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New Ultimate Guide to the Chatterbox (Revised 2025 Edition)
Kitten’s old New Ultimate Guide was amazing, but since the update, some of the information is no longer applicable, and there’s new information that needs to be added. Plus, that thread is a bit swamped with “top” comments, which kind of defeats the purpose.
So, here’s the New Ultimate Guide to the Chatterbox (Revised 2025 Edition)! It includes all relevant information from the old guides and comments, plus new information!
Like the old guide, it’ll be organized roughly in order of importance, so you can read as far in as you want, and you’ll probably get most of the important information!
Of course, if anyone ever has any corrections or additions to this guide, feel free to post them! Also, if you’re confused or need clarification, I (or another CBer) would be happy to answer any questions you may have!
Note: This guide, like Kitten’s, will leave out information regarding past wars and conflicts. Though an important part of CB history, I think the main takeaway is to move forward with kindness, tolerance, and understanding, and dwelling in the specifics of past conflicts isn’t necessary for that. Of course, all the information can be found quite easily in the previous guides, which will be linked, and if you’re interested in learning more about the CB’s history, feel free to check it out!
Glossary
Admin (noun, shorthand): The administrators—the amazebubble people that run CB, post all are comments, and make this all possible! Three cheers to the Admins!
AE (noun, abbreviation): Alter ego. An alternate name or personality that some CBers have and post as for a little fun or a different way of expressing themselves. Many develop into complex characters who have interactions and relationships with other AEs. They often post in bold, italics, bold italics, or with symbols marking the beginning and end of their dialogue. Ex: Strawberry, Tempest, Ariella. Note: AEs should be used in moderation and only on threads where it is appropriate.
CAPTCHA (noun, acronym): Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. 1. The CloudFlare CAPTCHA is the button you click to show you’re not a robot before you submit a post. If the CloudFlare CAPTCHA doesn’t appear, click submit anyway, and then scroll back down. The comment should be preserved (though you may have to fill out your name, age, and location again), and the CloudFlare CAPTCHA should now be there. 2. Before the CB update, the CAPTCHAs featured five letters you had to retype. Some people named theirs and posted what they saw, as though it were a creature speaking. Because of this, CAPTCHAs can now refer to a CBer’s “pet,” who often exists alongside their AEs. Ex: Origami, Twilight, Wanderer.
CAPTCHAE (noun): A crossbreed between AEs and CAPTCHAs. They usually have a side having something to do with a CAPTCHA (like being able to transform into a common CAPTCHA form, like a cat), but are smart as an AE and can speak in normal letters and CAPTCHA. The only known CAPTCHAEs are Chilly and Hallia, and their owners have made a frequent point of asking them to stay that way (as the only ones) due to originality. Because Chilly’s and Hallia’s owners are no longer active on the CB, CAPTCHAEs have been classified as an extinct species.
CB (noun, abbreviation): Chatterbox!
CBer (noun): Anyone who goes on the CB. Ex: Periwinkle, Moon Wolf, Ellesmere.
CB Reunion (noun, event): An event when past CBers come back and visit. Originally, the plan was to have a reunion every four years, on Valentine’s Day. Now, they occur every year in mid-February.
CB Story (noun, activity): A story written by a CBer in which other CBers are characters. Usually the writer will ask for applications to be in the story.
Charrie (noun, shorthand): Character, often used in a RP. Ex: “Anyway, here are my charries.”
Chatterbox Rancor (noun): A virtual beast made up by CBer Shoshannah Lily, to explain why threads or comments sometimes just don’t post. Basically, giving a virus a name and putting a collar on it.
Charrie Sheet (noun): A sheet in a RP that one uses to introduce/create one’s charrie.
Forum (noun): A section of the CB. Ex: Down to Earth, Pudding’s Place.Impersonator (noun): Someone who posts as another CBer, often saying that they’re leaving. There have been multiple instances of impersonators on the CB, often leading to conflicts, hurt feelings, and general dismay. Don’t impersonate someone. We mean it.
