Red icons that appear just before I post

[Gigi007]

Today I experienced something truly strange. After typing a post, and just before submitting it, two red icons (shape of a tiny shield? I'm not sure how to describe it) appear. When I post, the icons disappear. What are these symbols?

[Gigi007]

UPDATE- i think the problem has been solved. The formerly little red shields now appear as pushpins next to the restaurant names in my post.

Thanks all for your help and interest. Much appreciated.

[DGresh]

I'm sometimes seeing these; but then they sometimes disappear when I go back. What are they?

[kpzoo]

Have you recently installed or updated any anti-virus/firewall/system software? The red shield sounds reminiscent of that type of software.

[Gigi007]

Thanks for your reply. No, I haven't done anything you suggested. I e-mailed the tech people, but haven't heard back. I just e-mailed the mods too. I'm wondering if my account has been flagged for some reason. It is really odd.

EDIT: Maybe someone is looking into it? For this post, no icons appeared, but it's the first time in 2 days that it hasn't happened.

[kpzoo]

Weird. Can you take a screenshot and post it here if it does happen again? Might be helpful for troubleshooting purposes...

[Gigi007]

It just happened again when I edited a post on a different board/thread. It isn't happening on this board/thread. I don't think I can take a screenshot (no camera and haven't done it before. I tried to copy the post I just edited with the icons, but no luck copying the icons).

Thanks for trying to help. It would be nice if someone at CH (technical help or mods) would answer my e-mails. I am sure that it is a CH-specific issue and not anything having to do with my software, firewalls, etc. Thanks again.

[The Chowhound Team]

We've never heard of this problem, which makes us think it is something specific to your setup. You don't need a camera to take a screenshot. Try Googling for "Take a screenshot" with your computer's browser name, and see if those directions work for you.

[Gigi007]

Hmm, interesting. The icons don't appear when I post here, but do on other boards. If you mean to take a screenshot of the address (I have no idea--I'm not a technical person, but browser name doesn't sound like it's what I need to look for), I can try, but it would have to be done when I'm actually about to submit a post on another board/thread.

Thanks.

[Jacquilynne]

I wonder if it's just something in the new Link to a Place function flashing at you for a moment as you post. It isn't implemented on this board, so that might be why posting here doesn't cause it. There's nothing that should be flashing, and we haven't had any other reports of this problem. If you can get a screenshot, that would really help.

[Gigi007]

Thanks, Jacquilynne. I think you may be right. As I entered some restaurant names to have links posted (they didn't come up automatically), I saw 3 red icons flashing. In the past, I've only seen 2 and they weren't flashing. And to do date they have appreared on all boards/threads except this one. As far as you're not having received other reports of this kind, let me say that I haven't had this problem posting on any other site, so it does a ppear to be a Chowhound-related issue.

Regarding the screenshot, as I said before, I'm not familiar with how it's done (what specific instructions I would need to look for?) as I've never had to do it previously. I'm OK with living with the red icons as long as they don't affect my ability to post.

[Jacquilynne]

Assuming you're on a PC, when you're seeing the icons, hit Alt and the PrtScr or PrintScreen keys on your keyboard. Open up MS Paint and CTRL-V or paste it in. Save the file as a .png and you can either upload it here, or email it to me at jacquilynne dot schlesier at cbs dot com.

[Gigi007]

Thanks, Jacquilynne. The issue definitely has to do with the links to restaurants. Look at this thread:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663101

You can see that a few other hounds mentioned restaurant names, but my posts are the only ones with links to restaurants and the little red icons. Those are the same icons I've seen on threads flashing even when I'm not talking about any particular restaurant.

Btw, I've seen hounds complain on other threads that the Blue Duck Tavern's link isn't coming up correctly (note: gelato98's first post on the thread I mentioned), but you can see that it did come up correctly when I posted. Weird.

I also posted on a "Food and Media" thread about 10 minutes ago and didn't get the red icons there.

If the next time I get the icons and no restaurant names are mentioned, I can try to do the screenshot thing and either post it here or send it to you, but I actually think we've pinpointed the problem.

Thanks again.

[Jacquilynne]

I don't see any icons on your post.

[Gigi007]

Strange. Perhaps they can't be copied b/c I see them clearly. They are in front of each restaurant name with address, and as I said before, only appear in my posts and not those of other hounds.

[Chris VR]

What do the icons look like? I do see "pushpin" icons with letters on them in fromt of each restaurant name at the top right part of the page- but they are in front of every listing, not just the ones you added.

[Gigi007]

Well, I described the icons up thread--like little red shields No letters on them Not like pushpins, at least not to me. They weren't the ones at the top right part of the page that you're describing. They were clearly displayed on my posts (perhaps only visible to me, I have no idea). I also didn't add any listings; CH's system automatically added them.

Anyway, I haven't been posting much lately and the last few times that I did, I didn't see them. I'm pretty much done with trying to figure this one out unless it impedes my ability to post (and so far, it hasn't).

[Jacquilynne]

You'll have to click through to see the photo properly, but are these the icons?

[Gigi007]

The icons you displayed don't look the same as the ones I was seeing before. The ones you posted look like the pushpins described by another poster. The ones I saw looked like small shields (that's the best I can describe them--sometimes they flashed on the screen and often they appeared in front of restaurant listings). Thanks for your persistence with this thing, but I think I'd like to just move on. It comes and goes and doesn't always appear. And like I said, I'm able to post, so it's OK.

[DGresh]

see my picture at the bottom of the page. I saw what also looked like shields.

[kpzoo]

Those are the "pushpin" icons I see next to restaurant links at the bottom of some posts, except that the top of each one is cut off slightly in your screenshot, and I don't see the restaurant name & address text that is usually beside each pushpin icon.

When I actually go to that thread - http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663843 - in the first post, I see a red pushpin icon with this restaurant info beside it:

Rustica Cafe
200 Middle Neck Rd Ste 2, Great Neck, NY 11021

Looks to me like you might be missing the restaurant info but seeing just the slightly top-cut-off pushpins.

I attached a close-up screenshot below of what I'm seeing.

[kpzoo]

attaching screenshot

[DGresh]

yes they do appear to be cut off pushpins w/o the restaurant name. Here's another example.

[DGresh]

meant to add this photo

[kpzoo]

Perhaps you could let Engineering know what version of IE you're using so they can further troubleshoot at their end.

(I have no issues in Firefox 3.0 in case you feel like trying another browser.)

[DGresh]

It's IE 7.0.5730.11