FAQ
From PluginWiki
We'll add these as they arise.
Where do I find...?
...Everything the Moderation Plug-in can do for me?
Index of Moderator Plug-in Functions
...The Member Plug-in?
Member Plug-in There's also a plug-in to help members use Freecycle groups more efficiently, which will help them avoid making common mistakes and will also help you as a moderator by decreasing the likelihood you'll have to moderate their posts.
...the Internet Explorer/Chrome/Safari version?
This plugin is written for the Firefox web browser and will not work with Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome, or most other web browsers. It does work with the brand new (but still beta) Orca browser. Supporting multiple browsers for this would take much more time in development and testing than I have spare, I'm afraid.
...new versions or Beta Releases?
See Getting Updates.
How do I...?
...Back up my preferences?
See here.
...Use my preferences on another machine?
See here.
...Find the configuration once I think I've got it installed?
...Stop being annoyed by the popup about members joining multiple groups?
You can turn it off - see here. But before you turn it off entirely, you might like to try:
- making sure it only checks occasionally, rather than every time
- excluding crosspost groups
- using a threshold (say of 3) for the number of groups before it complains
Then you'll see far fewer popups.
...Record when I send messages?
At the moment, there are three ways:
- CC your messages, either to a Yahoo group for your moderators, or to a separate gmail account. See here.
- Record your actions in a database (on one of your groups), so they get displayed on the screen. See User DB lookup.
- Use the Modplugin Database to record when you send "automatic" messages. See Recording Moderator Messages.
...Make this whole thing less complicated?
There's lots of function in here, for sure. But you only need to start off with the basic stuff, and then work up. You can show or hide function using the Show Advanced Features option on the Features tab.
...Install an old version?
You can get old versions from the Release Notes page. But if you're installing an older version because you're having problems with a newer version, please first try to take the time to work with me to resolve the problem - otherwise it'll still be there in the next release, and it will affect other people too.
...Report a problem?
If you have a problem that isn't covered in the various help files, you can report it on the Moderator Plug-in Yahoo Group.
...Get a debug trace?
...Get a screenshot?
...Provide a copy of the page source?
Providing the Page Source Code
...Provide the bug url?
...Send an ADMIN from the -owner address?
The plugin doesn't do this for you, but you can do so as follows:
- Make sure you're on moderation.
- Post the ADMIN mail. It will go to Pending because you're on moderation.
- Go to Pending.
- Edit the message.
- Change the From field to be the -owner address.
It's possible that Yahoo may block this in future to protect against spammers, but this works for now.
...How do I use multiple Yahoo IDs?
...How do I have multiple different copies of the plugin's settings?
See Configuration Sets. You can also do this Using Firefox profiles but that's less friendly.
What is...?
...an Access Key?
See Access Keys.
Can you explain...?
How does it get all the information? Is it hacking into Yahoo?
No, it's not hacking in. It doesn't have any secret 'backdoor' into Yahoo, or bypass Yahoo's security in any way.
What the plugin does is collect information from Yahoo's pages just like you would do yourself if you went to those pages, but it does it silently in the background, and then puts the results on the page you're looking at (and sometimes stores a copy of it on your local machine to speed up future processing).
So it can only access Yahoo pages and function which you could access yourself using your own Yahoo ID.A good example of this is Checking for crossposts.
- For this to work, you have to have joined all the groups you want to check, using the same Yahoo ID you moderate with. Otherwise it can't see the messages page on the group, because Yahoo won't let it.
- You can only check the pending messages on a group if you're a moderator on that group - the plugin can't bypass Yahoo's security to look at them for you.
Most information that the plugin stores never leaves your machine. There are two pieces of function (Check Recently Joined Members and Recording Moderator Messages) which store some information on a separate database server rather than on your own machine. In both cases:
- The function is optional, and you have to explicitly turn it on before it will do anything.
- The information is protected by Access Keys, which are authenticated via mails to your -owner address.
- The information is encrypted using a one-way hash, which means it's not feasible to go back from that to Yahoo IDs or email addresses, even if you had access to all the database contents.
- The information is purged from the database after 31 days.
