I can post responses, but my thread starter doesn't go through...

I can post responses, but my thread starter doesn't go through...


Interesting, this went through although slow. In the Religion subforum I have been trying to post a new thread for an hour and it doesn't work...

What was the thread title.

Well, it never got posted. I got back an error that the server is not available... But everything else was working fine...

Edit: I have just tried again, and I simple can't post a new thread in the Religion section. I tried and succeeded posting a reply, so it looks like if I am forbidden to post a new thread there...

What was the thread title.

You may not be the only person having this problem.

Could anybody who is getting an error message when you try to start a new thread please post the details here?

Tell us what error message you get (if any), what happens etc. Also, please include what operating system and browser you are using.

And they say machines have no consciousness

No error message, just a blank screen, but url says

http://www.sciforums.com/newthread.php?do=postthread&f=62

Using Firefox on MAC OS X.

No problem here -

http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?p=2734165#post2734165

Using firefox with Windows XP

And they say machines have no consciousness

Or conscience ...:p

No error message, just a blank screen, but url says

http://www.sciforums.com/newthread.php?do=postthread&f=62

Using Firefox on MAC OS X.


No problem here -

http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?p=2734165#post2734165

Using firefox with Windows XP

Conclusion, chuck your mac into the bin :D

You may not be the only person having this problem.

Could anybody who is getting an error message when you try to start a new thread please post the details here?

Tell us what error message you get (if any), what happens etc. Also, please include what operating system and browser you are using.

Below is my notification to Plasma, I guess at the time no one else had complained yet.

I have a new HP windows 7/64 machine and I practice safe computing.


Well, nobody else receives this error. I don't know what's going on, but I will send this to developers.
Thank you for the heads up.

Cheers.


My Firefox is 3.2, and yes it has happened on more than one thread. Before it started happening I posted over a dozen new topics without any problem using IE9. Today I ran a clean up program then tried again, and still had the problem.

I did search on HTTP 500 and the most common answer is that it is a server problem at your end. However, I seem to be the only one affected by this problem. Was wondering if you have any logs that might give us a clue to narrow down the cause?

The one thing I did in the post that first screwed up was to try an add 5 links using the add link button, which I had never tried before. But now I get the error with no links at all.


Do you get this error on every thread you try to open?
It's possible that browser is the cause. We're not optimised for IE9, and Firefox 4 is still in Beta, so I suggest using older browsers.

Tell me if this fixes the issue.

Regards,

PI


Plazma Inferno, I'm not sure who to talk to about this problem I'm having, But maybe you can be of some help.

On 4/12/11 I started getting an (HTTP 500 error) whenever I tried to post a new topic or thread. The information I looked up on this error code suggest it's a problem on your end. I can still post to other existing topics and I notice that others are still able to open new topics.

It's kind of annoying to have a new topic and not be able to post it. Plus it's hard for me to believe that this is the first time anyone's had this problem before, so someone should be able to help fairly soon I hope.

I have been using IE9 and I tried using the latest Firefox browser both had the same error code.

Thank you

From another thread (that will probably be deleted soon):


If you're absolutely adamant about posting your thread you could PM it to me in it's entirety and I will post it for you. I might even be able to do it under your name but that will require some testing out of my own.


Ok, it works. If you want I can post a new thread under your name anywhere you want.
You'll just have to provide the OP.


Well I was thinking that, since we're both here now, it could be a temp solution until the matter is solved.
This offer stands for anyone else too of course. I will need your Thread title, OP, and which subforum you want it posted in. Oh and a recent post in Free Thoughts or About the members. But don't start posting crap so you can have me post your thread, if necessary I'll make a temporary thread in FT where people can post their thread OP's.

Bear in mind that I am a moderator so your OP's will be scrutinized.

This is really annoying, but I still can't start a thread in Religion. I saw that Sam was able to do so.

I am using the newest Opera, this was updated just a night ago, I will try another browsers too...

Edit: I have just tried with Chrome and got:

Server error
The website encountered an error while retrieving http://sciforums.com/newthread.php?do=postthread&f=22. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly.

IE9 didn't work either.....

I have just posted a new thread in Computer science. This is getting weirder...

I don't want to post a test thread in each subcategory, but whatever it takes... :)

I have just posted a new thread in Computer science. This is getting weirder...

I don't want to post a test thread in each subcategory, but whatever it takes... :)

Try if you can create one in "Free Thoughts" and "About the members".

