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Weird forum posting issue


JorgeA

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I will soon be migrating from my beloved Vista + IE8 system to a Windows 7 system using Internet Explorer 9. Been practicing with it and generally making it ready, adding website passwords and making sure that everything works.

Well, one thing that I haven't been able to get to work properly on the new system is posting on MSFN. To be specific, whenever I want to add formatting to a chunk of text, if I highlight the desired text and then click on the desired option (say, for boldface), then the formatting characters ("b" in square brackets followed by "/b" in square brackets) show up at the very beginning of the post. That is, they appear together at the beginning of the very first line of text in the post. :blink:

This happens whether I want to do boldface, italics, or underlining. It also happens if I want to attach a hyperlink to selected text -- the link info goes to the top left, and then I have to laboriously copy-and-paste the pieces around the intended text.

Does anybody have any idea what the heck could be causing this?? :unsure: It's an up-to-date Windows 7 install with IE9. It doesn't happen on Vista with IE8. Maybe any settings within IE that I should be looking at? (I'd rather stick with IE, as it's the browser that I know best and I'm looking at quite enough changes already.)

I'd happily keep doing my MSFNing on the Vista system, except that the major way that I participate in the Forum is by receiving notifications of new posts in the threads that I'm subscribed to, and then clicking on the links in the notification. If I can't migrate my e-mail client to the new PC, there's not much point in using the new PC as then I'd have to keep going back and forth between machines.

Thanks very much for any ideas or suggestions.

--JorgeA

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Jorge, I've seen something similar in Opera, but very sporadically, and I haven't been able to nail it down but I think it lies in saved settings like cookies. Now, to go further out on a limb I believe permissions can also tie into this.

Assumption-1 ... you have Win7sp1 64-bit

Assumption-2 ... you use standard non-Admin account

{a} Install both 32 and 64 bit versions of MSIE9 ( also manually check Windows Updates until all MSIE patches are gone ). And have both shortcuts available and clearly identified on your desktop or taskbar or start menu.

{b} Using standard account test MSFN BBcode formatting in each MSIE version, one at a time (close other one). Does it happen identically in both?

{c} Now repeat {b} for both versions but start MSIE each time using right-click > run as administrator, test again. Does it happen identically in both?

If it works okay as Admin I would suggest that there is a permissions issue in the cookies and/or settings that will require some tweaking ( probably either the cookies folder location will need to take ownership or some registry keys that I cannot yet identify will need same ).

One step at a time though. Ruling out the 32-64 bitness first is important ( obviously if your Windows is 32-bit then it is already excluded ). Then, identifying this as only occurring in non-Admin usage will prove it is permissions related.

FWIW, I just tested MSIE8 on WinXP ( admin naturally ) and could not recreate the problem.

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@Charlotte: Thanks very much for the detailed suggestions. Looks like I've got some work to do; I'll report back.

@jaclaz: The contrast between Charlotte's approach and yours could not be any sharper.

The idea of using a good browser, just for a change after all these years of (bloated) internet explorer use, didn't cross your mind, right? :unsure:

jaclaz

--JorgeA

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Jorge, I've seen something similar in Opera, but very sporadically, and I haven't been able to nail it down but I think it lies in saved settings like cookies. Now, to go further out on a limb I believe permissions can also tie into this.

Assumption-1 ... you have Win7sp1 64-bit

Assumption-2 ... you use standard non-Admin account

{a} Install both 32 and 64 bit versions of MSIE9 ( also manually check Windows Updates until all MSIE patches are gone ). And have both shortcuts available and clearly identified on your desktop or taskbar or start menu.

{b} Using standard account test MSFN BBcode formatting in each MSIE version, one at a time (close other one). Does it happen identically in both?

{c} Now repeat {b} for both versions but start MSIE each time using right-click > run as administrator, test again. Does it happen identically in both?

If it works okay as Admin I would suggest that there is a permissions issue in the cookies and/or settings that will require some tweaking ( probably either the cookies folder location will need to take ownership or some registry keys that I cannot yet identify will need same ).

One step at a time though. Ruling out the 32-64 bitness first is important ( obviously if your Windows is 32-bit then it is already excluded ). Then, identifying this as only occurring in non-Admin usage will prove it is permissions related.

FWIW, I just tested MSIE8 on WinXP ( admin naturally ) and could not recreate the problem.

OK, I've tried all the steps. The background is that this is Win7sp1 64-bit, using a non-administrator account.