MCU (noun, abbreviation): Monthly Check Up. A CBer-created monthly newsletter posted to This Month, filled with important dates, advice, AE silliness, and more. Earliest establishment: Ella Starburst as Floof Industries, 2019.
OC (noun, abbreviation): Original Character. Any character that you invent, especially from a story or comic, and generally not including AEs or characters from RPs.
OP (adjective, abbreviation): Over-powered or over-powering. When a character in a RP is super-powerful and it’s not fun for other people to RP with them because they sort of can do anything and take over the RP. One example of an OP character could be in an Element RP. The OP charrie could have water, ice, frost, and be able to read minds. Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away and not realize your charrie is a bit OP. The others in the RP can gently remind you.
RP (noun, abbreviation): Roleplay. A story in which multiple CBers participate. Each participant has a character which they create based on the topic and then everyone works together and writes a communal story from the perspective of their respective character. Usually written in first person, but it’s not a requirement. Earliest known establishment: Dmboogie, 2009.
Ship (noun or verb): 1. A romantic relationship between characters (especially AEs). 2. The act of writing two characters into a romantic relationship. On a charrie sheet, a “shipping” question would refer both to whether that character is open for being shipped (ie. are they looking for a romantic relationship?) as well as to what genders they are open to being shipped with (ie. their romantic orientation). Ex: “Would you like to ship our AEs? I think they might be cute together!” or “Shipping: Open, to girls.” Note: This probably goes without saying, but any shipping should be kept CB appropriate (around a middle school level).
SI (noun, abbreviation, activity): Secret Identity. A game in which every player takes on a name usually based on a theme (for example, in a Food SI one might be Fried Chicken) and then tries to guess who others are and avoid being guessed.
Ski Lodge (noun, activity): A type of CB story in which there is a secret murderer and all other participants are murdered as the story continues. Usually a horror/scary story, so if you’re not a scary-story lover possibly give them a miss. Participants guess the murderer as the story goes on. Commonly written under an alias for added spookiness. The originals took place in ski lodges, but they do not have to. Earliest establishment: T.O.N., 2012.
Solo Write (noun, activity): A newer term for CB story. Basically, one person writes a story using characters submitted by other CBers.
Thread (noun): A page on the CB, listed in the forums.
Topping (verb): If a thread has slid off the first page of a forum, people will post under the name “Top” to bring it back to the front. Contrary to popular belief, THE ADMINS CANNOT TOP A THREAD; they have no control over the topping algorithm. Some people have special topping names. Ex: Topping_in_the_Dark, Toppers Inc.
FAQ
Who’s Top? Top isn’t actually a CBer! Anyone can post under the name Top, or a topping name like Toppers Inc, to try to move a thread back to the front pages. See “topping,” above.
How do you post a new thread? In each area of the CB, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page to where it says “Create New Topic in [Forum Name]”. Typing out your post, filling in the required information like your name and the CloudFlare CAPTCHA, and clicking submit will post a new thread.
Okay, how about a new comment? If you’d like to post a comment on an existing thread, click on that thread and scroll to the bottom of the page to where it says “Reply To: [Thread Name]”, and then fill out all the required information and click submit. You can also reply to other peoples’ comments: just click on the orange “Reply” button in the light yellow bar above their post. Important Note: Due to a glitch, when you are replying to somebody else’s comment, the CloudFlare CAPTCHA button does not appear, and without it, you cannot submit your post. To solve this issue, type out your comment as though you were going to reply to them and click submit. Then, scroll all the way back down. Now, it should say “Reply To: Reply #[number] in [Thread Name]” and the CloudFlare CAPTCHA will have appeared. Your comment will have been preserved, although you will need to retype anything you entered in the name, age, and location boxes. Then, you can just click on the CloudFlare CAPTCHA box and submit as usual!
