Help me solve this mystery...

[Jason Dunn]

I need some help solving a little site mystery. With our current "slow server" problems, people aren't waiting for their posts to process (it can take up to 60 seconds, but it has never failed on me yet), and they're hitting stop, submit, and the posts end up being processed twice. I can understand why this is happening (people are naturally impatient), and I hope to get it fixed sometime today. What I don't understand, however, is why people are editing their posts to say "deleted" or "whoops" instead of deleting them. I'm sure that if you knew how to delete your posts, you would, so this is why I'm confused. When I log in as an administrator, this is what I see in the upper right corner of every message:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/admin-delete.gif" /><br /><br />To delete the message, I click on the "X". For a while I thought that everyone had this option, but I later learned that this wasn't the case. Tonight I logged in as a "regular" user, fresh account, and after I posted, this is what I saw:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/user-delete.gif" /><br /><br />I was able to delete my own post. So the question is, what are you guys seeing? Do you see the "Delete this post"? What about when you click on EDIT POST and then click the DELETE POST check box? Does your post delete then? Feel free to post screen shots if you need to show what you're seeing. I'd like to get this solved once and for all. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif" />

[ThomasC22]

I've seen that on one post I've made but it was in a thread where I posted two (different) messages and it wasn't on the other one. Nor has it ever been on any other post.

At the time, I assumed it was because I tried to double post the message it appeared on. What I did was, when I hit submit the message didn't disappear (usually the screen goes white for me) so I hit submit again and got the "you can't post two messages within 60 seconds" message. Then from that point on the "Delete Message" appeared on that post.

Hope that makes enough sense for you to understand :)

[ThomasC22]

I've seen that on one post I've made but it was in a thread where I posted two (different) messages and it wasn't on the other one. Nor has it ever been on any other post.


OK, well, it appeared on the above message so now I don't know what to tell you.

[ThomasC22]

I've seen that on one post I've made but it was in a thread where I posted two (different) messages and it wasn't on the other one. Nor has it ever been on any other post.


OK, well, it appeared on the above message so now I don't know what to tell you.

OK, I've got this now, the "DELETE POST" message only appears on the last message you posted. So, when I post this message, I'll have the "DELETE POST" message on this post but not on any of my other ones.

Hope that helps.

[ThomasC22]

OK Jason, your on your own. In THIS thread, the "DELETE POST" function appears on the last message that I posted. But, in this other thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2197&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15) it doesn't appear at all.

It does continue to appear on the last post in THIS thread.

AND in yet another thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2194&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15) it was appearing and now doesn't. Hang on let me try something...

Nope didn't work. My theory was that it appeared on your last post in certain threads but I just posted in the thread where it had appeared earlier and this time I didn't get the message (yet the message still displays on my post in this thread).

Weird, sorry, I guess I have nothing for you, but it was a fun little mystery for me :lol:

[Pony99CA]

OK Jason, your on your own. In THIS thread, the "DELETE POST" function appears on the last message that I posted. But, in this other thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2197&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15) it doesn't appear at all.

It does continue to appear on the last post in THIS thread.


I bet you won't see DELETE THIS POST now. My guess is that it only appears on the last post in a thread to preserve the thread integrity.

I suspect my post will have DELETE THIS POST now and yours won't. The interesting question is if the author deletes the last post in a thread, will the previous last post then have DELETE THIS POST?

Steve

[Pony99CA]

The interesting question is if the author deletes the last post in a thread, will the previous last post then have DELETE THIS POST?


The answer is yes. I made a test post, and then clicked "DELETE THIS POST". I got the following message:


Are you sure you want to delete this post?


with Yes and No buttons.

I clicked Yes, and now my older post (the last one in the thread again) has DELETE THIS POST on it.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Another thing I just noticed. My first post to this thread took a long time to complete. The subsequent ones I made did not take long.

Also, if you delete a post, the author's post count does go down (as it should).

Steve

[ThomasC22]

The answer is yes. I made a test post, and then clicked "DELETE THIS POST". I got the following message:


Wow, good guess (stupid feature, but good guess on your part). But that isn't the whole story because in the 3970 review thread, I got the "DELETE THIS POST" once yet when I post there now (even if its the last message in that thread) I get nothing...

[Pony99CA]

I'm sure that if you knew how to delete your posts, you would, so this is why I'm confused. When I log in as an administrator, this is what I see in the upper right corner of every message:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/admin-delete.gif

To delete the message, I click on the "X". For a while I thought that everyone had this option, but I later learned that this wasn't the case.

This makes sense. The administrators should be able to delete posts at any time. However, regular users should not be able to delete posts in order to preserve the integrity of the thread. At least, that's what I assume the phpBB authors feel.

So the question is, what are you guys seeing? Do you see the "Delete this post"?

See my previous posts for information about that. To summarize, the DELETE THIS POST link only seems to occur on the last post in a thread (and only for the author of that post, of course).


