Problem with Posting.

[WA98296]

I've tried to post several threads to the board, only to be told that they may be similar to other threads and then can't post at all...pretty much no matter what the content of my message:

So, is it just me? What did I ever do?

[Fraggboy]

Have you tried refreshing your browser? Clearing all your cache? Hold Ctrl. + <F5> button to force a refresh of the webpage after you clear your browser cache.

Let us know how it goes..

[RoombaRules]

I've seen this quite a lot too. Unfortunately, this is nearly unavoidable I'm afraid when it comes to the general "iRobot Roomba and Scooba Chat" forum, simply because of the shear number of posts there. As of this writing, there are currently 7,487 topics and 51,228 posts.

In my case however, the system doesn't stop me from posting, but it does notify me. This could be because I am a moderator, but I'm not sure.

This is definitely an issue that should be looked into. With the growing amount of information on the board, it may be wise for us to move towards a system where searching is more prominent focus.

[Fraggboy]

Honestly, the sheer number of posts in a particular thread/board doesn't slow the forums down. There are several factors that can pertain to problems posting, which are generally temporarily.

First, the issue could be the member's PC, thus clearing out the cache, and forcing a refresh. If one does that, then they try to post again. If the issue persists, then they need to see if they can browse to another website of their choice. If they can get to other websites fine, but not here, then if they feel up to it, is to run a tracert to the website. That will determine 'some' information as to where the bottleneck may be. Now, one needs to know that performing a tracert can be wrong, and the number of hops can and probably will be wrong. That is due to people not allowing a ping back on their device.

Anyways, browsing the internet at any website is susceptible to latency and could cause these types of errors.

As far as the searching goes, Craig did improve the search engine. IMHO, everything is (and has been) running fine and nothing needs to be done. We just have to understand that there will be "Hiccups" every once in a while.

[robotreviews]

I've tried to post several threads to the board, only to be told that they may be similar to other threads and then can't post at all...pretty much no matter what the content of my message:

So, is it just me? What did I ever do?

Are you sure that the submit button is not there? Even if it suggests other topics, you can always scroll past that and submit anyway.

Regards,
Craig

[RoombaRules]

Chris,

I've never had any performance problems. The original poster didn't say anything about that either. The problem, from what I've seen, is that the system constantly warns me about (and in the original poster's case, may block him from) posting a topic similar to one previously posted on the board. This is why I mentioned the number of posts and whatnot, because as the amount of information grows, the statistical probablility of posting a topic similar to one already in existence grows as well.

This is no real fault of the board as there are so many topics that can be discussed about Roomba alone, let alone other robots. So naturaly, there will be many topics. But even if there were only 100 currently posted, would you as a new user look at every one of them before posting to see if it pertained to the subject of what you want to post? Some people may have the time and patience for that....I certainly did when I first came to this board. But other people don't. Now fast-forward to today where we have more than 7,000 topics on the board. Even if you were to take out all of the obsolete posts, old and dead (but nonetheless useful) threads about the original Roombas, etc. there would still be many 100s if not 1,000s of topics and posts. This leads me to conclude that it is rather difficult for a user to post an entirely new topic, rather than ressurecting an old one. While life isn't as simple as school would suggest, mathematics would seem to indicate that this would lead to a decrease in the number of posts per day on the forum, even as the user base expanded. Hpwever since this is far from an ideal world, systems like that which warn the users about the posting of a redundant topic are necessary, since many people would prefer to just post their specific question rather do some digging with the search feature. Hence why I mentioned it before. But at the same time, if people took some time to slow down and realized what they are doing, perhaps these kinds of mechanisms wouldn't be necessary. I doubt I could convince the world though....

[Fraggboy]

Seth,

I understand what your saying. I have seen the "related Posts" also, but I have always seen the Submit button anyways. That's why I suggested them to refresh the page to see if they can see the submit button, but they never got back to this thread.

I'm sure that either the button was never displayed, or was overlooked. No harm done.

As far as the new members searching for a related post will not always happen, thus Craig adding that feature to try and help it. But, I have been on many forums and there is no 100% way to force that to happen. We repeat ourselves a lot, which it doesn't bother me too much. I know it bothers some members here, which is fine. If they are bugged about that, they don't have to post. Problem solved.

[vic7767]

I've had issues when posting topics dealing with things like CHMs. No matter what words are used in the Subject line if one of the words is CHM then you are warned of this post being similar to others. You then hit the submit button and will receive the error message over and over until you figure out better wording in the Subject line.

[Fraggboy]

That is strange. I have never run into that (yet). I'm sure Craig can tweak it when he gets a chance to be less forgiving..

[mfortuna]

That is strange. I have never run into that (yet). I'm sure Craig can tweak it when he gets a chance to be less forgiving..

Did you mean "more forgiving"?

I ran into this issue once, hit the submit button, and the post was accepted.

[Fraggboy]

Mike,


Your right, more forgiving on how the searching mechanism works. Just display the posts that are similar, but don't ask for them to change anything.

Thanks!

[robotreviews]

The way it is currently set is to ONLY offer suggestions. It is NEVER supposed to prevent you from posting.

If anyone runs into a problem where they are unable to post, please let me know the specific error that you received, and I will try to resolve the problem.

Regards,
Craig