Seeking information to confirm a web site is responsible for a problem
For some unexplained reason the WSJ's site comment app is preventing me from posting for, as the error message puts it "It seems you're attempting post malformed content". As a further complication the problem subsequently started on The Australian's site. Both journals are in the News Corporation stable and use the same application software. Chatting with the WSJ in the first instance has not been fruitful. Their first suggestion was to clear the cache and login again which did not fix the problem. When asked to try another browser found the error message did not appear and posting went through as normal, on both WSJ and The Australian sites. While the WSJ folks say "There's your answer, its a Firefox issue", for this to be so their comments application must surely have placed a flag within code stored either on my desktop computer or their system. As I don't need to switch back and forth between browsers, my question is "Where might this code be stored? And how do I clean it out?" Will apprectiate your thoughts and advice. Thank you MurfOscar
Chosen solution
jscher2000, apologies for the delay in responding. Had only just printed your advice for guidance when Firefox asked to update its software. Now I have the new faster software which no longer offers one stop access to Bookmarks Menu. Now to get there I have to pick a new icon on the menu bar which takes me to a list from which "Bookmarks" can be selected. This diplays a full page list of recent bookmarks. The only way forward is to hit "Show all bookmarks" which puts up the old Bookmarks menu from which I select "Bookmarks Menu" and the menu I put together appears. Then when I get the page I want, moving up and down is incredably slow, finally stopping alltogether. Would love to go back to the previous version. But there is good news. Posts are no longer being blocked on the WSJ site. Haven't tested The Australian site yet but prospects are good that if it hasn't yet been fixed it will soon. So my sincere thanks to you and pkshadow for you interest and contributions which is much appreciated. Meanwhile the non-receipt of forwarded email has continued for a week. Have been in contact with the forwarding site which claims emails for me are still being received, and has sent a test email which was bounced, and sent me a copy of the MAILER-DAEMON message as evidence that the problem is with my ISP. Problem is within the rejection report is the instruction 'See sendscore.com". This confirms my ISP is rejecting the message because the reputation of the sending server is below the standard it will accept. Have escallated this fact to a high level in the forwarding site but no response yet. Thanks again for your solid support; you put my call forwarder to shame.
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Most often, an issue like this is caused by content blocking, for example, ad blocking or tracker blocking. Occasionally it's a cache or cookie issue.
Content Blocking
To bypass extensions, you can test in Firefox's Safe Mode. To bypass the built-in Tracking Protection feature, see: What happened to Tracking Protection?.
In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.
If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.
If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
- Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
and OK the restart.
Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).
Any improvement?
Cookies
If Firefox has stored cookies that have become corrupted, this can cause problems with how sites display information. Because the comment section is embedded, it may be difficult to remove the cookies from that site. As of this Summer, comments were hosted on a service called LiveFyre. So you could try:
Call up the cookies dialog on any site using either:
- right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
- (menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
- click the padlock or "i" icon in the address bar, then the ">" button, then More Information, and finally the "View Cookies" button
In the dialog that opens, the current site should be pre-filled in the search box at the top of the dialog. Change that to livefyre.com so you can view and remove that site's cookies individually.
Then try reloading the article. Does that help?
Cookie Settings
If you block third party cookies, there can occasionally be unexplained failures. This article has the steps to liberalize your cookie settings: Websites say cookies are blocked - Unblock them.
Many thanks Jscher. Have printed out your advice to work through it. Will revert in due course. Many thanks.
Results of following your directions:
Content blocking In Safe Mode posts went through as normal. Shut down system and performed normal restart. Problem presented itself again.
View Cookies Am enclosing 4 snips for full cookie listing of "theaustralian.com.au" plus 1 snip of "livefyre.com" which listed no cookies for your review.
One additional fact I need to add into the mix. Have a recollection of running a Firefox update but cannot recall if this was immediately prior to the issue emerging. Can I access a record on my system of dates updates were applied, or is this an unlikely source of the problem in any event?
What conclusions do you draw so far? Can I tell WSJ they have a problem?
Again many thanks for your contribution.
PS Could only load 2 of 5 images. Will send remaining 3 in following message.
Remaining 3 images attached
MurfOscar said
Content blocking
In Safe Mode posts went through as normal.
Shut down system and performed normal restart. Problem presented itself again.
