Duplicate Text Problem In Classic Editor

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello,

    I would like to report a strange and annoying problem that will possibly be hard to replicate.

    I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Firefox 34 and the Classic Editor.

    Recently I have noticed a strange and annoying problem that has happened a few times in the last five days, not every time but at least twice so far and maybe once last week or so, and I am not sure if this is a WordPress.com problem or a problem with the Zemanta Firefox extension or something else.

    So far two of the posts that this has happened on are:

    A Man Calls The Police On Me | Ruth Wilson | Fighting An Entity At A Swimming Pool

    A Tourist Building & A Country In Africa & Getting Pickpocketed & Being Able To Fly

    I edited those two posts to fix the problem, so the problem is probably not going to be visible there, unless you look at the older versions of them before I edited them.

    Here are some temporarily links that I will delete if we figure this out to three LibreOffice Writer .ODT files where I copied and pasted the messed up versions of those two posts so you can see what I am talking about hopefully:

    https://johnjronline.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/1-2-2015-visual.odt

    https://johnjronline.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/1-8-2015-visual.odt

    https://johnjronline.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/1-8-2015-text.odt

    The problem that I have had a few times is that when I publish a post in the Classic Editor sometimes, my test will duplicate after clicking publish where maybe in the middle or near the end there is a break in a sentence and the entire text/post is duplicated again below that break, and so I have had to go back and delete the duplicated text and find the missing text to the sentece to put things back in their proper order.

    This is very strange and I am not sure how to replicate it.

    I think that I possibly used the Save Draft option on both of those posts near the middle or the end of both posts because it was taking me a while to type them, and then I continued typing after the draft saved; and then I clicked publish later once I finished, and I use the Zemanta extension which has caused a different problem in the New Editor before and so it is possible that maybe it could be causing this problem to happen in the Classic Editor sometimes but I am not sure.

    Anyway it would be nice if a staff member could investigate this strange random problem because it is very annoying, and if you do not proofread each post (which I normally do not after I finish typing my posts, but I do a bit of proofreading as I type because my posts are a bit long to type) you can easily miss this break in a sentence and the entire post being duplicated again after it.

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • musicdoc1 · Member ·

    Saving a draft of a post or page at any time certainly shouldn’t result in the effect you describe.

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello Musicdoc1,

    Yes you are right. ;)

    But I wonder if it is possibly a trigger that sometimes causes a reaction with the Zemanta Firefox browser extension sometimes? (There was a different Zemanta bug that caused a different problem not long ago in the New Editor, and so Zemanta bugs can sometimes effect/affect the editors)

    Or is this just a new random problem in the Classic Editor?

    Or something else?

    I have made a post every day for over a year and I have been blogging here officially since 2011, and I have only noticed this problem a few times recently and maybe once in the past.

    Anyway, this is very strange and annoying, and so I have to pay attention every time that I publish a post/page now I guess until we figure this out (if we can).

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    Hmm, that is strange.

    Are you writing your post in the editor itself, or are you drafting it somewhere else and then copying it into your post?

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello Lizthefair,

    I am typing them in the Classic Editor itself as usual.

    I did not have the problem today, but it does not happen every time so that will make it harder to replicate because it has only happened a few times recently.

    My usual post/page creation steps are:

    1. In the Classic Editor I create my title, I add most of my tags (sometimes I will add more tags after I finish everything else before publishing), and I start typing my text and I hit the Enter key after every sentence as I type them.

    2. After typing my text I use the Proofread Button to Grammar/Spell Check my text, I make corrections, and then I use the Proofread Button again to make the suggestions go away.

    3. I use the Zemanta Recommended In-Text Links, and then I update the results again to see if there are any more suggestions.

    4. I find the fourth sentence and after the fourth sentence I use the Enter key, and in that new space after the fourth sentence I add the More Tag using the More Button/whatever.

    5. I find the first sentence and I before it I use the Enter key, and in that new space above the first sentence I insert a Zemanta Recommended Image or I will manually insert a linked/hotlinked image and I always Center that image; and then I Publish the post/page.

    Yesterday when this problem happened again, it is possible that it happened before I clicked Publish but I am not sure, I remember my word count being 2,000-something; but then at some point right before or after I clicked the Publish button it was over 4,000 suddenly (it is possible that it happened before I clicked Publish after finishing all of my normal steps after typing the post, but I can not remember)

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    This is a very detailed report, thank you.

