section[0] is undefined

April 20, 2011 12:23 PM

What's up with these javascript errors I just started getting on mefi?

I often end up idly pounding on alt. Like "I'm gonna hit alt-tab and get back to work! Naaaaah."

Well, today, metafilter started giving me a javascript error when I did that. It hasn't done that before.

In fact, it puts up a new javascript error every time I strike any key.

I'm in Firefox 3.6.16 from Ubuntu.
Here's what shows up on my console:
section[0] is undefined

function navkey(key){var modifiedKey=f...revArticle();if(key==59)prevPage();}}

http://mefi.us/scripts/mefi/members040811-min.js (line 9)

posted by Galaxor Nebulon to Bugs at 12:23 PM (22 comments total)

That section of the code powers our keyboard shortcuts: J scrolls down, K scrolls up. If the page you're on doesn't have posts or comments, it might complain about section[0], but I haven't seen that. What pages do you see the error on?

Do you have any Greasemonkey scripts installed that could be messing around with things?
posted by pb (staff) at 12:32 PM on April 20, 2011

huh, yeah, I'm seeing it in Firefox 4. Looks like keyboard navigation isn't working there. Looking into it.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:37 PM on April 20, 2011

ok, it should be working now. Our CSS class changes from the other day messed with the keyboard navigation code in Firefox. Let me know if you're still seeing problems.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:43 PM on April 20, 2011

You guys should write the book on site support. Fuck.
posted by carsonb at 1:02 PM on April 20, 2011 [12 favorites]

Looks good to me! Thanks.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 1:29 PM on April 20, 2011

You guys should write the book on site support. Fuck.

Step 3: Profit.
posted by inigo2 at 1:38 PM on April 20, 2011 [4 favorites]

You guys should write the book on site support.

They did. Isn't it showing up?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:08 PM on April 20, 2011

I am hungry and will wait patiently for a sandwich to appear.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 2:08 PM on April 20, 2011

Mmm! Great sandwich! Thanks, pb!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:17 PM on April 20, 2011

Mmm! Great sandwich! Thanks, pb!

Was it a peanut butter sandwich?
posted by kmz at 2:56 PM on April 20, 2011

How come I can't get no Tang 'round here?
posted by yerfatma at 3:01 PM on April 20, 2011

pb's now serving in another thread, yermata.
posted by likeso at 3:07 PM on April 20, 2011

yerfatma, even. Sorry! Shall I summon him as penance?
posted by likeso at 3:10 PM on April 20, 2011

I get an error every time I make a bad post. Not so much a JavaScript error, I get comments like "your post sucks". Please do something about this, because it really bothers me.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:35 PM on April 20, 2011

Just speaking as someone who deals with bug reports from users of his sites all the time (because I am a shitty disorganized coder), starting a bug report with 'What's up with X"? Well, that's a little peremptory, is what I'm saying.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:21 PM on April 20, 2011

What is up with X? Do you think the person who thought up X was really trying to make a period? But they couldn't figure out exactly where to put it. "Let's put it riiiiight... abouuuuut... Here." SO he draws an X. "Woh! I like that! That's a keeper."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:28 PM on April 20, 2011

/Seinfeld
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:29 PM on April 20, 2011

I now have a vision of summoning pb by shaking a bag of loose QWERTY keys over your keyboard like so many chicken bones. The resulting random code should be chanted quietly and a sandwich offering left on your DVD drive.

For more urgent matters, I expect there's a bat light.
posted by arcticseal at 3:23 AM on April 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

How annoying is it that if you accidentally mouseover the + or ! in FF4, it shows the javascript-required link at the bottom of the screen?
posted by smackfu at 7:10 AM on April 21, 2011

Please do something about this, because it really bothers me.

I could write you a script...
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:53 PM on April 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

I fixed that up with some javascript, smackfu.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:37 AM on April 22, 2011

Neat!
posted by smackfu at 7:17 AM on April 25, 2011