[somebody]

And I know it's odd because my father is a very successful programmer and even he got confused. You might get confused as well.

I have a big problem, one that has been affecting me and my friend for years now. We met online and we've been friends for 8 years now. We chat a lot and send each other all kind of things and we write stories together. Things got weird around 3-4 years ago.

We send drawings of characters we want to use in our stories to one another and about 3-4 years ago, the links I sent or the paragraph of a story that I sent to her showed up as a blank space. We were using MSN messenger. When this problem began we tried many ways to get around it. We used online messengers, we tried different ones like AIM and Yahoo!, but the problem did not stop.

The problem continued to get far worse than we imagined. Not only was it blanking but sometimes the messages just didn't show up to her (note: it is MOSTLY what I send that doesn't show/blanks but it has happened the other way around a few odd times).

This summer I went to another country, another continent entirely, to visit my family, and we tried to write a story together there. Again, the problem occurred even though I used a different computer in a different country.

My father, who had been assisting me in trying to figure out the problem, assured me it was on her part and that it was her internet company. If you have a better answer, I would be interested in hearing.

But my problem got worse.

Many months ago, the Photobucket account where I put my characters, deleted all the images inside of it. The images began disappearing in a matter of hours from my account until it was empty. So I made a new account and added new characters. Two days ago it happened again, where the characters disappeared from this NEW account.

So I decided to make a new one yesterday. And again they disappeared. I've switched to tinypic as a host, but I am expecting the same result. I just want to know, because I'm frustrated, why is this happening?

I don't think anyone can answer my question, but I might as well give it a try. I am desperate for answers.

Thank you.

[Toddie]

the messenger problem might be it disallows huge copy and paste ad maybe some links (to prevent spam)
check the spam filter in the options.

as for the files disappearing...definitely the host. Photobucket and tinypic are free hosts.
you must use a PAID host if you expect files to be stored permanently (and backed up).

[hanleyhansen]

Another explanation for the messenger problem might be the format you write it in. For example, if your using Microsoft Word and you copy and paste directly into MSN Messenger then certain things like WordArt won't transfer correctly because the formatting is very particular to the Microsoft Office suite. So I would recommend taking a look at all the software that both parties use to determine any incompatibilities. As per the files disappearing, I completely agree with Toddie. It might be a problem particular to your host.

[Toddie]

i do believe if there was a format issue with the data it would show up client side before sending but i get what you mean. like trying to read UFT-8 format after opening in ANSI
you get unrecognized characters. still visible though, just a square.

if we were there it would be much easier to diagnose since we could recreate the problem.
have you tried other free mesengers besides msn? (aim, yahoo, trillian, icq)

[somebody]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toddie

the messenger problem might be it disallows huge copy and paste ad maybe some links (to prevent spam)
check the spam filter in the options.

Nope. I do no copying-and-pasting at all. Most of the time I write whatever it is there and then. And the things that won't show can be much less than a sentence, sometimes one word.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hanleyhansen

Another explanation for the messenger problem might be the format you write it in. For example, if your using Microsoft Word and you copy and paste directly into MSN Messenger then certain things like WordArt won't transfer correctly because the formatting is very particular to the Microsoft Office suite. So I would recommend taking a look at all the software that both parties use to determine any incompatibilities.

Again, it is rarely to never that we use the copy and paste thing, so that should not be a problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toddie

i do believe if there was a format issue with the data it would show up client side before sending but i get what you mean. like trying to read UFT-8 format after opening in ANSI
you get unrecognized characters. still visible though, just a square.

if we were there it would be much easier to diagnose since we could recreate the problem.
have you tried other free mesengers besides msn? (aim, yahoo, trillian, icq)

No I do not get unrecognized characters. Either we get an empty message (with just a space) or the message does not go through at all.

And yes, we've tried AIM, Yahoo, etc. And we also tried online private chartrooms. For the most part, they seem to solve the problem but the blanking/not showing will eventually occur on there as well. We don't like private chats anyways, so we rarely use them.

[Toddie]

well sometimes it is a certain combination of words that gives errors to certain applications. here is just one of many examples.

open a new text file
type this into it

Quote:

bush hid the facts

save the file and close it.
now open the file and see what is there.
you will be surprised to find that it is not what you saved.

this seems to be the most likely scenario to what is happening to you, after reviewing the facts. if you have doublechecked to make sure the words are not missing BEFORE hitting send, then perhaps can you provide a sample of some text that is giving you the problems.

this way we can recreate the problem and troubleshoot it then we can address a solution more readily and easily.

EDIT: you said you provided "links" to your friend.
like i said sometimes links are filtered. but this is happening with other things as well. it sounds to me like its more than one problem. have you ruled out the filters? that could correct SOME of the problems you are experiencing.

final thought. try refreshing (log off log on) when this occurs.

[somebody]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toddie

well sometimes it is a certain combination of words that gives errors to certain applications. here is just one of many examples.

open a new text file
type this into it



save the file and close it.
now open the file and see what is there.
you will be surprised to find that it is not what you saved.

this seems to be the most likely scenario to what is happening to you, after reviewing the facts. if you have doublechecked to make sure the words are not missing BEFORE hitting send, then perhaps can you provide a sample of some text that is giving you the problems.

this way we can recreate the problem and troubleshoot it then we can address a solution more readily and easily.

