[BUG] Message centre: send button (often) not working

[+terratin]

I'm currently logging about 30 EarthCaches. It's super frustrating that I have to right click on the link on the cache page to open the message centre in a new browser tab to start with instead of using ctrl+click.

 

What makes this even more frustrating is that the Send button in message centre doesn't work about 3 out of 4 times. I click it to send my answers, and nothing happens. if I reload then the contact is gone. So I have to go back to the cache page, right click again and open the message centre in a new window again. There have been 4 instances so far where also repeated opening of the page did not result in a working send button and I decided to send an email instead. I don't know what goes on there as I can't reproduce the error. Sometimes writing right behind the cache name seems to work, another time a space behind that makes the button work, another time typing instead of copy/pasing the answers. It's terrible!

 

Windows 10, latest update. Firefox, latest update. No other browser available. Disabling all ad-ons doesn't seem to help.

Edited August 26, 2019 by terratin

[+IceColdUK]

Same problems here; took me half a dozen or more attempts to send a couple of messages.

 

Opening the MC from the user’s profile, rather than the cache page, seemed to make a difference.

 

[Windows 10 / Chrome]

[+terratin]

10 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

Same problems here; took me half a dozen or more attempts to send a couple of messages.

 

Opening the MC from the user’s profile, rather than the cache page, seemed to make a difference.

 

[Windows 10 / Chrome]

 

Thanks, thus I'm not the only one. Opening the message centre from the profile defeats it's purpose though as I then need to find the gc code and cache name. Plus it's yet another click. *sigh* only 4 more ECs to log now.

[+IceColdUK]

2 minutes ago, terratin said:

Opening the message centre from the profile defeats it's purpose though as I then need to find the gc code and cache name.

 

Agreed.  By this stage I had the messages (cache code and all) safely copied into notepad for the next attempt!

[+terratin]

1 hour ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Agreed.  By this stage I had the messages (cache code and all) safely copied into notepad for the next attempt!

 

Yeah, makes sense.

 

So if you experience the same, with a different browser there might be something else going on here. I guess this calls for an investigation. After the weekend I guess

[+niraD]

2 hours ago, terratin said:

Thanks, thus I'm not the only one.

No, you aren't the only one. And this isn't the only place where Groundspeak developers break normal browser functionality for opening links in new tabs.

[+hal-an-tow]

Yep, the message centre is tiresome for eathcache logging, I've lost too many messages which vanished into the ether after being typed, one of the reasons I prefer e-mail.

 

Now my method for sending C.O.s my answers to their tasks (especially if I have a few to log)  is to compose the messages in notepad and copy paste them into the message thing  if the C.O. has said they prefer that to e mail. That way when my work evaporates for no apparent reason as I press send, I can at least try again with minimal effort and annoyance.

[+arisoft]

47 minutes ago, niraD said:

No, you aren't the only one. And this isn't the only place where Groundspeak developers break normal browser functionality for opening links in new tabs.

 

I was curious to see why the link does not work correctly. The link seems to be a normal HTML <a> type link with a correct href. That's why it works with the right button menu. But there are two click-events attached to the anchor. Both of them seems to be unnecessary as the link works without a click but they prevents ctrl+click.

Edited August 15, 2019 by arisoft

[+terratin]

57 minutes ago, arisoft said:

 

I was curious to see why the link does not work correctly. The link seems to be a normal HTML <a> type link with a correct href. That's why it works with the right button menu. But there are two click-events attached to the anchor. Both of them seems to be unnecessary as the link works without a click but they prevents ctrl+click.

 

yeah, nothing new there. No idea why it was implemented this way. But that's besides the point at the moment. The big issue is that the Send button in Message Centre doesn't always seem to work at all.

[+pli]

On 8/15/2019 at 5:50 PM, terratin said:

I'm currently logging about 30 EarthCaches. It's super frustrating that I have to right click on the link on the cache page to open the message centre in a new browser tab to start with instead of using ctrl+click.

 

What makes this even more frustrating is that the Send button in message centre doesn't work about 3 out of 4 times. I click it to send my answers, and nothing happens. if I reload then the contact is gone. So I have to go back to the cache page, right click again and open the message centre in a new window again. There have been 4 instances so far where also repeated opening of the page did not result in a working send button and I decided to send an email instead. I don't know what goes on there as I can't reproduce the error. Sometimes writing right behind the cache name seems to work, another time a space behind that makes the button work, another time typing instead of copy/pasing the answers. It's terrible!

 

Windows 10, latest update. Firefox, latest update. No other browser available. Disabling all ad-ons doesn't seem to help.

Same here, logging a lot of EC in Scotland was cumbersome.. using Chrome, newest edition. Using the Message this owner link and then answering the EC questions (or Virtuals), then presseing "Send" and nothing happens. Pls. FIX !

 

br

Peter

 

Must have connection to "

[+The Snowdog]

Came here to see if anyone else experiences this.

