# Test - why can't i post? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 28, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378 "2008-01-28T23:12:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/1 "2008-01-28T23:12:57Z")
I’ve been posting in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=452621), and i’m having a problem. I compose a post, but the software will not let me preview it. Then, when i hit submit, the post is empty, despite the fact that there was a long post in the text box when i hit the button. The same thing appeared to happen to **The King of Soup** earlier in the thread. It only seems to happen in that thread, because this one lets me preview and submit just fine, i think. Any idea what’s going on here? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/2 "2008-01-28T23:26:05Z")
Double check your quote tags. That’s a fairly new bug. Oddly, it only happens in posts over a certain (unknown) length. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/3 "2008-01-28T23:27:56Z")
Yeah, you have at least two hanging quotes in there. I’ll see if I can figure out what is yours and what is quotes. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/4 "2008-01-28T23:29:33Z")
Thanks **Frank**. There was a stray character in one of my quote tags. It’s fine now. It would be good to get the bug fixed, though, because one of the main reasons i use Preview is to make sure i’ve gotten the quote tags rights. If Preview is deactivated by bad coding, it sort of makes Preview redundant. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/5 "2008-01-28T23:31:53Z")
This is a long recognized bug in the software (you’ll notice in that thread that **King of Soup** recognized it). For some reason, when you screw up a close quote tag (as you did when quoted **danceswithcats** ’ “As far as Fatima Hawkins is concerned…” bit) on a longish post, it blanks the whole thing and it doesn’t show up preview. Email or PM a mod to edit that accidental period to a backslash in your close quote tag to fix it. eta: And I see it’s already noticed. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/test-why-cant-i-post/435378/6 "2008-01-28T23:36:16Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] Thanks **Frank**. There was a stray character in one of my quote tags. It’s fine now. [/quote] I miscounted. 🙂