WATCH ERRORS!!! Vain - HELP!!!

Post by **Sorus** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 12:52 am

Glad to help.

The thread is renamed.

Post by **Cord Hurn** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:03 am

Sorus wrote:Glad to help.

The thread is renamed.

Thanks again, Sorus! Apparently I had some "coding" problem that was affecting my ability to "cut-and-paste" (I prefer to type up my longer posts outside of Kevin's Watch and then bring them into a Watch post--I've lost a half hour's worth of work once trying to type a long post directly into Kevin's Watch that then wouldn't submit

).

Anyhow, if you don't mind, Sorus, I'll continue to use the thread you created for me. Thanks again!

Post by **Avatar** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:58 am

I got it a few times last week too. I've mailed Vain about it. What worked for me was going and posting in a different thread, then coming back to the one where I got the error.

Cord Hurn, your problem is clearly that you use IE though.

Also, there's a browser plug-in called Lazarus Form Recovery that lets you recover anything you typed into a form or the reply box or whatever which is useful if you tend to type long posts.

--A

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:57 pm

Hey, I figured something out.

When I was quoting text that used a "right single quotation mark", I would get the error.

Your keyboard produces "single quote", which leans neither right nor left. But things pasted in from other sources might have the type that leans either to the left or the right. Right single quotation mark is often used as an apostrophe.

 - Right single quotation mark
' - Single quotation mark
 - Left single quotation mark

(Mystery: If you cannot enter a post with a right single quotation mark ... how did I do it just now?)

Here's the real mystery: Why did I never hit this error in 11 years, and then I got it all over the place?

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:19 am

Well, I can answer the real mystery but not the Mystery.

The reason is that there may have apparently been mod security changes on the server.

Vain replied to me. Says he's investigating it. Also says if anybody gets that error, please email him the post you were trying to make. You can PM me for his email, or you can mail it to me (my address is in my profile) and I'll forward it to him.

It is possible that some character combinations could be being prevented by the mod security (although damned if I know why that should be the case.)

I've sent him your post above WF.

--A

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:21 am

And then as luck would have it, I couldn't post the above, which includes no odd characters or combinations...

However, I went and posted in the Summonsing, then came back and could post the very same post.

So that does appear to work.

Vain will let us know when he figures it out.

--A

Post by **Sorus** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 11:26 pm

I sent you the line I was trying to post and the source. Tried posting it here just to test, and it was rejected.

Post by **Sorus** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 11:38 pm

January 22 - In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word "computer", is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Okay. That worked. The only thing I removed was a hyphen between '22' and 'In'. When I added it back manually, it was accepted.

Post by **Avatar** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 4:12 am

Bizarre. I've sent it to him, thanks.

--A

Post by **wayfriend** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:31 pm

There are many different kinds of hyphen characters. Probably it was't the one you get from the regular keyboard.

- - Hyphen (from a regular keyboard)
 - En Dash
 - Em Dash

Post by **wayfriend** » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:33 pm

Yep. If you quote my last post in a reply, it won't be accepted.

Something doesn't like Extended ASCII characters. Which is probably bad for international posters. Or anyone trying to spell Wurd with a diaeresis. (I tested, it fails.)

W

rd!

Article '1897' in Wikipedia wrote:January 22  In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word "computer", is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

... That's an em dash.

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 4:23 am

Well solved WF.

I'll let Vain know. (I call that an umlaut.

Blame 2 years of German.

)

(And I couldn't post this post...no ascii characters...but I did first use it to quote WF's post to test...)

--A

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 4:31 am

Only worked again when I clicked the reply button, and posted from there, instead of the quick reply.

--A

Post by **Avatar** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 4:58 am

Ok, Vain says thanks for the input, he'll work on a workaround over the weekend.

--A

Post by **Vain** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 8:18 am

Testing out this weirdo issue

Please be patient

Post by **Vain** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 8:41 am

OK so it is rejecting extended ascii characters. The fix I had results in the error not showing but also the post not posting

The hosts must have modified the security settings to prevent SQL injections via extended ascii characters which is a pain in the ass

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:42 pm

I'm getting a "Not Acceptable" error when trying to post in Gen SF/F right now. Post is just a URL and quote of an awards shortlist, it's saying it can't find an appropriate representation of posting.php.

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:23 pm

I'm Murrin wrote:I'm getting a "Not Acceptable" error when trying to post in Gen SF/F right now. Post is just a URL and quote of an awards shortlist, it's saying it can't find an appropriate representation of posting.php.

There's an extended ascii character somewhere. Probably looks like a quote or a dash, or it may be a letter with a diacritical mark.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:45 pm

Well, that's annoying. I had to replace all the quotation marks and apostrophes.

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 7:05 pm

Yep. We should get someone to fix it.