Your comments
There's no substitute for testing.
Here are 10 long URLs taken from actual comments I've made over the last 6 months. They generated 10 short URLs which are the variants I describe in my previous note. I tried to include an example from the past which convert into a tinyurl . com example, but those full links seem to turn always into bit . ly short URLs now.
These 10 long URLs shown below become short URLs when posted in a comment. Each one generates a different variant of short URL.
SA comment
-- https://seekingalpha.com/article/4131713-fuelcell-arrives-port-long-beach#comment-77229139
lat . ms
-- http://www.latimes.com/me-2003-los-angeles-streetcar-history-story.html
on . app . com
-- http://www.app.com/story/money/business/main-street/2017/09/08/vonage-ceo-fake-news/634939001/
for . tn
-- http://fortune.com/2016/10/06/bloom-energy-ipo/
cnb . cx
-- https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/16/bloom-energy-2017-disruptor-50.html
delonline . us
-- http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/07/22/new-bloom-box/30475483/
on . ny . gov
-- https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/Clean-Energy-Standard/Renewable-Generators-and-Developers
The 10 long URLs become the following short URLs when posted in a comment. All links work when posted for the first time, but two of them display in abbreviated form followed by ellipsis. The actual short URLs for the two abbreviated links only show in the status bar of my browser when I float my mouse over the link.
SA comment
-- https://seekingalpha.com/c/19zadv (actual short URL)
-- https://seekingalpha.c... (but URL is displayed like this in the comment)
bit . ly
lat . ms
-- http://lat.ms/2xOGQGp
reut . rs
-- http://reut.rs/2BshInK
on . app . com
-- http://on.app.com/2y1j2vZ
read . bi
-- http://read.bi/2xhXwpZ
for . tn
-- http://for.tn/2vvYAkI
cnb . cx
-- http://cnb.cx/2w542OV
delonline . us
-- http://delonline.us/2ecQSbo (actual short URL)
-- http://delonline.us/2e... (but URL is displayed like this in the comment)
on . ny . gov
-- http://on.ny.gov/2vnRK0u
When clicking on "Edit Comment", all links are pulled into the edit box with their associated markup language as described in one of my earlier notes. The markup language shows each short URL twice, once with the href tag and again at the end for the display value. The href and display are the same for all links except the two with ellipsis. Those two have the actual short URL only in the href tag and show the abbreviated URL with ellipsis at the end of the markup.
Example of a non-abbreviated short URL with spaces added to suppress conversion:
< a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http : // read . bi / 2xhXwpZ" >http : // read . bi / 2xhXwpZ
< / a >
Example of an abbreviated short URL with spaces added to suppress conversion:
< a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http : // delonline . us / 2ecQSbo" > http : // delonline . us / 2e...
< / a >
So far so good. The href tag values for all links are fine, which is the actual definition for the hyperlink. The display values for the two abbreviated links should not be a problem either. But ending the edit and posting back reveals the problem. The two abbreviated links are now broken. All the other links are fine. Clicking "Edit Comment" again pulls the links back into the edit box.
Inspecting the markup language of one of the broken links reveals the following:
< a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http : // delonline . us / 2e" > http : // delonline . us / 2e< / a >...
The link display value has become the definition for the hyperlink in the href tag. The ellipsis is no longer part of the markup text and now appears outside the delimiters. Clearly the abbreviated short URLs are mishandled by "Edit Comment". That is the problem.
It should be noted that while I couldn't seem to render a short URL for tinyurl .com in my test here, that may have been a blessing. Looking at my old comments, I see that tinyurl is also displayed in abbreviated form and would have probably been broken too.
Hope this additional information helps.
"I remember seeing other kinds of links..."
Quickly scanning the past 6 months of my comments reveals this list of short URL variants. The ones below are only a small sample of what clearly must be a huge variety of short URLs. The exception handling I mention in my previous note must be general enough to cope with this.
seekingalpha . com / c / aaaaaa
bit . ly / aaaaaaa
tinyurl . com / aaaaaaaa
lat . ms / aaaaaaa
reut . rs / aaaaaaa
on . app . com / aaaaaaa
read . bi / aaaaaaa
for . tn / aaaaaaa
cnb . cx / aaaaaaa
delonline . us / aaaaaaa
on . ny . gov / aaaaaaa
Anything longer than 14 characters is probably getting screwed up by "Edit Comment" right now. Well, I'm not going to tell grandma how to knit. I just want a nice fitting sweater. All the best to you.
