You're right. I think there's something else going on that I must have overlooked. Also, this isn't a union issue. I've checked on the main forums and PM box and wherever there is a WYSIWYG editor, this error happens. By the way, you don't have to put %20 in the link. All that's needed is one % symbol, but as you pointed out, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. This is the original image I way trying to link in my posts. Notice all the percents. These are spaces in the album titles. Try and link it to something and you'll find it doesn't work...

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b382/HCU/VALVe%20Games/Half-Life%202%20Episode%20Three/advisor.jpg

You should get the following error message...

Errors:
- Your path is not valid [valve%20games].
- If you are copying from a word processing software, try pasting the text into a plain text editor (e.g., Notepad) first.
- If problems persist, try disabling the WYSIWYG editor in your preferences.

For the record, I am using GameSpot's WYSIWYG editor to do this. All I do is type something in the editor like "Testing," then I highlight it and hit the link button on the editor, paste the image link in the box and hit insert. Hitting preview after that gives me the error message.

Now besides that, I think I figured out something that gets the error to trigger. In all the following example links, notice the placement of the percent symbol in the link. I'll bold it for you. I used each link twice, the first link will work and the second link will not, even though every link contains a percent symbol.

Works - http://images.wikia.com/lostpedia/images/1/16/Lost-%season1.jpg

Causes Error - http://images.wikia.com/lost%pedia/images/1/16/Lost-season1.jpg

---

Works - http://www.youtube.com/wat%ch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

Causes Error - http://www.you%tube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

---

Works - http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/28707757/any-post-that-contains-a-link-with-a-percent-symbol-in-the-url-causes-an-error-?tag=topics%3Btitle

Causes Error - http://www.gamespot.com/forums/top%ic/28707757/any-post-that-contains-a-link-with-a-percent-symbol-in-the-url-causes-an-error-?tag=topics%3Btitle

---

Works - http://digg.com/news/politics/mitt_romney_takes_gop_fire_%in_michigan_for_his_let_detroit_go_bankrupt

Causes Error - http://digg.com/news/poli%tics/mitt_romney_takes_gop_fire_in_michigan_for_his_let_detroit_go_bankrupt

Notice that every link here has a percent in it, but some work and some cause the error. In the image link that works, the percent is in the file name at the end. In the rest of the links that work, the percent is also located somewhere toward the end of the link, but all the links that cause the error have percents that are located somewhere in the middle of the link. I'm not sure of what significance this is, but I think I just pointed out a pattern here. Let me know if everything worked for you and what you think. I've been holding off to post more articles on my union until this is resolved.

EDIT: Maybe my assumption that placing percents at the end was incorrect also, because I just tried another variation of the links I already used above and came out with two links that cause the error while the percent is at the end of the link. I'm confused here, so maybe you guys can figure this out. Here are the two that don't work...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZ%oukfA

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/28707757/any-post-that-contains-a-link-with-a-percent-symbol-in-the-url-causes-an-error-?tag=topics%3Bti%tle

If nothing out of my now outdated Unions: Version 2 thread is used, at least do this one thing, probably the most important feature unions could have right now, and in my opinion, one of the easiest features to implement. Allow people the option to receive updates from the unions they've joined. Here is a concept image...

I'm not sure how GameSpot would handle this. They could either include the union updates under the game updates section, or as I show in the concept image above, they could keep union updates separate from game updates. This is something Facebook utilizes. Anything you "Like" will allow you to receive updates from it. This same feature needs to be used for unions so that members can be kept updated on all union news. Allow them the ability to opt out also, just as Facebook does. The benefit for members is so that they can be kept updated of union news. The benefit for union leaders is so that we have a way of keeping in contact with our member base other than using the union telegram system.

I've recently reactivated The HeadCrab Union only to find out that the main communication line with my members "The Telegram" has been cut off from me. I have over 5,000 members, and I'm guessing because of this high number the telegram system fails to send the message to all my members. Instead, the message gets sent to about half the members before a white error screen pops up canceling the remaining telegrams that still need to be sent out. This is completely unacceptable. I as a leader should have some way to communicate with my members. Besides fixing the telegram system, this is the next obvious step to establish better communication between a union and its members.

The main reason for this upgrade though is to increase union activity. Most unions are now dead as I predicted would happpen and GameSpot has only made a bad situation worse by removing even the little advertising they used to have. They've tucked unions away somewhere on GameSpot where even I don't know how to find them if I was looking for them. I'm not making that up either. I've just come back to GameSpot, so I'm sure I'll find a link to them somewhere if I keep looking, but it shouldn't be this hard for people to find them in the first place. No wonder they're inactive. This feature would provide a constant connection between unions and their existing members, maybe even helping to turn some people who joined a union and never came back into regular members. It would be up to GameSpot however to spread advertising for unions on this site so that we could bring in new members. For now though, give us the ability to remain in contact with our existing members.

Because my union enhancements thread was created almost five years ago with absolutely no changes made to date, I and other union leaders in the GameSpot community have very little faith that this upgrade will take place. Carrying this out would do a great service to instill confidence in GameSpot's ability to care for its union community. Giving a response to this suggestion would also help, so that we have an idea of GameSpot's opinion on this.

I recently came back to GameSpot to reactivate The HeadCrab Union. I was trying to post all the news we've missed to the front page when I ran into something I never previously had to deal with. I kept getting this error message when trying to post links to pictures with my Photobucket account. I did some testing and narrowed the problem down to this. No link will post if it has a % in the URL.

Any photo album on Photobucket that has a space in the title automatically puts %20 in the URL. For example, if my album title was "HeadCrab Union," the URL would contain "headcrab%20union" in it. Because of this, I can't link any image that has a space in the album title. I could edit all my album titles to remove any spaces, but that would also break all the image links on all of the HCU's news articles since the union system was first created. I'm not going to go fix thousands of articles, so that's not an option for me. I could also create a new Photobucket account with new album titles and transfer all the images over to the new one, but again that's thousands of images and a lot of work.

Is there a reason for this? Was this done intentionally? It's not just pictures either. Any link at all that contains a percent in it will give me the same error and won't allow me to post the message. What can I do to resolve this situation?

Just to update this thread with the latest news on unions. The latest attempt in updating unions is 'Union Redesigns'. Hopefully if we give it the votes it deserves we can get somewhere.uas-2001

I tried to let everyone on my old union know about it through a telegram. Lol, I have over 5,000 members and both times I tried to send the telegram, it only sent to about half the people before an error cuts off the message sending. This has happened ever since the HCU took on a lot of members. Besides that, I tried to post some articles at the HCU and about half the time the page loads white without the main content. Many times while editing my post, the edit doesn't actually happen, forcing me to have to hit back and submit it again in order for the changes to actually take place. There are some serious issues that need to be addressed here. How long can they really push a redesign back until it just starts to get absurd?

Is there something wrong with this thread? I made a post and it never showed up. Let's see if this one does.

EDIT: Yes it did. I only wanted to assure people that PM'ed me that GameSpot was not censuring me. It was merely a glitch. Anyway, I had only posted to bump the thread for myself, because I was using it to draw ideas on for a project of my own, that's all.

The way I designed this is a little outdated now with all the Web 2.0 features that have been created since I did this. If I had to redo it, I'd redesign the interface, especially the widget system. It might be more like MySpace Layout 2.0, where you can drag and drop. Also, I'd redo the images and take advantage of the extra width of the pages better. Unfortunately, it's not really worth my effort to do, since GameSpot hasn't shown one sign that improvements will be made.