So that's pretty secure. There are two other ways in which information can leave your machine:
- If you export your preferences and send them to someone else (for example another mod). When you do this, you can choose what potentially confidential information it contains.
- If you are Getting Debug Trace and send that to someone (usually Edward). When you do this, it may contain confidential information about your group, so if you're not comfortable doing this, don't (though it may mean I can't investigate problems for you). Edward deletes debug traces quite rapidly, otherwise his disk fills up.
What's Debugging?
Debugging is a feature for identifying problems - it writes extra information to a file. This is really for Edward's benefit to help fix problems he can't reproduce.
If you spot a problem, you can turn on debugging, reproduce the problem, then email the file to Edward. He'll then look through it to identify what the plugin was doing and hopefully be able to debug what went wrong. See Getting Debug Trace
As a general rule, you should turn Debugging off when not required as it will slow things down and generate a potentially huge file on your PC.
Why do I need Java?
The plugin uses Java to do some processing which in Javascript is horribly slow.
Which Java version do I need?
Version 6 Update 18 works best, see here. As of Firefox 3.6, you can no longer use Update 7, which was the best one to use for a while.
There's a new Java version; should I update to it?
Don't upgrade unless you need to. Java upgrades often break the plugin. You can tell Java not to ask you about upgrades, by turning of automatic updates here.
Once I've sent a standard message, and hit Continue, why doesn't it go to the right place?
If you're sending your messages using Yahoo Post, it says Continue once the message has successfully been sent. Hitting continue will take you back somewhere...but probably not where you want to be. There are limitations in what the plugin can do which mean it's not possible to control where it goes after the post has been submitted. You don't really need to hit Continue though - the message has been sent by then.
If you do a bit of extra work to set up to use Sending by Email, then you can avoid this, as well as getting other benefits.
Can you explain the different "databases" I keep hearing about?
There are three kinds of database.
- There's one for recording comments about your members. A lot of people had these already, stored as databases in Yahoo groups, and the plugin lets you either set up a new one or configure to use your existing one. See User DB lookup.
- There's one for spotting when people join lots of groups, and who might therefore be spammers. See Check Recently Joined Members. This database is kindly hosted by Nigel Mundy.
- There's one for Recording Moderator Messages, so that you can see what you or other moderators have sent to your members. Nigel hosts this one too.
You have to configure each of these separately. That's some extra work, but I want to ensure that people don't feel they are in any sense tied to particular databases by the plugin. Once you start requiring people to store information in a central database, people get concerned that you're trying to gain control over their groups. This way, people can decide whether or not to use them, and could even set up their own database if they didn't want to use the one Nigel hosts (Nigel and I would help with this).
How come I can still see deleted messages?
In order to display the message counts, the plugin keeps a local copy of the message subjects on your machine, which it updates each time you view the page.
If someone (either you or the original poster) deletes a message from the Yahoo site, this doesn't delete it from your machine, so you'll still see it listed in the counts. This is intentional, because it allows you to spot when people have been deleting messages.
Of course, if someone posts a message and then deletes it before you view the group, and therefore before the plugin has a chance to update its local cached copy, then it won't be listed.
How come it says 'Not a member' when I know they are?
This is quite common. Yahoo has two copies of the membership list - one which you can search in from the Members page, and one you can get from the Export from there. The plugin uses the export version.
Often, this means one of two things:
- They've just joined, and Yahoo hasn't quite caught up with them yet.
- They've left since they posted. Some members join, post, then leave, to avoid getting all the emails.
In these two cases they will show up if you search in the members list but won't show in the Export list. If after a few days they don't show up in the Export list, then report it to Yahoo from here.
Sometimes when a member tries to sign up or leave, the script Yahoo uses doesn't quite complete. If they are signing up, they will show in the membership log as approved, but won't show in the members list or the export. If they were leaving, they will still show in the export, and if you enter the Yahoo ID or email address in the members page search box it will return a blank result rather than the "no such member" result. If that is the case, contact customer care here and ask them to re-sync your list. Once done, your export whould match your members list, and the members that unsubbed will be gone and the ones that say "not a member" should show the join date. Alternatively, for a member who is a part of the group, you can ask them to unsub and rejoin, or for members that left but are still showing in the export you can ban them, wait 15 minutes and check they are gone, and then remove the ban. I'd advise writing them first to let them know.
