We are very much aware of the disappearing postings that people are typing and attempting to post on threads. This is a problem all over the forums.
Notifying the moderators and requesting that we copy and paste in your responses will not work. I, myself, have attempted it several times since Monday and even I get the blank posting. It is not a cell phone issue, because I do this type of work from my desk computer. So, I ask that you please be patient and hopefully the administrators can figure out what the problem is and fix it very soon.
We ask that you be patient and as a precaution, if you have postings that you want to have posted, please copy them into a word file and save them on your computer until this issue is resolved. As soon as we know that the problem has been identified and fixed, we will let you know so that you can post your responses.
I have not had anyone NOTIFY me what they would like to post. Getting T did tell me that the post was missing.
If you would like to try to NOTIFY me of a missing post and what it is suppose to say I will attempt to EDIT it here on NEWCOMERS or any other board that I moderate.
If that does not work I agree with what JOB has written.
Here is part of an e-mail that I just got from Virginia.
Originally Posted By: Virginia
In the meantime, the UBB expert who has been helpful to us over the years is suggesting that basically users are compiling their posts in a word processor, and it's converting regular apostrophes and quotes to curly quotes, which causes issues. So for now, the best advice we can give is to instruct users to NOT use a word processor to make their posts. An editor such as Notepad doesn' insert its own characters and should work better.
So as we have been figuring out try to type your posts out. This should give you a higher probability for success.
They are still working on the issue and their will be some other upgrades to the forum.
Here is part of an e-mail that I just got from Virginia.
Originally Posted By: Virginia
In the meantime, the UBB expert who has been helpful to us over the years is suggesting that basically users are compiling their posts in a word processor, and it's converting regular apostrophes and quotes to curly quotes, which causes issues. So for now, the best advice we can give is to instruct users to NOT use a word processor to make their posts. An editor such as Notepad doesn' insert its own characters and should work better.
So as we have been figuring out try to type your posts out. This should give you a higher probability for success.
They are still working on the issue and their will be some other upgrades to the forum.
The info Virginia posted is sort of right. It is true that if you compile messages in a Word doc (or similar) and then copy/ paste it into a reply window it will cause problems such as strange symbols appearing, but that has always been the case and has never caused replies to just completely disappear like they are doing now. Plus I personally type everything in the reply window here. Most of my posts are going through but some do not. I cannot figure out why.
Originally Posted By: Cadet
From Surviving my post
Originally Posted By: Btrow
Silly question, but do you all try the preview button before submitting?
Great Point - I wonder what you see when you post a blank page, anyone care to share that, since I have yet to have a blank page!!
I ALWAYS use the preview window to check for typos before posting. My messages always show up in preview, even when they blank out once submitted.
Cadet, I just discovered something interesting. I tried pasting a message in here that blanked out twice in Steve's thread and sure enough it blanked out here too. The odd thing is if I paste it in the Quick Reply window and then hit "Switch to Full Reply Screen" then when it does, the window blanks out. If I hit "Preview Reply" it still shows up. So I used this trick and tried to cut the message down to see if I could locate the offending element in it. Strangely I still can't figure it out. It seems to not like the length of the post rather than any particular piece of text in it. I can delete the first half and it will magically display, or I can leave the first half and delete the second half and it will display. But I can't leave the whole thing. I will post the message in two parts so the guru can look to see if there's anything there that might point at the problem.
Oh wow, OK so I figured out the problem with this particular post. It wasn't anything I wrote, it was something I quoted, and it may very well be what Virginia mentioned that's causing it. It was the apostrophe in the word "doesn't" and "I'm". I edited only those 3 apostrophes in his quote that was blanking out and now it's showing up fine:
Quote:
The TBI diagnoses was from battlefield injuries and I undergo testing through the VA to monitor it. I told her I cannot make her believe me and that I can only be honest with her. She also is very confident that i cheated on her. I told her the same thing about me being honest. She is also rewriting our marital history. I know what I have done and I know what the truth is but she doesn't. She also said that she doesn't believe anything Insay to her. I'm destroyed all over again and I am having a hard time finding the strength. The only person I need is saying all these mean things.