I clicked the Quote (reply) button to one of the posts in this thread and then pasted text from another site at the end of it. Next, I tried to attach a link to that text by highlighting the text and then clicking on "insert link," then pasting the URL which I had just copied off the website where I got the text.

I did this in IE9 32-bit and IE9 64-bit, both in standard and as administrator, four times in all. Before moving on to the next test, I closed out the browser each time as you suggested.

In all four cases, the link information appeared at the very beginning of the reply post, before the first character. (This has happened before when editing a previous post and even when writing a whole new post, too, so FWIW it doesn't look like "edit" vs. "reply" vs. "new post" has anything to do with it.)

Hope that this at least helps to narrow down the possibilities.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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@jaclaz: The contrast between Charlotte's approach and yours could not be any sharper.

Sure :), and you should actually appreciate it, you see, if everyone had the same approach you would never have choices :no: .

;)

jaclaz

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In all four cases, the link information appeared at the very beginning of the reply post, before the first character. (This has happened before when editing a previous post and even when writing a whole new post, too, so FWIW it doesn't look like "edit" vs. "reply" vs. "new post" has anything to do with it.)

Well, and, at that point, if you highlight the full link info, cut it and then past it where you originally wanted it to be, does it get moved there as it should?

Furthermore, can you create the link by hand, by typing, say,

[url="http://www.any.link"]My link[/url]

and does it stay in place or does it teleport to before the first character in the text, too?

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The idea of using a good browser, just for a change after all these years of (bloated) internet explorer use, didn't cross your mind, right? :unsure:

jaclaz

Nice try, but as you can see in the quote below, the idea of using an alternative browser already had crossed my mind -- and I passed on it for the reason given there:

Does anybody have any idea what the heck could be causing this?? :unsure: It's an up-to-date Windows 7 install with IE9. It doesn't happen on Vista with IE8. Maybe any settings within IE that I should be looking at? (I'd rather stick with IE, as it's the browser that I know best and I'm looking at quite enough changes already.)
[emphasis added]

A time may come to experiment again with Firefox or Chrome or something else, but not now.

--JorgeA

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In all four cases, the link information appeared at the very beginning of the reply post, before the first character. (This has happened before when editing a previous post and even when writing a whole new post, too, so FWIW it doesn't look like "edit" vs. "reply" vs. "new post" has anything to do with it.)

Well, and, at that point, if you highlight the full link info, cut it and then past it where you originally wanted it to be, does it get moved there as it should?

Furthermore, can you create the link by hand, by typing, say,

[url="http://www.any.link"]My link[/url]

and does it stay in place or does it teleport to before the first character in the text, too?

When I highlight the full link info that ended up at the top, do CTRL-X, and then substitute it for the text in the desired place, then it shows up correctly as a hyperlink.

The same thing happens if I manually type the same characters in the same place. I'll go over to the IE9 in question and perform the demonstration. (See next post. Never mind the illogic of the links...)

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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This is an experiment (link created and then copy+pasted to desired location).

This is an experiment (link manually typed by hand in desired location).

Both of these work, as such, but they require a considerably more tedious operation than the "normal" automated way of inserting a link, making the process of creating a post that much more of a chore.

Edited by JorgeA
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That just sounds really weird. It's as if the highlighting isn't "taking", or gets un-highlighted when you click the formatting choice you are trying to implement, resetting the cursor position to the start of the post before implementing it. Surely if this was a problem with IE9 it would have been reported before now, so it must be something on your end. Not to try to get you to switch to a different browser, and I know you do not have this issue with IE8, but just to help pinpoint that it is some kind of issue with IE9 and not some other setting on your current system, could you try the same thing with any other browser of your choice, which you could uninstall immediately after if you choose to, Firefox, Chrome, SRWare Iron, (and there is even a portable versions of Iron you could use so you don't even have to install it), and see if you have the same problem? If not, then since it would be with the same system accessing the same site, then it would surely verify that it is an issue with some kind of IE9 setting that is amiss. Out of curiosity, when you installed IE9, I assume you upgraded from IE8? Could it be some kind of IE8 setting or extension or BHO that you had that isn't quite compatible with IE9? Or did you create an install disk that removed IE8 and replaced it with IE9 for a "cleaner" install? And to clarify, the system you have IE9 installed on that you are practicing with, is that on Vista or Win7? VM or real install? Just trying to throw out anything I can think of to help you or anyone else come up with an ah-hah moment. :)

Cheers and Regards

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I clicked the Quote (reply) button to one of the posts in this thread and then pasted text from another site at the end of it. Next, I tried to attach a link to that text by highlighting the text and then clicking on "insert link," then pasting the URL which I had just copied off the website where I got the text.

