I promised to report if there were another occurrence. This time, the duplicate posts were sandwiched around someone else’s intervening post. I did not submit twice, and I did not double click Submit. The first post is at the time that I previewed, and the second is at the time that I posted. I might not can tell Corey Haim from Fred Savage, but I can tell Preview from Submit. 
I’ve never noticed any double posts with differences between them that would indicate editing after preview.
This isn’t an expression of doubt in you Lib, just an observation.
Hmmmm, I wonder if I can make it double-post…
It would seem that I can’t
In neither of the two documented instances did I edit after preview, but in both instances, there was about a six minute delay between previewing and submitting while I checked on the roast or some such. Maybe that’s significant.
Yes, that’s the determining factor. It has never happened to vegetarians.
P.S. I’ll see what I can find out, but even if it is a bug in vBulletin, it probably won’t be fixed until/unless we upgrade to a new version.
Seems like the sort of thing that they’d issue a patch for, given how often it happens (although I suppose there majority of vB boards don’t use the software as intensively as the SDMB, in which case the error might not happen so much)
OK, let me rephrase my statement. [E]ven if it is a bug in vBulletin, it probably won’t be fixed until/unless we upgrade to a new version or patch the current version (assuming a patch exists.)
Well, I am SO glad to see this thread, because it’s been doing it to me, too, every so often, but I’ve just been figuring that the server was bein’ stupid again, or that I must’ve clicked Submit after all, or somethin’.
It only does it to me very, very infrequently, and only when the server is totally creeping along at Sludge Speed–the status line just HAANNNNNGS there at about 38% done loading.
And then when I come back from whatever I was doing in another window to check on my Preview SDMB thread, sometimes I find that it’s actually posted. “Hmm…” I say.
So I’m glad I’m not imagining it.
Could it be, not a definite “bug” in VBulletin, but just something to do with the overloaded server queue? Maybe it bumps something from “preview” status to “submit” status, when it’s really goin’ slow?
And I went and found the most recent instance of this, just like Lib says, it’s duplicate posts sandwiched around someone else’s intervening posts.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=119743
I wasn’t sure if my first post had gone through, so I did Preview to see. And when it came back (after a LONG sojourn), there to my considerable dismay, was my double post, and the context made it rather embarrassing, too.
It also happened to OpalCat here with two intervening posts.
I saw one the other day with four hours between duplicate posts!
I’m confused. What is the purpose of signalling all these double posts?
To confuse you Arnold
Well then stop it! :mad:
Signalling? You mean reporting? My purpose was to inform you about the Preview button submitting posts. Forgive me.
In truth Arnold, I think that people were continuing to post reports of this phenomenon in the vain hope that we might see some common factor in something that the user did and this might lead to an understanding of the problem. However I think I’m probably right in suspecting that it’s nothing at all to do with any kind of glitch at the client end.
But reporting double posts without knowing what the user did doesn’t help at all in solving the problem as far as I can tell. And even if we did know the exact cause of the double posts, we wouldn’t hack the software anyway.
Well, okay, what I did was, after I clicked on Submit, the reply window eventually timed out–“Cannot Find Server”–instead of bringing up the thread. So instead of trying to load the entire thread to check on my post, I clicked on Back, which brought up my filled-out Reply window again, and then I clicked on Preview.
And after a LONG sojourn, the thread came up with my unintentional double post showing, with an intervening post by somebody else.