Forum Display Problems

[danbaron]

Beginning approximately two weeks ago, the display of the forum pages, has, for me, been malfunctioning.

This is the only web site for which I have this problem.

I tried cleaning my Firefox cache, and everything else that Firefox keeps a record of.

I installed the latest version of Firefox last night, 3.6.13.

Now, when I go to the forum web site, http://www.thinbasic.com/community/forum.php, the top of it shows all text hyperlinks down the left side of the page - "Log Out", "Settings", "My Profile", "Notifications", all the way down to, "Advanced Search".

Underneath that text, in large characters, it says, "thinBasic programming language".

Beneath that, the display changes into the usual text and graphics, but, the fonts are smaller than they previously were.

At the bottom of the page, it turns back into text mode again, beginning with, "Current Active Users".

As I am typing in this text box now, its width is larger than it previously was. In fact, inside and down the right side of the typing area, overwriting what I type, it says, "Additional Options", "Project thinbasic", "Private", "Priority", "Unknown". There are also solid black circles, approximately 1/16" in diameter, at various locations on the display.

When I view a thread, the top of the page has the same text hyperlinks, as appear on the forum home page I described above.

Now, it is difficult for me to reply to a thread, because, the hyperlink, "Reply to Thread", is partially overwritten by the text, "Quick Navigation". I have to keep moving my mouse around until it finds a small area where, "Reply to Thread", activates when I click the mouse. Now, as I am typing this text, when it reaches the right part of the text box, I cannot read what I have typed, because, at the right bottom of the text input box, there is a drop-down menu, which reads, "Unknown", and covers my typing. The menu has priorities, from "1-Highest", to 10-Lowest".

When I preview this post, it displays in a font size approximately twice as large as the font size I used to type it with.

Now, I just thought to try accessing the web site with Internet Explorer 8, which I never use. When I do, the site displays correctly.

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Later on in the evening (hours later), I tried it again with Internet Explorer 8. This time I got exactly the same behavior as with Firefox. So, the problem is not with Firefox.

Maybe the problem is because I am the only on who has a 56K modem connection. But, as I said above, this is the only web site where I have encountered this problem.

I installed the Opera browser tonight (11.01). I've tried accessing the forum a few times with it, and so far it has displayed everything correctly.

But, Firefox 3.6.13, Internet Explorer 8, and, SlimBrowser 5.01 (which is built on top of IE-VIII), all are exhibiting the problem I have described.

Dan

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Dan,

I am sorry to hear about your troubles, but I am browsing here with Firefox 3.6.13 and cannot replicate the issue. My connection is 5Mbit, I think.


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

I copy here my reply taken from Support area where you placed same request (http://www.thinbasic.com/community/project.php?issueid=257#note1806)

------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Dan

for forum and web site tests I always use 3 different browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox. For all I always have latest version. My preferred is actually Chrome.

I also use different computers for making tests, my home one (I have 3) and from office.

Here all seems working as expected in all browsers otherwise I would have act immediately and made a post in case I was not be able to fix the problem.

Please check your Firefox settings. The fact you see so big font maybe is related to the zoom factor (now all browser can zoom in/out any web page)

Let me know.
Eros

[danbaron]

Sorry guys. I was generally upset last night when I wrote about it.

My suspicion is that it happens because my connection is very very slow.

Today I am using Opera 11.01, and, everything is perfect.

:oops:
Dan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, I am beginning to notice what happens on other web sites. Probably because of my slow connection, I can sometimes see it - most likely, you cannot. When some of the pages are first loading, a lot of the material will initially appear as text hyper-links. Then, as the loading continues, the hyper-links change into various graphic objects - buttons, images, etc. What was happening for me in this forum, was that some of the material remained in hyper-link form, even after the page finished loading. In that case, the entire page can be affected negatively - lots of things can be out of position, text can overlap other text, etc. So far, using Opera, everything is good. I have no idea why for the other browsers, not everything is good.

I've never tried Chrome, maybe I should. I guess I am biased against Google, like I have been through the years, against Microsoft. For Google, off the top of my head, I don't like that it is so dominant, and also, that it knows forever, every search I (or you) ever do using its search engine.

[ErosOlmi]

No problem Dan.
Feel free to post any problem you will experience. If I can do something to solve them I will try.

Eros

[zak]

thanks Dan for refering to Opera browser, i was suspicious about its speed, so i have downloaded it today, and i can say it is the speediest browser i saw until now for opening thinbasic forum. it is very good and also can copy the colored code to thinbasic ide without errors.
do not forget that the browser has a turbo mode, and to enable it go to Menu -> settings -> preferences -> Webpages -> Automatic instead of the default Off.
zak

[ErosOlmi]

One of the aspects of this forum software (vBulletin) is that it uses a lot of JavaScript scripts so the faster is the browser on interpreting and executing JS scripts the faster is the forum to load.

That is the main reason why I switched from IE to Chrome.
Compared to IE8, IE9 has improved a lot JS execution but (to me) it is still very slow compared to Chrome and Opera.

[danbaron]

Believe it or not, I was able to get Chrome installed last night. It has what I call one of those Microsoft type installers. First, you download the installer program, approximately 512K. Then, you run the installer program, and it downloads and installs Chrome. I don't like those kinds of installers, because, if the connection fails during the download, then the download has to start over from the beginning. In other words, I have to get the entire file in one try. With my slow connection, the larger the file is, the smaller is the probability that I ever can do that. But, I got it all for Chrome, on the second try. (In Windows 7 you can change the default browser by accessing "Start Menu --> Default Programs".) The download manager I always use is Internet Download Manager (link at bottom). It does just about everything I can think of. It can "capture" downloads from the major browsers, it can restart partial downloads, it can divide a download file into up to 16 parts, and download all of the parts simultaneously, etc. But, you can't use it for installations that use installer programs, at least, I don't know how.

