I have noticed that if I post something and then get the dreaded gateway error, my first response was hit back, then to hit post again. For me, that resulted in a double post. What I have learned is that if you back all the way to the thread title, my post is always there.
So, my suggestion is that when you get back to where you hit post the first time, just copy your post and then go back to the page and look. Your post probably is there.
Of course, I am a horrible trainer and even worse at explaining anything if I can’t show what I am doing, youse guys might want to just experiment with this thread. My method really does work, and when someone smarter than me comes along and explains it better, everyone will know that I was right this once!
Your post belongs in ATMB. I haven’t lost a single post since the onset of the board’s latest deterioration, and, more to the point, I’ve had no duplicate posts. In other words, every time I’ve hit “submit,” my contribution has been posted eventually. Typically, once the timeout error message appears, I’ll click on a “favorites” link to the board’s main page, and, while it’s chewing on that, I’ll open another window to look at something else and refresh the SDMB window each time the error message appears. I’ll sometimes edit a message five or six times, with the accompanying timeouts, and I haven’t lost a single message yet. Again: once you’ve hit submit, you’re done.
An alternate strategy is to open the thread in a 2nd tab and refresh that to see if the post is there. If not, try a reload in the first tab.
OTOH, I tried that yesterday. I was trying to edit a post. I saw the old version in the 2nd tab. The edit window expired before I could refix it. Grrr. But then later I saw that the fixed version was now there instead. What the what?
I also click “Submit” only once. And I’m still ending up with a lot of double posts. They’re not from people submitting twice (or at least, not only from that): They’re a genuine glitch in the system.
My advice would be to just not worry about them. Everyone knows you’re not doing it deliberately, they don’t change meanings, they only make threads a little harder to read, and they’re not really doing any other harm. We mods can still delete the duplicates if you really want, but I’ve stopped even bothering for my own double-posts.
I also click “Submit” only once. And I’m still ending up with a lot of double posts. They’re not from people submitting twice (or at least, not only from that): They’re a genuine glitch in the system.
My advice would be to just not worry about them. Everyone knows you’re not doing it deliberately, they don’t change meanings, they only make threads a little harder to read, and they’re not really doing any other harm. We mods can still delete the duplicates if you really want, but I’ve stopped even bothering for my own double-posts.
Chronos’ example also shows that the dupe post function doesn’t always work. His last two posts look identical, and have the same time stamp, but they weren’t flagged as dupes by vB. (Unless he used his awesome mod powers to defeat it.)
You may need to refresh the thread page if you got there by hitting back twice. At least, I sometimes don’t see my post when I first get back there, but if I refresh the page then it’s usually there.
We must be doing something differently, because I’ve posted dozens of times in recent weeks without any double posts.
As noted above, when I try to post and get an error message, I try going to the SDMB main page until I succeed, and my new post is always there. Without exception.
I suppose that’s proof that the hamsters have a sense of humor.
And yes, when the board is functioning properly, it’s not even possible to make a double post like that, even if you try, nor do I know of any way to use mod powers to override that. Key words there, “when the board is functioning properly”. My guess is that the duplicate-post detector is simply given a low priority, and that when the board is under significant strain, it automatically drops low-priority tasks (though I don’t know why the duplicates show up in the first place).
Yeah I have occasionally had the experience of Chronos: Only hitting submit once and yet still getting double-posted. Nothing I could do except just edit the second post to read “double post” and leave it at that.