30 Comments
author

Yeah, this is the most the system has allowed me to create.

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Over the weekend I was trying to put Subscribe and Share buttons on my posts but it was causing the page to shut down entirely. I could only put certain buttons in my posts because certain other buttons caused immediate page death.

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author

Thanks, I'll give all of this a shot. My tech know-how is limited to changing typewriter ribbons.

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Have you tried shutting down your computer and restarting it?

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I'm sorry to hear that Chuck. I enjoy your content. I've been creating my stuff offline so I can't offer an opinion on substack not working for me.

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founding

You can always go for a punctuation-less stream of consciousness.

Other than that, have you tried a different browser? Not sure which one you use, but you could try Safari or Chrome. Also, you can try to open an incognito window and log in from there. It might somewhat be cookie-related.

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First thing to do is to try and recreate the issue to see if it’s happening across different browsers and devices.

Try writing a test post in Chrome, Safari, FireFox, or Edge. If it happens across all browsers then try switching devices. Try on a laptop or desktop, then try on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. If it still continues to happen then it’s likely a SubStack issue.

Another thing to try is to empty your cache in whatever browser you’re using.

Lastly, I hear Substack’s customer service is pretty good. You might want to reach out to them if none the above suggestions remedy the problem.

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Also, you might just want to restart the device you’re writing on.

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Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t you have a way of communicating with the SubStack overlords? If so, maybe raise this issue to them and see if they can solve it. Otherwise, would copy and pasting a post from a different source (say Word) work as a temporary fix for this issue?

P. S. Has “Shock Induction” had the same issue with finding a British publisher as with “Not Forever, But For Now”? Asking because I can’t see seem to see any pre-orders for the book on the usual UK bookstore sites.

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author

Interesting. We've just done a deal for UK rights. It might still be working through the pipeline.

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Oh cool. I’ll keep my eyes peeled

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author

My Substack contact has vanished. I'll keep looking, thanks.

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Insert my wiseass comment here

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I saw that Substack introduced a new formatting tool for poetry so that line breaks and stanzas would be preserved, so I wonder if that's impacted on creating all new posts.

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This was my assumption. It’s evident they’ve been adding new features and might’ve broken the code on some of the other features lol.

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Some poor Substackserf is going to get a ton of flamemail!

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Consider maybe trying out handwritten SubStack posts delivered via carrier pigeons if all else fails (I’m sure people will appreciate the gimmick if nothing else).

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I would go into your browser's settings, and clear your history and cookies (maybe only as far back as a month or so.) Make sure you have your logins, or be prepared to reset passwords.

Otherwise:

Maybe you can cheat by writing your post in your preferred program, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, and then paste it into the substack.

This won't allow you to do your footnotes as usual, but the rest of the post should be fine.

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I was going to say that, too. Clear the cache. That sometimes will fix things like this.

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I tried to reply to a post the other day but on submit it just kinda disappeared. I assumed it was a me problem but maybe not.

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founding

I have run into similar bugs in the past. Clicking like and it not show up.

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It does all manner of strange, wonky things. Both in the browser, and while using the app. But I found that the app was worse.

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founding

I feel like the PC version of most things work better.

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Run CC Cleaner (you only need the free version), and then do a cold reboot.

I'm assuming it's not the keyboard, you don't have an issue with the enter key when using any other platform or applications? Or you could check your keyboard system settings.

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founding

Do you know how to use incognito / a 'private' browser window? Try signing into substack in one of those. If it lets you type more than a paragraph, that means the problem is your browser cache. If it's still broken, it's Substack

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