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Wasssup with the blank posts?

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H

Hal

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Wasssup with the blank posts?
It just seems to have started the last day or so.
I'll type out somethng and hit submit and the post is empty.

@ first I thought it was just me, but, I see there's a number of other blank posts.

Is it some kind of a time out issue or something?
 
We noticed them starting yesterday morning, and are looking into it. No resolution yet. I think it has to do with the abnormally high traffic we are starting to get on the site.
 
"I'll type out somethng and hit submit and the post is empty."

Yep. What you can do, though, is when you see that your post is empty, use the back button on your browser to go back to the message entry screen. What you typed in may still be there. Hit the submit button again, and hopefully it will take.
 
Notepad is your friend.... :)
Select all - copy - paste & spell check then submit..

Anyhow - thanks - I thought it was just my Dell and Win7/IE9 acting goofy.
 
Here's what's known so far:

It's not database corruption.
It's not any local code mods to vbulletin.
It appears to be a problem on the php side; debug output placed right before vbulletin saves post data to the database shows a lack of post content some of the time.

The bug usually disappears post content, but sometimes it leaves behind part of a url tag and the url, if there is one in the post.

Unfortunately, there are no readily apparent causes; the vbulletin php code hadn't been changed for a while before this started happening on Tuesday. All prior changes from standard vbulletin code are minor and shouldn't affect posting. It seems unlikely that code that was working before would suddenly start breaking, so there must be some external but as yet undiagnosed cause.

Until this is resolved, if you see a blank post, press the browser's back button, copy your post to the clipboard, then click the browser's forward button, edit the empty post, and paste the post content in. Then save changes.
 
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Maybe it is a troll program that just hates you and loves to delete your posts? :eek:.... Wait that means he hates me too .. I am sad now:(
 
For once I checked before posting. Same problem here. All I ask of the staff is when it is corrected please let the members know. Thanks to all the computer wiz kids.
 
Everyone please read the announcement that is at the top of each forum.

It makes suggestions for a work around until our tech guys can get a handle on this one.
 
Just did the edit and repost thing. got another blank post. repeating the edit repost worked the second time.

In the first re-edit I added a reason for the edit. Possibly the new line caused the second blank post.
 
That's the first I've heard of a retry failing, but I'm not surprised. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and the odds were getting better with every failed post.
 
Mal found the cause, which had been reported as a problem reported for vbulletin 4.x. We've downgraded pcre because apparently 8.21 has a bug. (Pcre was upgraded weeks ago but php hadn't been restarted until Tuesday, so that's when it started using the new version of the library.) We'll see if the problem's fixed now.

I'm certain it's fixed at this point (+4 hrs)
 
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boosted - did you get your blank post after or before tyme's post above yours?


Everyone - please post a quick note here if you get any blank posts from this point on so we'll know if it's fixed.
 
It appears the crisis is over. There hasn't been a single blank post since the instant tyme reverted PCRE back to V 8.20 on Friday.

I'll close this one down as fixed.
 
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