Multiple entries in Forum

[ColinB]

Now I don't know if this is fixable but it does seem to happen on any other site I visit, When putting a response into one of the forums when you press the "Post Reply" button, if the website is busy then there is no visible response to indicate that the "Post Reply" has been pressed. It is human nature to think "obviously I didn't click it properly" so you press it again. So basically you get multiple entries in the forum. Today it took over a minute for the post to accepted. So unless the administrators enjoy removing multiple posts, is there no way to fix it. Oh and on my desktop PC running chrome the delete/edit keys don't work when looking at the post. So when people ask me to delete the extra post I created I can't.

[96RAF]

A lot depends upon the browser and how it is set up.

I have 2 PCs both Win 10 at the same version running Edge browser at the same revision and on one I can simply click on an item in the context menu to select it but on the other I have to double click, which is not easy with my fingers, so I have to use 2 hands to do it.

On the iPads at different revisions of iOS both running Safari browser the context menu works fine, but the moderation tabs hang for ages at times making moderation tasks time consuming, real fun when deleting multiple posts.

What does happen is when you have submitted a post it is flagged at top and bottom of screen to tell you so, but usually out of view unless you scroll, which is less than handy.

We have asked for a great big dialogue box to appear over a dimmed screen, especially when a post is sent for approval due to say an image, this dialogue having to be acknowledged before the poster can continue, but its in the To-Do queue.

Believe me it is as frustrating for the mods as it is for the members.

[RDS]

The solution is simple. Just press 'Post Reply' once.

[ColinB]

Oh dear DS if life was just that simple. On very many websites if the screen doesn't change it usually means that you have done something wrong, even on the Hornby one if it contains words the editor doesn't like it, it does likewise. Now I have got used to it, but even the other day it took over a minute for the screen to change, so I pressed it again as I assumed the mouse pointer wasn't exactly over the button or the operating system had missed the event from the pointer (yes, that happens occasionally). Hey presto I then get two entries. Many new members get 5 or 6, so it seems a common issue. So yes generally most people would press it once. I can see it is a difficult issue to fix and as 96RAF says you have asked to fix it many times, so I will leave it at that.

[96RAF]

I have just spent ages rejecting 8 duplicates of a post with images, due obviously to the poster pressing buttons over and over, without taking heed of any flag presented on screen to say the post has gone for approval - please do not keep pressing the send button.

[ColinB]

Sadly yesterday was a bad day, it was taking nearly two minutes for the screen to acknowledge receipt of the post. As you said in your first post the necessary flag is well off the screen where nobody can see it, so the natural reaction is the hit it again and again until it disappears. That is why I raised the post as it puts off new members when they get nasty messages telling them they have multiple entries.

[LTSR_NSE]

I imagine the following has already been requested (but just in case it hasn’t) - Could the web developers provide the Mods with the option to specify a reason when rejecting/deleting threads? (that way when a user receives the email notification - they will at least understand why!)

Considering the Mods find the current situation as difficult as everyone else, and have done all they can by requesting the previously mentioned helpful changes, further repetition about the issue seems a little odd? If the intention is to raise the issue with Hornby - perhaps an email might get you the response you seek?

[96RAF]

Another new member has posted a total of twelve times but only four actual posts, the rest are duplicates and three of those four are apologising for posting the same thing multiple times.

They then get rejection notices and ask HCC why, who of course have no idea of forum matters and so it goes on and on.

There is no point having a sticky aimed at new registrants if they don’t read the thing. Maybe we can get it built into the registration process, read the rules, read these stickies and still do it wrong.

[ColinB]

At the end of the day membership of this forum is voluntary (a lot of people forget that), so you can post as many rules as you want but eventually you will have no members. It has happened to many forums. Either way at the moment there is no solution. It would help if the delete key worked on the Edit/Delete menu then at least the poster could delete their own multiple posts but on my PC running Chrome it doesn't. All you can do is try to get your IT to fix it.

[Rana Temporia]

I don’t have many problems with this on my PC but I don’t switch it on very often as I can just pick up my iPad and create a post while the PC is still getting to a useable state even with Windows 10. However, this forum’s setup is very unfriendly to the iPad which can make it very frustrating especially when pictures are involved. Is there no way to make it more user-friendly across all devices? I try to not create the multiple entries but as has been stated above, there is often no way of knowing if pressing the button has worked.

[LTSR_NSE]

On my iPad & iPhone (both safari & chrome) - when I click ‘post reply’ it either responds immediately or (if the website ‘stalls’ for any reason - images/high usage/etc) the button appears as a slightly darker green - showing that it has been pressed but website is processing.

Possibly other devices/browsers aren’t displaying this ‘button pressed’ state correctly? (If certain devices/browsers are incapable of making the edit/delete buttons functional - they may not be displaying button states correctly?)

Or possibly the colour change is too subtle? (it would be an easy change for web team to make ‘pressed’ colour completely different - say red or blue - to make it more obvious to users, that they simply need to wait).

[P-Henny]

Like LT I too see the button go a slightly darker green when pressed, but it is not obvious. I also see a 'page loading progress bar' across the top of my browser just under the top tool bar that usually stalls at one third progress waiting for the forum servers to complete the requested task. This progress bar on a bad day can stay stalled for up to a minute or more.

This observation relates to Android Firefox on a tablet. My PC Firefox seems to be less prone to these page loading delays, which seems to indicate that the 'mobile' version of this website has the issue rather than the 'desktop' version.

Oddly, and I don't know why. I don't get multiple posts appearing if I press my 'save post' button multiple times.

Many websites that have buttons, grey out the button and make it unresponsive whilst the website processes the request. That would definitely prevent multiple presses due to impatience. It wouldn't however solve the issue where the user hasn't seen the "your post has been submitted for approval" message, but the mods say that they have requested a pop-up that needs acknowledgement to deal with that issue.