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Topic: HA looks odd recently (post alignment) (Read 8375 times) previous topic - next topic
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HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Hi all,

I don't know if this is just me, but this started happening in the last 3 or 4 days:
My system = WinXP SP2, Screen res = 1024 x 768.
Everything else seems fine.

[attachment=6258:ha_forum..._firefox.png]
K-Meleon is also based on Mozilla's Gecko engine.
[attachment=6259:ha_forum...k_meleon.png]
Palemoon is a portable quick loading version of firefox.
[attachment=6260:ha_forum...palemoon.png]

Has HA changed anything recently that might cause this?

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #1 –
everything's fine for me on win2k3, 1280x1024, opera 11

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #2 –
Quote from: carpman on
I don't know if this is just me,

The other day I noticed that empty areas also (XP Prof. SP3, Internet Explorer 6 - 8, Opera 11, 1280x1024).

In a quick and superficial look into the site's structure I found this link in these frames. So I draw the conclusion that we would be in the preparation stage to see advertisement on HA in the near future.

I hope that I am wrong.
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #3 –
Ah that's interesting Robertina. Also, if I log in, everything looks fine, if not then it looks like screenshots above. Which would support your point. Perhaps we're due to get ads for non-logged-in members and non-members alike.

Well ads are easily blocked, but I certainly hope it doesn't mess up the view to the extent above. It certainly messes up K-Meleon which is my favourite browser.

Anyway, enough speculation. Be nice to hear from an admin.

Cheers,

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #4 –
Like a thief in the night, unannounced, shiny Christmas tree Ads appeared on this forum

I just started to appreciate post editing restriction, and than this draws back. It kills enthusiastic feel I had about this forum and I sure won't participate with any tips/code/solutions in this charade

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #5 –
This happens because you're browsing the forum:

1) Not logged in.
2) With an ad blocker active.

If this is not the case, it's a bug on my side.

Quote from: carpman on
Perhaps we're due to get ads for non-logged-in members and non-members alike.


The ads should display for guests only. Of course, if you don't log in, the server can't tell the difference. Is there something broken for you why automatic login doesn't work, or is this a conscious choice?

Quote
Well ads are easily blocked, but I certainly hope it doesn't mess up the view to the extent above. It certainly messes up K-Meleon which is my favourite browser.


It's the ad blocker (built into K-Meleon?) that is messing up the display. The layout engine works fine, and it will look fine with the blocker disabled.

I think that if I can make the blocker identify the framing element as an ad, it will properly collapse the view (at least for Adblock+Firefox) and you won't see the whitespace. I'm still experimenting with this, and the placement, structure and layout of the ads.

We've briefly had some ads before on the forum, but until now the income vs. "annoyingness" equation has always been so that I got rid of them rather quickly. I'm experimenting to see if we can do better...

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Garf on
This happens because you're browsing the forum:

1) Not logged in.
2) With an ad blocker active.

If this is not the case, it's a bug on my side.

Yep, that's the case.

Quote from: Garf on
Is there something broken for you why automatic login doesn't work, or is this a conscious choice?

Not quite sure what you mean by automatic login.
The way I login is via keePass password manager which launches the login page and fills in my details. But generally I don't login unless I have a need to post.

Quote from: Garf on
It's the ad blocker (built into K-Meleon?) that is messing up the display. The layout engine works fine, and it will look fine with the blocker disabled.

I think that if I can make the blocker identify the framing element as an ad, it will properly collapse the view (at least for Adblock+Firefox) and you won't see the whitespace. I'm still experimenting with this, and the placement, structure and layout of the ads.

Yeah, I use K-Meleon + Adblock Plus (which is the same configuration as with Firefox. Strange thing is the outcome is much worse).

Quote from: Garf on
We've briefly had some ads before on the forum, but until now the income vs. "annoyingness" equation has always been so that I got rid of them rather quickly. I'm experimenting to see if we can do better...

Normally adblocker collapses the frame.
Am I missing something with auto-login?

C.

ps. If google think ads are so wonderful, then why don't they plaster them all over this.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #7 –
So basically you have to register (73816 people managed that), log in, click "remember me", and you'll never see the adds again?

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it Garf.

I wouldn't even mind unobtrusive adds displayed to members if they earned HA some useful money. Unobtrusive. UNOBTRUSIVE.

Still, how nice a site is HA - the admin tries to design it so that ad blockers work properly! Whereas some sites see ad blockers as stealing.

Cheers,
David.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #8 –
Well, I've turned off:
  • Ad-block plus
  • K-Meleon's internal CSS ad blocker
  • Flash block.
This is how it looks not logged in:

[attachment=6261:ha_forum...with_ads.png]

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #9 –
Quote from: carpman on
ps. If google think ads are so wonderful, then why don't they plaster them all over this.
It has an advert for their adverts!  Anyway, they like targeted adds, which work far better on the next screen.

Cheers,
David.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #10 –
Quote from: carpman on
Normally adblocker collapses the frame.


Yes, if it can recognize the frame. Here (currently), the framing is done in the site itself, to make it look less annoying, and Adblock can't know this is what contains the ad. But if I rename it to look like an ad, it will probably catch it.

Quote
Am I missing something with auto-login?


In the login page, you can request to get a cookie stored ("Remember me"), at which point the site logs you in automatically each time you visit it (by recognizing the cookie).

