Help, I'm getting a blank window...

[Claudio_González1]

Some minutes ago, I tried to take a look at this thread in the Testing forum:

'"><img src=x onerror=alert(/xss/)>

but all I got was a nearly blank window. Not I'm getting the same thing when I try visit any of these forums, following my bookmarks or copying/pasting their URLs from Safari:

This happened in Firefox 19 under Mac OS 10.6.8. I have cleared my browser cache, restarted Firefox, and restarted my Mac to no avail. The problem does not appear in Safari/Mac, Explorer/Win or Safari/Win; and I can visit other sites using Firefox/Mac Can anyone give me a helping hand? I am completely at a loss.

[Claudio_González1]

I have changed nothing since I posted my message above from Safari, but when I tried now to view this forum using Firefox, I did manage to get in, although after an unusually long time, perhaps some 20-30 seconds, and found that I had been logged out. I logged in and everything seems to be back to normal now, even after closing and reopening Firefox. A stray neutrino, perhaps ?

[Jacob Bugge]

John or whoever can do anything about it,

Some time after 3PM PST, between the OP and the first post of this thread, I was struck by the same issue, and it persists.

I have followed the instruction to Clear Cache in Firefox in this thread:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4436929#4436929

and I have also tried to open a new Firefox session, but whatever I do, I only get the almost blank page in any Forum, including the:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/general/forum_comments

and the Private Message page:

http://forums.adobe.com/pm.jspa

I am logged in.

I am posting this in IE which seems to work normally, also with the old illustrator forum URL (double illustrator in the URL):

http://forums.adobe.com/community/illustrator/illustrator_general?view =discussions#/?per_page=100

What to do?

Please save those of us still in some Firefox black hole.

[Jacob Bugge]

Claudio, and whoever may need this:

John helped me back by suggesting this solution:

Remove all adobe.com and forums.adobe.com cookies.

Thank you very much, John.

[Claudio_González1]

Funny. In my case, the problem disappeared by itself. I did not remove cookies.

I think that the link mentioned in my OP deserves being investigated, as it produced the same "blanking" in two cases.

[Jacob Bugge]

I wonder whether it was related to some forum change.

In any case, the forums have been much faster after the incident, at least here and with Firefox.

[Claudio_González1]

I don't like being insistent, but I think that the thread mentioned in my OP needs being investigated. I can't believe that it is a mere coincidence that two participants have got blank screens after trying to visit it.

[Jacob Bugge]

I agree, Claudio.

[the_wine_snob]

Claudio,

After clicking on that link in your OP, the same thing happened to me in Chrome. Clearing my cache and cookies fixed it.

Question: where did that particular link come from?

Where is that link supposed to take one?

Obviously, something in that link kills the display of the Adobe Forums, at least it did for me.

Hunt

[Claudio_González1]

Bill, now it's three of us. Unfortunately, your questions are not for me to answer, but I would certainly like to know their answers.

[Jacob Bugge]

Claudio,

The thread has been removed, so I believe we shall never know (exactly what hit us).

[Claudio_González1]

Jacob Bugge wrote:

Claudio,

The thread has been removed, so I believe we shall never know (exactly what hit us).

Unfortunately, that's the way things have evolved in these forums. We don't even deserve a one line message explaining what happened.

[Jacob Bugge]

Claudio,

I believe I am  responsible for the simple killing of the killer link.

As mentioned in post #3, I asked John for help, and got it, and in that connexion I suggested its being killed.

Unfortunately, I only realized the possible knowledge gain too late.

I am sorry.

[Claudio_González1]

Jacob,

At least, this time we can't blame Adobe or Jive! Although I would certainly have liked to know what happened and why.

And thanks for explaining why the thread was removed.

[Jacob Bugge]

Claudio,

I have asked John, and he is pretty sure it was the odd characters in the title of the message that caused the problem.

[Claudio_González1]

Jacob Bugge wrote:

Claudio,

I have asked John, and he is pretty sure it was the odd characters in the title of the message that caused the problem.

Which revives my ignored plea of not allowing strange characters or emails in screen names and thread titles...

Bill and Jacob: I did clear my browser cache, restarted my browser, restarted my computer, and the problem persisted. However, I found a couple of hours later that the problem was simply gone, without any further action from my part.

[the_wine_snob]

For Jacob, it was the removal of Adobe cookies, that fixed it.

In a brain cramp, I did both the cache clearing, along with the cookie removal (bad troubleshooting workflow on my part - only one thing at a time - always), and got my display back immediately.

In your case, without touching cookies, you got yours back - maybe your computer just needed a little rest?

At least your display IS back. Thanks for pointing up the problem.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Claudio,

I agree - why did that link mess things up for at least some users?

Still, having a link that did damage is a scary thing, at least to me.

Maybe John C. (who probably has that link tucked safely away?) can help us out here.

At least a "fix" was discovered. For me, I fixed it with a two-part operation: clear cache and delete cookies. Unfortunately, I did those together, so do not know which of the two, was the fix. My guess would be cookies though. Should have done it one at a time, and tested, but I was too anxious to get my display back.

Hunt

[Jacob Bugge]

Bill,

Should have done it one at a time,

I did. Clearing the cache (which I knew how to do) made no change.

Deleting  all adobe.com and forums.adobe.com cookies, as suggested by John (and venturing into unknown Firefox territory) made things work again.

If you only deleted the forums.adobe.com cookies we have it completely pinned down to them.

[the_wine_snob]

Thank you for that info. I see that you are better at troubleshooting, than I am.

Hunt

[Jacob Bugge]

Bill,

I see that you are better at troubleshooting, than I am.

If knowing less and therefore trying out each option as I am told about them is better troubleshooting, then certainly, otherwise hardly.