How does this all fit with My Freecycle and the new website?
This plugin is primarily for helping moderate Yahoo groups. Members are already able to post via My Freecycle, and it's clear that Freecycle groups will have the option of either remaining hosted on Yahoo, or (eventually) being hosted on the new site. What does all this mean for the plugin?
First, this plugin will be required to help moderate those groups who stay on Yahoo, and for groups which aren't part of TFN. So that's business as normal.
For groups hosted on Yahoo, I'd expect that there will be some interactions with the new website, so there will be some features in the plugin to help with that. There are a few already - see My Freecycle and posting stats, and I'm likely to add more as the new site itself adds function. The next one on the list is to allow crosspost checking of MF groups.
It's not clear yet whether the plugin will be required to moderate groups on the new site.
- The new site has its own moderation tools, so in theory it's possible that everything the plugin adds could be supported directly on the new site.
- Richard has said that as well as having moderation tools on the site, he's interested in exposing interfaces to allow more advanced tools to be written - in which case I'll probably adapt the plugin to allow moderation of those groups too.
Right now, Richard's focussed on getting the basic set of tools working rather than exposing interfaces, so you can't use the plugin to moderate the new site.
Why isn't this hosted on Mozilla?
If you got the plugin via the Mozilla site, then you'll do Find Updates and it will say there aren't any new versions. The Mozilla site takes a long time to publish new versions - sometimes months, which is too long.
So the versions on there only get updated occasionally. Most new updates are published separately. If you originally got the plugin via Mozilla, then you should go here and upgrade to the last official release - and from then on you'll see all the latest updates.
Why didn't the plugin tell me this was a repeat wanted?
The stored information for repeat posting is stored on your machine, and updated from Yahoo when you visit the group, so normally it will pick up any messages posted since you last visited it. But if the wanted item was posted, but then deleted from the group without your plugin having updated its database with the post information, then when the message is posted again, the plugin doesn't know about it. There's little the plugin could do to improve how it knows when a post is repeated due to Yahoo Terms of Service (TOS) about republishing post information.
What are these popups about needing to do a slow thing?
In order to present information like the counts of messages, the plugin maintains a cache on your machine of information about messages. Normally it updates this quickly - but sometimes, usually when you visit a new group or add it to your crosspost list, it needs to load all the information from the last 30 days or so. There are a couple of different popups you might see:
and
When you see these you must let it load completely, until it says Loaded. If you don't do this, and click on links or leave the page, it will have to do it again next time.
So just be patient and let it load through - and after that it should be much quicker. You can see where it's got to on the status bar - it will tell you it's scanning messages, and it needs to scan back 31 days.
If you let it go through to Loaded, and then you see it again, look for Firefox Tools->Options->Privacy->Cookies->Accept third-party cookies and make sure that's checked. If it wasn't, check it and then let it load one more time. If you're worried about allowing all third-party cookies, then see here.
If that doesn't fix it, please get debug trace of it giving you the popup, loading completely once, and then giving you the popup again.
Why do I not see the later updates that people are talking about?
There are two possible reasons:
- People might be talking about Beta releases. See Getting Updates.
- If you installed the plugin from http://addons.mozilla.org, then the versions on that site lag quite a long way behind the last official release (because they take a long time to review and approve them). So when you do a Find Updates you'll be told there aren't any. If you go here and install it, then you'll no longer get updates from the Mozilla site, but instead get the official updates from Edward's site, which are more frequent.
Why does it say 'already changed' on the same few members each time I run Web Only to Special Notices?
This happens when Yahoo gets stuck. If you look in the list you get from clicking on Export it will show them as No Email, but if you search from the Members page it'll show Special Notices.
To fix this,
- Change each of these members back to No Email in the member list manually and save the changes.
- Give Yahoo a few minutes to register the changes.
- Run Web Only to Special Notices again.