I'm not sure where you were going with the 'bush hid the fact' phrase. I understand the story behind it, but it doesn't work.

Either way, no this is not what is happening to me. The problem is much more than just the text jumbling up or not. I know for sure that the text is sent, my father has back-checked and the text is definitely sent on our end but apparently not received on hers.

Right now, our number one suspicion for this problem is her internet company, which she had since the start of our 'problem'.

Also, if you want an example, I'm afraid almost anything will do if it concerns the story. Including character names, something as simple as Bob, or Luke or whatever. If it concerns the story it will, on most occasions, NOT go through.

Quote:

EDIT: you said you provided "links" to your friend.
like i said sometimes links are filtered. but this is happening with other things as well. it sounds to me like its more than one problem. have you ruled out the filters? that could correct SOME of the problems you are experiencing.

final thought. try refreshing (log off log on) when this occurs.

Yes, it is more than one problem. My father already suggested the filtering problem. And if it on our end, he would've corrected it. However, filters on her end is a different story, primarily because she doesn't know how to find them/remove them and her father is not a computer programmer to help her along.

So all in all, what we figure right now is that the main culprit is her internet company. But she hasn't had the chance to switch yet.

But if it's not, I'm afraid I'll go crazy.

[Toddie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by somebody

I'm not sure where you were going with the 'bush hid the fact' phrase. I understand the story behind it, but it doesn't work.

of course it works, you just have to type it correctly.
its not bush hid the fact. its bush hid the facts
i am showing you that some things you type give you an error no matter what.
if you save that all you get is squares in the text file.

Quote:

Originally Posted by somebody

Either way, no this is not what is happening to me. The problem is much more than just the text jumbling up or not. I know for sure that the text is sent, my father has back-checked and the text is definitely sent on our end but apparently not received on hers.

Right now, our number one suspicion for this problem is her internet company, which she had since the start of our 'problem'.

Also, if you want an example, I'm afraid almost anything will do if it concerns the story. Including character names, something as simple as Bob, or Luke or whatever. If it concerns the story it will, on most occasions, NOT go through.



Yes, it is more than one problem. My father already suggested the filtering problem. And if it on our end, he would've corrected it. However, filters on her end is a different story, primarily because she doesn't know how to find them/remove them and her father is not a computer programmer to help her along.

So all in all, what we figure right now is that the main culprit is her internet company. But she hasn't had the chance to switch yet.

But if it's not, I'm afraid I'll go crazy.

all you have to do is get your fiend to go to another computer somewhere at another one of their friends house or at the library or a coffee shop and try their service.

how many years has this been going on and you have not tried this yet?
also has your friend contacted their isp?

finally, since it is determined to be on your friends end there is nothing we can do to help you with someone elses problem. we are stuck until your friend tries a new computer, new isp or contacts their current isp and asks questions.

until then we cannot help you (even if you are crazy).

[somebody]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toddie

of course it works, you just have to type it correctly.
its not bush hid the fact. its bush hid the facts
i am showing you that some things you type give you an error no matter what.
if you save that all you get is squares in the text file.

Listen, buddy, I DID type that in. And I tried it on notepad or whatever. I don't know if that's some kind of joke or something but that's just wasting my time.

So let's just drop that.

Quote:

all you have to do is get your fiend to go to another computer somewhere at another one of their friends house or at the library or a coffee shop and try their service.

how many years has this been going on and you have not tried this yet?
also has your friend contacted their isp?

finally, since it is determined to be on your friends end there is nothing we can do to help you with someone elses problem. we are stuck until your friend tries a new computer, new isp or contacts their current isp and asks questions.

until then we cannot help you (even if you are crazy).

Yes, I already know that's all she has to do but unfortunately for us it's not that easy to do that for certain (private) reasons. Also, we only recently thought of this because we only recently found out the problem is NOT on my end (which was our suspicion at first).

And about ISP, I'm not sure if she has contacted them. But I'll check with her later.

I only posted this question to see if someone might have other answers than the ones I've come across, that's all.

[Toddie]

sure no problem buddy.

did you save and close the file then re-open it?
perhaps it is something they fixed with newer versions of notepad, it works on my version.
version 5.1 (build 260.xpsp_sp2_gdr.061219-0316 : service pack 2)

after searching on google i found this
http://www.bridgetonova.com/2007/09/...hid-facts.html
you must be on windows vista (or newer) and that is why it is not working for you.


we are willing to help with questions but what I am trying to tell you is you are not providing enough information for us to help you.

if your friend is unable to use another computer (for whatever reason it does not matter if you explain why because this is the internet and its anonymous so privacy should not be a concern) because they are in a group home or house arrest or whatever may be the case... then you will just have to wait until you hear back from your friend about what their isp told them after contacting them.

until then we have given you several suggestions. we were not up to speed on all of the facts at hand until now. after being debriefed fully with the facts you present, it comes to a realization that we cannot continue without more information, you will have to post again later.

sorry.