Issue with Quote in reply

[ThomThomDrum]

This has happened to me a couple of times now recently. I would click quote on a post and then decide that im not actually going to quote it or reply to it but I can not delete the quote from the posting section of the thread.

THis happened today again with a TGT post I was going to reply to but I have decided against it but if I now want to post in the Football thread his quote is there in the posting area and I can not delete it. Even if I select a different post in the thread to quote it will only show the TGT quote I clicked on. Very odd.

Is there any way I can clear the posting area of all content so as it appears blank again?

[eFestivals]

If you click on the quote box a little square with a cross appears at the top-left of the quote box. If you then click on that it will delete the quote box.

[ThomThomDrum]

Yeah I have noticed that and tried that but nothing. If I click on the quote box the cross appears but once my mouse's arrow goes over the cross it changes to multi directional pointer as if you can move the position of the quote box. If I left click nothing happens. Im using chrome on windows 10 if that means anything

[stuartbert two hats]

I'm also having this problem. In fact, I've got a bit little more detail.  These are the issues I'm having:

• Often a comment I have already posted will be present in the reply box when I go to do a post. This may be related to us of the back button, but I'm not 100% sure.
  • If I tap on the quote box (Fig 1), then I see the a directional arrow as described by @ThomThomDrum.  Is this what you mean by a "a little square with a cross ", @eFestivals?  Once this is selected, tapping the delete key on the soft keyboard has no effect.  Tapping it three times dismisses the soft keyboard.
    • Removing all the text from the box before trying to tap on the arrows and hitting delete doesn't help, I still get the behaviour described above.
    • If I tap and hold on the arrows, I get a Chrome context menu with no option to cut or delete (Fig 2)
    • If I tap and hold somewhere on the quote box, either nothing happens or the text near where my finger was becomes highlighted. (Fig 3)
  • I could usually get the quote box to delete in the past, this may have changed because I upgraded my handset (Moto X Play) from Lollipop to Marshmallow.  I'm not sure, since I don't have a Lollipop device to test on.
  • Using Windows 8.1 or OS X (El Capitan) it's easy, I click on the directional arrow in the top left and tap Delete or Backspace.  Both work every time.
• If I inadvertently delete the text underneath the quote box, then I can no longer enter any text below the quote box.  On the old forums, I could hit enter a couple of times and it would insert the next carriage return below the quote box, but now it just keeps adding the white space inside the quote box. This usually happens because I'm deleting an old post.

So to summarize, there are three problems:

• Old comments are appearing once they have been submitted.
• I cannot delete the quote box.
• I cannot enter text below the quote box if I delete all the text below the quote box.
• Sometimes I cannot submit a post because the auto-save is 'saving'.

The possible solutions I can think of are:

• Disable the auto-save feature.  It's causing more problems than it solves since it does not work consistently. Even if it was working properly, then the same problem arises if you change your mind about a post that contains a quote.
• Add a button to the top of the edit box to "Delete All"
• Hope + pray that the bugs are fixed in the forum software.

Obviously some of these are more difficult to fix than others. As a web developer, I'm volunteering my time to assist with this if I can be of any use.  Is the forum software itself open source?  If so, I'll happily submit a pull request to get the problems fixed at source. I've started to give up posting on mobile and every time I go to post, I'm confronted with one of my old posts that I can't remove!

Let me know if you need any more info.  I can record a video of me trying to delete the quote box if that helps convince that I'm not just doing it wrong.  As I say, I'll do anything I can to help with this.

Fig 1:

 

Fig 2:

 

Fig 3:

 

 

[eFestivals]

Stu ... it works on my two android devices, and my iPhone.

Click on the quote - but not in the quote.

Then use 'backspace/delete' and it's gone.

It took me ages to figure it out too, but I assure you it works.

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, eFestivals said:

Stu ... it works on my two android devices, and my iPhone.

Click on the quote - but not in the quote.

Then use 'backspace/delete' and it's gone.

It took me ages to figure it out too, but I assure you it works.

It used to work, but it doesn't at the moment on my device.  I double assure you  

[stuartbert two hats]

I'll get my missus to record me trying to do it.  Are either of your devices running Marshmallow?  That's the only thing I can think of that seems like it's changed.  I used to be able to delete the box pretty easily, I did it all the time.  But not now.

[eFestivals]

18 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I'll get my missus to record me trying to do it.  Are either of your devices running Marshmallow?  That's the only thing I can think of that seems like it's changed.  I used to be able to delete the box pretty easily, I did it all the time.  But not now.

hmmm ... ok ... just tried it on my tablet running v6.01 (phone is at the menders) and couldn't get it to delete - but it very definitely did used to work.

I'll raise this with the forum software makers and see what they say.

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, eFestivals said:

hmmm ... ok ... just tried it on my tablet running v6.01 (phone is at the menders) and couldn't get it to delete - but it very definitely did used to work.

I'll raise this with the forum software makers and see what they say.

Cheers, I agree it used to work.  I would think user error too in your place, but this particular user is pretty thorough

Does the forum software allow adding things like a "delete all" button to the toolbar?  If that was a config option, I would be well happy with that.  The other points are also bugs IMHO, but I could live with them all as long as I could get the box clear.

[mrtourette]

I find it odd that a thread 'remember's' that you've gone to quote somebody and then left the thread without completing a post. If it's designed that way it's a bizarre decision. 

[stuartbert two hats]

4 minutes ago, mrtourette said:

I find it odd that a thread 'remember's' that you've gone to quote somebody and then left the thread without completing a post. If it's designed that way it's a bizarre decision. 

I think it's an auto-save feature, which means you can start composing a reply, go elsewhere and come back to resume your post.  A bit like Gmail, and I think Facebook has started doing it too, at least on the mobile app.