How can you find an old thread or search the CB? Enter a keyword or phrase in the search bar on the top right corner of the website. The search function can be a little slow at times, so be patient! Sometimes, the search function will glitch and no results will come up for a keyword you know there are results for—in that case, just close the tab and try again a little later. An older, tried-and-true method is to enter “site: cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox [any keywords]” into the search engine of your choice. This might be a little faster (and you don’t have to enter the keywords exactly as they appear in the thread you’re trying to find, like you have to with the CB search bar), but it’s not as comprehensive.
I can’t find something I posted earlier—where did it go? The admins have a lot of comments to go through, and they have to review them carefully to keep us CBers safe. That means it might take a few hours (usually no longer than a day or so, but it might be more of a wait over holidays) for your posts to appear! However…there have been some glitches that cause posts to mysteriously disappear and later reappear, or just not go through at all. So, if it’s been longer than seems reasonable for your post to show up, you might want to go ahead and resubmit. Tip: Because of the glitches, it’s usually a good idea to keep a copy of any long posts or writing somewhere besides the CB (ex. Google Docs, a notes app). That way, if something happens to your post, it’s not lost forever and you can easily resubmit!
That’s all for this installment, but I’ll post more when this thread shows up!
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Areas of CB
This Month (TM): A center to talk about things from this month’s issue of Cricket! (If you don’t get Cricket, this one might not make sense.) Did you like the cover art? Want to know more about one particular author? Fangirling that you got into the Letterbox? This Month’s the place for that! This Month has also hosts the Monthly Check-Up, or MCU, and some chat threads, including discussions for collaborative ski lodges and other semi-secret projects.
Chirp at Cricket (CaC): Supposed to be used for talking to Cricket, Ladybug, and all those other bugs. But nowadays we CBers fill it with silly games, sillier announcements, and other awesome and useful things! (Like this thread!)
Blab about Books (BaB): Well, the name sort of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Do you love books? (Who doesn’t!) Come on down to BaB and chat, play trivia games, and fangirl over y’all’s fictional crushes!
Down to Earth (DtE): A place to talk about things in the world around you, like school, global warming, and anything else! You can also stuff it to bursting with the like of CaC’s fare! Plus, a great place for surveys, announcements, and most AE related threads!
Puddings Place (PP): Those of you who read Cricket will know that Pudding is a theatre-loving firefly. Thereby her area is for anything and everything theatrical! Looking for audition tips? Loved that musical you just saw? PP is the place for you! It’s also a great place for poetry, art, music, and Ski Lodges.
Inkwell: The writing center! Looking for RPs? Solo writes? Need advice on a story? Stuck with writer’s block? This area is full to bursting with creative people!
Kyngdom: Kyngdom is hard to explain, but if you like the sound of a complex fantasy world filled with people to meet, adventures to be had, and evil kings to overthrow, you can find out about it in the Kyngdom Academy thread, linked below.
Activities on the CB
ACG: Alphabet Category Game. The first person posts something that starts with A, the next person with B, and so on. Each word has to fit into a certain category.
AE Diaries: A type of AE thread in which CBers post diary entries and other pieces of writing from their AEs’ points of view. RPing and shipping among AEs is also common. The goal is to explore and develop one’s AEs as complex characters. Earliest known establishment: Viola?, 2018.
Ask Admins: CBers ask Admins questions (often pertaining to Blue Moon ice cream). Earliest known establishment: Susy, 2011.
Castle: A disturbingly complex thread where a CBer makes up and describes a setting (any setting) under a name that matches the setting, like Forest Maker or Tavern Keeper. Other CBers sort of make up a story taking place in that setting (basically RPing, but you don’t have to fill out any sheets) while guessing the identity of the person who made the thread. Earliest known establishment: Spiffycat, 2019
Catch the Cookie: An activity wherein CBers steal a cookie from one another through various means of trickery, magic, distraction, and more. In the original threads, whoever had the cookie at a certain date won and was able to keep the cookie. However, some variants have no end date. These threads usually take the form of a short RP, except with CBers and AEs instead of newly created characters.
