay-as-I-go or keep better track of the
names of the folks in my basket so I can retrieve them if this happens
again. And yes, that probably is a good deterrent to my going too far
on any given day.

Now, can someone direct me to the post about the https vs. http business?

Thanks.

Ann

[Patricia SF]

Hi Ann,

I believe this is the information you were looking for.  It was under the "Getting into my account" section.  This information cleared up my computer problem.

Patricia

All right, here's one thing I discovered.

Kiva has changed its security posture so that pages are now served securely.  That means the URL links start with "https://" and not just the usual "http://", and it involves a new login page (which looks just the same as the old one).  If you access kiva.org directly and then select the "My Portfolio" page from the link on their main page, you will be properly directed to the secure login screen and are unlikely to have problems.  If, however, you get to kiva.org either from a bookmarked link, a hard-coded link on another website or blog, or (until a couple hours ago when Joe fixed it) through the My Portfolio button on kivafriends.org, you will instead go to the unsecured login screen which no longer works.  I've

Try using the My Portfolio button above now (refresh your page first -- Joe did fix it this morning), or go directly to kiva.org and sign in from there.  That may very well fix the problems you were having.

I've written to Kiva to highlight the inconsistencies (there are several hard-coded links to the old unsecured login page still on their site, and the Export button is broken as a result), and have asked them to consider adding some form of redirection for folks who arrive from the old page.  Try one of the two options above and see if that helps.

--Diane.

[saabnet]

Kiva has removed the notice after you select a loan to lend to that it will remain in your basket for X amount of time. Since I've been lending, this has always been one hour. After a few people in chat asked what it was now that the notice was gone, I did some testing using a loan that was new and not much funded so my meddling wouldn't affect its performance.

The loan remained in my basket for exactly one hour after which it dropped out. I did this again, but at about 45 minutes in, I dropped $25 of $50 of the loan out of my basket. This did nothing and the loan still dropped out of my basket after exactly one hour.

I only did one test. Your mileage may vary.

fwiw,

-Scott

[Eli]

Thanks for taking the time to do the testing Scott, because I've been wondering about it, if it had changed.  My trust in 'the basket' has been reduced with a few recent 'dumping' experiences.  I've had loans in my basket but when I go to check out they are gone.  I would swear it wasn't anywhere near an hour they were in there, but then time flies when you are picking loans.  I hope this is just temporary and they are improving it with their changes and growing pains.  **insert crossed fingers here**

[Diane R]

So from what I'm understanding based on your test report, Scott, the time a loan is initially added to your basket seems to determine the start of the one hour basket-dumping clock and that clock does not reset when you modify your basket?  And the timing of your first-added-to-basket loan determines how long all loans in your basket will remain there?  (From what you've observed in your test.)

--Diane.

[abc]

And, from my recent experience, there is no consistency.

Last week I had one loan in my basket that I stupidly forgot about and/or
was called away from the computer for several hours for some errand
or another -- say, to perform a wedding in Spanish or who knows what
all -- and when I returned to my Kiva page, I thumped myself in
the head with my hand -- ow, ow, ow -- and checked my basket
where, sure enough, the loan was still there.

Later that day, I had a loan in my basket that could not have
been there for 30 minutes, that dropped out without warning.
Several loans, now that I think of it. I was accumulating
a set of "anniversary loans" for the Sainted Spouse and my
7th, so I had a set of new loans that had come on that day.

Very odd.

Oh, and Scott: Since I've been on Kiva, I think my normal "sell by" time
has been two hours, not one. I wonder if it is related to being
on the East Coast?

[saabnet]

that clock does not reset when you modify your basket?

It didn't reset when I dropped part of a loan from my basket. The loan still dropped out at exactly 1 hour. However, you prompted me to try adding a loan to see what happens, so at about 30 minutes in, I added a second loan. 2.5 hours later, both loans finally dropped from my basket... *shrug* I haven't yet been able to duplicate an early dumping - nothing shorter than 1 hour.

-Scott

[waywardcats]

*shrug* I haven't yet been able to duplicate an early dumping - nothing shorter than 1 hour.

I have run two tests so far today.  In the first test I was not logged in to Kiva, for the second test I logged in 15 minutes into the test.

Test 1: First loan stayed in the basket for 1 hour and 8 minutes, the second loan added was dropped after 56 minutes.

Test 2: First loan stayed in my basket for 2 hours 10 minutes, second for 1 hour 36 minutes and the fourth for 59 minutes.  I dropped a third loan out of the basket at 1 hour 45 minutes to see if the activity affected the basket time.

From this it appears that the basket time is reset when the last loan is added. So far I cannot really draw any other conclusions from the various tests. 