Just to confirm, you tried Firefox's Safe Mode and then shut down, or you tested in Windows' Safe Mode? Windows Safe Mode has different effects from Firefox's Safe Mode. Windows Safe Mode bypasses certain programs that normally start up with Windows, potentially including your security software. That would be an interesting data point to keep in mind, but in order to assess the potential issues I mentioned, you could test Firefox's Safe Mode in Windows' normal mode.
Regarding the cookies for theaustralian.com.au, do you have the same problem on that site? There are a few cookies which have fyre in their name, possibly related to comments, but the names are pretty cryptic, so it may be difficult to do a selective removal of cookies affecting comments.
Confirming I entered Firefox's Safe mode by right-clicking on a blank area of a comment on The Australian site after Firefox was loaded in Windows normal mode. The problem was first encounterd on the WSJ site and reoccurred when I switched to The Australian site. Put this down to both journals being part of News Corporation and using the same software. For the record and the sake of completeness prior to the error messages apprearing had marked several comments as "Offensive".
Could it be Adblock Plus??
How can I test if Adblock Plus is the problem?
As an aside, am engaged in sorting another problem, this time with email forwarding. For over 15 years have had an email forwarding account with Name Secure in the US for address ian@icampbel.com. NS receives mail to this address and forwards it to icampbel@bigpond.net.au, the address to which advice of your responses goes directly. (Had to establish a new community account for the reason that the old one was tied to ian@icampbel.com and messages were not getting through). Seems bigpond, circa the time the problem you are helping with came up, for reason unknown started rejecting mail from Name Secure for reason 554 incorrect address. The destination address in the rejection notice is correct so now have bigpond doing a 24hour monitoring of all rejections. Think its only a coincidence that the two problems came up in the same week.
Ran above link. Haven't upgraded to Firefox 57. Current Version 56.0.2 (64 bit) Only two enabled extensions out of three listed; Adblock Plus and Save Browsing Version 4. Running both Windows and Firefox in Normal modes, disabled Adblock Plus. Test post completed, error message not displayed. Presumption is Adblock Plus isolated as cause of problem. Recommended next actions on the offending product?
Recommended next actions on the offending product? Please.
MurfOscar said
How can I test if Adblock Plus is the problem?
You can try two different things. First, if there is an ABP button on the toolbar, try making an exception for the page. Second, if that doesn't work, you can completely disable the extension on the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
- type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter/Return
In the left column of the Add-ons page, click Extensions. Then check the right side for ABP. Sometimes a link will appear above a disabled extension to restart Firefox before the change takes effect, so keep an eye out for that.
Any improvement?
Chosen Solution
jscher2000, apologies for the delay in responding. Had only just printed your advice for guidance when Firefox asked to update its software. Now I have the new faster software which no longer offers one stop access to Bookmarks Menu. Now to get there I have to pick a new icon on the menu bar which takes me to a list from which "Bookmarks" can be selected. This diplays a full page list of recent bookmarks. The only way forward is to hit "Show all bookmarks" which puts up the old Bookmarks menu from which I select "Bookmarks Menu" and the menu I put together appears. Then when I get the page I want, moving up and down is incredably slow, finally stopping alltogether. Would love to go back to the previous version. But there is good news. Posts are no longer being blocked on the WSJ site. Haven't tested The Australian site yet but prospects are good that if it hasn't yet been fixed it will soon. So my sincere thanks to you and pkshadow for you interest and contributions which is much appreciated. Meanwhile the non-receipt of forwarded email has continued for a week. Have been in contact with the forwarding site which claims emails for me are still being received, and has sent a test email which was bounced, and sent me a copy of the MAILER-DAEMON message as evidence that the problem is with my ISP. Problem is within the rejection report is the instruction 'See sendscore.com". This confirms my ISP is rejecting the message because the reputation of the sending server is below the standard it will accept. Have escallated this fact to a high level in the forwarding site but no response yet. Thanks again for your solid support; you put my call forwarder to shame.
I think I can help with this part:
MurfOscar said
Now I have the new faster software which no longer offers one stop access to Bookmarks Menu. Now to get there I have to pick a new icon on the menu bar which takes me to a list from which "Bookmarks" can be selected. This diplays a full page list of recent bookmarks. The only way forward is to hit "Show all bookmarks" which puts up the old Bookmarks menu from which I select "Bookmarks Menu" and the menu I put together appears.
This article has the steps to put a more conventional bookmarks menu button on the toolbar: Bookmarks in Firefox ("How do I add the Bookmarks Menu button to the toolbar?" section).
Staring at the new icon recognised it as 4 books on a bookshelf . Silly me to not get it earlier. Another thank you for coming up will the goods.