Problems with HTML and Post Flooding Error Messages

[pburn]

For the record:

Windows 10 OS -- up to date

Chrome browser -- up to date

Desktop platform

Twice today, I've composed replies to posts and received an HTML error after clicking the "Reply" button. That's not unusual when a quote or a link or whatever is included in a reply; however, when I click the "Reply" button a second time--which usually posts the reply, I'm getting a post-flooding error message. I go back and check the thread, and my message has not posted.

The only way I've been able to get the reply posted is to remove all quoted material, in one case, or run it through an HTML stripper in another case. Stripping out the HTML is a huge headache, since it removes anything like a bold font or a color font or a bullet list, etc.

I don't know what has changed to prevent the replies from being posted after acknowledging the HTML error (by clicking on "Reply" a second time).

If anyone else has experienced this recently with Chrome, I'd be interested!

@eburtonlab -- Any ideas?

sheila@ebay 

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

Flooding error messages were common in the past; much less so lately. Possibly due to a combination of board changes and changes in the way I post.

I have run into the flooding error lately, though that was due to posting the same material more than once (following up on the PayPal problem last week).

My general suggestions for avoiding html errors directly (and flooding errors, indirectly):

Before posting a message, use the "Preview" link in the upper right. If the post contains pasted material, you may get an html error. Ignore it, and use the "Preview" link again. If the post preview loads and looks reasonable, go ahead and post it using the "Reply" button without exiting the preview screen.

I surmise that using the "Preview" option causes some html to be either translated or stripped out of the post; but one pass may not be enough to complete the job. The second "Preview" seems to do the trick though.

If the preview does not work, try erasing and pasting the quoted material again using Control-Shift-V instead of Control-V to strip out non-text. You may need to reformat a bit to make it look nice. Then try previewing again.

In the past it was common for me to receive an html error when trying to post or preview; after correcting the error, a subsequent post attempt was likely to generate a flooding error, as the first attempt was likely counted toward the "flooding".

Going through the "Preview" process until the preview page loads without error seems to avoid the flooding-due-to-html-error for me.

The flooding error, once encountered, can be quickly bypassed by adding a newline to the start or end of a post.

[Don't tell the spammers.]

[lisa5768]

Have had the same issue over the past few days. Had to change a word to make it different before it would post. I am using Firefox and Win 10 desktop, all updated.

[wastingtime101]

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@pburn wrote:

Twice today, I've composed replies to posts and received an HTML error after clicking the "Reply" button.

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Did those posts have an emoji? Four different people told me they're seeing the same problem you described when they add an emoji from the toolbar.

[sheila@ebay]

Also are any of the Community pages stale? Meaning did you have the post open for 45 minutes or longer before responding?

I should preface this by stating that I'm not not acknowledging there might be an issue because if there is, I certainly want to get it fixed.  I used get errors all the time, but now I refresh every page before posting and I haven't gotten any error in months.

[pburn]

sheila@ebay 

No, I didn't have a post open for 45 minutes or longer before responding.

[a_c_green]

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sheila@ebay wrote:

Also are any of the Community pages stale? Meaning did you have the post open for 45 minutes or longer before responding?

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For me, no. I've found two methods of provoking this error:

1. Bring in quoted material, then trim out part of it back to either the beginning or end of the quoted material. This can inadvertently delete either a hidden start or a hidden end HTML tag, which then gets the Khoros software all upset. Its initial insertion process cannot fix the HTML problem.
   Workaround: Don't include any quoted material in your reply. Post your reply without it, then add the quotes you want during your 5-minute Edit time. For some reason, the Edit update process is more robust at spotting and fixing unbalanced-tag errors.
    
2. Try to include an emoji using the popup menu of emoji faces. It will allow the emoji into the text, then complain bitterly when you try to post your reply. (I put a smiley in between "faces" and "It" in the line above, but could not post this reply until I removed it.
   Workaround: It's a bit limiting for creativity, but you can construct some of the basic emojis from punctuation marks, and the Khoros software will recognize the patterns and insert the matching emoji. For example, <colon><hyphen><right parentheses> will successfully transform into 🙂 in your post.

[sheila@ebay]

@a_c_green when you click the quote button in the menu bar is that when you see the error? Or are you pasting a quote and then trimming that quote?

[evry1nositswindy]

I had this same problem with Chrome yesterday.

[a_c_green]

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sheila@ebay wrote:

@a_c_green when you click the quote button in the menu bar is that when you see the error? Or are you pasting a quote and then trimming that quote?

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sheila@ebay: I'm not pasting in a quote from elsewhere; I'm clicking the quote button to bring in the entirety of the post to which I'm replying, and then trimming it down to only the relevant portion I want. I see the error at the end, when I click the Reply button to post.

So here, for example, I know my reply will go in properly first time, as I have not trimmed any of what I'm quoting from you (and haven't added any emojis either; that's the other issue).

It's okay to delete portions of text from the middle of the quoted material, but if your click-drag-delete operation goes all the way to the top or bottom of the quoted material, it appears easy to accidentally delete the hidden beginning or end tag that starts or stops (respectively) the quoted text, leaving it unbalanced behind the scenes. The insertion code that attempts to post your reply gets all upset at the incomplete tagging around the quoted material and refuses to continue.

I think the post flooding complaint that follows when you try to re-post your reply might be caused by the code saying that tagging repairs have been to your original post, when in fact the repairs failed to do anything and no change was made. Thus your second attempt is blocked because you're trying to post exactly the same reply that was rejected the first time. 

The workaround I suggested will work because removing all the quoted material (or starting over and not bringing it in at all) gives the code a cleaner reply to work with. Once your reply is posted with no quoted material, you can bring it down for editing within 5 minutes, and for whatever reason, including the quote and trimming it seems to go much better when posting the updated reply.

The only thing I can conclude from that is that parsing an edited reply seems to involve a different process than that of posting the initial reply, and the edited-reply insertion process seems to do much better at parsing and fixing hidden code as needed.

[donsdetour]

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sheila@ebay wrote:

@a_c_green when you click the quote button in the menu bar is that when you see the error? Or are you pasting a quote and then trimming that quote?

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Edited to see if I got the dread HTML error: did not quoting your post:

but that has been the problem recently;

Using the quote tabs is were it can happen on posts of eBay employees.

[a_c_green]

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@evry1nositswindy wrote:

I had this same problem with Chrome yesterday.

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Oh, good point; I should have said that I'm using Chrome, too, on a Windows 10 box.