James I sent a message about This a while ago, both win 7 64 and my phone which is a galaxy s

I tried to start a thread two or three days ago, and it didn't go through. I just got a blank page


Windows 7 64 bit
Firefox 4.0

There are a number of potentials, one of them is this site might well be under a type of attack involving session hijacking and injection, (I haven't seen the logs myself, so I can't confirm this.)

I don't think it really matters what the title actually is, since threads don't us the canonical term for referencing them (or posts for that matter).

One suggested reason was that the servers interpreter environment is perhaps running out of memory causing it to stall during thread creation, this can be caused by any number of reasons. It could be because of other processes run by other users in a shared server environment, or even be caused by the large number of bot's and spambots that are constantly indexing the website.

Better methods at deflecting rogue bots might well be required to bring the memory footprint down.

There is usually also server configurations that deal with limiting interaction based upon CPU usage which might also be responsible.

It's just odd currently that it's only Thread creation that seems to be suffering it, if it's CPU or Memory issues, it would effect posting and searches.

But Stryder, some thread titles fail incessantly while others, even if just a little different, do not at all.

For example, the thread title gustav couldn't get posted: "Google - The State of Search"
It just does not let you post a thread with that thread title.

It appears that any thread title containing the following three words will fail:
Google, State, Search

For instance, I tried to create a thread with the title "You search the state for any google results". It won't post.
Leave out any of those three words and it will post.
Hmm.. but it does let you post "Google eats state for search".

Weird stuff..

just tweak the title till you get something that works

just tweak the title till you get something that works

Yes, apparently so. But there has got to be some logic behind it.

none to be found
i theorized a character count glitch but.....no

Anyhow, other people have reported that they couldn't post their thread(s).
I'm curious about what their thread titles were.

Works great. No problem

i theorized a character count glitch but.....no

I have thought about that. So that isn't it either eh?

I wouldn't worry about it too much for now, there isn't much anyone can do if they haven't access to the server or scripts that are being executed on posting.

It's definitely something serverside, not browsers. I did wonder if those rogue sites pretending to be sciforums were responsible initially, but again thats only known serverside due to logs etc.

I agree that this looks like a server issue.

For example, some people are having trouble with Firefox 4.0 and Windows 7, which is exactly what I'm running and I'm having no problems. Also the fact that the problem comes and goes, apparently depending on the thread title, seems to indicate a server problem.

There's nothing I can do about this personally. This is a job for Plazma Inferno!

Enmos is right, I tried to post one thread about 20 times from both my phone and computer, got blank screen on Phone and ie error message and v bulliton session time out message. Exact same thread because I copied my post into a pm. When I changed the title it posted

OK, today I was able to post in Religion, but with a trick. First I posted a short titled thread starter, then later I changed the title and the post too. It might have worked the normal way, but I am getting tired of writing a long post without being able to post it...

Edit: posted another one the normal way, now it seems to be working....

Anyhow, other people have reported that they couldn't post their thread(s).
I'm curious about what their thread titles were.

I couldn't post “The Perfect Home Security System” in Free Thoughts.

And “Solar Will Power the World in 16 Years” in both General Science & Technology and then Free Thoughts.

Try to post it with just "test" as title but with the full post and if it goes through change the title.

I couldnt post a thread today..until I simplified the title.

Will be checked. Thank you for heads up.

anyone using my workaround (http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2732369&postcount=8) better grease my goddamn palm
either that or address me as Lord Most High


same error

Google - The State of Search = fail
- The State of Search = pass
Google The State of Search = pass
Google = pass

thats in comp

i'll try here



/tap/tap

http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/5648/patent.jpg

Try to post it with just "test" as title but with the full post and if it goes through change the title.

That doesn't work either. I've tried it in the mod forum. It seems that if the title is rejected, it is rejected no matter what.

What's all this? Bizzarity.

I saw this as it developed. Seems queer.

I suspect GLSEN or some other militant homosexual network.

I suspect GLSEN or some other militant homosexual network.
vBulletin is the militant homosexual network.

vBulletin is the militant homosexual network.

Dearest Pinwheel,

Can you see a way about spinning wildly the other direction, bitte?

vBulletin is a militant homosexual network? Do tell.

Sounds militant, from what you tell me.

We checked the logs and there were no errors. PHP shows no errors as well.

In the meantime keep reporting if you encounter any problem. Include error message you get, or just put 'blank page' besides, so we could check further.