In a few minutes the change will register so that the export list and the memberlist will show the same value. The members will no longer show as needing changing when you run Web Only to Special Notices in future.
Something's gone wrong
Why are my maps wrong?
The maps need you to either be a Freegle group using the Republisher, to be using the Member Plugin, or to have configured the Default Search Hint and Known Locations. See Maps.
What are 999 errors?
Yahoo tries to spot people who are attacking it, or mining the messages for nefarious purposes. Because the plugin makes lots of extra requests to Yahoo, to display the extra information you see, it can sometimes fall foul of this. This can also happen if Yahoo are doing maintenence or restructuring work. Read more background here.
The most common things to provoke it are:
- Yahoo being a bit trigger happy (which it is when it's having problems or a spammer attack)
- if you move from page to page before it's loaded through to saying Loaded, especially the first time you use the plugin on a group.
- if you're using Yahoo Post rather than Sending by Email
- if you're paging through page after page of the Messages pages
- if you're not configured to open in a new tab, so you keep reloading the same page over and over again - see here
- if you're sharing an Internet connection with someone else who's also using the plugin
- if you're loading groups simultaneously in multiple posts.
Once it happens, it will block all access to Groups from your IP address. What can you do to recover?
- Wait. This will recover, after a few hours, though Yahoo will often block you much more rapidly if you start using the plugin immediately after it unblocks you.
- Change your IP address. If your ISP gives you an IP address which changes (e.g. if you disconnect or power off and on your modem) then do that and you'll be able to bypass this restriction.
- Don't contact Yahoo Customer Care. This is a specialised topic which they can't handle, and you won't get anything other than frustration by doing it.
What can you do to make it less likely:
- Make sure you let the page load through till it says Loaded before moving to another page.
- Change to use Sending by Email.
- If you're reloading the tabs over and over, have a look at Using the plugin and Changing the way tabs work.
- Don't load multiple tabs (e.g. on different groups) at the same time.
- If you're paging through lots of messages, remember that you can temporarily disabled the plugin by clicking on the Taskbar icon, which is useful if you know you're going to be going through a lot of pages and you're not expecting to need the plugin.
- If you see these in your normal moderating activity, then try Request Pacing.
- Try temporarily disabling crosspost checking - right click on the Taskbar icon and deselect the relevant option.
Don't bother trying to change Yahoo ID - the checking is based on IP address.
Why don't I see the blue tile?
Check that you have the status bar showing:
- In Firefox 4, do View->Toolbars->Menu Bar. If you can't see the View menu, do Alt-V.
- In earlier versions, do View then Status Bar.
If that doesn't show the tile, go on to the next question.
Why has it just stopped working?
- Do you have the taskbar showing?
- In Firefox 4, do View->Toolbars->Menu Bar. If you can't see the View menu, do Alt-V.
- In earlier versions, do View->Status bar.
- Do you have the Tile icon on the taskbar?
If not, then you may not have Java installed properly into Firefox, or it may have broken and you need to reinstall it. Take a look at Install Java.
- Try rebooting quite a few times - although this sounds very unlikely, quite a few people have found it helps.
- Is the Tile icon blue or grey? If it's grey, click once on it.
- Check the things in Troubleshooting Installation.
- If you have Java installed make sure you have Update 18 or above installed and no earlier versions.
If none of this helps, then get diagnostics and send them to me - see Contact us.
It doesn't work on my group. Why not?
Most likely your group doesn't have freecycle, freegle or reuseit in the name. See Configure groups to monitor.
It never finishes loading and I don't see my message counts. Why not?
First, check these:
- Check whether the Loading % reaches Loaded. If it doesn't, then read on; otherwise see here.
- If you saw a popup about needing to do a slow thing, see here.
- The next most common reason is that you just need to leave it longer or try later, particularly if Yahoo's having problems on other groups or you see popups on the page about timeouts. Try leaving it for half an hour. You can see progress on the taskbar:
Next, check these:
- Have you got the DB URL misconfigured on the bottom left of the Checking tab? It should be http://db.modplugin.org .
- Are you using Firefox V3? Version 2 can cause this problem, so you should try upgrading.
