Test thread

[Sticks]

This is to see if I can create a thread still

[Sticks]

OK - I do not seem to be able to create a thread in the questions and Answer section

All I get is a blank screen and the word done in the bottom left hand corner of the browser

[Sticks]

It looks like I have been banned from asking questions in the Q&A section as attempts to post a question the are blocked and it will not post.

I can post any other thread there, except the question I wanted to ask.

[Frog march]

does the title include the word 'time'?


that always gets blocked.

[mugaliens]

does the title include the word 'time'?


that always gets blocked.

:confused:

Why?

[Sticks]

I used the terms anti-space and anti-universe

[Moose]

Sticks, last time you posted about this problem, your title had special characters in it. Avoid using things like single-quotes, parentheses, semi-colons. Keep the titles simple.

Thing is, special characters (and possibly certain keywords) are blocked because they have been used in the past to inject malicious code on database-driven forms.

A brief explanation (http://xkcd.com/327/) of the issue, courtesy XKCD.

[Sticks]

I used hyphens if that counts

[Moose]

Hmm. Don't think a hyphen would be blocked on its own, I think I've used them before in thread titles. Maybe try posting the thread question without them? If it works, that'll be your answer.

[Moose]

Okay, looks like there's something up with your question mark. Sticks, are you using special keyboard software or something? May I ask what OS you're using?

[Sticks]

Okay, looks like there's something up with your question mark. Sticks, are you using special keyboard software or something? May I ask what OS you're using?

Vista Home Basic

[Moose]

Hmm. So it'll be either extended ASCII or Unicode, which probably won't be the culprits on their own either.

Sticks, all I can suggest for the moment is to avoid using question marks in your topic titles. That should be the only field affected. Be interesting to know why that's happening, but I don't think I can track it down for you remotely like this. I'd have to actually poke at the machine a bit to see why your question marks are different.

[01101001]

Bet you a nickel that it's the same old familiar bug in vBulletin forum software that causes certain words in topic titles to make the first article fail to post.

See the comments above about the word "time". That's one of many that triggers the bug.

Topic: Unable to post new thread? (http://www.bautforum.com/about-baut/74295-unable-post-new-thread.html)

Everyone: please read it. It will happen to you eventually.

Edit: I see you may have tried title "anti-space" and "anti-universe"? "Space"
and "universe" I would be cautious of. I believe the bug is triggered by any word that has appeared extremely frequently within BAUT, words like: time, space, universe, and so forth. I just suspect it is some sort of software problem with the search index database, perhaps some bad assumptions about how often a word might be used.

Edit: I just tried "space" and "universe". They passed my test -- which is to try "Preview Post". It had been my experience that anything that triggered the bug upon topic posting also triggered it upon preview. I could only get a title with the word "time" to fail upon preview -- but those are the only ones I tried so others may yet exist.

[tdvance]

Is it a bug or a feature? I'm thinking of a plausible automated spam technique involving filling a title with phrases copied from other posts on the forum and then putting the ad in the text.

[HenrikOlsen]

I used hyphens if that counts
One or two? Double hyphen (--) is a comment start in SQL, so some kinds of input sanitation might trigger on that.