Quote
ps. If google think ads are so wonderful, then why don't they plaster them all over this.


Uh, if you disable Adblock, you'll see ads as soon as you do a search...

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #11 –
Quote from: carpman on
Well, I've turned off:
  • Ad-block plus
  • K-Meleon's internal CSS ad blocker
  • Flash block.
This is how it looks not logged in:

[attachment=6261:ha_forum...with_ads.png]

C.


Ok, I'll investigate.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #12 –
Like carpman I only log in if I want to post. I also don't allow cookies on my machine. If it's of any interest I'm using Firefox but no adblocker

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Garf on
In the login page, you can request to get a cookie stored ("Remember me"), at which point the site logs you in automatically each time you visit it (by recognizing the cookie).

Yeah, it's because cookies get flushed on exit.

Quote from: Garf on
Uh, if you disable Adblock, you'll see ads as soon as you do a search...

Sure, which is why I use scroogle. But I was referring to their pristine front page.

Anyway, I've download a plugin to allow HA's cookie.

C.

ps. It's interesting to me how 2 intelligent people (2Bdecided and I) can view this issue so differently.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #14 –
Quote from: botface on
Like carpman I only log in if I want to post. I also don't allow cookies on my machine. If it's of any interest I'm using Firefox but no adblocker


I don't think I can do much in this case. The site will work and you will see ads when viewing topics. If you're using Firefox without Adblock, I'd hope that would be acceptable.

You can also add a cookie exception for the hydrogenaudio.org domain.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #15 –
Well, thanks Garf for all the info.
Have a very happy Christmas and New Year.

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #16 –
Quote
ps. It's interesting to me how 2 intelligent people (2Bdecided and I) can view this issue so differently.


I'm not sure you necessarily see it differently.

You can understand that ads help pay the real costs associated with "free" stuff on the web.
You can prefer that Google doesn't know the color of your underpants.

The problem is that Google is doing so well because of their extremely targeted advertising, which allows them to have (relatively speaking, compared to before-Google times) unobtrusive ads and still get high conversion rates, and hence better ad revenue.

The real problem (IMHO) is that Google has such a strong position, that there is no real competition that could improve things for users in either point.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #17 –
1) The ads and containing element are now wrapped in another one that is identified as an ad. This makes collapsing work and should solve the "whitespace" appearing if you have an ad blocker. Of course, it might depend on what exactly your ad blocker filters...it seems to work with my Adblock Plus + EasyList defaults. If you still see this, please report here.

2) Slight tweak to CSS to make the layout work on K-Meleon. (Dunno why Firefox, which is also Gecko-based, gets it right...)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #18 –
Thanks Garf, that's done the trick.
Currently having stupid problems getting K-Meleon to accept and keep the HA cookies for auto login. Anyway, that's my problem.

Thanks for the alterations, much appreciated.

C.
PC = TAK + LossyWAV  ::  Portable = Opus (130)

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #19 –
Quote from: Garf on
Quote from: botface on
Like carpman I only log in if I want to post. I also don't allow cookies on my machine. If it's of any interest I'm using Firefox but no adblocker


I don't think I can do much in this case. The site will work and you will see ads when viewing topics. If you're using Firefox without Adblock, I'd hope that would be acceptable.

You can also add a cookie exception for the hydrogenaudio.org domain.

Garf,
      I'm a bit confused.................

I've added Hydrogenaudio.org to allow cookies but I'm still seeing adverts.

In an earlier post you aid that adverts were visible because an ad blocker is active. Now you seem to be saying an adblocker is needed to prevent them. Can you clarify?

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #20 –
Quote from: botface on
Garf,
      I'm a bit confused.................

I've added Hydrogenaudio.org to allow cookies but I'm still seeing adverts.


You must log in. If you see "Logged in as: botface" at the top, you should never see ads, period. Allowing the cookie is needed to make the login work automatically, but you must enable that ("Remember me") in the login page.

Quote
In an earlier post you aid that adverts were visible because an ad blocker is active. Now you seem to be saying an adblocker is needed to prevent them. Can you clarify?


I never said this.

The layout used to look funny if you used an adblocker, because it would hide the ad and not the element containing them. But this is now fixed.

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #21 –
Sorry, I obviously misunderstood this :

Quote from: Garf on
This happens because you're browsing the forum:

1) Not logged in.
2) With an ad blocker active.

If this is not the case, it's a bug on my side.

 

HA looks odd recently (post alignment)

Reply #23 –
Quote from: Garf on
Quote
ps. It's interesting to me how 2 intelligent people (2Bdecided and I) can view this issue so differently.

I'm not sure you necessarily see it differently.
True.
Quote
The real problem (IMHO) is that Google has such a strong position, that there is no real competition that could improve things for users in either point.
Monopolies scare me. And TBH, in my life, the monopoly of eBay and PayPal is far more scary. "What? PayPal are telling me who I can send my money to?!?! Stuff them - I'll vote with my feet and use another on-line service to handle money on eBay - oh, damn".

I know I don't need to use any of it - but then again, I think typical EU consumer legislation is lagging behind the 21st century - a brand new on-line service can acquire similar importance to roads or the good old telephone in a matter of months these days. Few countries allow a single telephone service - many countries will actively promote and force competition where a "natural" or "incumbent" monopoly exists or arrises. Yet here we are on-line, handing our lives to a few select companies with little or no choice.

Cheers,
David.