Now try turning off DNS pre-fetching. Follow the instructions here.
Next, try clearing your private data:
- From the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data
- Make sure the following boxes are checked:
- Browsing History
- Cache
- Cookies
- Offline Website Data
- Authenticated Sessions
- Click on Clear Private Data Now
- Close your Browser
- Try again.
Failing this, see Investigating Slow Loads.
It finishes loading but I don't see my message counts. Why not?
First, check whether the Loading % reaches Loaded. If it does, then read on; otherwise see here.
- Reboot a few times. Often it's because Java has crashed.
- Check that you are using Firefox V3 or above, version 2 can cause this problem.
- Check that you have the most recent version of Java - see Install Java.
- Check that you have the relevant boxes on the Features tab checked - maybe it's not showing counts because you've not asked it to. See Summarise Posts.
If it's not that, then get debug trace.
Why are my message counts wrong?
First, check your configuration of what recent means.
- Is it near the start of the month and you've got it set to Recent if within calendar month? You won't see messages from the previous month, so your counts might be zero.
- Do you have Message counts set too low? If there are posts, but they're older than this, then they won't show up.
If it's not either of these, then:
- Go to Features->Manage Preferences.
- Select your group in the listbox.
- Click Clear cache for Group.
Go back to your group's page and reload - it will take quite a while this time. Then see if your numbers are right.
If they're right now, then let Edward know via the group. If they're still wrong, then:
- Take a screenshot of a message which should show up.
- Get debug trace of the whole process from clearing the cache through to loading a page.
- Mail it to Edward.
Why does it take forever to load?
Pages should normally load in around 30 seconds, and no more than two minutes. If it's taking longer than that, then
- If the loading % never gets as far as Loaded, then see here.
- If it does eventually reach Loaded, then:
- Check that you don't have the Request Pacing slider set too far across to the right. The further across it is, the slower it will be to load.
- Upgrade to the latest beta from the files section.
- If that doesn't help, get debug trace.
Why does it say there's work to do when there's not?
The plugin can show work to do on your groups. Sometimes you'll click on the links it puts up and find there wasn't work to do after all.
This information comes from the My Posts page. There's always been a delay in when Yahoo updates, that page, so it's possible that it will show work when you (or someone else) has done it recently.
The plugin adds upto 2 minutes further delay on this, to reduce 999 errors.
Why do I see messages about needing to Sign In?
If you're seeing the content of messages being replaced by text about needing to sign in, check your cookie settings on Tools->Options->Privacy.
If you're worried about accepting all cookies, see here.
All my preferences have disappeared! How come?
This seems to happen occasionally, particularly when Firefox upgrades itself.
They may still be there; have a look in the directory of the form:
c:\Documents and Settings\Edward\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\i3i2a5u6.default
(The Edward and i3i2a5u6.default parts will be different for you.)
In there you might find files called prefs.js (which is the one Firefox actually uses), prefs-1.js (which is a backup it creates sometimes), prefs-2.js (another backup) and so on. So:
- If you back up your computer, you could pull prefs.js from the last backup.
- Copying one of the backups on top of prefs.js might restore your preferences - though save prefs.js off first in case it goes (even more) horribly wrong.
There are three ways you can prevent this in future:
- Regularly export your preferences from the Features tab.
- Use the FEBE Firefox plugin (which backs up and restores your plugins, themes, and (optionally) your bookmarks, preferences, cookies. and much more. Find it here.
- Use Mozbackup (which will backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, plugins, cache etc. for Firefox AND Thunderbird by backing up complete profiles). Find it here.
I'm getting a Yahoo message about forwarding being unavailable. What can I do?
Yahoo puts a limit on message forwarding, which affects the way the plugin sends messages to members. You can avoid this by configuring Sending by Email.
How come I can't see some of the configuration?
By default, the plugin hides more advanced configuration from you.
- This is so you can get to grips with the basic stuff.
- If you want to explore further, or you see a reference in a page to some function you'd like but can't see on your screen, then click the Show Advanced Features checkbox on the Features tab.
- Once you do this, you'll see more stuff on the various configuration pages.