Hi Daniel,
Appreciate your efforts.
As noted previously, I couldn't find fault with link handling in my example from yesterday but still suspected that a problem exists. Well here's an example of a link which does get screwed up by "Edit Comment".
All links conforming to the general format shown below work fine when first posted, but get broken after clicking "Edit Comment". It should be noted that links of this type are converted to a slightly longer home-brewed short URL when posted in comments. That makes links like these untypical, as most links are converted to standard short URL form. Spaces have been added to prevent link formation here.
https : // seekingalpha . com / article / 1234567-name-of-the-article # comment-12345678
The link above resolves into a home-brewed short URL. Most other links resolve into standard short URLs. The general form of these links are shown below. The a's on the right denote alphanumeric characters. The standard short URL is 14 characters long after omitting my spaces. The home-brewed short URL is longer.
Home-brewed short URL: seekingalpha . com / c / aaaaaa
Standard short URL: bit . ly / aaaaaaa
The error seems to truncate the longer home-brewed short URL after "Edit Comment" is clicked. Truncation occurs beyond the 14th character position. Only "seekingalpha.c" remains. This is visible in the edit box among the markup language associated with the URL. Considering that most links are standard short form, this truncation is the cause of broken links. If so then any links not turned into standard short URLs could be vulnerable to this kind of error. Exception handling needs to be added to accommodate the various flavors of links. While I can't give a specific example offhand, I remember seeing other kinds of links which are not converted to standard short URLs.
Maybe the link error reported by @Ledlights a few days ago was of a similar nature.
It is interesting that links are no longer expanded back into their original long form by "Edit Comment". I miss that feature. None of this used to be an issue. "Edit Comment" was working perfect until recently. After the current bugs with "Edit Comment" have been dealt with, I would still like my original request to be fulfilled.
Moderated edits for comments containing links remain a problem.
Thanks.
I believe this behavior is reproducible. Though it might vary depending on whether you are doing stuff internally as an SA tech or from outside via the Web like us ordinary folks.
Create a standard user account via the web and give it a try.
P.S. - The specific short URL example given for link behavior actually comes from another of my comments immediately preceding the one mentioned in my note. It only had one link and was easier to experiment with. The link to that comment is here:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4131713-fuelcell-arrives-port-long-beach#comment-77229139
Hi Daniel,
I've had to edit this note here in an attempt to convey the conversion errors. Posting seems to gobble them up and obscure the behavior. I've replaced semicolons with colons and spaces in an attempt to suppress conversion. Links also have spaces interspersed to suppress conversion.
Now on to the original note:
Recently did a comment here...
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4131713-fuelcell-arrives-port-long-beach#comment-77229150
First time posting always works. Edits during the 15 minute grace period are now problematic. Anomalous behavior is visible when a posted comment is pulled into the edit box by clicking on "Edit Comment". My comment was successfully edited because I was aware of the problems and worked around them. Trusty "Edit Comment" no longer works as well as it used to. Making corrections during the 15 minute grace period caused various issues with the & (ampersand) character and > (right angle bracket). Links were also embellished with markup language.
Taking specific examples from my recent comment:
An & (ampersand) originally posted will appear normal. Clicking "Edit Comment" converts the ampersand into & amp : in the edit box. Neglecting to delete the anomalous ampersand text will result in & amp : getting posted back after the edit session. Uncorrected repeated edits will cause the error to propagate recursively. So & becomes & amp : which becomes & amp : amp : and so on.
I noticed similar behavior with > (right angle bracket). The recursive conversion process goes as follows: The > becomes & gt : which becomes & amp : gt : and then & amp : amp : gt : and so on. Getting the picture?
There are probably other characters with problematic behavior but I have not sought them out.
Links also manifest themselves differently and now appear to contain markup language. These changes are potentially problematic.
My comment mentioned above has several links. All of them exhibited the same behavior described below. The original long form posted link was successfully converted into a short URL: http://bit.ly/2ErF8eH when first posted. But clicking "Edit Comment" converted the link into < a
rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http: // bit.ly / 2ErF8eH" > http: // bit.ly / 2ErF8eH < / a >
At first I felt compelled to delete the extraneous link text, but surprisingly after some experimentation all that stuff posted successfully. I suspect certain links containing problematic characters like ampersand might be gumming up the works. That could explain why links sometimes cause difficultly. Don't really know for sure.
Hope this helps. Maybe others will add some color.
Hi Ledlights
I noticed new anomalies this morning while re-editing one of my comments during the 15 minute grace period. The comment today appeared fine when posted, but I wanted to add some additional info. When I clicked "Edit Comment" weird stuff appeared in the edit box. Apparently the new mangling occurs when the posted comment is put back into the edit box. This new mangling is somewhat different than the mangling originally described. The original mangling noted at the top of this thread seems to occur when reposting an edited comment. It's all mangling, but each type manifests itself differently.
There was what looked like markup text placed before my three links. In the posted comment I had also successfully used => several times to denote numerical results for some calculations. The > was converted to gibberish when I attempted the re-edit. It was a mess. I fixed my links and removed the other garbage. I decided to omit the problematic > and used only the = symbol. My comment was fine then, but I didn't dare edit it again. Once burned twice shy. Plus my grace period was almost over.
Maybe the markup processor for comments went temporarily insane. Made some more comments this afternoon and they were fine. But they didn't contain any links or >. I'll post additional info here if stuff like this happens again.
I hear you! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and got some time off. Thanks.
Around December 22 I noticed the "Edit/Delete" link at the bottom of all my old comments became "Edit Comment". The mysterious condition persisted for days. This miracle allowed me to fix several of my erroneous old comments with links, including the one mentioned in my original request at the top of this thread. Personal time constraints prevented me from implementing an exhaustive search to fix all my previous typos. Also the multi-day duration gave me the illusion of more time to pursue this issue in a leisurely manner.
Alas, the "Edit Comment" link seems to have disappeared today becoming the old "Edit/Delete" link again. Those heady few days where I could fix errors are gone. Making future comments containing links is once again stressful. The peril of undetected errors beyond the 15 minute grace period looms. Wings are clipped once more.
While I'm pleased to have fixed some previous comment errors, my original request for a general fix still remains preferred and unfulfilled. Still hoping for an eventual fix, but I understand your resources are limited and prioritized.
Maybe that "Edit Comment" miracle can periodically reappear to ameliorate accumulated errors.
It's been a week since this problem was reported. Don't want it falling off the radar. Has anyone been assigned to look into it yet? What's the status? Appreciate an update on the situation. Thanks.
Comments from the SA community provide valuable supplemental info to articles. Moderated edits should be straightforward even if comments contain links. Right now that is not the case. Please fix this problem.
Vote the topic up if you want this bug fixed. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Customer support service by UserEcho
It's still broken. I'm creating test comments at the link below...
https://seekingalpha.com/filing/3803278#comment-77204377
Ampersand and right angle bracket are still a problem. Links are also problematic. Look at my new notes above about links. Forgive the evolutionary development of ideas. It was all stream of consciousness. Start at the beginning and read through it.
As a side note, I liked the old behavior where the original long form URL was restored by "Edit Comment". I'm not sure the new "Edit Comment" behavior for links is desirable even if you can fix it. Showing HTML markup language is a little technical. Consider that the target audience are investors and most of them are not HTML savvy. The only benefit I see is the ability to hide the actual hyperlink behind a more friendly description. But clearly that doesn't work right now and is actually causing the problem.
From the larger perspective of my original request for fixing moderated edits, we seem to be stepping backwards. Unless of course you think the bug we're trying to fix now is somehow related to the problem with moderated edits. Hopefully one step back will be followed by two steps forward.
What is causing these recent anomalies with "Edit Comment"? Let me know.