 

If I click on "Message this owner" the "Send" button does NOT work.

 

If I click on the owner, go to their profile, and click "Send Message" it works OK. 

[+Corfman Clan]

I gave up. If the send button doesn't work, then I save the message in the cache's notes section and forget about it. If I ever get contacted by the CO, then I'll try to send it again. Basically, most CO's don't seem to care whether they get the answers from me or not so I'm not going to stress out over the message not being sent.

[+Max and 99]

Just reporting that the Message Center is behaving perfectly well for me. 

[+Goldenwattle]

The message system sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Annoying. Today I clicked on 'Message this owner' for an Earth cache and it didn't work, but then when I clicked on the COs name and then 'Message this owner' it did work.

[+niraD]

6 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

The message system sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Annoying. Today I clicked on 'Message this owner' for an Earth cache and it didn't work, but then when I clicked on the COs name and then 'Message this owner' it did work.

And some people wonder why some of us ignore the MC and just stick to good old-fashioned email...

[+Goldenwattle]

11 hours ago, niraD said:

And some people wonder why some of us ignore the MC and just stick to good old-fashioned email...

The main reason that I like message, is that I have a record of the correspondence.

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

The main reason that I like message, is that I have a record of the correspondence.

I don't understand. I use email, and have a record of the correspondence.

[+Goldenwattle]

Just now, niraD said:

I don't understand. I use email, and have a record of the correspondence.

I tend not to keep many emails, unless I see them as important. I delete most.

[+niraD]

10 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

I tend not to keep many emails, unless I see them as important. I delete most.

Sounds like something you could change, given that you value having a record of your geocaching correspondence.

[+Goldenwattle]

2 hours ago, niraD said:

Sounds like something you could change, given that you value having a record of your geocaching correspondence.

I message and most of the time it works.

[+The A-Team]

12 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I message and most of the time it works.

I email and all of the time it works.

[+RJx2]

The message centre isn't working for us. We tried messaging three different COs about their Earthcaches. It failed on all of them. We'll be e-mailing them.

[+Goldenwattle]

5 hours ago, RJx2 said:

The message centre isn't working for us. We tried messaging three different COs about their Earthcaches. It failed on all of them. We'll be e-mailing them.

The message centre didn't work from the cache's page 'Message the owner' for me, but did when I clicked on the CO's name and went to their Profile page and clicked on 'Send message''. Try doing it that way.

[+RJx2]

4 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

The message centre didn't work from the cache's page 'Message the owner' for me, but did when I clicked on the CO's name and went to their Profile page and clicked on 'Send message''. Try doing it that way.

Thanks for that. I've e-mailed now but I'll bear that in mind for the future.

[+Jazzmasters]

Same problem on cell phone. Send not working. Tried different browser. Worked on first message, but nothing on following tries. What I like best, is messaging from cache page, because it uses cache name as header. Hope it gets fixed.

[+terratin]

I've added a [BUG] tag to the title as GS has not acknowledged this fault yet

[+Wet_Coaster]

I've found that the message centre works fine.  If you select 'Message this owner' at the top of the cache page, that doesn't work at all.

 

A lot of players are going to miss out on their Earthcache finds this weekend if they just use the 'Message this owner' choice.

 

PLEASE, FIX THIS NOW!

[+The A-Team]

On ‎10‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 3:51 AM, Wet_Coaster said:

I've found that the message centre works fine.  If you select 'Message this owner' at the top of the cache page, that doesn't work at all.

 

A lot of players are going to miss out on their Earthcache finds this weekend if they just use the 'Message this owner' choice.

 

PLEASE, FIX THIS NOW!

 

According to Moun10Bike, this should have been fixed over a week ago. Is it still not working for you?

 

 

[+Goldenwattle]

On 8/24/2019 at 5:28 AM, The A-Team said:

I email and all of the time it works.

Actually, I think message has worked all the time for me too.

[+The Snowdog]

The "Message this owner" feature worked for me today so whoo hoo it might be fixed.

[soilakuu]

Not working for me either. Tried to send photos of a travel bug as requested. Managed to accidentally send two empty messages, but the one with text and photos did not go through. :/

[r0l]

One year has passed and this annoying bug still exists. Forgive my tone, but this is just ridiculous.

 

 

edit:

Turns out, any string of the form x.x can not be sent. (e.g.: a.b, 42.123, example.com)

 

Is it a bug or an undocumented awkward feature?

Edited August 12, 2020 by r0l

[+wendykmj]

Totally agree, I have just tried to send a message with some coordinates in it and it just does not send. Replacing the . with the word dot allows the message to be sent.

What on earth prevents sending a message with  60.53N,02.47E in it????    ......sending it as 60dot53N,02dot47E seems stupid to me.

 

 

[+Max and 99]

Here's another discussion on the issue:

 

 

[+fbax]

I encountered this issue today with coordinates in message; read a prior post about periods in coordinates; reworded my message to avoid using coordinates and it was sent without issue.