How come my duplicate/crosspost/matching message matching is wrong?
First, double-check your configuration.
- Check that you've got the groups you want to check configured in Checking->Crosspost Configuration.
- You probably also want to have the Check duplicates box checked on the Checking tab, to spot crossposts which are similar but not identical.
Now think about the timing.
- If you're seeing messages which are flagged as crossposts once they're in the Messages page, but weren't when you approved them, then remember that a crosspost might not have shown up by the time you check.
- For example a message might be in Pending on another group at the time the message was in Pending on yours, but later got approved. If this is happening, see if that group will let you become a moderator so you can add the Pending page to your crosspost list.
Then check whether the subject lines really are the same, or whether they use different words but look the same to a human.
- The plugin has function to spot when you get the same, or related messages. This function works by counting the number of words in common between the subjects.
- This isn't foolproof - and you'll sometimes see messages which look clearly the same to the human eye, but which the plugin doesn't spot, because as a human some words look obviously more significant to you than others.
- A good example of this is if the part of the subject line which describes the item is very short, perhaps just a single word, and the part which describes the location is quite long. Then the two subjects will have a lot of words in common, and so they may match.
If you're crosspost checking against a group on My Freecycle then the plugin can't tell who the post is from (because MF uses anonymous email addresses), so it might match against a post which is from another member.
My Firefox has just started crashing. What's that about?
A few people have seen this. It's usually because Java's got broken, and you'll see crashes both when you use the plugin and also on other sites that use Java (like games or chat). Try reinstalling Java. See Install Java.
The Imageshack Toolbar has also been reported as causing crashes - disabling this stops them. Generally, if you're seeing crashes, you should try disabling all your add-ons (including the Freecycle one), and enable them one by one to see if it's one particular add-on that's causing problems.
Why do I see blank windows or no OK/Cancel buttons?
Probably you're on a Mac, and you've not done this bit of configuration: Mac and Linux Preferences. It's supposed to happen for you automatically, but if you're seeing this problem, double-check.
Since upgrading to Firefox 3, why am I seeing errors about crosspost checking?
Look for Firefox Tools->Options->Privacy->Cookies->Accept third-party cookies and make sure that's checked.
If you're worried about allowing all third-party cookies, then see here.
Since upgrading to Firefox 3, why am I seeing a message about a problem accessing the messages page when sending to pending members?
Look for Firefox Tools->Options->Privacy->Cookies->Accept third-party cookies and make sure that's checked.
If you're worried about allowing all third-party cookies, then see here.
Since upgrading to Firefox 3, why am I seeing messages about sign-in instead of the message data?
Look for Firefox Tools->Options->Privacy->Cookies->Accept third-party cookies and make sure that's checked.
If you're worried about allowing all third-party cookies, then see here.
Why does it all look funny when I press Back?
Short answer: it does, doesn't it? Hit refresh and it will get better.
Long answer: there are beardy technical reasons for this, which you can read about here. If phrases like The back button is not a bug in Ajax, it's a flaw in the browser metaphor get you all hot and bothered, then you'll have a whale of a time. It might be possible to fix this, but when I start reading those articles I rapidly lose the will to live, so for the forseeable future, that's how it is.
Why doesn't it send as the -owner properly when using gmail?
If you're set up for Sending by Email, you can configure it to send from the -owner address (see here). If this is sending from your real address rather than the -owner address, it's probably because you've not successfully managed to associate the address with your account. Check whether it shows up under Send mail as in gmail.
Why do I see a popup telling me to fill in the Yahoo ID?
This is related to the User DB lookup function. What you should do depends on whether you're actually trying to use that function, or whether you've just got it configured by mistake, perhaps because you got your configuration from someone else.
If you're not trying to use that function, then you need to delete your database configuration.
- Go to the DB tab
- Look in the Name drop-down at the top of the page.
- Keep selecting entries in there and clicking the Delete button until you don't have any databases configured.
Then you won't see the popup.
If you are trying to use that function, then you need to make sure you've configured the Yahoo ID in the Auto-inserted fields section. You need to put in the number of the column in your database which holds the Yahoo ID. See User DB lookup for more information.
