This is odd, but the first time I post to a forum during a “session,” I can use the box at the bottom of the page w/o having to call up a separate reply window. However, subsequent attempts to do so don’t work; I simply get taken to the thread I originally posted in where I can see the post I made in that thread, but not the one I’m trying to make in another thread. If I click the “post reply” button and get a separate reply page, I can post wherever I want, but that takes a while. Any tips?
Well, after you make a post, you’re automatically taken to that post, all laid out and nice and neat for you. From there, you can just go to another thread (there’s a jump button at the bottom of the page, or you can click Next Thread). Then when you get to that other thread, there should be another reply box at the end of the thread/bottom of the screen.
[Unless I’m misunderstanding, in which case my apologies.]
I can make a post and then see it in all its glory the first time I post. If I then go to another thread, type in another post in at the bottom of the page, and hit “submit” or “preview,” I am then taken back to my first post (still in all its glory), and nothing happens with my post to the second thread.
(sorry if this is belaboring the point): I open thread A and type post a, which is posted to A. I then open thread B, and type post b in the reply box at the bottom, and when I hit submit, I am taken to a, with no sign of b. I don’t have this problem if I use the “post reply” option.
So, just to be sure: you are using two quick reply-boxes in two separate screens, and only one results in a post?
Does the second one time out? Does it give you a “not logged in” message? I need a little more information here.
Or are you doing this in one window? Post in A, post appears in A, then you go to B using the same window, post to B, but you’re taking to A instead.
Sounds like a quirk to me - hasn’t happened to me, and I drift from forum to forum all the time.
Huh, we simulposted.
That’s a strange problem indeed. What browser do you use?
Coldfire, the second one doesn’t time out or give me a “not logged in” message. It just takes me to the first thread I opened.
I’m testing it now: This is the first thread I’m posting in since logging in this session, and I’m using the quick reply box. I’m then going to try to post to another thread in a separate window, and then another thread in this window.
I’m going to take a couple of guesses here. First, piaffe, you’re using AOL, I imagine. Right? If so, then I suspect that this is a caching problem. Your computer is asking for the newreply.php page, and AOL (or whatever your ISP is) is deciding “Well, no need to bug the straightdope server about that one again; I’ve already got a copy of it right here!” It then feeds you the same file it did before, which redirects you to the same thread.
One thing to check when this happens: On the second thread, does the reply actually go through? Just because you’re not seeing the right thread doesn’t mean that the straightdope server doesn’t know you replied. Try re-opening the thread in a new window.
Ok. My above post worked, using the quick-reply box (qrb) at the bottom of this thread. I then went to a thread I had opened in another window, tried to use the qrb to reply, and was taken here where I saw my above post but no sign of the one I had tried to post to the other thread (so I now had this thread showing up in both windows). In true scientific spirit, I then went to another thread in my original window using the “last thread” link, tried to post in the qrb, and was again taken here and saw the post I had posted here, but not the post I had tried to make to the thread I was in.
I then tried to use the qrb to post to this thread in both my original window and the other window, and had the same problem in each. I am posting this using the “post reply” feature.
So basically, the qrb works the first time I use it, and takes me back to my first post every subsequent time I try to use it no matter what the situation.
I’m running Netscape 4.77 in Windows ME.
Coldfire, I’m not usin AOL (as you’ve probably already read), but I think you might have it right about the cache. I had set the “compare document to cached copy” to “never” in my preferences because I was sick of Netscape slowing down all the time to clear the cache. I thought that meant it would dispense with the cache; I guess it really meant that the cache would always win.
Anyway I’ve reset the preferences to “every time,” and am trying this one in the qrb. Assuming it works, any ideas on how to prevent the cache from having to be cleared so often?
Thanks Coldfire!
(Any tips you have about keeping the cache clear would be appreciated).
dammit, I just saw that the post I’d tried to make to another thread showed up after all. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ve been leaving trails of double-posts everywhere I’ve been…
Don’t thank me, thank Chronos! 
Oops…thanks Chronos!