Forum Discussion

WhatCobblers's avatar
WhatCobblers
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
Solved

Invalid HTML error when publishing new stories. Please help.

I am trying to post a story with images on one of my threads, but keep getting an error message come up saying: 'This content is not published. Invalid HTML. Please remove this before posting. Lib- sim.' (no idea what the last bit means). 

The story is pasted in plain text from a Word doc and have tried uploading each image via the option in the bottom bar (From Computer) instead of copying and pasting but it still won't let me publish the story. There is no HTML content used in the story, it's all from my computer, so am not sure why I keep getting a message about invalid HTML content.

I am wondering if it's the length that's causing issues, as when I do shorter posts with one or two images, it works perfectly fine.

I notice there doesn't seem to be a spoiler option on the bar for new posts/replies after the main introductory post so I can't get the long post into a spoiler.  

Has anyone else had the same issue when trying to post stories (can't find related topics in Search)? And if so, have you managed to solve it?

technical issues
  • EA_David's avatar
    EA_David
    8 months ago

    Hey, what usually triggers this is when 2 different types of specialization interact with each other, so something like bolded content in a list, or a a hyperlink in an image caption. 
    It's not 100% consistent, but it's usually a factor. 

    If you're still stuck with this, can you send me a DM and we can go through some specifics. 


    Also we hope to have some more updates/improvements on this soon, we know it's frustrating to craft a post then get stuck at the end over something so tricky to nail down. 

24 Replies

  • EA_David's avatar
    EA_David
    Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin
    2 years ago

    Hey, there are a few things that could be happening here, but one thing that might help workaround it might be to paste as plain text. That is, when copying from word, press Ctrl+Shift+V, as this should strip out anything that's blocking the post. 

    That said, I certainly don't want to just leave it there I'd like to gather some more info, I've DMed you with some more detailed instructions for getting to the bottom of this, rather than just leaving it as a workaround. 

     

  • WhatCobblers's avatar
    WhatCobblers
    Seasoned Ace
    2 years ago

    Hi EA_David thank you for your message. I will have a go at what you sent me in the inbox message when I get chance. 

    Have already tried pasting in plain text but was still getting the same message. I also can't seem to find the spoiler option when posting replies to the main post. 

  • magic_dabs64's avatar
    magic_dabs64
    11 months ago

    I'm getting this too but when replying to a post. It's coming up with 

    "Your reply contains an invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags: span (style)"

    I've got the same thing after trying to reply to 2 different posts.

  • EA_David's avatar
    EA_David
    Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin
    11 months ago

    Hey, are you copying in content created  in another tool? 
    If so, are you using colored text? If so, can you try pasting over that/those section(s) as plain text?

  • 21lzt4ansgr5's avatar
    21lzt4ansgr5
    Rising Newcomer
    9 months ago

    It sounds frustrating to deal with that error, especially when you're just trying to share your story. Since you've already tried pasting as plain text and uploading images separately, the issue might be related to hidden formatting from Word. Sometimes, even plain text carries hidden HTML tags. You could try pasting your story into Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac, in plain text mode) first, then copy it from there before posting. Also, if longer posts with multiple images are triggering the error, you might want to break the story into smaller sections and post them separately. Hope this helps let us know if you find a fix!

  • natalie_barryy's avatar
    natalie_barryy
    Seasoned Vanguard
    9 months ago

    Mine keeps coming up with this, I have no idea what it means and I don’t know what’s wrong with my text. It would be great if it could highlight or show us what’s wrong cause I don’t speak code 

     

  • EA_David's avatar
    EA_David
    Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin
    9 months ago

    natalie_barryy Hi, I'm running under the assumpion you're writing the content in another tool and pasting it over.

    Can you try pasting as plain text, then use the tools here to match formatting, and try again?

    If you're having issues pasting as plain text on mobile, you can use this button in the extended toolbar to clear formatting. 

     

  • soljakid1995's avatar
    soljakid1995
    New Novice
    9 months ago

    This is still happening as of 12/03/25, copy pasting your text into notepad, then copying that and pasting it as plain text works to get around this bug.

    I had initially typed this all out in the forum text box provided and did not copy it over from another program, and it was giving me the same message reading "Content Not Published Your post contains invalid HTML. Remove the following invalid tags before publishing: span (aria-level)"

    Seems like a weird issue with the forums and not a user error as far as I can tell

  • XxMAXxXQC29's avatar
    XxMAXxXQC29
    New Traveler
    9 months ago

    This is how you fix your HTML errors, clic on this and delete useless HTML code in-between your letter and words

     

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