Reply Box Not Appearing When Using Firefox

 Dave, i have never had any problem with the Reply box. It works for me, on the Mac.

I remember when we had our meeting your Reply box had no white area for you to post in. Didnt they say it was a Firefox bug, or some such thing?

I have been playing around looking at stuff the last few weeks, but i have not posted much (not much for me to say in a thread i have no interest in), and i never start any threads.

I have been thinking of posting some feedback to Huddler, but i have not seen any BIG changes in the last few weeks, just little things.

I occasionally see the same or similar problem that Dave does -- and quoting occasionally doesn't work (ie. does not actually include the quoted text inside the quotation), which I know some others have also experienced sporadically.

Yes, I'm still using IE6, but that apparently has zilch to do w/ this problem.  I know Dave and some others experiencing the same/similar problems are using other more modern browsers like FireFox -- in fact, checking the other thread about broken reply box issue seems to suggest the problem is worse for FF than IE6.  With IE6, I usually get the reply box, but it's sometimes not fully rendered, ie. missing the reply box toolbar.  This probably happens once every 3 or 4 times for me.

And yes, these occasional problems have stopped me from posting on occasion -- and in some cases, I've lost written posts because of various forum problems (that were rarely issues for me back in the old HTF days).

Also, I don't know what's up, but I still cannot log in to the site via Bitstream's Bolt browser on my Blackberry Tour (for the past 2-3 weeks now).  It used to work fine enough, but not anymore, although I suppose it's possible that something on the Bitstream proxy side might've broken HTF login, if nobody else has problem w/ Opera Mini and other mobile browsers.  Hard to know where the problem is w/ that -- guess I could try some other mobile browser and see.

_Man_

I see it's a gathering of the "usual suspects." 

I'll chime in.  It's what I do. 

This Reply Box situation (which Huddler has told us is unique to users of Firefox--but I've got to believe that that might be a majority of HTF users...) has gotten worse before it's gotten any better.  We keep hearing that it's being looked into...but I would think it would be a priority on a discussion forum to be sure that people are easily being allowed access to "discuss."

This is not an insignificant problem.  There are only so many times people will click on "refresh." 

What Man reports about having some reply box issues in IE6 might be important news for Huddler as they seem to think it is unique to FF. 

Here's what this thread looked like--for me--when I went to compose this post (Firefox on XP):

Mike -

It's exactly what I have run into.  I had to refresh this page at least 4 times.  I've run into the exact same problem using IE8 and FireFox 3.6.

I tend to occur with Dave.  My frustration level is now at the highest.

 

This is my favorite forum to participate in on the web, but it has slowly sank into unusable mess.  Yes, I can hear the catcalls "that's pure hyperbole"  fine.

 

But when I want to respond, I don't need to keep hitting refresh to do it.  Combined with other long standing nags, placement of breadcrumbs, the loss of the much preferred forum jump, and the monumental drop in posts (I know, someone will say I'm wrong but whatever)

It just feels as though I have less incentive to keep coming back.  I recognize that the forum owners feel as though Huddler provides them a lot of great features.  And it does.  The ability to index reviews, gear, faqs, etc. is far superior to the format as used at other forums (see AVS) .  
But I find myself spending more time in other places because, quite frankly, there are more discussions, responses, A forum to me is generally as good as it's content.  Which is why I keep coming back here because some of the posters that are here are some of the best.. anywhere.  And there are segments here that aren't reproduced anywhere.

But I really feel as though Huddler must have sold the ownership here a "promise of goods" and it simply hasn't been followed up on.  Too many features have been lagging for months now, and they don't seem like anything complicated.  To be honest, it just seems like a "yeah yeah, that should be fixed.." and it goes into the round file (trash).  Until it gets brought up again.

I simply can't believe that it took months to copy & paste in any editor the code for breadcrumbs to the bottom of a thread, it gets screwed up and is done but at the bottom of a reply box, and it goes another month or two without a fix.
 

The problem with the lack of a reply just short circuits discussion.  Can't participate if you can't reply.

I've been on this forum for a very long time, and I admit.. part of the problem is that fighting the software just isn't entertaining at all.
 

I don't have another internet forum that I take part in.  I check other sites out once in awhile...but the HTF is the only forum I call home.  That puts me in a different place than probably most of the rest of the members here. 

All I can tell you is how often I've advised that fixing the navigation issues would go a very long way to making us old grumps happy. 

The upside to this software is evident...but the problems do prompt a fair amount of aggravation.  I predict the day will come when the bugs are worked out.  But it does seem to be taking a long time (from the user's point of view) for progress to be made. 

Guys:

I can tell you that we have been communicating this issue with Huddler. A couple of days ago Adam sent out another email to let them know that this issue is a priority above anything else.
I can also tell you that Huddler is working deligently to fix it and will as soon as they are able.

We realize that this is very frustrating and personally I have run into the very same thing a multitude of times but only with Firefox. I do use the latest versions of Chrome, Safari and IE and they do not have this issue.

We apologize for all the frustration and hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Parker

For me the issues has gone away with Firefox. Are you all continuing to see this issue with the reply box not loading in Firefox?

