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Too many comments leads to "Connection Reset"

  1. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    I have a problem which I think is down to the new comment box that was added a few weeks ago (unfortunately). I and most of my readers have been complaining that after making several comments, they get "Connection Reset" and cannot get back onto the website.

    I discovered that deleting cookies (that old WP solution to all ills) made it possible to get back on.

    I now think I know what the problem is.....

    With the new comment box, the entire comment is saved in a cookie. A cookie is saved for each post that is commented on. Eventually some limit or other is reached, resulting in a "Connection Reset". If just one or two of these "comment cookies" are deleted, then a connection can be re-established.

    Does this make sense? Is this another bug? Do I have any way to either increase the cookie limit or to inhibit the saving of these particular cookies (unlikely)?

    The blog I need help with is thomasmacsblog.wordpress.com.

  2. timethief
    Member

    We Volunteers answering support questions cannot answer this one for you. Only Staff can. http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

  3. timethief
    Member

    You can check status here > http://status.automattic.com/9931/135469/WordPress.com There doesn't seem to be any issue connected to yours there. However, I visited the blog and I was astonished at how many pages you have and how many video embeds are in each one. I also noted that you have many video embeds on your front page and I'm wondering if there could be any interference from any of them.

  4. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    Sorry @timethief - the blog associated with this username is just a test one (in fact was an attempt to back-up my "proper" blog). The username associated with my proper blog cannot be used on the forums. This is an on-going propnlem that support seem to be ignoring, in that I can post comments on this forum but they are (literally) invisible to everyone but myself!

    The issue is that when you make a comment, the contents are stored in a cookie. Each page you comment on creates a new cookie (called comment-<postid>).

    Eventually the sum contents of all these cookies are sufficient to cause a connection reset which blocks access to the blog until some of the cookies are deleted.

    The fault started occurring when this new comment box was introduced. I cannot see any reason why comments are stored in cookies....

  5. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    Just as a point of interest @timethief, if I made sufficient lengthy comments on your blog (or any other WordPress one come to that) the same thing would happen. In fact I wouldn't even have to submit the comments!

    The cookie is created when the reply box is typed into - not when the comment is submitted.

    Try it yourself and you will see. (I'm using Firefox 4)

  6. raincoaster
    Member

    It's probably a built-in anti-spam measure. Report it to staff from any of your dashboards and maybe they'll adjust it or give you the option to opt-out. Repeat commenters are the BEST!

  7. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    I thought that at first until I realised it was the comment cookies. Its not looking for duplicate comments - its simply that there is a limit on total size of the cookie content.

  8. raincoaster
    Member

    Hmm, well staff should know that too.

  9. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    I have told them but, as usual, my information falls on deaf ears. :-(

  10. thomaspaulmac
    Member

    Hurrah! Eventually staff told me that what I was seeing was theoretically possible and have now abandoned the idea of saving comments in cookies.

    You can now close this thread. Thank you to support.

  11. mmadfan
    Member

    Maybe this means I and others will no longer have ghost comments and ghost replies showing up when I/we try to reply or comment? That would be great!

    You can mark the thread "resolved" in your initial post now, thomaspaulmac.

  12. knashermac2009
    Member

    @mmadfan - that's correct - no more ghost comments (as this was achieved via cookies).

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