Backward Text

[RichPella]

OK, this is really starting to freak me out. Several times today I have been typing in a text box to post something on this site. Half of the time, it works with no problem. The rest of the time, there is a long delay between when I stop typing and when the characters appear on the screen. As in all of them. I see zero characters on the screen until about 10 seconds after I stop typing; then they all appear at once.

But that's not the freaky part. When the characters appear, they're in reverse. All the characters are there in the exact order in which I typed them--from right to left.

This is happening only on this site. My first thought was a virus on my computer, but when it happens on only one site, that idea loses veracity. Is anyone else seeing this? The only way I was able to post this (and several other things) was to type it in Notepad and copy and paste. If it were a virus on my computer, shouldn't it be affecting everything?

I'm eagerly awaiting responses from the rest of you.

[Ursa Major]

I'm not having any problems.

It could be a virus that only affects a certain kind of script (the one that vB runs.) Try visiting another vBulletin board and see if it happens.

[RichPella]

I don't know any. Help?

[Ursa Major]

Are you using Firefox?

[Ursa Major]

I just linked to a vB board before reading your post.

[RichPella]

Weird. The person on that board experiencing the problem didn't seem to get a clear answer. There was some talk of a "Switch Text Direction" feature in Firefox but that's not causing this situation.

I just spent over an hour downloading and running AVG anti-virus. It found a bunch of tracking cookies but nothing it considers a threat.

OK, even more weird. I managed to type the first paragraph with no problems. As soon as I pressed Enter twice, I got nothing. In fact, the text I typed never showed up at all. I had to close the tab and reopen before I could do anything. I sure as hell don't want to type all my posts in Notepad forever. I need this fixed NOW.

[RichPella]

This problem appears to be unique to Firefox. I can post in Internet Destroyer just fine.

[Ursa Major]

I'll bet it's just a setting in Firefox. If it's not too big a hastle losing your bookmarks, etc. I'd just remove it and reinstall Firefox from scrach with its default settings.

[RichPella]

Yeah, that would suck. Way too many bookmarks. I'm cool with losing the settings, but replacing the bookmarks is not going to happen.

[Ursa Major]

Try updating Java.

[RichPella]

That didn't work, either, and I really dislike IE, so I guess that's one more reason for me not to bother. I have a feeling I really pissed off Opal recently, anyway.

[OpalCat]

Huh? when and how? I didn't curse you, I swear! (but man, that could be a useful power....)

[LurkMeister]

Originally Posted by RichPella

Yeah, that would suck. Way too many bookmarks. I'm cool with losing the settings, but replacing the bookmarks is not going to happen.

There is a way to copy your Firefox bookmarks so they can be restored to the new version, because I remember doing it to transfer them from my laptop to my desktop after I moved. IIRC, it's not quite as simple as exporting, and I think I found it on the Firefox help pages.

[MrKnowItAll]

FTR, I use Firefox almost exclusively and I've never had this problem.

[OpalCat]

Originally Posted by LurkMeister

There is a way to copy your Firefox bookmarks so they can be restored to the new version, because I remember doing it to transfer them from my laptop to my desktop after I moved. IIRC, it's not quite as simple as exporting, and I think I found it on the Firefox help pages.

Use the Foxmarks plugin, though I think it's changed names to "X-marks" now. Anyway it stores your bookmarks on its server, and then when you login from any computer with Firefox, it shows you your bookmarks.

[RebelK]

Well for some reason I never saw this Rich or I would have told you I have the exact same problem. Only with one computer however.

Opal thank you so much for showing me that Foxmarks thingie. My problem now is all the bookmarks I have at work are different from the ones I have at home. Does it differentiate?

[OpalCat]

If you want to keep them separate, just make two different accounts.