Having Problems Posting Replies.

If this goes out, then I can post new messages OK.

Whenever I try to respond to a topic, I get diverted to:

https://www.stampcommunity.org/post_info.asp

and get the message:

Sorry, the site is busy, cannot be posted right now.

Others seem to be able to access the site as posts have been coming in over the past couple of days. I even manages to make a short response about six hours ago on my iPad but cannot otherwise get through on either my Mac or PC.

You will see this message if you are trying to post a link that is disallowed.
Don

Well Frank, I can read what you wrote!

Peter

Well here's a very simple response - nothing offensive, I hope.

Don:

I have gone through the message and removed all links. I am trying to post to reference books/software Forum in respose to the topic "Stamp Analyzer Software.

In my response, I have put a number of stamps through the software s mentioned and was trying to pass on the results.

Here are the results for one stamp.

---

ACSC 14.75 x 14.06
EP 14.75 14.60 14.12 14.12 (Top Bottom Left Right)
SA 14.78 14.56 13.99 14.00

Grade:
EG VG 38
SA VG-F 53

---

These results were preceded by some comments and where to get user manuals for the software.

I first removed the links to the manuals, then I split the message into two, the comments and the results. Nothing would go through.

Frank.

One of those software companies, and all their products, are completely banned from here. They spammed he snot out of our forum with many different IDs. Even had multiple IDs at the same time going pretending to be customers recommending the software. We don't reward that kind of deceit with promotion.

Well, I am truly sorry. I didn't read read bobby131313's response very carefully as I had expected a response to come from Don. I just got the gist of it that (17-06-18) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed is not a nice company. I actually read through the rules twice and saw that certain urls could be deleted in messages - no mention of product or company names (I might be wrong here as I am slightly dyslexic - my wife says I see what I want to see).

Of course, if the message I kept getting when I tried to submit post had been a bit more honest - it does rather treat us as children, not allowed to know the dark facts of life - then the whole thing would probably have been cut off at the pass. It certainly would have meant that I wouldn't have spent so much time over an extended period waiting for the site to become less "busy".

Kirk and I are Moderators, bobby131313 is the Admin of the forum.

The rules and auto-messages are kept to a minimum rather than being very detailed and explicit. Many folks do not read now, I imagine if they were a wall of text even fewer people would. If anyone needs more explanation please let one of us know.
Don

Pardon me for chiming in. I have run afoul of this error in the past, and if I hadn't contacted Don offlist, I would never have known the cause. The way the message reads, if you keep getting it, leads you to believe that there is something wrong with the forum, *NOT* anything in the content you have been trying to post.

It's a misleading error message, which is the biggest problem.

If I could make a suggestion: Why not have it read "You are attempting to post prohibited content. Please revise your post and try again." or something similar? That is generic enough that it doesn't give the poster exact information, but at least it doesn't lead posters off on a wild goose chase.

When I got the message, I literally tried posting and reposting over the course of an hour, thinking there was a problem with the board. It never would have occurred to me that this message means you are trying to post banned content.

I'll see if I can come up with an alternative next few days.

The reason I did it the other way is because the code was originally created to trap legit spammers, not good members posting prohibited items.

I didn't want the spammers knowing it was just prohibited content because then they could make a concerted effort to get around the block. I want to keep the real spammers in the dark.

I could check post counts I guess and if the users post count is say over 25 then tell them what it is that's wrong in their post. Would still keep new spammers in the dark and lessen the legit members that get caught up in it.

Excellent solution, thanks!

Should be working now, established members should get this....



New members will still get the vague response.

I'm sure some of you know something they can test it with.

Thanks for these changes. I tried it with one of the software packages I was testing and get this excellent result. Then I tried with the other package in a response on rhe reference books and software forum in the Stamp Analyzer software topic as follows:




You may wish to add EzPerf to your list of prohibited words.

As an aside, any software testing I do is on a dedicated PC, not normally connected to the internet. This PC also gets regular OS clean installs.

Thank you.