CBer/AE Ball: A casual RP where all CBers or AEs get invited to a ball (or other party/event), and many people talk about the clothing they’re going to wear. The creator/host of the party may specify whether it is intended to be in RP style or chat style, though RP style is the most common.
CBer Picturing: An activity in which CBers picture each other. May include written or drawn picturings.
CBer Playlist: A monthly activity where a CBer posts a thread asking everyone to submit a certain number (typically two, but it depends on the original poster’s preference) songs of their choice. The songs can be related to the upcoming month, but they do not have to be. Then, the original poster will post a thread with a playlist of all the songs at the beginning next month.
CB Masquerade: A cross between a Ball, a RP, and a SI. CBers (and on certain threads, AEs) attend under a pseudonym and describe what type of mask they are wearing. They are intended to go at a slower pace than a SI, with the CBers or AEs questioning each other before guessing, but they can be at whatever pace the creator and participants wish.
Chat Thread: A thread for a conversation exclusively between a small number of CBers, usually two or three. Of course, nothing on the CB is truly private, but it’s common courtesy not to read or barge in on others’ chat threads.
Happiness Challenge: A thread in which you challenge yourself to post one or more things on this thread each day that make you happy–anything at all! In the end, you end up with a wonderfully happy thread. Earliest known establishment: September, 2017
Hink Pinks: A game in which one CBer posts a riddle, and another CBer has to answer it with a two-word synonym that rhymes. Both of the two words have to have the same number of syllables. Earliest known establishment: Silly Rabbit, 2016.
Interactive Imagination Adventure: A role play variant that doesn’t require sign-up sheets or have an ongoing plot. Often centered around a restaurant/business establishment of sorts, but it doesn’t have to be. Ex: Daydreams Cafe, Holiday House. Earliest known usage of the term: Holiday Spirit, 2020.
Make A Friend: Sometimes abbreviated as MaF. CBers fill out a form regarding their interests (ex: hobbies, favorite books, etc.), and are then paired up by a host. Each pairing then creates a chat thread (see “Chat Thread” above) where they can talk and get to know one another. Earliest establishment: Periwinkle, 2021.
RR: Round Robin. Like a RP, multiple people work together on a story. However, more like a standard book, everyone takes turns writing “chapters”, not necessarily from different POVs. For example, CBer A might write: Jane fell into the pit. Then, CBer B might continue: In the pit was a giant snake. Usually, the posts are longer than this; they are of no specified length.
Survey: An activity in which one CBer posts a survey composed of silly, interesting, or just plain nonsensical questions, and other CBers fill it out with equally silly, interesting, and nonsensical answers.
Word game: A game in which one CBer posts a word, and another CBer posts the word that they immediately think of when reading the aforementioned word. Earliest known establishment: Eris, 2015.
Helpful Links
Old Ultimate Guide thread (created 2016): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/204967
Old New Ultimate Guide thread (created 2020): https://www.cricketmagkids.com/topic/443573/
Clarification on rules for posting: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/409578
A compilation of reunion-related threads (see CB Reunion): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/401395
The 2025 reunion thread (CB Reunion): https://www.cricketmagkids.com/topic/591393/
Kyngdom Academy (see Kyngdom): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/404640
10th anniversary CB video (Note: the video itself did not survive the CB website update, though the thread may still be interesting; I’m trying to figure out a way to re-upload the video to the CB): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/373078
13th anniversary CB video: https://www.cricketmagkids.com/topic/488963/
First Castle thread (see Castle): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/398819
First RP (see RP): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/inkwell/node/9828
First Happiness Challenge (see Happiness Challenge): http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/328189
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Basic CB Etiquette
1. Do your best to use proper grammar and spelling at all times.
2. Be respectful of the Admins! Try not to post long strings of “top” comments or multiple long comments in succession.
3. Be respectful of other CBers! For example, imagine you’re in a poetry or writing or art contest, and the person who’s supposed to judge is a few days behind on their judging. You can post gentle reminders, like “Hey, ___, I think you were supposed to judge yesterday.” However, try to avoid rude comments like “HEY ___ WHY HAVEN’T YOU JUDGED YET?”
