May 2026: Software updated

Submitted by Admin on

I've just finished one of the periodic updates to the software that runs the website, bringing it all up to date with the current versions.

In theory it shouldn't change the way anything works, but if you notice any bugs or strange behaviour, please leave a comment below.

Hi Klaus,

I can't see any problem here. Please can I check if you're reporting:

  1. The spell check software isn't loading. (Check to see if a coloured dot appears in the bottom-right corner of the text box. If you see the dot, the spell check software is loaded and active.) Or ...
  2. The spell check software is loaded (coloured dot shown), but isn't working. (If this is the case, please give the example text you typed, expected result, and actual result.)

As I've typed this text, the dot is a red colour, and the all words including the text 'colour' have a red underline because the spell check is expecting American spelling. If I click the red dot, then click the settings cog and change the language to 'English (UK)', the dot changes colour to orange, and no text is underlined.

It seems that the spell check is not loading - I don't see a red dot. When I click on the spell check button, it's background colour changes from white to blue, but nothing happens. I tried it with Edge, Firefox and Chrome - all the same. What puzzles me is the fact that the text is performing a spell check for German language.

T, I tried the clearing procdure, unfortunately without success.

I've just seen the same problem happen here, and checking the browser logs I see:

Word usage quota for the Free plan exceeded. Contact support@webspellchecker.net for more details.

According to the notes at https://wproofreader.com/integration/drupal the free version we're using allows spell checking of up to 10,000 words per day. I don't know how we're exceeding that limit.

So to summarise, on some days we exceed the free limit and then the spell checker isn't available until the next day.

Hi David. This is the explanation why spell check sometimes doesn't work. Right now it works, but often in the evening (UTC or older expression: GMT) it doesn't. Also wondering about the intensive use.

A possible explantion is that it is because I have been fixing errors on old pages recently. So I may open pages that each have several hundred words of text, that count against the 10,000-word limit. That's my best guess.

Hi David, the unavailability of spell check persists. Almost every day it is not available. Now it is, but I guess a few hours later it will be not. I doubt that so many posts are created or revised, it looks to me that there are unnoticed background activities. Could you please check again.

Hi David,

Is the limit a 'Hard' setup applied to the whole side, or is there a way for each user to opt-in\opt-out of using it?  If so, maybe those of us who seldom use spell check (despite I always mistype something) could opt-out and leave the service to others.

T

Klaus, I've written to the software company and they've explained again what we know - that the 10K limit is across all users, and multiple edits of a page adds to the count of words used. I've asked for more detail, but we're using the free service so I'll understand if they don't want to investigate more.

Are you able to use the browser's spellcheck instead? e.g. for Chrome - https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/12027911?hl=en-GB

T, good idea - I checked if there is a way to default the spellcheck to off and have users turn it on if needed, but unfortunately there isn't.

I've looked into this more and think I understand what is happening.

Say you want to write a comment and paste this text into the comment box:

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten

It is sent to the spellcheck server for checking, and we've used up 10 words of the daily 10K word limit.

Now instead of pasting the full text into the comment, start again and type in the text instead of just pasting it in. Type in the first word, and pause:

one

The software notices the pause and sends of 'one' to be spell-checked.

You start typing again, type the next word, and pause again:

one two

The software notices the pause and sends of 'one two' to be spell-checked.

You start typing again and don't pause until you finish:

one two tree four five six seven eight nine ten

The software notices the pause and sends of 'one two tree four five six seven eight nine ten' to be spell-checked.

You see you made a mistake and correct the 'tree'

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten

The software notices the pause and sends of 'one two three four five six seven eight nine ten' to be spell-checked.

We've only typed 10 words, but this time we've used up 23 words of the daily 10K word limit.

I'd previously counted the new words posted to Gwulo in a day and there were under 800. I couldn't understand why that exceeded the 10K limit. But it's clear that with a few changes and pauses during editing it isn't hard for the 800 new words to generate over 10K words sent for spell checking.

Thank you, David, for looking deeper into this matter. I've taken your advice to activate the spell check in my browser, so I have a spell support if the one on Gwulo is exhausted.