I did this in IE9 32-bit and IE9 64-bit, both in standard and as administrator, four times in all. Before moving on to the next test, I closed out the browser each time as you suggested.

In all four cases, the link information appeared at the very beginning of the reply post, before the first character. (This has happened before when editing a previous post and even when writing a whole new post, too, so FWIW it doesn't look like "edit" vs. "reply" vs. "new post" has anything to do with it.)

Okay, it looks to me that you ruled out a 32/64 bit quirk and you ruled out a standard/admin permissions issue.

I just tried this in Firefox 11, Opera 11 and MSIE 8 on WinXP ( admin ) and using those steps it did not recreate the bug.

I have noticed two bugs, but very sporadic in Opera 11 that are similar but not re-create-able ...


  • {1} the BBcode tags end up consecutive before the text they are supposed to be surrounding like this: {B}{/B}text, (substitute square for angle brackets)
    {2} an extraneous string of text lifted from the pending comment is padded at the end of the comment.

I would guess that MSIE is completely innocent of this bug, and instead it lies in the CSS translation layer that is built into IPB forum software and is manifested as different quirks in different browsers depending on their quirky adherence to the HTML-CSS standards.

Google hits ... now this one is labeled "solved" but does indicate other similarities.

I suspect that this one will fall into the black hole of PITA bugs that will never get solved. And I now think that I was completely on the wrong path thinking that it is a local permission or settings problem.

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Thanks for the many ideas and the probing questions, bphlpt. I'll address them as well as I can here, hoping that it'll help to narrow down the possibilities or give someone an "a-hah!" moment, as you said.

The PC with the issue is in fact the Windows 7 Home Premium (SP1) that I bought a few months ago. It came with IE9 factory-installed. IE9 does show up in the "Installed Updates" but the installation date is from five months before I bought the machine. Is there a way to tell if IE8 may ever have been on that system?

Since the system isn't "ready for prime time" yet because of this issue, there might be nothing better to do than to put an alternative browser in there and see how it handles posting on MSFN. I'd never heard of Iron; I'll look into it -- thanks! My other two leading candidates are Pale Moon and Avant, both of which seem to offer more informative interfaces than the trendy versions of IE or FF.

--JorgeA

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To continue adopting a different approach (a more aggressive one ;)) I find a lot of similarities between the guys at IPB and the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation:

http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation

in several (mostly unneeded/absurd) updates they changed the parsing engine and a lot of other settings, and effectively botched for good the (evidently less carefully managed than MSFN) reboot.pro board.

Here on MSFN there were some issues, see the link in my signature:

http://jaclaz.altervista.org/Projects/Convert_address.htm

but at least previous contents of the board was kept.

On both 911CD and boot-land a few years ago all links were botched, later on reboot.pro we had the same issues than here about thread post offsets, but also:

JFYI:

If you just read the last thread and the corresponding reply on the IPB (not a bug):

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/bugs.html/_/ip-board/post-offset-disabled-on-new-version-r37167

you can have a good estimate of the probabilities they will ever fix the issue you are having. (0.00%) (sorry :()

jaclaz

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I would guess that MSIE is completely innocent of this bug, and instead it lies in the CSS translation layer that is built into IPB forum software and is manifested as different quirks in different browsers depending on their quirky adherence to the HTML-CSS standards.

Google hits ... now this one is labeled "solved" but does indicate other similarities.

I suspect that this one will fall into the black hole of PITA bugs that will never get solved. And I now think that I was completely on the wrong path thinking that it is a local permission or settings problem.

Nice detective work, Charlotte, even if we haven't pinpointed the problem yet.

Assuming that it turns ouf to be a PITA bug, as you put it, then I could either:

  1. Switch to a new browser for all my work in the Windows 7 PC, or (I just thought of this)
  2. I could change to a secondary e-mail address for MSFN and set up Windows Mail in Vista to receive forum notifications there, while my business e-mail arrives to my main address in Outlook on the Windows 7 PC. (Good thing that Vista still came with Windows Mail.) I can access either PC by swiveling my desk chair. Then I would do my MSFN reading and posting from the Vista machine.

Neither of these approaches is ideal, but barring the discovery of a technical fix they may be the best available options.

--JorgeA

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