4. There are two ways to reply to a thread. You can either add a new comment by scrolling to the bottom or click “Reply” next to a comment. Generally, you should only use “reply” if you are replying to a specific person, complimenting them, or adding onto their thoughts. If you’re addressing large groups of people, adding a new thought, or pretty much anything else, scroll to the bottom to add a new comment.
Roleplay Etiquette
1. If you join a RP, make sure to post frequently. If you absolutely are too busy, say you are dropping out and don’t just drift away and assume nobody will care.
2. Obey the rules of the RP maker. Ex: If they say “no magical powers,” do not make a charrie that has magical powers.
3. Avoid god-modding. This is when one “uses” another person’s charrie. Obviously a little bit is necessary so that there can be dialogue and plot, but do not make huge decisions or events on behalf of another’s charrie.
4. When you post, write a sufficient amount. “I fell off the stairs and broke my leg.” is NOT an acceptable post.
5. Okay, this is really important. (New CBers, pay attention.) Do not join a RP that has already started unless the maker says it’s OK. If a RP is nine pages in, on page 39 of Inkwell, and from 2012, don’t join it!
6. Never forget about a roleplay you’re in. Especially not one you’ve made :).
Tone Tags
It can sometimes be difficult to discern tone over written text, so tone tags (sometimes called tone indicators) are a way of, well, indicating your tone. Tone tags aren’t unique to the CB, but some CBers may use them to clarify the meaning of their post. Here are some common tone tags you might see around the CB, along with their meaning and examples. You can search on the internet for a more comprehensive list.
/ly or /lyr = lyrics (Ex: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down /lyr)
/neg = negative connotation (Ex: I’m going to cry /neg)
/nf = not forced (Ex: Can we start an RP with our AEs? /nf)
/p = platonic (Ex: I love you guys so much! /p)
/pos = positive connotation (Ex: I’m going to cry /pos)
/sar or /s = sarcastic (Ex: I can’t wait for my final exams, guys /sar)
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Tone tags? I have heard of them, but I don’t think they are bery common on the CB; I’ve never seen tone tags in a single CB post except this one. Correct me if I’m wrong though, I mostly frequent DtE and CaC, not the others.
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A Guide to Formatting Posts
This formatting guide will be more or less in the order in which each formatting element/function appears in the toolbar when writing up posts! Also, the formatting might not be the most intuitive, if you aren’t familiar with HTML elements. It’s easy enough to get the hang of, but don’t be afraid to mess up! You can also make a dummy post on another thread (such as this one) to test out all the formatting, if you want.
Thank you to Scuttles for the guide on making lists!
Note: All of the following formatting can be done by clicking on the buttons in the toolbar when writing posts. However, on my computer, and I’m sure on the devices of some other CBers, there’s a glitch that means clicking these buttons removes any line or paragraph breaks from the post. It’s easy enough to go back and create new line/paragraph breaks, but it gets kind of annoying, especially with longer posts. As a result, I personally prefer just typing up the formatting tags myself rather than clicking the buttons! If you experience a similar glitch on your device, then just know that typing out the tags yourself is an option!
Bold, Italics, & Strikethrough
To make your text bold or italics, simply click on the “B” button for bold, the “I” button for italics, or the “DEL” button for a strikethrough in the toolbar. To stop the formatting, click the “/B”, “/I”, or “/Del” buttons. You can just type the tags directly into your post, too, if that’s easier. You can also highlight the text you wish to be formatted with your cursor and click the desired function in the toolbar, which will add both the opening and closing tags to your text.
Here’s an example of the bold, italics, and strikethrough functions:<strong>This is some bold text.</strong><em>This is some italic text.</em><del>This is a strikethrough.</del>…which formats like this:
This is some bold text.
