# Easy way to refresh a thread you just posted to?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [October 2, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020 "2001-10-02T18:48:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tattva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tattva)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/1 "2001-10-02T18:48:54Z")
I did a search, but didn’t come up with any relevant threads.
The easiest way I’ve come up with is to either close the window and reopen it (I’m a multiple IE windows kinda girl), or use that window to go back to the relevant forum and reopen the thread.
Just wondering. I’ve only double posted once, and that wasn’t my fault!! Really! 😃
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### Author:  [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/2 "2001-10-02T19:07:38Z")
Not to sound stupid, but can you hit the “Refresh” button at the top of the browser screen?
As in…
[li]You post to a thread and get the “Thanks for posting…” message.[/li][li]Shortly, you are taken to your post, the last in the thread.[/li][li]You go to lunch.[/li][li]You come back and wiggle your mouse (as it were).[/li][li]You see the thread with your post still at the bottom, and wonder if anyone has posted in reply to your pearl of wisdom. (I wonder this all the time for my posts.)[/li]
Can’t you just hit the refresh button?
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### Author:  [@Tattva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tattva)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/3 "2001-10-02T19:18:02Z")
I thought that’s how many double posts were created…
I’ll give it a try after posting this. If you see two posts, well, you know the rest.
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### Author:  [@Tattva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tattva)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/4 "2001-10-02T19:20:35Z")
Ok, so you can just hit the refresh button! Wow!
See, that was quite the pearl of wisdom.
Hey everyone, ignorance has been fought here! Come check it out!
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@come-to-the-party-mate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/come-to-the-party-mate)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/5 "2001-10-02T19:22:04Z")
On Internet Explorer, the refresh is **F5 key**.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/6 "2001-10-03T01:52:25Z")
Double posts are created by the following procedure:
1. You spend an hour composing a nifty reply.
2. You click on Submit Reply.
3. It says “Opening page http: boardsstraightdope blah blah blah”, but the server just–hangs there–, the seconds tick away, and the “Thank you for posting!” window doesn’t come up.
4. You assume your post didn’t go through. Grumbling, you click on Cancel, and you click on Submit Reply again.
5. This time your post goes through, and when you are taken back to your post, you see that you now have a double post.
Always trust the CGI\* to grab your post and send it on through. I’ve had posts go through even when I was cut off from the Internet 1/2 second after I clicked on Submit Reply.
If you want to stay in the Reply window and see whether your post went through or not (always a good idea) before you re-Submit, click on Preview. If it went through, it’ll turn up there at the top (bottom) of the thread, under the Reply window.
\*CGI–Cosmic Godlike Interface 😃
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2001, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/7 "2001-10-03T01:54:59Z")
…(er, in IE5 you click on Stop, not Cancel.)
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### Author:  [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/8 "2001-10-03T21:49:36Z")
That’s not exactly how double posts happen.
It has been discussed before that a second identical post is ignored by the system. The problem comes when you’ve had time to fix a typo, or remembered to tick the signature box, making it a non-identical post.
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### Author:  [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/9 "2001-10-03T22:15:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by barflyer \*
> **That’s not exactly how double posts happen. It has been discussed before that a second identical post is ignored by the system.**
Huh?
As a poster who’s had his fair share of double posts, posts that were truly identical, I’d have to say it’s not the case that a “second identical post is ignored by the system”.
An example here-
[Geniuses. Geniuses all.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38268)
A number of us tried double-posting the same thing over and over again. The idea was to get a _true_ double-post, with the times being exactly the same for both, but I never got that to happen to me.
Regardless, the messages we were trying to double-post continually stayed the same each time.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/10 "2001-10-04T02:09:43Z")
No, sorry, Barflyer, but repeated identical posts are NOT ignored by the system. Back in the Bad Old Days, of the Cranky Slow Server, I can remember seeing some quadruple and quintuple identical posts in Great Debates, mainly because that’s the forum where people care the most about whether their post really really goes through, plus they’re usually too aggravated to wait for the server to finish processing. So they re-Submit. And re-Submit. And re-Submit. And the CGI faithfully picks up all those identical posts and adds them to the thread.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/11 "2001-10-04T14:50:13Z")
Ummm, a soft Refresh is using the Refresh button. However, a complete new Refresh, use Shift & Refresh button same time for Netscape. For IE I think that its F5 & Ctrl.
Also, under your browser setup is the option to Refresh each time, or once a session or never.
I though the page refreshes automatically once your post is posted?
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-way-to-refresh-a-thread-you-just-posted-to/85020/12 "2001-10-05T00:28:48Z")
Yes, of course it does, handy. Otherwise, your new post wouldn’t show, right?
The OP thought that hitting “Refresh” (either hard or soft) would cause a double post. This has been correctly refuted.
Barflyer, completely identical double posts are indeed still a possibility, although the increased server speed is a great help in keeping the frequency of them to a minimum.