Personally I don't think it's much use, since most forum posts are shorter than emails, so you tend to complete them in one sitting, plus you can always use multiple tabs to check other information.  It causes me personally more trouble that it's worth. Even when I could delete the quote boxes it was a faff, I didn't want that old guff in there - ever.

Edited March 1, 2016 by stuartbert two hats

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, mrtourette said:

I find it odd that a thread 'remember's' that you've gone to quote somebody and then left the thread without completing a post. If it's designed that way it's a bizarre decision. 

It either remembers it or it forgets it.

If I'd have done the designing I'd have chosen forget, tho I've been very happy for it to not be like that when I've closed my browser in error or had it crash, because i've not lost what i'd already written.

If there weren't issues with clearing the box (which there isn't on a desktop) then I reckon the 'remember' version just about wins out.

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, eFestivals said:

It either remembers it or it forgets it.

If I'd have done the designing I'd have chosen forget, tho I've been very happy for it to not be like that when I've closed my browser in error or had it crash, because i've not lost what i'd already written.

If there weren't issues with clearing the box (which there isn't on a desktop) then I reckon the 'remember' version just about wins out.

It's much closer, I agree.  But for me personally, forget wins out even on a desktop. 

[mrtourette]

Yeah I guess it has it's uses. Maybe a 'cancel' option when writing post like their is when editing might useful to differentiate between genuinely leaving the post and accidentally. 

[eFestivals]

14 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Cheers, I agree it used to work.  I would think user error too in your place, but this particular user is pretty thorough

Does the forum software allow adding things like a "delete all" button to the toolbar?  If that was a config option, I would be well happy with that.  The other points are also bugs IMHO, but I could live with them all as long as I could get the box clear.

from the look of things on the support forums, it's an issue that first appeared just under 3 weeks ago - which I guess was the time of the last upgrade (it seems to be about right).

It also appears to be the case that the forum software makers are aware there's an issue, so fingers crossed that it might be fixed in the next upgrade (which I reckon might well be this week, as it's been a few weeks since there's been one).

I've just looked to see if there's a default 'delete all' button for the editor, but there isn't. Good idea tho.

There's supposedly a solution via a plug-in, tho I discovered that after raising a support ticket so I'll see what comes from the support ticket before going the plug-in route - as the plug-ins are dependent on the version of ckeditor that's used for the edit box and i've no idea how often the forum makers might update ckeditor within the forums.

[stuartbert two hats]

Thanks for looking into this.  I understand how difficult it can be to do anything when you're relying on 3rd party software than might not have the best hooks into it.  I'll try Firefox, that might help.  Thanks again for the help.

[stuartbert two hats]

Well Firefox on Android completely crashes if I try to select the directional arrows!

[eFestivals]

a short-term solution .....

If you use the 'source' button (that's available on tablets, not sure if it is on a phone?) you can then use backspace/delete to clear all of the text in the edit box.

You can then switch back to rich-mode by pressing the 'source' button again, and you're good to go.

(that's something I realised for myself when trying different things. I'll let you know what the software makers say, when they do).

[stuartbert two hats]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

a short-term solution .....

If you use the 'source' button (that's available on tablets, not sure if it is on a phone?) you can then use backspace/delete to clear all of the text in the edit box.

You can then switch back to rich-mode by pressing the 'source' button again, and you're good to go.

(that's something I realised for myself when trying different things. I'll let you know what the software makers say, when they do).

I don't think I've got the source button on mobile.  You should be able to see the buttons I have available from the screenshots above.  The reason I say I don't think so is because I can't even see a source button on desktop, so I must be blind.  I have missed it very much for situations like this.

 

[eFestivals]

ahhh, in that case it's perhaps an admin-only function.

My phone has just arrived back 'fixed', but it's actually a new phone. When I've got it setup I'll take a better look.

[eFestivals]

right, software makers say it should work but admit it often doesn't, and that they're getting hassled from all angles about it, and are looking to improve it.

They're normally pretty good at fixing stuff, and can and do release a lot of updates since they've built-in an auto-updater so I'd like to think we might see something useful within a week or two, but I'm only guessing with that.

The alternative is that I can install a plugin which will (supposedly) fix it now.

Which would you like me to do?

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, eFestivals said:

right, software makers say it should work but admit it often doesn't, and that they're getting hassled from all angles about it, and are looking to improve it.

They're normally pretty good at fixing stuff, and can and do release a lot of updates since they've built-in an auto-updater so I'd like to think we might see something useful within a week or two, but I'm only guessing with that.

The alternative is that I can install a plugin which will (supposedly) fix it now.

Which would you like me to do?

I'll hang on a couple of weeks, I know plug-ins can have side effects.  I can probably find an alternative browser that works in the meantime.  I'll keep you updated.

Thanks

[eFestivals]

cheers, I'm not keen to go the plug-in route if I can avoid it, so thanks for your patience.

I'll post in here after the next software update and say whether it's fixed.

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

cheers, I'm not keen to go the plug-in route if I can avoid it, so thanks for your patience.

I'll post in here after the next software update and say whether it's fixed.

No worries, would be interesting if it is related to Marshmallow, my upgrade time was so close to the forum software upgrade, it's hard to tell.  Luckily so many Android handset makers take ages with upgrading the OS, so it doesn't seem to affect many people right now.  I'll let you know how I get on with other browsers. 

EDIT: Dolphin is the obvious one to try.

Edited March 1, 2016 by stuartbert two hats

[eFestivals]

Invision who make the software must be sick of me this week, as I've had need to get in touch with them about a number of different issues.

For one of those issues I was told the fix is in the next release of the software, which suggests it should be soon.