400 Bad Request

September 17, 2012 3:43 AM

Can't get to the blue, can't get to contact form.

The mods probably know about this already, but in case this is not a widespread problem, I decided to post it.

My attempts to get to either the blue or the contact form are currently met with this error message:

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.

Cookie

/n

Apache Server at www.metafilter.com Port 80

posted by jon1270 to Bugs at 3:43 AM (24 comments total)

aaaaannnnnd now it's working. Nevermind, I guess.
posted by jon1270 at 3:48 AM on September 17, 2012

Hi, yeah, no, I haven't heard anything from anyone on this, and I haven't had any problems connecting with the site myself.

I think this has been a problem in the past for a few people as a result of a nonstandard cookies and Greasemonkey scripts, so if you have trouble again, try disabling the scripts (if any) and deleting Mefi cookies. If all's fine, you can try reinstalling the script (sometimes older versions of a script can be a problem, and things go fine with an updated version).
posted by taz (staff) at 3:53 AM on September 17, 2012

Thanks. I do have one greasemonkey script, which I've only been running for a couple of weeks. I'll report back if I get the chance to try your suggestions.
posted by jon1270 at 4:43 AM on September 17, 2012

The magical way to correct most mefi bugs is to immediately make a MeTa or send a flaily contact form email, at which point the problem will magically resolve itself and make you feel silly for having complained.

EVERY TIME.
posted by elizardbits at 5:14 AM on September 17, 2012 [10 favorites]

Yeah this is one specific Greasemonkey script that causes this, the one that keeps your place in a thread, don't remember what it's called. Glad it's cleared up.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:41 AM on September 17, 2012

I take it no one cares about Burhanistan being stuck in the elevator then?
posted by arcticseal at 7:10 AM on September 17, 2012

Nonsense, Burhanistan probably cares.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:20 AM on September 17, 2012 [12 favorites]

Yeah, this is caused by older versions of MetaFilter Scroll Tag. This has been fixed in the latest version.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:15 AM on September 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this is caused by older versions of MetaFilter Scroll Tag. This has been fixed in the latest version.

Yep, that's the script I've been using. When I find a minute I'll find the current version.
posted by jon1270 at 8:57 AM on September 17, 2012

This happened to me last week but on PayPal.com. It drove me crazy, I could get to one or two pages at PayPal, then I'd get that weird cookie request error. Turned out my copy of Chrome had a corrupted cookie and once I went into Chrome's deep preferences (privacy I think, then cookies, then search for the domain) and deleted all my previous paypal cookies, I could log back in and everything was fine.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:30 AM on September 17, 2012

"I take it no one cares about Burhanistan being stuck in the elevator then?"

of course I care that he's stuck there. That's why I cut the power to the elevator to begin with. I'm just hoping nobody cares about getting him out.
posted by HuronBob at 11:35 AM on September 17, 2012 [7 favorites]

I've always been old and creepy.
posted by HuronBob at 11:52 AM on September 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Well, Burhanistan may be stuck in an elevator, but I'm stuck in the middle with you. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you and I am wondering what it is I should do.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:53 AM on September 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Why am I Mr. Pink?
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:23 PM on September 17, 2012

Well, nobody's going to type out the relevant response to that quote.
posted by SpiffyRob at 1:03 PM on September 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can't get to the blue, can't get to contact form.

Now that this is resolved, can we move onto other matters?

Can't buy me love.
posted by carsonb at 2:11 PM on September 17, 2012

Me love is $20 SAIT.

Yarr.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:03 PM on September 17, 2012

"Well, Burhanistan may be stuck in an elevator, but I'm stuck in the middle with you. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you and I am wondering what it is I should do."

Clearly you ignored one of the top rules of teleportation: make sure the area you are teleporting into is clear of objects and people. Otherwise you are going to be stuck in the middle of something.
posted by littlesq at 3:28 PM on September 17, 2012

> can we move onto other matters?

This is a thread about bad requests, and yours seems just a bit too reasonable.
posted by ardgedee at 6:46 PM on September 17, 2012

Doesn't it qualify then?
posted by carsonb at 7:36 PM on September 17, 2012

PB: Yeah, this is caused by older versions of MetaFilter Scroll Tag. This has been fixed in the latest version.

The most recent version available on userscripts.org dates from February. Is there a newer version available elsewhere? Because that's the one I've got, and it's still screwing things up.
posted by jon1270 at 12:44 PM on September 18, 2012

No, there isn't a newer version that I'm aware of. What you might have to do is delete all of your MetaFilter cookies from time to time.

MetaFilter Scroll Tag stores all of its data as MetaFilter cookies and sends those along to our server with every request. So once you get to a certain number of cookies on your end, our server says, "that's too much." Deleting all of your MetaFilter cookies will solve the problem for a while until you hit that point again.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:24 PM on September 18, 2012

Got it. Thanks.
posted by jon1270 at 2:48 PM on September 18, 2012

Deleting all of your MetaFilter cookies

This is my new euphemism for throwing up.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:39 PM on September 20, 2012