However - so that it does not get lost in the long list of details below I think the most important detail that I figured out last night may be:

If I try to use the Publish button with the "Visual" tab of the editor active it fails consistently (I believe actually 100% of the time). If I make the "Text" tab of the editor active it appears to succeed 100% of the time. (I thought Publish worked 'sometimes' - I am guessing the 'sometimes' were when I happened to be in the "Text" tab).

Notes:

I updated Firefox to version 17 as listed on http://browsehappy.com/

I disabled all Add-ons and restarted

I cleared the caches in Firefox

Cleared existing cookies and confirmed that 3rd party cookies are enabled (and restarted Firefox for good measure)

--Instead I recommend that you ONLY log-in directly you your own blog
I actually do not know how to log directly into my blog at http://www.cmiles-consuming.info (am I just not seeing a link - weird...) - so I logged in via http://www.wordpress.com.

I have HTTPS: enabled per the link and confirmed a HTTPS: connection when on the dashboard.

I went to All Posts and selected Add New

I typed in a title and body text using the 'Visual' tab in the editor

I hit Publish and nothing happened - I x2ed my blog to make sure the post had not been published (in another tab). I tried this several times just-in-case while typing this reply.

I hit All Posts to go back to the post list and confirm the post did not publish - I get a dialog box with "This page is asking you to confirm that you want to leave - data you have entered may not be saved." I hit Stay on Page and try Publish again - nothing changes or appears to work, I refresh my blog in the other tab to confirm it did not publish. I hit All Posts again this time choosing Leave Page.

My All Posts list has my post in the list as a Draft (I delete the draft so I don't confuse myself later...). I repeat the process of Adding New and Putting in a post, hitting publish to confirm I am not crazy - same results detailed above.

Information that I think may be interesting:

For - I believe years - this sequence worked without problem, and then became problematic ?within the last year (sorry I wish I had a date for easy comparison with svn history/browser version changes/etc... - I would say my estimate is +/- 6 months?).

I can not remember any instance of Save Draft not working

I can publish/schedule reliably from the Quick Edit Menu in All Posts (what I have been doing for awhile).

I assume that this is some odd edge case - I also assume that if anyone ever wants to explore this that all my blog settings/information can be pulled out of the database so I will not speculate and list a lot of useless information.

Hope that helps - please feel free to contact me here or via email with questions,
Charles Miles
[email redacted]

Instead I recommend that you ONLY log-in directly you your own blog and ONLY create posts and edit them here > Dashboard > Posts > Add New

If you are not running one of the browsers and versions listed at http://browsehappy.com/ please try upgrading or switching first.

Note: If you are using an IE9 browser in compatibility mode that makes it render as IE7 and IE7 is not supported. To disable see > http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

If you are, please do these four things:

1. Try clearing your browser’s cache http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=32050

2. Make sure that you have third-party cookies enabled http://en.support.wordpress.com/third-party-cookies/

3. Try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.

4. Try enabling HTTPS: http://en.support.wordpress.com/https/

If you are not successful let us know which browser (and version of it) you’re using and post any error reports you get.

Today I had problems in Firefox 15.0.1 and Chrome Version 23.0.1271.64 m - I did not clear the cache and cookies today, but in the past that troubleshooting step has not seemed to impact the problem. I am logged in with https. I am not aware of any major system/browser/plugin/setup changes between the time when the buttons worked/began not working, although certainly Windows updates and browser versions are constantly changing... I am usually connected via a mobile hotspot, but that has been true for many years now and I am not aware of having problems with my connection on other sites.

At this point I work around problems by a combination of publishing from the 'All Posts' list and using the clipboard to - but this is less than ideal.

Thanks for any help or suggestions!
Charles Miles