-Kerry-

[abc]

So my question remains: Has the "time left" feature in the basket been eliminated
altogether? I wonder why the powers that be would have done that. It
was a useful tool. Hmmmm.

[waywardcats]

So my question remains: Has the "time left" feature in the basket been eliminated
altogether? I wonder why the powers that be would have done that. It
was a useful tool. Hmmmm.

Hi Ann,

From the tests we have run it appears that the basket time still expires, though the times seems to vary somewhat.  However you cannot keep a loan in your basket for an indefinite amount of time.  It will at some point be dumped out if you do not take any action.

-Kerry-

[abc]

Hi Kerry and thanks for your answer.

My problem is not that I want loans to stay in my
basket forever. I understand the need for timing out loans.

But two things have happened lately that I just don't understand, and
I'm hoping someone around KF Land who has a broader, um, knowledge
base can help me out.

1. Whereas my basket used to have a "pay by 3:59 a.m. or lose the loan"
(or words to that effect) notice, there is no "timer" there anymore.
I was used to the time available varying from one to two hours,
and, depending on the activity, sometimes that time would reset/extend
when refreshed or a new loan was added. No more. Now I have no idea
how long a loan will stay in my basket before getting dumped out / reclaimed by Kiva.

2. More disturbing, sometimes the loans get reclaimed after less than 15 minutes.
This happened two or three times in the past couple of weeks. Ugh. I add one
loan to my basket, then, when I go to add a second loan to the basket, the first
one has disappeared. Ugh ugh.

It was just a strange anomaly that I noticed one particular loan that seemed to
stay in my basket overly long, way longer than it should have. The system did
not ever dump it out, after several hours. I had been called away from the
computer and stupidly did not empty my basket or pay for the loan before
I left, so just assumed that I had "lost" the loan, but it was not the case. Very odd.
(Well, so I felt kind of obligated to extend that loan, now didn't I? After leaving it
waiting all that time, it was the least I could do!)


I wrote to contactus but haven't heard back from them.  Meanwhile, I just
assume that the basket feature is not working for me, and so I pay for each
loan as I go. Which is frustrating if I am making more than one loan, to
have to sign in every time.

It's very annoying but it isn't like it is a major issue for me. I just don't understand why such
a useful tool as the timer would be removed.

[waywardcats]

1. Whereas my basket used to have a "pay by 3:59 a.m. or lose the loan"
(or words to that effect) notice, there is no "timer" there anymore.
I was used to the time available varying from one to two hours,
and, depending on the activity, sometimes that time would reset/extend
when refreshed or a new loan was added. No more. Now I have no idea
how long a loan will stay in my basket before getting dumped out / reclaimed by Kiva.

2. More disturbing, sometimes the loans get reclaimed after less than 15 minutes.
This happened two or three times in the past couple of weeks. Ugh. I add one
loan to my basket, then, when I go to add a second loan to the basket, the first
one has disappeared. Ugh ugh.

I wrote to contactus but haven't heard back from them.  Meanwhile, I just
assume that the basket feature is not working for me, and so I pay for each
loan as I go. Which is frustrating if I am making more than one loan, to
have to sign in every time.

It's very annoying but it isn't like it is a major issue for me. I just don't understand why such
a useful tool as the timer would be removed.

Hi Ann,

I wish I could be of more help.     In regards to number 1. it is not just you, the timer has disappeared for me also, and I think everyone else.  I think we will find out at some point from Kiva why this happened, it could even be a bug from the launch of the maps feature that wiped it out, I do not know.

I think Scott has said he has not been able to duplicate the early loan basket drops, and my tests also did not reprouduce this problem.

Which internet browser are you using?  Perhaps someone else who uses the same browser can perform test and see if they can recreate the issue of the early dropping loans.

-Kerry-

[abc]

Hi Ann,

...Which internet browser are you using?  Perhaps someone else who uses the same browser can perform test and see if they can recreate the issue of the early dropping loans.

-Kerry-

Now that's a good point. I've got the new (improved? hah) Firefox on a 10.5.4 MacBook.
It gave me trouble at first, but all those problems resolved themselves and I haven't had trouble since.
Until this weirdness came up. Hmmm. Adding the map. You know? That did just
happen in the past couple of weeks, since the map feature. Hmmm.

[saabnet]

I've got the new (improved? hah) Firefox on a 10.5.4 MacBook.

I've got exactly the same thing, Firefox 3 on a 10.5.4 MacBook. No early loan drops. Ann, rest assured that Firefox 3 for my Mac system has been rock solid. I've only been reading online complaints about the PC version.

fwiw,

-Scott

[abc]

Well, I will blame it on the moon



and move on from there.

[waywardcats]

For the record, my tests were done with the new version of Firefox on Windows XP.  I haven't had any troubles with the new browser.

Sorry Ann!

-Kerry-