Resource Commenting Bug/Abuse

[PurplePoot]

Well, I've known about part A of this bug/abuse for awhile; it involves mass spaces in comments. However, part A isn't really a big deal without part B.

A) If you put a lot of spaces at the end of your comment, it'll delete them but still count them in the comment's char minimum. That way it'll let you get past the min char limit (Say you want to post "updated" or something)

B) Taking A to the extreme, if you only post spaces, it hides every single comment in the resource, saying 'no comments available'. However, it must still store the comments somewhere (unless you just store an int saying how many comments there are...), because it knows how many comments there are.

Screenshots:

Apparently there are 25 comments on my resource

Where have they all gone? (Even the resource moderator comment!)

EDIT: Expanded on it, found some interesting results. Screenshots are uploading to photobucket now... It looks like if you comment properly, it makes everything come back, but spaces make it go away again (including the resource mod message!)

EDIT: Here we go... (Sorry about the second one, I did two takes on it and apparently paint sort of overlayed the second onto the first without removing it completely... didn't notice that till now)

Typing out This Is A Test

As you can see, everything came back (including my empty comments )

Typing out a bunch of spaces

Everything is gone again...

EDIT: Added descriptions to screenshots

EDIT: Saved my spell from the comment bug

EDIT: The plot thickens. I tried typing 'asdf', and saving it as a comment (with the abuse that makes the site think it's longer). Worked fine, everything was back. (nothing new so far, but here we go...)

I deleted 'asdf', and it was all gone again. Apparently this happens not after a blank comment is submitted, but instead if the last comment was blank.

 

[DesKaladA]

man this is bad
i really dont uplaod stuff but i want this fixed when i do
(like my openrpg)

 

[Samuraid]

Sounds like a simple logic error in the PHP code. (it SELECTs the comments from the database, if the comment is blank, maybe it assumes there are no more comments)
Ralle will have to investigate.

 

[PurplePoot]

Well, the weird thing with that theory is that if you have

(valid comment)
(blank comment)
(valid comment)

both valid comments are displayed. This also hides the Resource Moderator Comment, which has to be there normally, as far as it looks.

 

[Samuraid]

So, comments are hidden if you have:
(blank)
(valid)
(valid)

?

My guess is that if the first comment is blank, then nothing else shows.

 

[Wolverabid]

For quite some time now the Chieftain has been working (behind the scenes) to completely redevelop the resource section(s). He's started with the models.

It will obviously be important for him to take the information posted in this thread into close account as he further refines the scripts that will control and manage the new section(s). However it seems unlikely (to me at any rate) that he would have much interest in exterminating bugs in the old sections (which will eventually no longer exist).

Stay tuned for the release of the new model section: after it's implemented and debugged the other new resource sections will then follow.

 

[PurplePoot]

So, comments are hidden if you have:
(blank)
(valid)
(valid)

?

My guess is that if the first comment is blank, then nothing else shows.

Yeah, that's exactly the case, I was just saying I doubt it was a problem with what you mentioned, because that wouldn't stop them from hiding any comments below them at any time, nor from hiding the Resource Moderator comment.

It's probably just some weird thing somewhere which does it for no really good reason.

 

[Samuraid]

I just traced through the site code and found the problem, and it is as I suspected. If the first comment/review is blank, all the rest of the comments are ignored and not displayed.

To Ralle: the first line in the comments_list template is most likely the problem.

 

[Ralle]

OMG noob coder (me). I will fix this

 

[DesKaladA]

ah don't beat yourself up over this it not as bad like the time i took out parts of france with my map(by accadent)