Parker

Not recently, but I never had it as often as the others report it hitting them.

I've run into it a couple times tonight, but its' not as bad.  One refresh and it's fixed.  But now I'm getting it consistently in Chrome...

I was just going to reply here that I was still running into the Reply Box problem when, conveniently, this very thread page obliged:

www.hometheaterforum.com/image/id/87563/width/1000/height/800



For some reason I can't get the image to display...  But it's there. 

Matt, Dave Mike and others, I appreciate your patience.  Here is a bit of history.  When our site was under vB we used iframes for the ads to make sure that they loaded after the content on the page.  Those iframes went away after the switch to Huddler...until the last release.  We brought them back to help with performance and because some users were having problems where the ads loaded first and the rest of the page followed--I never experienced this issue myself, but I have a super fast Internet connection and fast PCs at home. 

Here is our problem.  Our engineering team has isolated the trouble and it is not a bug on our platform, but with the way iframes are handled in Firefox.  Firefox has promised a fix in a future version and closed a lot of the bugs associate with it, but according to them the bug is deep in the core code which makes it more difficult for them to address.

Ultimately, this is Mozilla's bug to fix.  We can hack around the problem by adding special checks, force refreshes and artificial throttles into the load sequence of the page for Firefox users.  We have implemented some of those things already, and have more on the way, the problem is we really won't know how successful they are until we launch them.  So we are essentially trying to hack the site to work around a Mozilla bug (that is effecting lots of sites) until they actually fix the bug in their browser.  That is why it is taking so long to get this nailed down.

What about those experiencing it on Chrome?

Sam, I am late to the party.  I take it you are experiencing it using Chrome?  Can you detail any specifics for me?  Mac or PC, how frequently, symptoms, etc.

Adam:  I can't speak to Sam's experience, but in Post #10 above, MattCR says he's been "getting it consistently in Chrome."

Not me, but Matt is:

Ok.  So Sam I know you use Chrome a lot right?  Have you ever got it?

Matt-
Since it looks like you are the only report can you give me lots of info?  When did it start, when did it get worse, OS, plug-ins, etc.  The more specific with dates you can be the better.

Chrome must use a similar way that it handles Iframes that Firefox does.

I am going to be using Chrome for a few days and see if I notice the errors that Matt has noticed.

I have both running, I use Firefox 98% of the time tho.  So I can't tell you much about the issue on HTF.  I'm probably not a good test case anyway since I run flashblock and adblock on both browsers, and only whitelist what I have to to get minimal functionality from any site I visit.

I had to refresh the page to get this reply box to come up.
Using Firefox 3.6 on Windows Vista.

In a bad sign, I had to refresh twice.. on this page.. to get it to come up (Firefox 3.6/Windows 7)

In Chrome it got so constant I stopped using it to come here :(

I dont' have any abnormal plugins I think in Chrome, I have these:
Adobe Flash/Shockwave/etc., ChromeTranslator, Adblock (sorry! but it is off for much of the content here), Tabsearch, IETab, and of course, Java..

 

But nothing non-standard I don't think.  Still, yeah, on it, I can't even seemingly pull up the reply box.
 

The machine is:

i7/860, 4GB, Windows7 x64, ATI 5770, as probably all the relevent stats.

Thanks Matt.  To the best of my knowledge you are the only person with Chrome problems here, so I'll get a ticket open with that info.  One other question.  Did it start happening right after the last upgrade (when we turned on iframes)?  Was it working fine before that, or have you just started using Chrome?  I'm trying to see if it is possibly related to the FF iframes problem or if it is a different beast altogether.  I believe Sam and I know Parker uses it on the site with no problems.   We have another round of test "workarounds" for the problem coming this week.  They should be ready on the test site Monday or Tuesday.  I would like to give some of you guys who are having the problem access to the test site as soon as the fixes go live there next week to verify that they are working.

I have XP-3 with the newest Firefox and I again had to hit reset. Somewhere I stated things. Basically - stop using the Iframes as before until "it gets corrected by firefox.  I get the idea more people are upset with the current situation with "Iframe" than before. Undo the Iframe coding. I am not convinced that the problem lie ONLY with firefox. Also with the sign-on problem - there has been no statement, as usual, from Huddler about it and why.

The Chrome problem only started very recently.  And, oddly, it only happens on my W7-64bit box.  I can use Chrome elsewhere and it doesn't ever happen. 

I tried it on a fresh install of W7-64bit and it happens there too.

Still an obvious problem for me on FF 3.6 on XP (Matt squeezed in another post while I was creating the below image):

Hi all,

Apologies again for the frustration!  This has been a bug Mozilla has been putting off for quite a while now but we're certainly trying to do all we can to minimize its effects on Home Theater Forum.  The team is layering in additional checks which will hopefully reduce the number of times it happens.  Mozilla has said they will fix this bug in "spring 2010" but hopefully our work arounds will help in the mean time.

Mozilla will be fixing in Firefox 3.7.  In the meantime have a workaround for this.  If you are still having the problem please PM me.