Now here is the really strange thing, Mike's original post above DOES show up in his thread! But if you try to quote it, it blanks out. I didn't realize there was a forum problem and copied the whole thing and pasted it into the reply window as a workaround, which LOOKED like it worked but when I posted it, it was gone. So tell the guru to go to Mike's thread here:
The text shows up fine in the original post that included the above, but blanks out in a reply window. If you copy the message and remove all the apostrophes and quotations then it shows up just fine, so it has something to do with those characters.
Last edited by Cadet; 04/24/1806:24 AM. Reason: change link
Cadet, I just noticed that mtb1981 posted a blank post and in the next post he mentioned it was send from his cell phone so maybe it's notation characters on certain cell phones that are causing the problem:
well geez that doesn't make sense........I type directly into the post and did not cut and paste from work on Balls thread.....could my post have been too long? Cadet your thoughts??? I did the same with Orange and worked just fine????
well geez that doesn't make sense........I type directly into the post and did not cut and paste from work on Balls thread.....could my post have been too long? Cadet your thoughts??? I did the same with Orange and worked just fine????
OK - sorry you are having problems, my suggestion is to try to use the preview button and cut the posts down to a shorter length, I really wish I knew what the one single issue was causing the problem but it seems to be multiple issues.
I just know that I have not yet personally had the problem with my posts.
So I am going to try to summarize all the issues we seem to have found. I am not sure if this is complete or not but it is some progress I hope.
Originally Posted By: new2nev
Cadet, typing directly worked for me. Copying and pasting from notepad or Microsoft Word does not.
Hope that helps!
Originally Posted By: rminer
Cadet,
Copy/paste from Word is when I'm getting blank posts too. Directly typing has worked.
Originally Posted By: arsh18
I am still having this problem both on phone and with direct typing on laptop
Originally Posted By: GettinT
I only can post if very short
Originally Posted By: arshi
I am still having this problem both on phone and with direct typing on laptop
Originally Posted By: Virginia
In the meantime, the UBB expert who has been helpful to us over the years is suggesting that basically users are compiling their posts in a word processor, and it's converting regular apostrophes and quotes to curly quotes, which causes issues. So for now, the best advice we can give is to instruct users to NOT use a word processor to make their posts. An editor such as Notepad doesn' insert its own characters and should work better.
Originally Posted By: Btrow
Silly question, but do you all try the preview button before submitting?
Originally Posted By: AnotherStander
Cadet, I just discovered something interesting. I tried pasting a message in here that blanked out twice in Steve's thread and sure enough it blanked out here too. The odd thing is if I paste it in the Quick Reply window and then hit "Switch to Full Reply Screen" then when it does, the window blanks out. If I hit "Preview Reply" it still shows up. So I used this trick and tried to cut the message down to see if I could locate the offending element in it. Strangely I still can't figure it out. It seems to not like the length of the post rather than any particular piece of text in it. I can delete the first half and it will magically display, or I can leave the first half and delete the second half and it will display. But I can't leave the whole thing. I will post the message in two parts so the guru can look to see if there's anything there that might point at the problem.
This applys to previous quote
Originally Posted By: AnotherStander
It wasn't anything I wrote, it was something I quoted, and it may very well be what Virginia mentioned that's causing it. It was the apostrophe in the word "doesn't" and "I'm". I edited only those 3 apostrophes in his quote that was blanking out and now it's showing up fine:
Originally Posted By: AnotherStander
Cadet, I just noticed that mtb1981 posted a blank post and in the next post he mentioned it was send from his cell phone so maybe it's notation characters on certain cell phones that are causing the problem:
Originally Posted By: Jlh
(Apparently posting from my ipad causes issues so I'm trying again from my laptop.)
Originally Posted By: doodler
The issue with the blank messages is the apostrophes and quotes in Word (maybe other characters and word processors as well). Even when you save the Word document to text, it preserves the special characters for apostrophes and quotes.
I copied and pasted my Word document into Notepad++ and changed the encoding to UTF-8 and you can see, and correct, all of the special characters.
Also the length of the posts MAY have something to do with this issue too, although I still do not understand why.
Last edited by Cadet; 04/27/1812:54 AM. Reason: add more
Hi, any news from UBB expert on what causes the problem? I cannot post anything longer than two sentences even with previewing the post no matter from PC or phone...
Testing a longer post which will just be nonsense to see how long before it no longer shows up. Blah blah blah Stuff blah blah blah blah. More stuff more stuff etc blah stuff.
