h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a number of large entries which I would like to make minor changes to. The entries concerned are rather big - one, for example, is 3230 words.

I'm unable to save changes to these entries. When I click the "Update Entry" button, I am sent to the Captcha system. I put in the Captcha code without any problems and click Update, but instead of the changes being saved, I am brought back to the edit window, which has been cleared. There's no sign of my entry and the changes have not been saved.

I notice that this only happens for large entries. For medium sized entries, after submitting the Captcha code, the entry is saved. For very small entries, I don't get asked for a Captcha code.

I've tried this in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The behaviour is the same in all three.

Is there any workaround for this? Or will I have to split the entries into small chunks and link them together? It seems a pity that entries which I was able to edit in the past are no longer editable.

Regards,
Gnomon

I'll make enquiries on your behalf, this is the sort of thing we want to move forward on.

Just to recap:

The Captcha brings you back to an empty text window
Changes have not been saved
The problem occurs only on large Entries - above say 3,000 words
Browsers make no difference to the problem
Medium sized entries require a Captcha but you can go ahead normally
Smaller Entries do not trigger a Captcha code.

Thank you

In the meantime - would it be feasible to copy to Notepad or similar, make the edits offline and then copy over the old text?

I do this sometimes when I have multiple edits - eg similar errors that need correcting through an Entry that I'm subbing.

I can make the changes in notepad, but I can't save them back to the entry, as h2g2 will not allow any large entry to be updated.

The Captcha system is outside of the h2g2 system, and obviously thinks you're up to no good

Best way forward is to get your IP onto a white list to stop it happening to you.

Are you saying that this doesn't happen to all users of h2g2?

It happens to all of us at times. Me included. But we do take this situation seriously as we know it is frustrating for all Researchers, whatever they're editing.

The problem came to light when Dmitri and Mags were editing The Post one week. At that time, we found that filling in the captcha gave the user the ability to then carry on posting, except for Dmitri, who we had to sort out with a white listed IP.

I don't believe I even inferred in any way that it doesn't, or even does, happen to all users. What I said was why it happened, and suggested a potential quick-fix to allow you to continue editing.

Sorry for trying to help.

Don't be sorry for trying to help. Since I didn't understand your answer, I tried to get you to explain further, which you have now done. How do I go about getting the three locations I post from white-listed?

I post from home, the office and my phone.

Hopefully Lanza will put you in touch with whoever's managing it and get them to sort it out.

The captcha system is part of Cloudflare and is supposed to only come in when activity it sees as dodgy happens. Since it was put in, our server hits dropped a lot, as it got rid of a lot of malicious traffic attempts. Unfortunately a few false positives will always show up, because software isn't ever perfect.

Some further information on this:

The Captcha seems to have three different levels:

Level 1. When I click Update, the entry is stored, and I'm not asked for any Captcha code.

Level 2. When I click Update, I'm asked for a Captcha code. After I enter it, the entry is stored.

Level 3. When I click Update, I'm asked for a Captcha code. After I enter it, I'm returned to the editing screen, but the name of the entry and the contents of the edit box have disappeared. I'm unable to save any changes to my entry.

It seems that the bigger the entry, and the more often I edit it, the higher the level I reach. I can often edit a large entry once or twice without ever being asked for a code (Level 1), but after that it starts asking for the code (Level 2). If I keep making changes to the entry, I'm eventually pushed up to Level 3 and can no longer make changes. I have to leave the entry for a week or two before I'll be able to edit it again.

The level also gets pushed up on all entries if I make a lot of changes to any entry. So after doing a lot of editing, I'm more likely to be asked for captcha codes on any entry, and more likely to encounter the Level 3 case where I can't save any changes.

Of course I could make a new entry and copy the text over into that. This would be a way of bypassing the problem. But since I could make a hundred changes in a day, I'm going to encounter the problem again fairly soon.

Perhaps the solution is this whitelist that Pastey mentioned. I hope that Lanza does consider including me in it.

Is there any progress on this? Can we not request from whoever provides the CloudFare system that they fix the bug in the Captcha?

Or can we get a different content provider that doesn't use a Captcha system with a bug in it?

Some of my bigger entries have now got to the stage where it is no longer possible to make any changes to them whatsoever, so I'm just going to have to delete them. For example, the "How to Play the Greek Bouzouki" entry. Even if I copy the text into a brand-new entry, the Captcha bug prevents me from saving the entry.

Hey,
another change was made, to improve things. If you still have problems, please email them directly to [email protected], and someone will see what else can be done.

Thanks, Milla. I'll go try it out now.

No, it's still the same. I'll go and e-mail that address.

Actually, after the first attempt which failed, it has worked every time. So I'll wait and see...

Hmm. I spoke too soon. Yesterday everything was hunky dory. Today it is as bad as ever.

Aw maan... this is not good. I suspect that it might be a side effect of the security system, which caches the site pages on several "slave" servers, and until all these have been cleared, perhaps it might show up some times. But do email again, if it comes back. Remember also to enclose the url where you get the captcha.

I did email, on Thursday, but did not receive any reply or acknowledgement.

Oh. I don't have access to that one myself, but I'll bump it.