Buggy Buttons and Random Reputation Points: Trouble-shooting?

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Level 10

194,653 points

Buggy Buttons and Random Reputation Points: Trouble-shooting?

Hello,

does anybody else also have a problem with truculent "Solved" and "Helpful" buttons that are acting up and randomly marking the wrong posts as "solved" or "helpful"? Half of the time when I try to mark a post as "helpful" and press the button, the page immediately, magically scrolls up to a different post, and the wrong answer will be marked, before I can react and stop this. At first I found that quite funny, for if there often are so many helpful answers to choose from, it didn't matter much, but last week this scary scrolling caused my own thank-you post to be marked as "solved" - oh, how embarrassing 😊 !

Only, I have no idea how to trouble-shoot this bug; I see no way to experiment with marking post, for I really cannot start a test series of bogus posts and ask people to answer to be awarded random points - who would volunteer? So what can I do to explore this? I don't think the trackpad is faulty; my MBP is only half a year old, and the trackpad works fine in all other Applications; I see this randomness only when posting in the Support Communities. Has anybody else experienced this magic mouse? Any suggestions are very welcome, for this bug keeps me from posting some questions I have.

Regards

Léonie

Safari,

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2.4 GHz I.Core i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 1:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ScotMij

Level 7

21,913 points

Apr 12, 2012 1:25 PM in response to léonie

I have posted very few questions of late but I have not experienced your problem. I mainly use a Magic Mouse. I do have a TrackPad attached to one iMac but rarely use it. My TP has misbehaved so right now it is not paired.

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Answer 2

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 13, 2012 3:29 AM in response to ScotMij

Thanks, that's helpful.

My TP has misbehaved

May I ask in what way "misbehaved"? Causing unexpected jumps as I do observe when posting here?

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 3

ScotMij

Level 7

21,913 points

Apr 13, 2012 4:49 AM in response to léonie

Unexpected jumps on occasion but my memory for details is not good. The TP has been idle for many weeks. I thought at one point that Bluetooth was getting confused and the iMac kept losing the TP, so I gave up. I may try it again.

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Answer 4

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Apr 13, 2012 4:16 PM in response to léonie

You could create another id and set in your post that this was far testing out the jumping solved issue.

Robert

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Answer 5

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Apr 13, 2012 5:43 PM in response to léonie

Does the same effect occur if you post using Firefox rather than Safari (or vice versa), leonie?

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Answer 6

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 13, 2012 11:41 PM in response to rccharles

Thank you, that might work, but still the testing posts would be SPAM cluttering up the forum; but why a second ID? So that I could mark my own answers as solved? I would need a host to cooperate and to cancel the reputation points if I award points to myself in different guises. I'd hate to violate the rules of the discussion groups.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 7

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 13, 2012 11:53 PM in response to b noir

Thank you, b noir.

I rarely use Firefox, for most of the times Safari is sufficient for my needs, but I am going to explore it for a time. This answer is now posted using Firefox, and also the button pressed from the Firefox Browser. Seems to work 🙂, but just one sample. One problem is that there are so many parameters - location, network, architecture of three different MBPs and one iMac, two different OSs.

I am quite sure I never had a problem with jumping randomly to other buttons on the older Snow Leopard MBP, only on the two late 2011 i7 MBPs with Lion.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 8

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 14, 2012 10:04 AM in response to b noir

It happened again 😊, and this time with Firefox: This helped me Re: iDVD on Lion does not recognize the Super Drive as supported?

The "helpful" mark went to my own post, and I received a mocking congratulations letter: "Congratulations, your post has helped leonieDF".

What is weird - both times I accidentally marked my own posts, I found that the edit of my last post had not been finished on the server: When I pressed the reply button below the the post of the poster to whom I wanted to award points, a recovered version of my "thank you" letter was opened. So maybe the wrong buttons receive the "hit" signal, if you award points while the editor window is still open - or the server thinks the editor window is still open? 😕

Greatly puzzled

Léonie

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Answer 9

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Apr 14, 2012 11:17 AM in response to léonie

1) Actually, clicking on solved or helpful for a thread you created from your id doesn't award yourself points.

2) I suggested creating a new id. Call it testLeonieDF. So what if it gets a few points. An id with a low level of points will not show up anywhere.

