From the scourge of double-posts, O Lord deliver us

So… I’m leaving one of my pearls of wisdom in another thread, hit Submit, and nothing much seems to happen for a while. “Hmmm,” I think to myself, if you can call it thought, “I haven’t seen the ‘Thank you for posting’ message… on the other hand, there’s no sign of life; no status bar, and the spinny thing in the top right of the IE window isn’t spinny-thinging…”

(Why, yes, I am a Microsoft Certified Professional, as it happens. How did you guess?)

“So,” I conclude, “I must stir this into renewed life, lest my pearl of wisdom be lost, and other posters be deprived of a chance to say ‘That Steve Wright bloke, he’s a complete pillock’.” So I hit Submit again, accepting the risk of double-posting said pearl of wisdom.

And I’m rewarded with a page, new to me, that says I’m only allowed to post once every sixty seconds. And I deduce from this that I have, indeed, double-posted, only the board software has caught it and stopped the second one from going through, thus making me look slightly less of a pillock than I would otherwise.

So, a) ta very much, and b) is this a product of the recent maintenance, or has it always been like this and I’ve been too wrapped up in myself (or too little prone to making this particular goof) to notice? (And, if the latter, how do you manage to keep some of these fizzing-with-creativity types down to one post a minute?)

It’s been like that for ages… But don’t rely too heavily on it. If you think that you might have double posted, grab the text into Notepad, refresh the thread, and check. The general rule is that if you hit the submit button, the board got it.

Words of wisdom, and I shall try to live by them. Much obliged, sir.

There is no god of irony. I know this, because if there were, the OP would have been a double post.

There is no god of irony. I know this, because if there were, the OP would have been a double post.

[sub]Did I fool ya?

-sdimbert, the God of Irony[/sub]

Also, if your browser times out on the “Thanks for posting” page, do not pick Reload. It is possible to double-post without hitting the Submit button more than once.

I would like to say that that Submit button is the *only thing on the entire Internet that works every time that I hit it. If I had a window pop up that said, “Your post most assuredly did not go through, cross my heart. Kindly hit the Submit button again, chum.” I would reload before hitting it again.

Well how’s that for ironly. I just clicked Submit and it timed out. To my surprise, no post. For the first time in my life…

If it times out, I use the back button on the browser, and the text is still there, then I use the Preview Reply button. If it got through, then my post will be visible below the post pane with all the other prior replies. If it didn’t, it’s now safe to hit Submit again and all the text & formatting is preserved and still ready to go in the same window.

If I can’t check like fierra suggested because the thread is multiple pages long, I right-click on the link to the thread above the text window (i.e. Straight Dope Message Board > About This Message Board > From the scourge of double-posts, O Lord deliver us) and get another window with the thread in it, and I check the last page to see if my post got through or not.