Midnight can be a magical time for party revelers on New Year’s Eve. It’s a time of new beginnings, resolutions and good cheer.

For some of our website, news app and e-edition users, however, it may have felt more like watching Cinderella’s carriage turn into a pumpkin. They could no longer access our content. Their usernames and passwords stopped working.

Others wondered if Y2K had struck … again. Y2K was when the year changed from 1999 to 2000 and many believed the inner clock of computers was not programmed to handle the change. Back then, computer years were programmed in only two digits. The thinking was that the internal clock changing from 99 to 00 would mean the year would be read as 1900 rather than 2000. Fortunately, there was plenty of advance time for programmers to fix the issue and the year changed with little disruption.

Last Monday morning, the dawn of 2024, several of The Bulletin’s readers could not log into our apps, despite being subscribers. The Bulletin upgraded its news app and its e-edition in December. The former software platforms continued to operate in tandem with the new version in order to give people time to switch, but . those older platforms expired at midnight, Dec. 31.

A quick fix for the problem is to delete the old app off one’s phone or laptop and install the new one. The new app – news app and e-edition combined in a single app – is available in the Google Play and Apple App Store. Search for “The Bulletin” and look for our bright blue logo to ensure you download the correct app.

When we make improvements like these, we try to inform our readers so they can upgrade in a timely fashion. Sometimes the message doesn’t make it through to everyone.

If you are still having login issues, feel free to contact us: webmaster@bendbulletin.com or gobrien@bendbulletin.com or you may call me directly at 541-633-2166 and we’ll get you the help you need.

Thanks for reading and supporting our local journalism.

Gerry O’Brien, Editor