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Comment Posting Error Message

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  • #1418425

    srymissj
    Member

    Hi,

    I’m a teacher who runs a blog for my students. Lately students have been having problems commenting on posts. A message will pop up and say, “Sorry, this comment couldn’t be posted.” I have searched and found that this appears to be a current problem for several users.

    I’m curious if this is being fixed, or if anything is being done at all? Part of their assignment involves leaving comments on posts, so this is causing some major problems. Typically they are able to refresh and then it accepts their comment, but it seems a little ridiculous I need to tell them to type their comment, hit post, then hit refresh, then post again…

    Thanks in advance!

    The blog I need help with is sorrymissjackson.com.

    #1418630

    timethief
    Member

    I’ll tag this thread for Staff assistance. Please subscribe to the thread so you are notified when they respond and please be patient while waiting.

    #1418669

    kraftbj
    Staff

    Hi Miss Jackson,

    I apologize for the trouble this has caused. I’m touching base with the developer in charge of the code that is resulting in the error for some additional advice.

    That error is the result of a mismatch concerning security. With a form (comments or others), websites can use a “nonce” which is a random, unique value that we expect to be returned on the submitted form so we can ensure that the form is being submitted by who we expect it to be submitted and not a third-party hacking in somehow.

    Typically, an error like that is the result of the page being left open too long (and the nonce expiring) or, what I think may be true in your case, the school’s firewall/security protocols may be interfering. Some systems will, for example, check the page and verify it is safe per the school’s rules and then pass on the same copy to all visitors who try to access it over a certain timeframe. If that happens, the nonce that we send to your student’s browser would be changed to a previous one by the firewall, then the response would be rejected since they don’t match.

    That’s a hypothesis at this point, though, but I wanted to share with you something more than “we’ll get back to you” :-)

    I appreciate your patience. I’ll post an update after discussing with the developer. Thanks.

    #1418687

    kraftbj
    Staff

    Hi Miss Jackson,

    Are the students leaving open that particular blog post a particularly long time before commenting? Short of that, after conferring with our developers, it sounds like the school’s network may be to blame for the issue based on the explanation from yesterday.

    While I agree this is a pain, if they could compose the comment (directly in the blog, in Word, etc), refresh the page, then immediately paste and submit, we believe that would eliminate the interference by the school’s network.

    Thanks for your patience and for using WordPress.com. Hope your students are enjoying it. I’ve been trying to get my wife (a teacher too) to use WordPress in her classroom ;-)

    Cheers!

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