Can't post on my forum

[Angelis]

Every so often,myself and teh memebrs can't post on the forum.

No matter how much text we type in we get the following error notification:

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 1 characters.

Any ideas what is causing it?

thanks

[Steve Machol]

Assuming they are posting at least one character - not including quotes, BB Code or smilies - then this is due to a modification you installed.

To troubleshoot this, first reupload all the original vB non-image files (except install.php). Make sure you upload these in ASCII format and overwrite the ones on the server. Also be sure to upload the admincp files to whichever directory you have set in your config.php file. Then run 'Suspect File Versions' in Diagnostics to make sure you have all the original files for your version and that none show 'File does not contain expected contents':

Admin CP -> Maintenance -> Diagnostics -> Suspect File Versions

[Note: In some cases you may also need to remove any of the listed .xml files in the includes/xml directory.]

Next, disable all plugins.

Note: To temporarily disable the plugin system, edit config.php and add this line right under <?php

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);

Then if you still have this problem, create a new style and choose no parent style. This will force it to use the default templates. Finally empty your browser cache, close all browser windows then try again. Make sure you change to the new style and view your forums with it. Do you have the same problem?

[hmarclewis]

I just tried running the suspect file versions tool and among other things, it complained about not finding these files. Which in fact ARE THERE (in the includes/cron directory) and have the right permissions rwxr-xr--

./includes/cron activate.php File not found attachmentviews.php File not found birthday.php File not found ccbill.php File not found cleanup.php File not found cleanup2.php File not found dailycleanup.php File not found digestdaily.php File not found digestweekly.php File not found infractions.php File not found promotion.php File not found reminder.php File not found removebans.php File not found rssposter.php File not found stats.php File not found subscriptions.php File not found threadviews.php File not found

Surely there must be a simpler explanation as to why this is happening. I just upgraded two other forums to 3.7.3 with no problems. The third forum gets this show-stopper error -- nobody can post anything!

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

[Steve Machol]

That error means you have not followed all of my instructions.

Also in general the directory permissions should be 755, not 751.

[hmarclewis]

1. Starting from the 3.7.3 upgrade I'd already done to http://R1200GS.info/forum/, which was 100% successful according to the upgrade.php script, and which was incorrectly reporting that a new post had less than 10 characters...
2. I grabbed a fresh tar.gz file of 3.7.3 and unpacked it in a temp directory. I carefully diff'd the old config.php with the new config.php.new and applied all the correct changes to the new config.php.new. Then I renamed it to config.php. I also deleted install/install.php
3. I tar'd the fresh version, then un-tar'd it into the working forum directory on top of the old upgrade. They are readable ASCII files. No improvement, however.
4. I run the Suspect File Versions diagnostic tool and it reports a bunch of files as being not found, which are in fact there. It didn't report any 'File does not contain expected contents' errors.
5. Plug-ins are, and always have been, disabled according to my admin control panel. Nevertheless, I also added the define('DISABLE_HOOKS',true); PHP statement to the front of my config.php file. Still no joy.
6. I changed all the php files to 755 permissions. Still no joy (though I didn't expect it to be a permission issue).
7. I've never created a new style, and am not sure how to do it. The Style Manager page shows Download or Import Style XML file. The Download frame shows only "default Style" as a listbox choice. The Import Style frame shows ./install/vbulletin-style.xml and the listbox shows (create new style) and -- default style. I clicked the Import button, and got a warning dialog asking me if I was sure I wanted to import /install/vbulletin-style.xml and I wasn't, so I didn't. The style is there, I checked.
8. I just applied the latest patch to my 3.7.3. Still no joy.

[Steve Machol]

Please start your own thread with all the relevant details. Thank you.

[hmarclewis]

Will do, ASAP. I'll title it "The message you have entered is too short".