M 40 W 34 Together 7 Married 2 No Kids BD 1/18 need space Moved out 2/18 ILYBNILWY & Asked for D 3/18 W filed for D 6/18 D final 10/18
Hi, any news from UBB expert on what causes the problem? I cannot post anything longer than two sentences even with previewing the post no matter from PC or phone...
Originally Posted By: new2nev
Short post like that one line worked. Longer post did not work. Sigh.
Originally I thought it was length of posts too. But I finally figured out it was quotes (") and apostrophes (') that were causing the trouble. If you type a short enough message you probably don't have any quotes or apostrophes in it, but as soon as you type a longer message and they start creeping in then your message won't post.
One foolproof way to verify your post will go through is to type it in the "Quick Reply" window and then hit "Switch to Full Reply Screen". If your message is still there then you're golden, if not then back up a page and edit the punctuation out of it and try again.
For a little while now our users have been complaining of disappearing posts. At first I discounted the reports, but now I have an actual example:
The OP posted something, but his post is empty. What's really odd is you can click on Quick Quote (but not Quote) and it "reappears". I did that and replied, and my reply is empty as well.
I then copied and pasted the text into a reply and that is also empty.
Then I replied again and removed the quote code, but it's still empty. So then I replied and simply typed Testing. That showed up.
Those people having disappeared posts need to remove contractions with the symbol that makes it a contraction!!!
The disappearing post issue is related to character sets. UBB doesn't seem to be enforcing a specific character encoding, so it's using whatever the author happens to have on their device.
There are multiple "character sets" and different devices have different standards. I'm currently typing on a mac and with this site, the default representation of quotations are vertical single quotes and double quotes -- ' and ".
Those work fine.
If I author on my iPad, the default representation of these characters are "curly quotes" meaning that the left quote and right quote are different, with angles.
Those "curly quotes" cause posts to appear blank. I tried eliminating all the quotes from a problematic post but it was still posting blank from an iPad, so I'm guessing the comma character encoding or some other punctuation may be an issue.
Microsoft Word also uses curly quotes which is why people are reporting that cut and paste from Word causes it to disappear.
I would be that if you author in Notepad and cut and paste you'll have no problem.
Probably worth some research on character set support (or enforcement) with the bulletin board engine you're using.
Acc
Married 18, Together 20, Now Divorced M: 48, W: 50, D: 18, S: 16, D: 12 Bomb Dropped (EA, D): 7/13/11 Start Reconcile: 8/15/11 Bomb Dropped (EA, D): 5/1/2014 (Divorced) In a New Relationship: 3/2015
It seems to be a common occurrence with Apple products based on several of the posts above and my own experience with my first attempt at a post here. I am using a Mac desktop and I experienced the disappearing issue. I just have to remember to not use apostrophes and quotes when posting!
M: 40 W: 37 T: 20 MR: 13 S13, S9, S4 BD: 1/29/18 Sep: 4/23/18 (I moved out) 8/24/18 I come home, she moves out
If you want to get out of the hole, drop the shovel.
It seems to be a common occurrence with Apple products based on several of the posts above and my own experience with my first attempt at a post here. I am using a Mac desktop and I experienced the disappearing issue. I just have to remember to not use apostrophes and quotes when posting!
Yes - we need an upgrade on our forum software but so far it has not been done.
Hopefully at some point on the future this will be resolved
Cadet, just wanted to recognize you and say thank you for your tireless efforts related to this issue! I know you've been hard at work restoring posts, even when the poster doesn't remember to heed the advice in this thread.
So a big thank you for all of your efforts!
M(53), W(54),D(19) M-23, T-25 Bomb Drop - Dec.23, 2017 Ring and Piecing since March 2018
Cadet, just wanted to recognize you and say thank you for your tireless efforts related to this issue! I know you've been hard at work restoring posts, even when the poster doesn't remember to heed the advice in this thread.
So a big thank you for all of your efforts!
Your welcome.
Now if I could figure out how to get them to read this thread.
M 53 W 54, M since 98 D15, D19 8/2013 discovered EA, W maintained contact with OM until 10/14 7/2/17 W said she wanted S, 7/25/17 moved out of MBR 12/17 W says moving out 5/18, W still in home.
