"Your comment appears to be empty, please go back and try again."

September 14, 2006 11:12 AM

"Your comment appears to be empty, please go back and try again."
posted by dersins to Bugs at 11:12 AM (31 comments total)

Umm, no it's not. FF 1.5.0.4 on OSX 10.4.7.
posted by dersins at 11:13 AM on September 14, 2006

(trying to post to this thread.)
posted by dersins at 11:21 AM on September 14, 2006

Is there anything unusual about your comment, like is it only a link, or an image? I seem to recall this happening before but don't remember what the resolution was. Anyone?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:34 AM on September 14, 2006

640 by 480?
posted by jonson at 11:35 AM on September 14, 2006

1024 by 768?
posted by jonson at 11:35 AM on September 14, 2006

No image. I will attempt to post the comment in question below.
posted by dersins at 11:38 AM on September 14, 2006

Not working. Perhaps if I do this:

< em>...I too have had flights like dreams gazing at gorgeous abstract cloud patterns...
< small>posted by < strong>Skygazer< / strong> at 10:51 AM PST on September 14< / small> < / em>

Now < em>that's< / em> < a href="http://scarabic.net/eponysterical.html">eponysterical.< / a>
posted by dersins at 11:41 AM on September 14, 2006

i seem to recall this happenning when attempting to apply formatting (italic, bold, or any type of styling) to a line which begins "posted by..."

its part of matts fix for the counterfeit comment trick.
posted by quonsar at 11:42 AM on September 14, 2006

And, yes, I just inserted those extra spaces now. And the comment works fine in live and regular preview, just won't post.
posted by dersins at 11:42 AM on September 14, 2006

and i see that's precisely what you are trying to do!
posted by quonsar at 11:43 AM on September 14, 2006

or perhaps its only the small tag which affects the string "posted by..."
posted by quonsar at 11:44 AM on September 14, 2006

in any event, stop trying to style the posted by line you are quoting and your comment will post.
posted by quonsar at 11:44 AM on September 14, 2006

Thanks, quonsar. That must have been it. I inserted an ellipsis and it worked just fine.
posted by dersins at 11:44 AM on September 14, 2006

yeah, it happened to me before...
posted by quonsar at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2006

posted by quonsar at 11:46 AM PST on September 14
posted by orthogonality at 11:57 AM on September 14, 2006

So it's just the ensmallening that causes the problem?
posted by dersins at 12:01 PM on September 14, 2006

thanks q!

yeah, now I remember, if you try to put any formatting on a line that starts "posted by" it gives you that mysterious error.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:05 PM on September 14, 2006

I don't get how this is a problem?
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:05 PM on September 14, 2006

Well, you see, his comment appeared to be empty, and Metafilter told him to go back and try again. Which he did. And it didn't work. And it wasn't empty. And now we know why. So I guess it used to be a problem, but now it is a problem solved.
posted by Roger Dodger at 12:09 PM on September 14, 2006

I don't get how this is a problem?

That's like the "Christ what an asshole" equivalent for MeTa and AskMe.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:17 PM on September 14, 2006 [1 favorite]

I don't get how this is a problem?

well, you see, it used to be possible to fake a comment by another user by typing in the fake comment, a fake "posted by" line enclosed by <small> tags, then a couple of blank lines followed by your own comment. to the eye scanning the page, it would appear to be two comments. while marvelously funny for a while, it soon became ubiquitous at which point matt put in some code that prevents one from posting like that.
posted by quonsar at 12:20 PM on September 14, 2006

Of course, it wasn't the most robust bit of code.

posted by quonsar at 12:20 PM PST on September 14 [+] [!]


What quonsar said.
posted by cortex at 12:28 PM on September 14, 2006

Perhaps Matt's software is more sophisticated than we are thinking, and by telling dersins that his comment is empty, the code is helpfully suggesting that he try to edit his comment to make it meaningful or helpful to the thread.

Although I seem to have no trouble posting this...
posted by Kwine at 1:00 PM on September 14, 2006

"Your ENTIRE WEBLOG appears to be empty, please go back and try again."
posted by koeselitz at 1:18 PM on September 14, 2006

I don't get it.

posted by KevinSKomsvold at 3:18 PM CST on September 14


Yeah, me neither.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:34 PM on September 14, 2006

How was the trick done exactly?

_{posted by ambrosechapel at 1:23 PM PTSD on September 14}

posted by AmbroseChapel at 9:11 PM on September 14, 2006

If I were several times less lazy than I am, I'd go to the trouble of opening up the GIMP, editing together a PNG spoofing someone else's 'posted by...' line, making sure the background was pantone Metatalk Grey, uploading it somewhere and img-tagging it after something nasty.

Let's just imagine that I did. Please laugh with me.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:38 AM on September 15, 2006

Eh. 'sbeen done.

*staunchly withholds laughter*
posted by cortex at 7:54 AM on September 15, 2006

making sure the background was pantone Metatalk Grey

Don't forget that some of us view the site with the simple style sheet, so it will be grey against the #fff and we'lll be wise to your shenanigans.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:01 AM on September 15, 2006

transparency is your friend, cortex.
posted by quonsar at 8:15 AM on September 15, 2006

The moose flies at dawn, quonsar.
posted by cortex at 8:35 AM on September 15, 2006