Can't remove a favourite

February 24, 2007 9:54 PM

Lately when I try to remove a favourite, I get this error message: URL is malformed: can't remove as a favorite. This has only been going for a couple weeks, I think. Perhaps it could be fixed.
posted by Listener to bugs at 9:54 PM (13 comments total)

Haven't heard anyone else report it.

Can you break down the exact steps and URLs you were looking at and what you clicked on?

I assume you're talking about going to your favorites page, and clicking on a remove favorite link, but is it all of them or just comments or just links? are the favorites from different parts of the site or just one?
posted by mathowie at 9:59 PM on February 24, 2007

Yup, I go to my favourites, from the bar at the top of the page, not the tab labelled "favourites" (I see now they are completely different), click to remove a favourite link (comment) and I get what I originally quoted above, black text on a white screen, and the URL for that is this:

http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/remove_favorite.mefi

And it is still happening, except now I see when I go back after doing it a couple times, the favourite does disappear. I don't know what you mean about comments or just links. They are linked comments from askmefi. Not sure if it's the same in other sections.
posted by Listener at 11:21 PM on February 24, 2007

What browser/OS?
posted by mathowie at 11:31 PM on February 24, 2007

I get that too, the "URL is malformed: can't remove as a favorite" but then if I refresh my Favorites page, the previously favorited post in now gone, like I wanted.

Firefox 2.0.0.2, Windows 2000 for me, but it was doing this on previous FireFoxes as well.
posted by BeerFilter at 4:38 AM on February 25, 2007

But then if I bypass the Proxomitron it works like you intended, I think, mathowie. So I would suggest Listener check out his or her proxy settings.
posted by BeerFilter at 4:47 AM on February 25, 2007

Yeah, I was going to say, if this was on Firefox, it was likely an extension conflict. The remove favorites link is a javascript/form-post thing and I bet something in the middle (proxy, security, no-js) is causing the problem.
posted by mathowie at 7:07 AM on February 25, 2007

Why would anyone logout remove a favourite?
posted by blue_beetle at 9:16 AM on February 25, 2007

I "favorite" posts and questions so I can read them later. After I read them, I don't need the "favorite" so I remove it.
posted by timeistight at 10:55 AM on February 25, 2007

Sometimes I accidentally click the + when I mean to click the !
posted by BeerFilter at 11:05 AM on February 25, 2007

Sometimes I accidentally click the + when I mean to click the !

Hence the phrase "I love this shit".
posted by cortex at 11:30 AM on February 25, 2007

It's a referer-header thing, MeFi tries to send you back to where you came from by the referer URL. And it doesn't degrade gracefully when there's no referer.
posted by fvw at 11:59 AM on February 25, 2007

I reported something similar a while back, but then it mysteriously went away.
posted by hooray at 12:37 PM on February 25, 2007

Got Firefox here, with the no-referred plugin. And when I put that in is about when the problem started. So I think that's it. Thanks.
posted by Listener at 2:03 PM on February 25, 2007