Unable to reply to thread (Waiting for approval to Post)

[Devra Golbe]

On Nick Cox's advice, I tried reposting a reply to a post in the main forum. I saw the same error I had seen the first time. I then tried to respond to Nick's post in this forum Again, I was told to wait for approval from the moderator. You can see the message at the top of the image here. If you want to see it play out, you can watch this short video.

Thanks,
Devra

[sladmin]

Devra,

I believe the root cause of your posts requiring approval was due to the bulletin board's SPAM filter having issues with the embedded links. I have adjusted the filter and approved your posts, but please contact us again if you notice an issues.

-Pete

[Devra Golbe]

Pete,

Thanks. my (multiple) posts have now all shown up. I'm a little surprised that an embedded link to a stata.com page was problematic, Any advice on what kinds of links should pass muster?

[sladmin]

Devra,

Unfortunately, the forum software does not hint as to why your posts are unapproved, I was only speculating due to that configuration option being checked. As you have seen, your posts are still not being posted automatically but I will continue to investigate the issue. I am sorry about the inconvenience.

-Pete

[Richard Williams]

Now it is doing this "awaiting approval" to me too! I assume it is because I used an external link. At least that is what I will assume if this message goes through without any problems.

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Dear All,
I've experienced the same problem a few minutes ago, after the umpteenth try to reply. Ulike Richard, I'm connected as usual (i.e., no external link).

[Richard Williams]

Nick also tells me that my private message to him came up as empty. It included an external link. Obviously a lot of posts are getting through, but Carlo and I and others are having problems, at least some of the time. I'm guessing the board over-compensated for the spam problems.

[Richard Williams]

Skimming through the most recent posts on the General Forum, I notice that none contain an external link. Coincidence, perhaps, but it makes me wonder if there are other messages with links that are getting blocked.

[Devra Golbe]

Thanks. Like Carlo, I had trouble with a post with no links of any kind, too.

[sladmin]

Devra, it looks like the forum software no longer wants to mark your posts as unapproved, one small victory. I am hopeful that the link posting issue has also been resolved with the last security settings tweak.

-Pete

[wbuchanan]

sladmin I'm now having the same issue. I'll remove the URL tags, but I've copied/pasted the post I was trying to make below:

Seems like there was some issue the first time I tried to post. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the macro expansion to get the variable label or when assigning the ytitle, but I was able to get Ariel Karlinsky's example to work with minor modification:

sysuse auto.dta, clear
loc variables mpg price weight
foreach var of loc variables {
    loc vlabel `: variable label `var''
    gr bar `var', over(foreign, label(angle(45)) sort(`var') reverse)          ///   
    ytitle(`"% `vlabel'"') graphr(color(white) ilcolor(black))                  ///   
    plotr(lcolor(black)) name(`var')
}

On a slightly unrelated note, if you find yourself specifying the same/similar aesthetic settings you should try using (URL Tag) "http://wbuchanan.github.io/brewscheme/" brewscheme(/URL Tag). In addition to saving key strokes, it can also make it a bit easier to find errors in your graph code if you don't need to do too much in the way of specifying

[wbuchanan]

sladmin I'm now having the same issue. I'll remove the URL tags, but I've copied/pasted the post I was trying to make below:

Seems like there was some issue the first time I tried to post. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the macro expansion to get the variable label or when assigning the ytitle, but I was able to get Ariel Karlinsky's example to work with minor modification:

sysuse auto.dta, clear
loc variables mpg price weight
foreach var of loc variables {
    loc vlabel `: variable label `var''
    gr bar `var', over(foreign, label(angle(45)) sort(`var') reverse)          ///   
    ytitle(`"% `vlabel'"') graphr(color(white) ilcolor(black))                  ///   
    plotr(lcolor(black)) name(`var')
}

On a slightly unrelated note, if you find yourself specifying the same/similar aesthetic settings you should try using "http://wbuchanan.github.io/brewscheme/" . In addition to saving key strokes, it can also make it a bit easier to find errors in your graph code if you don't need to do too much in the way of specifying

[sladmin]

Please forgive the spam filter. I will get in contact with the filtering service today to see if they can offer any ideas on what could be pushing these posts to moderation.

-Pete

[wbuchanan]

Not a problem. I've seen some of the random spam come through before, so having no more cautious spam filter isn't the worst thing in the world.