Problem using Like button

[joanneta1]

Help, it won't allow me to like content any more, hid a post, so that I thought I had lost it and practically double posted as a result! Why?

[Caya]

Okay, I'm going to need a few more details for this. For starters, are you posting from a private or a public computer? (that is, with "remember me" checked or not) Is this a recurring problem or isolated? In which subforum did it happen? Any additional details you could think of?

[joanneta1]

I always use my tablet, private and password protected. It happened all day yesterday in the Reichenbach fall discussion. I had posted something about Sherlock's strength, J.P. posted some replies, and I spent half the morning trying to post a reply and getting a 404 error. Then, in a discussion on HLV, I posted something to Zain and it disappeared, with a 403 error this time. So I rewrote the whole explanation, and later on the first made its appearance so it was almost like a double post. And when I try to like someone's comment I get a message that there was a problem processing my request. I even went on the phone to my internet and telephony provider, the service person did a check and said it was the server of the forum that was responsible. Thanks for any help!

[Caya]

Thanks for the detailed report, joanneta1! Hmmm, there goes my first theory. Say, among all those error messages, were there some SQL errors strewn in too? (you can recognize those by the red-and-white background and the cryptic message :D)

 

Odd that the forum would act up like this on a Monday, too. We've had occasional trouble when the provider was under heavy strain but that usually happened at the weekend.

 

Did you have to log in again at any point during this hullabaloo or did the forum always recognize you?

[joanneta1]

Hi, thanks for the prompt reply. No SQL messages, but at one point it asked for my URL, which I asked the person about, and the reply was it was the forum's server's problem not mine. Still won't allow me to like ANYTHING, "an error occurred while posting your vote"!

[Caya]

Seriously weird . I'm running out of ideas fast here, so I sent the Big Boss a line. Hang in there!

[joanneta1]

Thanks, Caya! The forum always recognised me, I have had no log-in problems yet. It simply won't allow me to like anything (there was an error processing your vote) if it's any help.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I get that "error processing your vote" message every now and then -- but then a retry always works for me.  Were you able to "Like" things when you first joined the forum?  (I think I remember you liking some of my posts.)

 

I saw your semi-double post yesterday -- so that explains it -- weird!  You've got enough posts that it shouldn't have been a moderator-approval issue, but then none of this "should" be happening.  Fox, do you by any chance recall approving a long post from joanneta1 yesterday?  Tim, do we still have members-only threads, and if so, is "Last Vow" (or "Reichenbach") one of them?

 

Joanneta, it looks to me like you were able to post on the two threads you mentioned (TRF and HLV) some of the time yesterday, just not all of the time, maybe not even most of the time -- is that correct?

 

[Caya]

Something else that occurred to me - what OS does your tablet use? Windows, Android, Mac OSX, Sailfish, ... ?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks, Caya! The forum always recognised me, I have had no log-in problems yet. It simply won't allow me to like anything (there was an error processing your vote) if it's any help.

 

I just noticed two successive emails notifying me of "Likes" -- one where you had liked a specific post, and an earlier one where you had apparently tried -- the subject line had the same thread name, but my post was not quoted in the message, and there was no link to it, just a link to the forum.  I've seen that sort of thing before -- though sometimes my post is quoted but there's no specific link.  Hopefully that'll tell Tim something meaningful.

[joanneta1]

Supposedly, I am a member by now, and the tablet is a Windows one, where I added some updates on Sunday, as requested by the #$#£#* software. Thanks to all of you!

[Caya]

You should be a member a dozen times over by virtue of your post count, joanneta1 . Since this is a Windows tablet, might I suggest downloading this nifty little program and letting it clean house once? I know your provider said it's the forum, but we recently had another member going through forum troubles which turned out to be caused by a nasty little advertising bug they'd caught, and by purging that the forum went back to normal too. If you need help with AdwCleaner, drop me a line, but I think it's fairly self-explanatory, first Scan, then Clean.

[joanneta1]

Thanks, shall try it out, but I have already disabled ads in the settings. You have all been very helpful!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Tim installed a new rev of the forum software today, which may incidentally help.  Have you seen any improvement?

 

[sfmpco]

I was having a problem a few days ago with double and even triplicate posts.  Seems to have sorted itself out now.

[Boton]

I had the same type of problem yesterday; you mods might have seen where I hid a post that duplicated 7 times (a septuplicate post?)  It seemed like the buttons for "like" and "post" were responding so slowly, I thought that I was having hardware (mouse) problems on this end.  I might still be, so I'm going to switch out my mouse, but there's one more data point for you.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes, the "Like" and "Post" buttons can be very slow sometimes.  I assume the bottleneck could be anywhere along the line -- your own computer, your internet connection, or the forum server.  Hitting "Like" more than once doesn't seem to hurt anything (i.e., I've never had it "Unlike" anything), but hitting "Post" several times can result in multiple posts -- so either be patient or else be sure to check for extras (and "Hide" them).

 

Added:  One thing I try to remember is to use my touchpad's buttons for clicking things such as "Like" and "Post" (rather than just tapping, which doesn't always work).