One other location to check would be the Database logs for attempted accesses, although I doubt it would return anything.

As for the actually "words in titles blocking it", the only other potentially is if there has been a hardware upgrade at the Server hosting location, they might of added new firewall rules that block specific packets being sent (The only way you could test that is if you could create a SSL tunnel on the forum for posting through, whereby the page is encrypted between client and server)

Edit:
Just to clarify:

It's not a browser issue
It's not a bog standard (or vanilla) Vbulletin issue (Tested this on other sites)

Further Edit:


By the way, I got redirected to http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=4821 when I voted on the poll. This is an old issue, I know.

"Cache" problem perhaps, where the redundancy network configuration isn't "refreshing" content when it's accessed, this would likely cause this poll problem, doesn't explain the blank page considering that's down to a title input.

Get ready for the vB update soon. Hopefully, it will fix this bug (and others).

Get ready for the vB update soon. Hopefully, it will fix this bug (and others).

To be honest Plazma you might want to do a complete clean install of the new VB version.

What I mean is, lock down the current one to archives, take a SQL backup of it in case you want to populate an archive version later. Only import the tables for the Member Username, Profile and password, and start a new board from scratch.

You could still allow the posting of archive URL's for adding to discussion topics.

Doing this would remove a lot of the problems that are otherwise caused with version changes, and the only downfall would be that people would have to accept the migration is only partial. This "Big Bang" implementation would also allow changes in regards to operations here to, perhaps having more open discourse about certain operations (considering lots of people nowadays are wanting transparency more).

Get ready for the vB update soon. Hopefully, it will fix this bug (and others).

Hopefully, a miracle will occur during the process, and we'll also get video embedding and a few other goodies.:D

Like an ignore feature that ignores all trace of the target poster including quotes inside other posters replies.

Happened again, the thread title was going to be "psn welcome back pack" but now its "please change this title..."

My last 3 new posts in Free Thoughts wouldn't go without major changes to the title. This is a real pain in the ass. Can anyone bring us up to date on what's been done to correct this problem if anything? Thanks

Admin is aware of it. Last I head the cause was unknown.

Admin is aware of it. Last I head the cause was unknown.

Thanks for responding. There's a rumor that the software was going to be updated soon. Just wanted to know if that's true or not? Sometimes a simple update will correct problems even if you never figure out what caused them.

I'm not sure about the update. That kind of stuff is handled by Plazma Inferno!

Conclusion, chuck your mac into the bin :D
Did you know that the Gates family is suspected to be heavily into the upper branches of secret societies? I smell conspiracy. :eek:

lol

Hopefully, a miracle will occur during the process, and we'll also get video embedding and a few other goodies.:D
Video embedding would be a bad idea. On a smaller site with less than 100 regular posters, sure. Here? Yikes. What a nightmare.

Being able to post a combination of text and pictures with a single drag and drop would be a big help.

"Cache" problem perhaps, where the redundancy network configuration isn't "refreshing" content when it's accessed, this would likely cause this poll problem, doesn't explain the blank page considering that's down to a title input.

The system is confusing the poll (pollid) and thread (t) numbers. When people redirect in this glitch, they are seeing the thread that matches the poll number. I don't know the specific terminology, but that seems, to my Rube Goldberg mind, more a conditional path issue—some variable is causing the system to occasionally follow a dead-end path.

With the "blank page" issue, I've noticed that my browser (Safari 4.1.3 on OSX 10.4.11) hangs on the do= URL with a subforum (f) number. I'll try to record it the next time it comes up.

Being able to post a combination of text and pictures with a single drag and drop would be a big help.

You can drag 'n drop text right now. It's just the images that won't copy.
But, I guess that was your point.. Never mind :p

You can drag 'n drop text right now. It's just the images that won't copy.
But, I guess that was your point.. Never mind :p

Some of the best jokes I have are a combination of pictures and text in an email. Also got some very nice Powerpoint files which would be nice to share.

it's the notorious error 500

"The web page cannot be displayed"

I got that today when i tried to post my "the difference of the past, present and future"

it's the notorious error 500

"The web page cannot be displayed"

I got that today when i tried to post my "the difference of the past, present and future"

Yep, that's the one. When it happens to you, make a note about it in your post and type in the original title of your post also, because you will have to change your title to get the post to take. I find that removing words works best, but feel free to try other modifications.