What about when you click on EDIT POST and then click the DELETE POST check box? Does your post delete then?

The Delete Post check box only occurs if the post being edited is the last post in the thread. Here is what you see if you edit a post that is not the last post:


Disable HTML in this post
Disable BBCode in this post
Disable Smilies in this post
Notify me when a reply is posted


I hope this solves the mystery. My bill for consulting services is in the mail. :lol:

Steve

[Pony99CA]

The previous post also took a long time complete. Upon seeing the thread, I noticed a new post from ThomasC22 after mine.

Perhaps the first post a user makes to a thread takes a while, but subsequent posts to the thread are faster unless somebody else posts in the meantime. Could there be some kind of caching going on?

Steve

[ppcsurfr]

Can't you put a timer that prevents posters from posting twice within 60 seconds?

PDABuzz has this feature...

[vetteguy]

Most message boards do not allow users to delete posts (even their own), so undoubtably most are just use to having to request the post to be deleted. Just an idea.

[schwuk]

Jason/All,

just done some digging in the phpBB source, and here's what I found:

Moderators can delete all posts (obviously).

Users can delete the last post in a topic, as long as it is their post. Note: this is the last post in a topic NOT their last post.

In plain english, from a users point of view: You can delete your last post in a topic provided no-one has replied to that topic since you posted. This is same whether you use the delete or edit links.

Jason - The fact that users are seeing the 'delete this post' text instead of the 'x' icon is down to the theme templates.
--
Schwuk

[Jason Dunn]

Can't you put a timer that prevents posters from posting twice within 60 seconds?

It was actually set at 60 seconds, but I had Chris drop that value to 30 seconds because it was slowing ME down when I'm trying to respond to a lot of messages quickly. :-)

[Jason Dunn]

In plain english, from a users point of view: You can delete your last post in a topic provided no-one has replied to that topic since you posted. This is same whether you use the delete or edit links.

Thanks for clarifying this - that makes sense I suppose, although it never would have occurred to me. :-)

[Mike Temporale]

Jason, Why not just add a javascript to disable the submit button once it's pressed?? So that way you can't press it twice on the same response.

Just add a onclick event to the submit button, and have that disable the submit button.

[RLBorg]

Jason, Why not just add a javascript to disable the submit button once it's pressed?? So that way you can't press it twice on the same response.

Just add a onclick event to the submit button, and have that disable the submit button.

Wouldn't using the back button pretty much disable that "feature"?

Jason,
Could you have the script allow YOU to post more frequently then the rest of us?

[RLBorg]

Well, I accidently double posted here. I WAS the last 2 posters in this thread, and i didn't get the delete option. I just edited the post with this comment...

[DrtyBlvd]

You know when you see something sometimes, and you're not sure if it should bother you? And you read everything about it, and you're STILL not sure if it should bother you?

*ahem*

[Hyperluminal]

Alright, let's see.
-------------------
Update: I don't even have the delete button, and this is my latest post here. Actually, I just noticed, I do have the delete button in the edit window, just not on the forums window...

[Mike Temporale]

Jason, Why not just add a javascript to disable the submit button once it's pressed?? So that way you can't press it twice on the same response.

Just add a onclick event to the submit button, and have that disable the submit button.

Wouldn't using the back button pretty much disable that "feature"?


Yes, but the idea is to prevent people from pressing the submit button, and thinking it's not working. They get impatient and press it again. This would result in the double post, correct? So if you disable the button after it's pressed, they can't press it twice (unless they stop the page, hit the back button, possible retype everything....) Thus preventing double posts.

[Jason Dunn]

Well, I accidently double posted here. I WAS the last 2 posters in this thread, and i didn't get the delete option. I just edited the post with this comment...

AUGH! I give up... :oops: So very odd. :cry:

[Pony99CA]

Jason/All,
just done some digging in the phpBB source, and here's what I found:

Moderators can delete all posts (obviously).

Users can delete the last post in a topic, as long as it is their post. Note: this is the last post in a topic NOT their last post.

In plain english, from a users point of view: You can delete your last post in a topic provided no-one has replied to that topic since you posted. This is same whether you use the delete or edit links.

Jason - The fact that users are seeing the 'delete this post' text instead of the 'x' icon is down to the theme templates.


Which (with the exception of the last paragraph on the templates) was exactly what I said previously based on empirical data. Source? We don't need no steenking source.... :lol:

Steve

[Jonathon Watkins]

By the way - my email notifactions are not wokring for some reason - even though I have it enabled in my profile. I am not getting email when threads I have posted on have new posts on them.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Never seen a double post box myself.

EDIT - nope - there is no button or option to allow me to delte this post, even though they are the last two in this thread. I had wondered what you guys were talking about. I can't delete this.

[Jason Dunn]

By the way - my email notifactions are not wokring for some reason - even though I have it enabled in my profile. I am not getting email when threads I have posted on have new posts on them.

Yeah, it's a server bug... :-( It's on the list of things to look at.