    Are you willing to disable Zemanta for a bit to see if you still (occasionally) have the problem without using the extension?

    I understand if it’s not possible for your process, but it would be a big help if we could eliminate that factor from our investigation.

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello Lizthefair,

    You are welcome. :)

    Not for several days or a week or more that would be required for this to happen again probably, but I might try disabling Zemanta temporarily this weekend and creating five or more test posts to see if I can replicate the problem with Zemanta disabled.

    I agree that it would definitely help if we could eliminate it as a factor.

    I am not exactly in my usual troubleshooting mood so it would be nice if someone else could try to replicate this a few times as well following my usual blogging steps and environment, and I will try a few times on my end this weekend hopefully if I can get myself to; and I will try to report my results when/if that happens. ;)

    Some other things that I did not mention earlier was that Firefox is set to Permanent Private Mode (Firefox will never remember history setting under Privacy settings) and the other extensions that I use are: The Default Ubuntu Firefox Extensions, Adblock Plus (EasyList, EasyPrivacy List, Malware Domains List, and Adblock Warning Removal List), WOT (Web Of Trust), and Video DownloadHelper).

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    I might try disabling Zemanta temporarily this weekend and creating five or more test posts to see if I can replicate the problem with Zemanta disabled.

    That would be great. I’ll do my best to find some time to test this as well.

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Thank you Lizthefair. :)

    -John Jr

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello Lizthefair,

    I had a break-through today finally, and new problem.

    Yesterday I tried several times to reproduce this without luck, probably because I was not typing actual posts like I normally would, so I decided to try your idea of not using Zemanta for several days or a week; and today a new problem happened even though Zemanta is disabled.

    I typed my posts normally in the Classic Editor using those steps that I mentioned but no Zemanta enabled so skip the Zemanta parts and I checked my word count and post and formatting and everything looked good before clicking publish (I did not save a draft, which I normally do not do unless I take too long to type a post, and I fear my browser crashing or the electricity going out), but after I clicked publish the formatting of my entire post was messed up and all of it was jumbled together instead of spacing after each sentence and the YouTube video link I added did not show up as an embed like it should.

    This time instead of fixing the post I will let you see it live in its flawed glory:

    https://johnjronline.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/1-10-2015-dream-fighting-aliens-disguised-as-humans/

    I wonder what is going on?

    Hopefully we figure this out soon so that I can fix that post, I do not like having my posts looking messed up like that, and having to worry about this problem randomly happening. :(

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    but after I clicked publish the formatting of my entire post was messed up and all of it was jumbled together instead of spacing after each sentence and the YouTube video link I added did not show up as an embed like it should.

    This would happen if you accidentally wrote the post in the text view rather than the visual view.

    Is there any chance that happened?

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    I thought about that but it is not likely because I do not use Text Mode (but I could be wrong), I went back into a new post to see if it would default to Text or Visual, and it was on Visual Mode and not Text Mode.

    -John Jr

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Also things look differently in Text Mode, and the mode that I was typing in looked like Visual Mode without a doubt.

    Maybe there could be a bug where sometimes it magically switches to Text Mode when I click Publish sometimes causing a change of formatting/jumbled text, duplicate text, and/or clickable links for YouTube videos instead of embeds?

    -John Jr

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    I think that someone should probably help you look into this, maybe they can learn something by looking directly at the records for that post and the revisions of those other two posts, and maybe they/you/we can figure out what could be going on.

    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    I know it’s frustrating when software behaves in unexpected ways, but we’ve investigated this and were not able to find anything that explains this behavior. If you remember something else that was different about your process, or the problem happens again, please let us know.

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    I will try running Firefox in Safe Mode for a few days and see if this happens again, and if it does I will probably let you know.

    I will continue making sure that it is in Visual Mode, checking my word count, and checking other things before I click publish; and I might start making screenshots before I publish as well as evidence if this happens again.

    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    This sounds like a good path forward. Thanks for the update.

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    You are welcome.

    -John Jr

  • johnjronline · Member ·

    Hello Lizthefair,

    It has been 10 days since I had any problems with this fortunately, it stopped happening for now magically, and so I will mark this topic as resolved; but if it happens again I will report it.

    Thank you,
    -John Jr

  • lizthefair · Member ·

    Sounds great. Here’s hoping the magic holds out :)

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