Original: The difference of the past, present and future
Modification 1: The difference of the past, present and future (Previously blocked by error 500) -> Fail
Modification 2: The difference of the past and future (Previously blocked by error 500) -> Fail

Result: Internal server error: web page cannot be displayed
error 500

Original: The difference of the past, present and future
Modification 1: The difference of the past, present and future (Previously blocked by error 500) -> Fail
Modification 2: The difference of the past and future (Previously blocked by error 500) -> Fail

Result: Internal server error: web page cannot be displayed
error 500

I've sometimes had to modify 3 or more times to get it to take. That's why I said to make a note inside your post and include your original title. By the time you get it to take, the new title might not be close to what you hoped for. Generally the shorter the title the better chance it will work the first time (just my guess).

Also, some sub-forums seem to be more prone to the problem than others, but again maybe it just seems that way to me because I use Free Thinking the most.

I've finally able to post it

Using your advice, I reduced the title to t=S (i.e. time=entropy)
I also include an N.B. to show the original title

N.B. The thread is related to the pseudoscientific thread "timelines: twisted"
Both are an attempt to ask about insights and nature of time (especially the arrow of time)

I don't get an error message at all, only a blank white page

Start the thread with the modified title, then immediately edit it with the title you originally wanted. I know this works because I've done it myself.

Mod Note — Interim suggestions



Start the thread with the modified title, then immediately edit it with the title you originally wanted. I know this works because I've done it myself.

If you can make that work, more power to you. I've actually never known it to work that way, but maybe it happens inside what I call, for the sake of being mysterious and silly, the "magic window". Sounds better than "magic period". Bloody rainbows and unicorns ... and besides, there are times I can't even change my nifty red briefs—er, I mean, the thread title using my super mod powers.

Er, right. Never mind.

Anyway, I don't have anything useful like a status report, but thought it worth reminding members that it is to your benefit if you compose your messages in a separate application, such as a text editor. Like Notepad or Word Pad for Windows users. Apple users do have their Text Editor (isn't that a creative name), and yes, for that and Notepad you do need to specifically select word wrap.

I mean, you can use a word processor if you want; it just seems like overkill.

Okay, I'll spell it out because I know somebody will eventually ask: Because you're human. Because it's a computer. Because sometimes shit gums up and then you're left without a post. It's 2011, and we still know the collective groan of a system error that erases your paper, post, or porno.

I ... uh ... damn.

And no, I can't help you poor bastards stuck doing this by phone. I've posted from my BlackBerry before, and it's awful. I haven't any good recommendations.

Lastly, everyone needs to come to grips with the fact that bad comedy exists so that people can know it's comedy.

(What? You see how I did that? I put one suggestion, that might be useful to the one clown left on the planet who hasn't figured it out, right, and tacked it up between a bunch of really awful jokes because I'm middle aged and lonely, and looking for something to do before going to the gym this morning because I'm insecure about my manhood as I contemplate the fact of actually starting an exercise regimen to maintain my appearance of vitality, and if you say anything about my mother, I'll ... I'll ... I'll .... Oh, for .... Really? Did I just say that out loud?)

Anyway, I don't have anything useful like a status report, but thought it worth reminding members that it is to your benefit if you compose your messages in a separate application, such as a text editor. Like Notepad or Word Pad for Windows users. Apple users do have their Text Editor (isn't that a creative name), and yes, for that and Notepad you do need to specifically select word wrap.

I mean, you can use a word processor if you want; it just seems like overkill.


Download Openoffice 3.3 for free. When you select the word processor and open a window just leave it on the bar when not using it. It works great, it's free and it does spell check for those of us who are challenged in that area.

If you have an old system that is short on resources, I'm sorry about that.

You may not be the only person having this problem.

Could anybody who is getting an error message when you try to start a new thread please post the details here?

Tell us what error message you get (if any), what happens etc. Also, please include what operating system and browser you are using.

Sometimes when I try to make a new thread and submit I get the following:
1) A blank screen. With Firefox 3.* and 4, Chrome (latest version), WinXP & Win7.
2) php500 error with IE (latest version).

Original title: Will it work
Fail (Error 500)
New title: a
Success

Someone please fix the server

Original title: Will it work

I am unable to correct the title for you, simply hitting the blank screen hangup.

uhm, couldn't post to the religion forum tonight. What's going on?

I changed the title of the tread. That made it work. Go figure.

Bowser, that's what happens for me. I find that the thread won't preview if I make the title more than about 15 characters long, regardless of what the post content is. It's been going on for a few weeks now.