This is some italic text.
This is a strikethrough.You can also combine formatting—for example, bold italics would be coded like this:
<strong><em>This is some bold italic text.</em></strong>…which formats like this:
This is some bold italic text.
Links
Links are fairly straightforward; click the “LINK” function in the toolbar, and there will be a pop-up. Paste your link in the box labeled “URL”. In the “Link Text” box, you can type what you’d like the link to appear as.
For example, a link to the homepage of the Chatterbox:<a href="https://www.cricketmagkids.com">This is a link!</a>…which formats like this:
You can also just paste a link directly into the text box, without using the link function in the toolbar, if that’s easier, but it’s not guaranteed to actually open when you click on it.
Note: In order to keep the CB safe, we can only post links to the other pages on the CB! Admins can’t monitor the content on other sites.
B-Quotes
Blockquotes (or b-quotes) are text, typically a quotation from an outside source, appearing apart from the main body text as a separate block of text (hence the name). Although they’re intended for quotations, you can use this function for whatever your heart desires.
To insert a blockquote, simply click “B-QUOTE” on the toolbar or type
<blockquote>. To close the blockquote, click “/B-QUOTE” or type</blockquote>. For example:<blockquote>“This is a very insightful and inspiring quote.”</blockquote>…which formats like this:
“This is a very insightful and inspiring quote.”
Uploading Images
Uploading images seems like one of the most straightforward features on here, but in practice, it’s a bit complicated. To upload an image, click on “IMG” on the toolbar. A pop-up will appear with a box for you to paste the URL to your image. And how does one obtain an image URL? Well, here’s where it gets tricky. On the old website, it was possible to upload an image to the CB straight from your device, but this currently isn’t an option on the new website.
In order to get an image URL, you need to upload your image to an external image hosting site or platform that provides a shareable URL. There are many sites like this that you can find through a quick Internet search; however, be sure to do your research and check the credibility and privacy policy of any image hosting site you might upload your image to. If you’re unsure, get an adult to help you!
Once you’ve uploaded your image, the image hosting site may provide both an “image link” and an “image URL”. Copy the image URL and paste it into the image function on the CB! If the image hosting site doesn’t provide an image URL, right-click (or click with two fingers if you aren’t using a computer mouse) and open the image in a new tab. Copy the URL of the image from the address bar now that it’s been isolated and paste that into the image function CB.
Once you’ve pasted the image URL into the image function on the CB, click “OK.” Then, you have the option to type in a description for the image. Click “OK” again to upload the image!
Note: To protect our privacy, no pictures of people, or anything else that could be used to identify you irl, are allowed. Pictures of pets are allowed, and pictures of your artwork are encouraged! Also, all artwork/photos must be your own—nothing taken from the Internet.
Unordered & Ordered Lists
Put a
- tag around a list to make a bulleted/unordered list. Put a
-
- tag around a list to make an ordered/numbered list. put an
- tag around each list item.For example, an unordered/bulleted list:
<ul><li>list item</li><li>list item</li><li>list item</li></ul>…which formats like this:
- list item
- list item
- list item
And an ordered/numbered list:
<ol><li>list item</li><li>list item</li><li>list item</li></ol>…which formats like this:
- list item
- list item
- list item
Remember to put a tag with a slash in it (i.e.
</ol>) to close each item!Code
This function has text appear unformatted in a post as it would in the textbox, in a monospace font. See an example above—I used the “CODE” function to demonstrate how to format text, without the text actually formatting! Code can also be used in writing to add a fun effect to your text—for instance, as though a robot or machine is speaking. The code function does not actually allow you to input code.
Because I need the code function to demonstrate formatting, I can’t use it to demonstrate how to format code—You can just click the “CODE” button in the toolbar to start the code formatting and click “/CODE” to close it. Or, you can easily type a backtick (`) at the beginning and end of the text you want to be formatted in code.<strong>Close Tags</strong>
The “CLOSE TAGS” button does exactly what its name suggests—if you have a lot of open tags (such as
<strong>or<em>), rather than clicking each individual button again or retyping each tag with a forward slash, you can just click “CLOSE TAGS” to close them all!
