Preview for New Discussion fails when not logged in

askewchan

This is a bug report for the discussions forum itself. I hope this is the right place to post it. I mentioned this first here to @Megan before I realized how to reproduce it.

When I type here and use markdown syntax, then the Preview button is quite nice to make sure I haven't made any mistakes. It works fine when I'm logged in:

But it isn't so happy if I start writing a post (New Discussion) while not logged in:

And it's kind of recursive:

AGAlumB

@askewchan: This is really weird. Almost certainly a bug, but not the one you think! :dizzy:

It shouldn't actually be possible to create a discussion or comment if you're not logged in. I don't have the option for either. There's just no 'New Discussion' button or comment box anywhere unless I log in first.

Can you tell me the steps that you're taking which are allowing you to do this in the first place? I look forward to hearing back from you! :)

askewchan

Hi, @brenty.

OK, first I'll open a private window in Firefox so that I can stay logged in here. I go to the discussions homepage, where I'll search for I _am_ having a problem:

OK, the search results page doesn't have anything relevant, OK I'll ask a question in this form at the bottom:

And voila, a new post has been created for me, with the title already filled out as my question:

AGAlumB

@askewchan: Aha! Thank you so much for that! This is definitely due to the forum letting you draft a discussion without being logged in (although it won't actually allow you to post or save it without an account).

I'm bringing this up with the team so we can get this fixed. Thanks for bringing it to our attention! :)

askewchan

Glad to be of help, @brenty! Thanks to you and the team for all you do!

AGAlumB

And likewise! We couldn't do what we do without your support. :chuffed:

Jasper

Hi @askewchan,

Thanks again for reporting this! :)

I've made a few changes, and it's no longer possible to view the "new discussion" page if you're logged out. You'll be prompted to sign in or register instead:

askewchan

Excellent, I see that now too, @JasperP.

AGAlumB

:) :+1:

wkleem

For what it's worth, I've always logged in before posting as that seemed logical to me. I never realized that I could compose the discussions without logging in!

AGAlumB

@wkleem: Indeed. It wasn't meant to be possible to post without logging in (or without an account, for that matter).

I'm glad JasperP was able to get this taken care of so quickly (he's the man!), because as it stood it gave the impression that you could start a new discussion that way...but since you weren't logged in there wouldn't be a way either to post or to save the draft. And I know I wouldn't want to type something up to try to get help only to not have it work -- or worse, to have it lost while trying to register. :sweat: