Tech Note: Using the Contact Form

Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 10:44:12 am PST

From a glance at the error log, I see that some people have been having trouble using our contact form; however, I’m also getting plenty of email through the form, so I know it is working as intended.

There are two things your browser must allow in order to use the form: 1) you must be accepting cookies from LGF, and 2) you must have Javascript enabled. If you’re getting the message, “You are not allowed to use our contact form,” it’s because one of these two requirements has not been met. To fix it, check your browser’s settings; they all hide these settings in different places, so you may need to futz around with it a little until it works. (You may also find that clearing the browser’s cache and clearing any existing LGF cookies helps.)

In fact, the cookies/Javascript requirement is not just for our contact form; although the site is designed to work as much as possible without cookies and Javascript, there are some LGF features that won’t work right (or at all) if they aren’t enabled.

Also, the form has an expiration time, in order to defeat automated spammers. You have to submit the form no more than 30 minutes after you load the page; if you see the message “Too much time elapsed,” just copy the message you tried to post (included on the error page), reload the page, and try sending it again.

One other thing to watch out for: using the ‘Back’ button may cause problems with the form in some browsers.

I know it makes the contact form a bit more difficult to use, but it’s unfortunately necessary because otherwise I’ll be inundated with spam.