# Double posts **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 16, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964 "2019-12-16T21:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![atimnie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atimnie/32/11_2.png) [@atimnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atimnie)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/21 "2019-12-19T16:52:31Z")
_TubaDiva also monitors the SDMB fairly closely, and she is usually pretty good about letting everyone know what she has done._ And some mods tend to be dismissive. Not all, maybe not most, but that dismissive attitude does the mods no good. If everyone was like TubaDiva, there would be no complaint. ---
**Author:** ![atimnie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atimnie/32/11_2.png) [@atimnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atimnie)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/22 "2019-12-19T16:57:42Z")
_I wonder why some users are having all these problems and I am having none of them._ It might have something to do with the ISP. Not everyone can afford top line internet, some of us have to do with low grade providers. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/23 "2019-12-19T17:05:23Z")
> [@atimnie](#): > > And some mods tend to be dismissive. Not all, maybe not most, but that dismissive attitude does the mods no good. If everyone was like TubaDiva, there would be no complaint. You called Colibri dismissive upthread when he was being as helpful as he could be under the circumstances. I am not aware of any cases of any of the mods here actually being dismissive. > [@kayT](#): > > I wonder why some users are having all these problems and I am having none of them. It’s worse on the weekends, and it is significantly more likely to happen in longer threads. I’m guessing server load is tied into it. There are some issues here, like all posts being marked read when they haven’t been, that do seem to pick on some users much more than others. Again, the issues seem to be related to server load (though it seems that there is more than just server load involved), but why it picks on some people more than others is something that we haven’t been able to determine. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/24 "2019-12-19T17:14:12Z")
> [@atimnie](#): > > There’s no tech people? No tech sites they can go to to find information on how to fix the problems? No other servers that don’t have these problems, or at least not as frequent as on this server? There are lots of ways to fix the problems, and I don’t think it’s asking too much for an indication that these problems and possible solutions are being taken seriously. All the people at this site are USERS. They have no control over the hardware/software infrastructure that provides the environment for the SDMB. It is up to the web hosting company that has provided this space to handle these problems. All the SDMB can do is bring the problems to their attention. That’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/25 "2019-12-19T17:17:38Z")
> [@atimnie](#): > > \*If everyone was like TubaDiva, there would be no complaint. Hah! We have people here who would complain even if they lived in the Garden of Eden. LOL ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/26 "2019-12-20T20:19:47Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve never double posted, because _I’m not permitted to double post_. If I get an error and resubmit a post, instead of a double post I get a screen that tells me “you’ve already posted this”. > > Is this something that only happens with Safari users? It depends. The browser seems to be part of it but how old a version comes into play. My system qualifies as a collectable and it will sometimes allow it to happen but usually not. Remember – with some of the errors _something_ is already going wrong. For it to “multiply” in some cases is no great shock. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/27 "2019-12-20T20:24:00Z")
In my experience, using Quick Reply is significantly more likely to result in a double post than using Post Reply. I haven’t played around with it but I suspect that Quick Reply lacks the double post protection that was added to Post Reply a while back. As far as I am aware, none of these issues are dependent on what type of browser you are using. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/28 "2019-12-20T21:08:07Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > As far as I am aware, none of these issues are dependent on what type of browser you are using. Your knowledge of current trends is far beyond mine; heck the knowledge of some OOD from Goshen is far beyond mine when it comes to computers. But I have a lot more issues with my Safari Version 5.1.10 than I do my Firefox 48.0.2 on the SDMB. Yeah – I know – time for a new computer. I’m working on it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/29 "2019-12-20T23:33:54Z")
I spent a large part of my professional career diagnosing problems like this. The double and triple postings are probably caused by a race condition. Here’s what happens: A user tries to post something. The board software checks for a double-post, and not finding any, then tries to post the message, but gets stuck for some reason before the posting is completed. The user gets frustrated because the initial attempt at posting hasn’t completed, so tries again. Again, the board software checks for a double-post. Again, it doesn’t fine one, because the initial posting hasn’t finished. So the software tries to post the message. Eventually, whatever is causing the postings to be blocked goes away. Both postings have already been checked at this point, so both are completed, and we get a double post. Most of the time this doesn’t happen because the time window between the making the check and completing the post is very small. But when delays are introduced, it gets big enough that double posts become more likely. It would be possible to completely prevent double-postings by preventing a user from posting anything at all if that user already has a posting in progress. This could be costly, and would be hard to implement without causing other problems, the biggest one being locks left behind when a connection is lost. There could be a clue here. Apparently, whatever is causing the delays (which often results in timeouts) happens sometime after the double-posting check but before the posting is visible to other threads. Someone who is intimately familiar with the internals of the board software might use this to help figure out what the problem is. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964/30 "2019-12-28T07:06:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Double posts occur when this happens: > a. You type a new post and click “Submit” > b. The board is balky just at that moment, and seems to be responding slowly. > c. Before you get one of those 500-type errors, you get impatient and click “Submit” again. That may explain some double posts but it does not explain all of them — I have gotten some double posts even though I press ‘Sublit Reply’ only once. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-posts/844964.md?page=1)