Double Posting

I've accidentally done it and I usually put "oops' or the words,"double post". That post remains part of the forum. Instead of doing that, what if I ask that the duplicate be flagged? The entire post could then disappear. Thoughts? Any downside?

not sure if it gets documented and could be bad, but I have nonetheless often flagged a double and seen it disappear, so it has been going on already.

Ditto.

I remove duplicates as I see them. I divide the fault for double-posts down the middle as follows:

1. People who don't know when to single-click and when to double-click. Some people double-click everything they see by default. Double-clicking the Post button will result in a double-posting. However, I can do something to prevent most double-clicks from being treated as two separate posts, so I'll see about implementing that.

2. Our hosting provider's shared database server. The database is the (speed) bottleneck on this site, and we have no control over it. Whenever one of those frustrating delays occurs between page loads, people will sometimes click the Post button multiple times thinking that the first one didn't "take". Eventually, though, they all do, and the end result is the same post being submitted multiple times. There's not much that can be done about this, although the remedy I plan to use for the above situation should also prevent this from happening often.

I don't think they double click. I think
if it doesn't post immediately, they
hit post again and it shows up twice.

I've been quilty of #2 on at least two occasions.

What's your remedy? 10 seconds between posts? That'll work...

Quote: JB

2. Our hosting provider's shared database server. The database is the (speed) bottleneck on this site, and we have no control over it. Whenever one of those frustrating delays occurs between page loads, people will sometimes click the Post button multiple times thinking that the first one didn't "take". Eventually, though, they all do, and the end result is the same post being submitted multiple times. There's not much that can be done about this, although the remedy I plan to use for the above situation should also prevent this from happening often.

Thre is something users can do.

When I have a long delay, especially if I typed a long post, I'm concerned the contents will be lsot. So I copy them to a Notepad window and save it on the desktop (for easy removal later). If the post goes through, fine. If not, I can repost by copying from notepad to the board.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I've been quilty of #2 on at least two occasions.

What's your remedy? 10 seconds between posts? That'll work...

Disabling the 'post' button immediately after it has been clicked once, nullifying the second click in a double-click.

(Because I'm saying this I'm sure karma will drag up a forgotten double-post, probably on this forum...)

Between all sorts of forums, blog comments sections, etc. in 16 years online I've probably made 10,000 'posts.' I believe in that time I have made zero double-posts. With all due respect, asking JB to take steps to prevent double-posts is akin to asking a parking attendant to attach big cushions to the sides of the cars in the lot because you keep smashing into them as you try to park in your space.

Steps to prevent double-posting:

1) Push the 'post' button one time.
2) When in doubt refresh the page without refreshing the 'post' and see if the post has appeared.
3) The end.

Quote: sunrise089

2) When in doubt refresh the page without refreshing the 'post' and see if the post has appeared.

Exactly what does that mean? Suppose I am composing a reply, think I am finished, and hit post. Sometimes it's my own mouse or computer that don't recognize the click properly. If I am "in doubt" because nothing seems to be posting (because my mouse didn't really click the button) and I refresh the page, then everything I typed is lost. Ooops!

Fortunately, my browser has a rotating icon that appears when it is trying to reload a page. If I try to click "post" but nothing happens, I check that icon. If it is not moving, then I probably didn't really click, so I try again. If it is moving, then there is just a system delay, so I wait and wait and wait and....

Don't refresh the open tab Doc, manually refresh by loading the same page on a new tab. For example, in 30 seconds I'll post what I'm typing now. While that posting action is loading I'll center click my back button in my browser, then refresh that (ok, I'm not really that fast, so by the time I press the back button the post has been made and the back button gives me the reply page again...so press back again, refresh that, verify post). If I don't see my post once the page loads I know it didn't go through.

I think I have had 2 posts double post, but I am positive I did not do anything different either time.
From my perspective, I created the post, hit the post key, then clicked the FORUMS from the top menu bar, and went back into the thread, and I saw a double post.
I use Google Chrome.

Quote: Nareed

When I have a long delay, especially if I typed a long post, I'm concerned the contents will be lsot. So I copy them to a Notepad window and save it on the desktop (for easy removal later). If the post goes through, fine. If not, I can repost by copying from notepad to the board.

Firefox should maintain the contents in its buffer if you go back. There is an extension called Lazarus which does that, but much more reliably, you can pull up anything you've typed from an encrypted DB manually or upon encountering an identical form.

I got burnt overrelying on it, though, lost a very long... more of an article than a post, on another board, never got around to retyping it (didn't lose 100%, rather only restored an old version). So it's not foolproof, but for your normal post without inline citations that you don't plan to keep working on for a week, good enough, and easier than notepad.