What's Initialisation error Error calling method on NPObject! mean?
You have an old version of Java. Install Update 18 or above; see Install Java.
Why do I keep getting told about the same spammer?
The plugin uses the Export membership list you can access from the Members page. There's usually a delay of hours to a day in Yahoo updating this, but sometimes Yahoo gets confused and never updates it.
So that means that a member can not show up when you use the Search Members box on the Members page, but still show up to the plugin because it uses the export list.
Once you've checked that the member doesn't show up if you use the Search Members box, then you should be able to avoid getting popups by selecting the Ignore this member option.
It would also be a good idea to raise it with Yahoo via this page. Yahoo don't know about the plugin, so the best way to raise it is to say that you have a member who doesn't show up in the member search, and who has left the group, but who still shows up in the export, and ask them to get the export up to date. This helps put pressure on Yahoo to fix this bug.
When I click on the magnifying glass or message summaries to search, why is it missing messages?
The magnifying glass uses Yahoo's message search - the same method that you can use from the Search box on the Messages page. Yahoo's message search is pretty unreliable, so sometimes it can miss messages out.
This is why the Summarise Posts function doesn't use Yahoo's search to generate the counts it shows; though if you click on the counts it shows, then it'll bring up a page which does use Yahoo search, and therefore might be missing posts too.
If you find that your group's search is misbehaving, you can ask Yahoo to fix it for your group from this page.
Yahoo are working on fixing search, and you can ask for your group to trial the fix here.
Why does my send by email fail?
See here.
Why doesn't it match my TAKEN/OFFERs?
See here.
Why doesn't Firefox start with the plugin disabled?
This has been seen on Vista when using Java Update 12. Try upgrading to Update 18; see Install Java.
Why do I sometimes see a popup about Java not working, but it works when I restart Firefox?
This is an intermittent problem with Java. First, try giving Java more memory:
- Go to Control Panel->Java
- Go to the Java tab.
- Double-click on the Runtime parameters entry
- Put -Xmx512m
Next, try telling Java to use the old plugin.
- Open the Control Panel, from the Start menu.
- Click on Java.
- Click on the Advanced tab.
- Click on the plus sign next to Java Plug-in to open it.
- Ensure the checkbox is deselected.
Then restart Firefox.
Why can't I install Java on a Pentium II?
You need an old version of Java. Get it here.
Why do my preferences not fit on my screen?
On screens with low resolutions, like netbooks, the preferences may not fit on your screen. If you can't increase the screen resolution, then you have two options:
- If on Windows, do Alt+Space, then M, and you can then use the arrow keys to move the window around until you can see the bit you want to change.
- You can edit the preferences on another machine and export them there, then load them onto this one.
Why does Firefox on Mac OS X crash on start up with the plugin enabled?
According to here this happens to other Java applications too. Follow the suggestion to remove the jars from ~/Library/Java/Extensions or upgrade to a newer version of the Java Embedding plugin. See read me.
Why do I see a "not responding" popup?
I don't really understand the cause of this. You should make sure you have the most up to date Firefox.
It's OK to hit Continue, and it should normally work. But you can try this to see if it stops it.
- Type about:config in Firefox's address bar.
- Ignore any warning messages.
- Type dom.max in the Filter box and hit return
- Set the value for dom.max.script' to 160
- Set the value for dom.max.chrome.script.run.time to 0
Where's my blue tile icon in Firefox 4 (5, 6, etc)?
Firefox 4 doesn't show the menu bar by default. Do View->Toolbars->Add-ons Bar. If you can't see the View menu, do Alt-V.
Why do I get: Error running modplugin Security Manager vetoed action?
I'm not sure what causes this, but removing and reinstalling the plugin seems to fix it.
Why won't Gmail recognise my password?
See here.
Why has sending moderator messages via Gmail stopped working in OS X Lion?
If you can't send e-mails via the Moderation Plugin, from a Mac running Lion using Gmail, then you have to open Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences and tick the little box near the top labelled Enable applet plug-in and Web Start applications. Then restart FF.
