XF 2.2 Thread creation problems for one user on one forum

[Semper Fidelis]

I'm completely stumped regarding one regular user. He was trying to post a Book Review and Received a "Oops, we ran into problems. Try again later" error message.

He can post in other forums, and he can use the messaging system. He's tried from multiple devices and on different networks with the same problem.

Nobody else is reporting the issue. I've logged in to his account and I can post in that forum.

What are some things I could suggest he try?

I've cleared the Cloudflare cache. I've gracefully rebooted my server. I've checked to see if any mod security rules are being triggered. Are there any other things I could look at to see if it's possible that something is blocking him on my end?

 

[beerForo]

Could be ModSecurity check server for errors.

 

[JustinHawk]

I'm completely stumped regarding one regular user. He was trying to post a Book Review and Received a "Oops, we ran into problems. Try again later" error message.

He can post in other forums, and he can use the messaging system. He's tried from multiple devices and on different networks with the same problem.

Nobody else is reporting the issue. I've logged in to his account and I can post in that forum.

What are some things I could suggest he try?

I've cleared the Cloudflare cache. I've gracefully rebooted my server. I've checked to see if any mod security rules are being triggered. Are there any other things I could look at to see if it's possible that something is blocking him on my end?

Ask the user to check browser console and look in console, if there are any errors in it.

 

[MentaL]

What I would do is have them send the post in a text file to you and then you try and post it. If errors occur, remove any embedded URLs, if it still has errors remove certain parts until you find what triggers it.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Could be ModSecurity check server for errors.

Thanks. I already checked that.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

What I would do is have them send the post in a text file to you and then you try and post it. If errors occur, remove any embedded URLs, if it still has errors remove certain parts until you find what triggers it.

It looks like it's the text of what he's trying to post.

Can you tell me where to look in my AdminCP to figure out what might be blocking it?

 

[Paul B]

It's not the ACP - it's the server.

Your sysadmin or host will need to resolve it.

 

[mattrogowski]

It looks like it's the text of what he's trying to post.

Cloudflare can sometimes reject requests it sees as a threat, there would be an error in the browser console if this was the case.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

It's not the ACP - it's the server.

Your sysadmin or host will need to resolve it.

Resolve what? The user can otherwise post threads. Something in the text of this post is causing a 500 error when the user tries to post the text of a book review about an obscure book. It has no obscenity and I can't imagine what's triggering it. I've tried posting it from my computer and I get the same error.

Cloudflare can sometimes reject requests it sees as a threat, there would be an error in the browser console if this was the case.

I'll try disabling Cloudflare but do keywords trigger Cloudflare?

 

[Paul B]

A 500 error is a webserver error.

Check the server error log.

 

[mattrogowski]

I'll try disabling Cloudflare but do keywords trigger Cloudflare?

It can do if there's something in it that triggers one of the firewall rules for whatever reason.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I spoke too soon. It was a mod security issue.

I never would have thought that specific text in a post would trigger it, but...

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Thankfully, I host with Liquid Web. They are always really good at figuring these things out.

I'm not a total tech newbie, but I've never really spent enough time figuring out Linux. or how to whitelist mod_security rules so it's easier to call them up and have them find the problem and fix it over the phone.

Thank you all for giving me the tips to even check that the text of the post could cause this. I recently migrated to a new server and it has stricter security on it from the default config. It's probably why, after 17 years of running this forum, I'm running into some net new errors but it cumulatively makes me smarter every time I work through some weird problems.