- tag around each list item.For example, an unordered/bulleted list:
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Notable Glitches
Here are some glitches present on the new CB website that CBers have noticed, along with potential causes and strategies to avoid them. Note that this may not be a comprehensive list, and that some of these glitches may be patched or resolved eventually. Also note that some CBers may have different terms for each of these glitches; I’ve just titled them here what I’ve been calling them in my head. It’s not really the name that matters but rather the phenomena itself, but just be aware that there may be other terms that refer to the same glitch.
Anonymous Glitch
When a thread has more comments than the website can handle, it may glitch, causing comments to appear as though they were posted by “Anonymous,” overwriting the original name, age, and location of the comment. Strange profile pictures may also appear—instead of the standard teal blue Cricket profile picture, an odd drawing of a mysterious creature with horns, a trunk, and many eyes appears instead. The Admins have attempted to avoid this glitch by shutting down threads that have too many comments and creating a “Part 2” of the thread, as seen with the Random Thoughts/Things thread, for instance. It is unclear what qualifies as “too many” comments, but the threads that were shut down due to this glitch had upwards of 3,000 comments. When posting on a thread that has many comments and is at risk of the Anonymous Glitch, we CBers can sign off with our names at the end of our comments so that if the glitch does strike, we still know who posted what.
Radio Silence Glitch
What I’ve been calling the Radio Silence Glitch is essentially a failure of the “last post” column on the main page of a forum to update. This means that when you look at a thread, it may seem like there are no comments yet, or that the last comment was days ago, even if a comment has been made more recently, giving the illusion of “radio silence” (or an absence of communication). It’s unclear if there is anything we can do to encourage the “last post” column to update; posting again on the thread works sometimes, but not always. Posts by the Admins seem to always update the “last post” column. To work around this glitch, make sure to actually click on threads and go to the last page of the thread to see if there’s been any new posts, rather than just glancing at the “last post” column on the main page of the forum.
Vanishing Glitch
This glitch causes comments that have already been posted to randomly disappear. From what I’ve observed, posting a new comment on a thread may cause one or more previous comments to disappear. When the Admins post the new comment and it appears, this may bring the old comments back; otherwise, posting another new comment on the thread may cause the old comments to return. It is unclear why some comments disappear but not others, though it seems that the comments that did not update the “last post” column (see the previous glitch) have a higher likelihood of disappearing.
Assorted CAPTCHA Glitches
When you are replying to somebody’s comment, the CloudFlare CAPTCHA button won’t appear (in its place will be a blank white/light grey rectangle), and without it, you cannot submit your post. To solve this issue, type out your comment as though you were going to reply and click submit. Then, scroll all the way back down. Now, it should say “Reply To: Reply #[number] in [Thread Name]” and the CloudFlare CAPTCHA will now have appeared. Your comment will have been preserved, although you will need to retype anything you entered in the name, age, and location boxes. Then, you can just click on the CloudFlare CAPTCHA box and submit as usual! Alternatively, you right click (if you’re using a mouse) or click with two fingers (if you’re using a touchpad) on the “Reply” button and open it in a new tab. Scroll to the bottom of the new page—it should now say “Reply To: Reply #[number] in [Thread Name],” and the CloudFlare CAPTCHA should be there.
Sometimes, the CloudFlare CAPTCHA box will automatically turn into a green check mark, even if you have not yet clicked it. This is NOT a glitch, and you can just submit your comment normally! This is because the CloudFlare CAPTCHA does not determine whether you’re a human or not by your clicking of the box alone; it tracks other factors, too, such as the movement of your cursor across the screen. If it has enough information to determine you are not a robot, the box will turn into a green check mark all by itself.
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Just wanted to say that all this info is super interesting!! I didn’t know about a lot of it. And great glitch names :))