3) I thought there whas a test forum/community? I could not find it.

Robert

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Answer 10

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 14, 2012 11:40 AM in response to rccharles

1) Actually, clicking on solved or helpful for a thread you created from your id doesn't award yourself points.

Hello Robert,

thanks a lot again! 🙂 Yes, that I know. What confused me was the suggestion of a second ID. With my current ID I also could post "trivial pursuit" testing questions, and no points would be awarded to me, if I answer my own posts. So why two IDs, unless they are supposed to interact? To spare me blushes for marking my own post "solved"? And if two different IDs do interact, points will be awarded, clearly against the rules of the Support Communities and frowned upon. That was what had me worried with your otherwise very intriguing suggestion.

3) I thought there whas a test forum/community? I could not find it.

Such a forum would be a great playground for debugging. Me too, cannot find any traces of it.

Cheers

Léonie

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Answer 11

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Apr 14, 2012 1:58 PM in response to léonie

What is weird - both times I accidentally marked my own posts, I found that the edit of my last post had not been finished on the server: When I pressed the reply button below the the post of the poster to whom I wanted to award points, a recovered version of my "thank you" letter was opened. So maybe the wrong buttons receive the "hit" signal, if you award points while the editor window is still open - or the server thinks the editor window is still open? 😕

That's a nice catch.

More thoughts in the interests of narrowing in on the circumstances producing the problem. Has the issue been cropping up during the 15 minutes after making the edit? Or does it happen just so long as there has been an edit by you at some stage during the lifetime of the topic?

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Answer 12

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 14, 2012 2:31 PM in response to b noir

Has the issue been cropping up during the 15 minutes after making the edit?

That was the case with the two marks that were awarded to my own posts:

The first time I was still in the editor and had not yet submitted the post, when I made up my mind which button to press
the second time I had already submitted the answer, and my answer was displayed when I pressed the helpful button beneath the other post. A minute later I heard the "New Mail" alert and found the congratulations letter. Then I pressed the reply button again to add an apology and found a recovered version that I could edit.

- all in all less then 15 minutes within posting.

The other wrong marks probably also happened following me posting a thank you note, but I cannot remember the exact timing.

Thank you for taking an interest in this.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 13

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Apr 14, 2012 3:05 PM in response to léonie

Thank you for taking an interest in this.

🙂 That's okay ... mostly I'm hoping that we can generate enough info about the symptoms so that the Hosts can properly get their teeth into the issue.

It's sounding a bit like a server/display lag thing ... the display isn't reflecting the current status of the topic on the server (due to the edit in process). So the thing you're clicking on in the display of the topic isn't necessarily aligned with the current status of the topic, and the wrong instruction gets sent to the server (and a different post than the one you intended gets the helpful or solved).

Speculation of course ... but if that's what is going on (as a workaround), it might be worth refreshing the display of the topic (F5 or the Mac equivalent) prior to making a helpful/solved assignment (if you've edited a post in there recently). Fingers crossed, that'll bring the display of the topic back into accordance with the current status of the topic on the server, and then the helpfuls and solveds will land on the correct targets.

Another possibility (if you've got email notifications up and running) is trying to use the helpful/solved controls in email notifications for replies to assign points rather than using the ASC GUI in the browser ... do the email-generated helpfuls/solveds seem to go to the right place if you've edited a post in the topic recently? Or do they displace as well?

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Answer 14

léonie Author

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 14, 2012 3:39 PM in response to b noir

It's sounding a bit like a server/display lag thing ... the display isn't reflecting the current status of the topic on the server

That would certainly explain what I observe - but we will need more data to be sure. A pity that we can't send questionnaires to all the posters marking their own thank you note as solved and ask them if that really was what they wanted to do 😀

Thank you for the suggested work-arounds. I'll try it right away: I have one last button to press for this thread, and let's see what will happen if I use the solved-email-button, right after posting this reply.

Cheers

Léonie

P.S: The email button has worked correctly, I see. Thanks again ! 🙂 Now I can dare to post questions again.

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Answer 15

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Apr 14, 2012 3:37 PM in response to léonie

... did you mean to give the solved to me for that one, leonie? (Just thought I'd better check.)

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