So far, Opera works really good. Everything in this forum displays properly. I tried Chrome a little bit too. It also displays this forum correctly. Chrome also seems pretty smart. When you start it, it displays the 8 sites you most often visit. Also, if you access the menu item, "About Google Chrome", it checks to see if it is up to date. My version ( 9.0.597.98 ), says it is up to date. Maybe, it can update itself. Maybe, the updates are partial, i.e., you don't have to re-install the entire program if Google changes 1 byte. In my opinion, that has got to be the update method of the future. Programs that automatically update themselves, and are smart enough to be able to download and install only the specific part of the program which has changed.

As of now, I have made Opera my default browser. The aspect that has so far convinced me to do so, is that besides being a browser, it also does everything concerning e-mail.

I have the turbo mode turned on (automatic), zak. You can also control it, by clicking on an icon at the bottom of the screen on the left side.

I'm not sure if I understand exactly what the turbo mode does, but, here is my guess. I think it only activates for transmissions which have not been compressed. (I admit that you can compress a file a second time, by method "B", if the file has already been compressed a first time, by method "A". And then, you could compress it a third time, by method "C", and so on. But, I think that each time you re-compress it, the amount you save becomes smaller.) Say I am downloading a big file. First, opera downloads the entire file to its server, using its hyper-fast connection. Then, it compresses the file. Then, it transmits the file to my computer, using my slow connection, and decompresses it.

http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/

Dan

[zlatkoAB]

I dont know why but probably Eros is right about vBulletin and i can say that is very annoying becose i constantly must click on popup wiget on my Kmelon browser 'stop script' so i must simply turnOn 'Block javaScript' option. i visit some similiar forums but nothing similiar i dont see there.

[danbaron]

I'm glad I'm not the only one, Aurel.

Now I feel less concerned that I might be insane.

:p
Dan

[ErosOlmi]

I'm posting from Firefox and all seems fine here. Kmelon is based on Firefox same engine Gecko (http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko)

I do not know what to say, I'm not able to reproduce any problem from here in whatever situation I try. I tested on all main different browsers from home computers, job computers and also mobile (iPhone and also WP7)

[danbaron]

My guess is that whether you experience problems, depends on how fast your connection is.

I think I can see the way the internet is going.

Every web site is displaying more and more graphic, audio, and video content.

Users are going to be forced to acquire faster and faster connections in order to avoid increasingly greater amounts of frustration.

More and more sites will have advertising. The advertising will comprise the vast majority of most sites' downloads. It seems that advertising always loads before the content that you want to see. I see the beginning of this trend already. I'll visit a news site and at the border there will be the silhouette of a young female dancing, trying to attract my attention, in order to sell me car insurance. I can foresee a time when advertising may dominate and ruin the internet, like (in my opinion) it has for TV and radio. I can also foresee a time when capitalism may make the internet prohibitively expensive for a large proportion of the world's population. History shows that wherever there is the possibility of making money, capitalists gain a monopoly, and extract huge profits while providing nothing in return. Here, we see it in food, medicine, water, anything that people rely on. And, already people have come to rely on the access to information that the internet provides.

I can imagine the internet becoming like cable TV. You'll have to pay a provider a monthly fee in order to be able to access web sites. This will be on top of the monthly fee for your high speed connection. Who knows how many additional monthly fees will appear in the future? (How many monthly bills do most people have for their various phones?) There's never an end, right? With capitalism dominating this planet, there are always more and more monthly expenses, taking what money you have, like more and more mosquitoes sucking out your blood. Most people are like a mouse on a wheel, always having to run faster, just to stay where they are.

On the other hand, if you are one of those whose income continuously grows larger and larger than your outflow, then, I guess to you, the world may seem like a wonderful place in which to exist. If only the useless underclass would disappear!

:mad::o:p

[ErosOlmi]

(again posting from Firefox 3.6.13)

Speed can be one the points, that's sure. Having a 56Kb connection can be quite frustrating.

Another point can be browser toolbars and/or the so called "extensions" or "plug-ins" or "helper" "add-ons". You think you are using just a browser but in reality you are running a set of applications interacting with your navigation. Be sure to uninstall or disable all of them. Most of them are just fake helper collecting personal data or personal behaves or (in the best case) stoling bandwidth. So if you have any of them just remove. Only leave things like Adobe Flash or PDF helper.

And even another point can be the software installed into your PC and connecting to internet even if you do not know. Many software (from Microsoft to Google to Adobe to Oracle [Java] to Apple) has many ways to keep updated. As soon as you connect to internet, all of them try to check patch level and suggest updates. If you just have 56Kb, can you imagine your modem traffic? So check your active process and see how many of them are trying to connect to internet (under Windows 7 use something like Resource Monitor (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-the-resource-monitor-in-windows-7.html))

Ciao
Eros

PS: thinBasic web site has only text ads and all are (more or less) related the page content.

[danbaron]

Now, it seems that whatever browser I use, everything for this forum displays properly.

I've been trying different browsers; Internet Explorer, SlimBrowser, Chrome, Opera, SeaMonkey, Firefox. I have the latest version of each, except for Internet Explorer, in which I have version 8 - I guess version 9 is not guaranteed to be stable yet. They all work good.

I do notice that sometimes for websites, it seems like it could be for any website, say, website, "ABC", when I try to access it, I get the browser message, "Waiting for ABC". And, sometimes the wait is long. But, I imagine that could happen no matter how fast your connection is. If the website doesn't respond, then, you could have the fastest connection in the world, and, you'll still be waiting, right?

:shock29: