Well, this is probably a bug... April 17, 2007 1:05 AM   Subscribe


posted by Ogre Lawless to Bugs at 1:05 AM (71 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Just noticed this with this helpful notation. Pre-translation check validates that there's content but post-translation nulls it out before loading. I'd expect other cases lurk as well -- the above with [img], but maybe [span], etc...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:07 AM on April 17, 2007



posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:07 AM on April 17, 2007


Huh, yeah, that too: tags surrounding nothing qualify as okay.

I mean, I suppose it's one better than ".". Maybe its a feature!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:09 AM on April 17, 2007



posted by bigmusic at 1:20 AM on April 17, 2007


LESS NERDLISH MORE ENGLISH
posted by loquacious at 1:42 AM on April 17, 2007 [10 favorites]


I don't get it. There are an infinite number of ways to post a blank comment, even without resorting to using banned tags, e.g. <b></b>. There is no realistic way for the parser to be able to detect a truly blank comment, without having to parse an arbitrarily complex nesting of tags. It doesn't seem very worthwhile to worry about this.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:09 AM on April 17, 2007



posted by sveskemus at 2:48 AM on April 17, 2007


Rhomboid, if you have no content that is not a tag it is blank? Is there some tricky way to generate content from html tags?
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:29 AM on April 17, 2007


I don't understand what you're asking. The current comment/post parser only knows to reject a comment/post if it's actually blank, i.e. contains no characters (or no characters other than newlines.) But you can also write comments/posts that contain characters but nothing to display, and the task of writing a comment/post parser that can detect this in all its forms is very, very hard. It would have to be a full HTML parser, since you can nest HTML tags to an arbitrary depth. When you combine this with the dozens of Unicode entites for nonbreaking spaces or hair-spaces, it becomes even trickier. In other words, it's not possible in a reasonable amount of effort to be able to reject all posts/comments that display nothing, so it's not worth wasting mathowie's time trying in vein to do it.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:39 AM on April 17, 2007


<b></b>

My arbitrarily complex nesting of tags is broken. It's only blank half the time. Hope ples?
posted by Eideteker at 3:52 AM on April 17, 2007 [3 favorites]


HI I'M FROM METAFILTER AND I COULD OVERTHINK A POST OF BLANK
posted by DU at 4:19 AM on April 17, 2007 [7 favorites]


- this comment intentionally left blank -
posted by mendel at 4:27 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


If you're complaining about images appearing in previews and disappearing in your posts, most of us got that memo half a year ago. If you're complaining about empty tags causing empty posts, that would be the fault of the user writing a post consisting of empty tags and not noticing the preview field's blank.
posted by ardgedee at 5:06 AM on April 17, 2007


.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:23 AM on April 17, 2007


To lose my train of thought and fall into your arms' tracks
and watch beneath the eyelids every passing dot.

posted by and hosted from Uranus at 5:40 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


It might* not be too hard or problematic to throw a more robust check for post-filter blankness into the posting scheme. Agreed, Rhomboid—doing it Right would be a tremendous pain. But doing a post-filter match for anything other than some common whitespace characters would at least help.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:46 AM on April 17, 2007


* I don't really know how much work Matt would feel like doing on this, natch.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:46 AM on April 17, 2007




  1. Profit!

posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:31 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


Is there some tricky way to generate content from html tags?

Not especially tricky, but tags like <img> and <hr> represent content but are not text. I can't think of any examples of this, however, that are still allowed around here anymore, so why wouldn't kirkaracha's method work?
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 6:37 AM on April 17, 2007


<style type="text/css">p:after { content: " in bed" }</style>
<p>With enough skill and the proper permissions, it's simple to create new content on the fly</p>
posted by Plutor at 6:56 AM on April 17, 2007 [2 favorites]


Assume infinite skill, but the permissions of a plebe mefite wielding the comment box (or a spoofed comment box).
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:02 AM on April 17, 2007


MetaFilter: My arbitrarily complex nesting of tags is broken.
posted by Mister_A at 7:16 AM on April 17, 2007


How odd, I just put this in my favorites last week and even mentioned it in the podcast it was edited out.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:21 AM on April 17, 2007


I remember hearing that in there Jessamyn.
posted by Mister_A at 7:35 AM on April 17, 2007


Wait, so that thread that you linked to, Jess, was redacted after the fact? The comments weren't empty before? Why go to that effort? Why not just delete the thread?
posted by Dave Faris at 7:38 AM on April 17, 2007


What gave you that idea, Dave? (Somehow also I found myself visiting that thread recently.)
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:40 AM on April 17, 2007


and hosted from Uranus: "Assume infinite skill"

Step 1: Fashion a robot, a perfect facsimile of Mathowie..
posted by Plutor at 7:40 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


The robot should be 50 feet high and roam the desert, yes?
posted by Mister_A at 7:42 AM on April 17, 2007


Much Ado About Nothing.
posted by cerebus19 at 7:42 AM on April 17, 2007


No, we redacted Ogre Lawless' preamble above out of respect to 511.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:45 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


MetaTalk MadLibs
posted by grateful at 7:45 AM on April 17, 2007


Most zen callout EVAR.
posted by freebird at 7:51 AM on April 17, 2007

HI I'M FROM METAFILTER AND I COULD OVERTHINK A POST OF
Fixed that for you.
posted by scrump at 7:59 AM on April 17, 2007


No Dave, she means the thread mention didn't make it into the podcast. It was a blank bugs thread from six years ago, and she randomly found it and we talked about how it might go off today (many more blank comments), but I didn't want to encourage people screwing around with mefi trying to display nothing, so I didn't leave it in the final version of the podcast (which was already 40min long anyway).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:05 AM on April 17, 2007


oh I see.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:21 AM on April 17, 2007


This thread says nothing to me.
posted by Abiezer at 8:32 AM on April 17, 2007


Step 1: Fashion a robot, a perfect facsimile of Mathowie..
posted by Plutor at 7:40 AM on April 17 [+]
[!]

The robot should be 50 feet high and roam the desert, yes?


Did we learn NOTHING from the Legend of John Henry’s Hammer? You can’t replace people with machines! Johnny Cash would have the following to say about this…

The Legend Of Matthowie’s BanHammer
(Live at Folsom)


Matthowie's pappy woke him up one midnight
He said, "'Fore the spamers comes an get me- I wanna tell you- listen boy!
Said, Learn to Host a Site, learn Moderate all Night, learn to post and comment too,
And take my BanHammer! It'll do anything you tell it to.

Matthowie's site had about a dozen spamers,
Matthowie had to ban each about dozen times
But when the site got full and the servers need money,
He said, how bout ya pay me five dollars at a time, startin tomorrow,
To pay for the servers on this site of mine.

Some nasty trolls they shouted, Hey - BanHammer swinger!
I see you got your own website boy, but what else can you and that hammer do?
And he said, I can Host a Site, I can Moderate all Night, I can post and comment too
(can ya swing that hammer?)
It can ban anyone i wants it to.

Well Matthowie BanHammered on the server.
He'd give a grunt and he'd give a groan with every swing.
Fanboy's for miles around heard him bannin and logged on,
To watch him clean up them threads they seen. Lord what a swinger!
Just to watch him fix up their computer screens!

But them bad spamers come up laughin' at Matthowie.
Said, You full of AJAX now, but you about through!
We gotta brandknew SpampBot gonna shit all on yer website,
Then what's yer banhammer gonna do? Huh, Matthowie?
This viscious scripting surely gonna pwn you.

Matthowie said, I got about 50000 users,
And havn’t yet bought them all their ponies.
Did the lord say that machines aughtta take the place of living?
Can your spambot overthink a plate of beans? (amirite)
Naw they can't see the people though the data streams

Matthowie said to teh Spamers, A man ain't nothin' but a man.
But if you'll bring that SpamBot round, I'll beat it fair and honest.
I'll die with my BanHammer in my hand but, I'll be laughing
'Cuz you can't replace this metafiltern man.

There was a big crowd of people at the Weblog,
Matthowie said to the SpamBot, How is you?
Pardon me mister SpamBot, I suppose you didn't hear me. I said how is you
Well can you Host a Site, can ya Moderate all Night, can ya post and comment too?
Listen - this moderator's talkin' to you!

50000 users hollered, Go, Matthowie!
Then somebody hollered, The Server's's caving in!
Matthowie he told cortex, tell the kind folks don't worry.
That ain't nothin' but my BanHammer suckin' wind! (It keeps me typin.)
My leet skills in deletion I protend.

Cortex, told the people, move back further!
I'm on the gray and there ain't no spambot to be seen.
Bounced off the blue and green, but yet ain't got the brains to quit it!
When she blows up she'll scatter cross the web! (Lord Lordy!)
When she blows up she'll scatter cross the web!

Well Matthowie had a honest admin,
I believe the lady's name was Jessamyn. (Yeah she was the backup admin.)
Matthowie threw his BanHammer over his shoulder and went on home.
And early next mornin', he said,
Come here Jessamyn Come here
Ya know, I believe this is the first time I ever watched the sun come up
That I couldn't come up with it.
Take my BanHammer, Jessamyn, and get back on the Weblogs.
And when you're swinging at them trolls,
But, but tell them ain't all you can do.
Tell 'em I can Host a Site, I can Moderate all Night,
I can post and comment too (Ain't no machine can!)
That's been proved to you!

There was a big mess of comments in the obit thread.
And no one even tried to flame or snark.
Traffic goes go by on the website Matthowie made.
Some of 'em say, 'Mornin', webmaster! You shor' was a BanHammer swinger!
Then they go on by, pickin' up a little speed. (Clickity clack, clickity clack, clickity clack, clickity clack)
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman, oh lord!
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman.
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman, oh lord!
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman.
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman, oh lord!
Yonder lies Teh Metafilterman.
posted by French Fry at 8:35 AM on April 17, 2007 [2 favorites]


Johnny Cash would have the following to say about this…

Blatant MuFi pandering. Get a couple of performers to do a couple of renditions of lyrics and look what happens...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:20 AM on April 17, 2007



posted by shmegegge at 9:20 AM on April 17, 2007


Blatant MuFi pandering.

Seriously. What, you think those guys who did the Community Blog song are just gonna whip out a version of that for you? Dream on, uddersucker.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:25 AM on April 17, 2007


Uddersucker would be a great sockpuppet handle.
posted by Mister_A at 9:28 AM on April 17, 2007


Also, kirkaracha's method was what I came up with as well when trying to play WWMHD. Its not like there's a whole hell of a lot of valid tags here. Or entities. 9786;
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:29 AM on April 17, 2007


Get a couple of performers to do a couple of renditions of lyrics and look what happens...

Well as one of those performers in the past, I thought it was funny on preview at 8:30pst, an hour later... meh.
Why I do anything at all in the mornings is a mystery to me, I always come off as such an uddersucker ;)
posted by French Fry at 9:44 AM on April 17, 2007


I think I read somewhere you can get your uddersucking done by proxy now, French Fry. Gets you a lie-in
posted by Abiezer at 9:50 AM on April 17, 2007


I think the main thing is you got to stop posting when you're sucking udders, man.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:50 AM on April 17, 2007


All that milk on the keyboard... feels shocky.
posted by French Fry at 9:56 AM on April 17, 2007


Is sucking udders like the french kiss of dairy production? Enjoyable, but functionally bankrupt.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 10:00 AM on April 17, 2007


Morally Bankrupt
posted by French Fry at 10:03 AM on April 17, 2007


MONOPOLY BANKRUPT
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:13 AM on April 17, 2007


Monopoly BoyBand
posted by Mister_A at 10:19 AM on April 17, 2007




You people will never understand me. Bigots all of you.
posted by uddersucker at 10:27 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


While we're on fluids, did the line in the FPP about a cum boy band confuse anyone else at first?





Okay, fine.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:28 AM on April 17, 2007


Well Bah Flimsha, if that is your real name, how come you didn't yell "first post!" when you posted that!?!?!
posted by Mister_A at 10:31 AM on April 17, 2007


Because it's a standing rule that the first user to utter the string "first post!" in any mefi thread will be summarily banned.

Sorry about that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:38 AM on April 17, 2007


first post!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:40 AM on April 17, 2007


Looks like we're both in a spot here, eh, cortex?
posted by Mister_A at 10:40 AM on April 17, 2007


You too Flo!

Also:
Because it's a standing rule that the first user to udder the string "first post!" in any mefi thread will be summarily banned.

Fixed that for you.
posted by Mister_A at 10:41 AM on April 17, 2007


You've been summarily banned. Hush.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:42 AM on April 17, 2007


Ew, not pretty. The Sumerian Ban is even more gruesome than the Colombian Necktie.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 10:45 AM on April 17, 2007


Udderly Band.

*weeps*
posted by Mister_A at 10:46 AM on April 17, 2007


So merrily boned.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:53 AM on April 17, 2007


With enough skill and the proper permissions, it's simple to create new content on the fly

The code I linked to would strip out anything within angled brackets, including CSS.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:26 AM on April 17, 2007


The Sumerian Ban

Out on the road for forty days,
Last night in Lagash, put me in a haze.
Sweet, sweet Ishtar was doin' her act,
She had the whole show and that's a natural fact.

Up all night with Enkidu:
I got to tell you, I'm in his crew.
The skies roared with thunder, then a stillness like death,
The Sumerian Ban hit Gilgamesh!

It's the Sumerian Ban
It's the Sumerian Ban
We're comin' to your town
We'll raze it to the ground—
It's the Sumerian Ban!

Four young Elamites in Susa town
Waitin' for the Sumerian Ban to come down,
A feelin' bad, feelin' tight and it's time to smite
Sargon of Akkad, he was outta sight.

Now these fine fellows, they had a plan,
They was out to foil the Sumerian Ban.
They said, "Come on dudes, let's get it on!"
But we proceeded to tear Susa down.

It's the Sumerian Ban
It's the Sumerian Ban
We're comin' to your town
We'll raze it to the ground—
It's the Sumerian Ban!
posted by languagehat at 11:37 AM on April 17, 2007 [5 favorites]


nebulawindphone: yes.
posted by iguanapolitico at 11:43 AM on April 17, 2007


I know a guy who says the story of Gilgamesh is all about being annihilated in the Divine presence and then the subsequent return to daily life as a transfigured being.

The story of Gilgamesh is about an orgasm?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:49 AM on April 17, 2007


While this comment contains text, it is still relatively free of any actual content.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:51 AM on April 17, 2007




But I don't think       ever gets old, like when you       an     when the     has just been         with         and           cantaloupe, completely filling the bathtub.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 2:46 PM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


Blatant MuFi pandering. Get a couple of performers to do a couple of renditions of lyrics and look what happens...

Bah. I been a-Mefizing song lyrics since before Mefi Music was born, sonny-jim!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:40 PM on April 17, 2007


« Older love   |   Neat comment! Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments