Member can't post but is logged in

[DorsetDave]

I am the Administrator of a Football club Forum and a member [one of the Director's no less] has sent me this message:-

"I can't seem to be able to post anything on the forum at present even when logged in. It comes up with an unable to post at this time message and to refer to you if it persists."

I can't seem to find a reason why so would appreciate help. Thanks

[Pipke]

you should check this first and see if the user affect these settings. https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Permissions#Board_Permissions

[Kindred]

actually, with the error message reported (and the exact error message would be helpful), it is unlikely to be a permissions porblem.

DorsetDave, have you looked in the forum error log?

[DorsetDave]

Have found the error messages log relating to the member and have attached. Hope this is helpful. Thanks

[Kindred]

what content, exactly, is he trying to post?

It looks liek it contains control characters which could be rejected as a hack attempt

[DorsetDave]

I will try and find out what they were trying to post. Thanks [P.S. What are control characters anyway]

[shawnb61]

Control characters represent things you can't normally view, such as carriage returns or other weird binary data.  One way to represent them is in hex, which looks a little like \xA3100.   

Which I don't recognize.  But it's used in collectables, a quick google of \xA3100 showed up this:
    http://www.stampcircuit.com/category/cigarette-cards

Which seems right up a sports forum's alley...   

What an unfortunate SKU numbering scheme for products!!!   Almost designed to cause websites trouble.   

Anyway, if he must post \xA3100 and it won't work, one thing to try is to select it & hit the "insert code" button above the editor window (the #). It will look like this

Code Select Expand

\xA3100.

EDIT:  Interesting I don't have a problem posting it here...

[shawnb61]

It's also important to know HOW he was posting it.  Copied from a website?  A document?

[DorsetDave]

Thanks for the replies. My member has managed to post now and he states :-

"Thanks for your efforts Dave

It seems using the £ sign was the issue!"

I don't know much more than that but I know when members post and when they try to use the £ sign it comes up as a question mark instead. So I have to type out pds . Would like to know the reason for that for future reference. Thanks
[So I managed to type the £ sign in this Forum - but I can't do it in ours]

[Illori]

you need to convert to UTF-8 to do that on your forum. which may help with the issue the user is facing as well.

[DorsetDave]

Thanks for that. Would be grateful if you could give me an idiots guide as to how to convert to UTF-8 as havent a clue what that is or how to do it. Please bear in mind I am 77 yrs old. Just a thought but wondering why the Forum doesnt have the ability for us to use a £ sign anyway ?

[Pipke]

maybe this helps https://www.interserver.net/tips/kb/convert-database-utf-8-smf/ there are also some videos how to... just google for it.

[Illori]

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/UTF-8_Readme

[DorsetDave]

Thanks for that. I have now installed UTF-8 and we can now use the £ sign on our forum.

On the few times I have had a query I am very pleased I have managed to solve it by using this facility. Much appreciated. I will now click on the solved button