IPB Update July 2013 (to version 3.4.5) - BUGS Only

[JorgeA]

On my computer, MSFN is working better on IE8 than on Firefox 28.   I went to post a reply to a forum thread via Firefox, and this is what I got when I clicked on the "More Reply Options" button:

 

 

The writing area shows up in blue. When you hover the mouse pointer over it, the pointer stays as an arrow. Clicking in the typing area doesn't do anything, the cursor never appears. If you start typing, nothing shows up on the screen.

 

Compare to what it looks like when you do the same thing in IE8:

 

 

The writing area is in white (as expected), and you get a blinking cursor if you click in it.

 

Needless to say, I'm preparing this post in IE8. 

 

Also, when I'm on the board index (not sure what the correct name for that page is), some of the entries have double listings. This doesn't happen in IE8. For an example, see the one circled in red in the following screenshot:

 

 

What could account for this weirdness, and is there anything that can be done about it, either at my end or at MSFN's end? I'm more interested in being able to post via Firefox than in eliminating those double entries.

 

--JorgeA

Edited June 13, 2014 by JorgeA

[buyerninety]

"The writing area shows up in blue" grey.

I turned filters on & off in AdBlockPlus 2.3.2 (extension addable to FF28.0),

but couldn't replicate the exact problem you are seeing in the full editor box

(reached via More Post Options webpage button).

I would suggest the cause is some filter in that, or a similar extension - so

trying to narrow down the offending item is just a slog of on/offs to be tried,

in likely programs (does Norton filter things nowadays?).

 

If using AdBlockPlus, besides the URL filters in effect (sometimes confusing

if you have a combination of various URL filter exceptions also active), don't

forget there is also a 'section heading' in the Filter Preferences called 'Filter

Subscriptions', which may have additional filters from a subscription service

(ticked) activated by default (although I think it is unlikely any subscription

service filter would be the culprit).

 

As to the 'double listings' you described, that's just what you see when

those avatar icons are filtered - some filter affecting 'gravatar com', I'd say.

Edited June 14, 2014 by buyerninety

[JorgeA]

Thanks, buyerninety.

 

This is bizarre.

 

While the reply box in that screenshot is definitely blue (a faint blue, but blue nonetheless) on my main PC's screen, it does show up as gray on my second PC.   Clearly, not all monitors process color identically. Or maybe all along I've needed to calibrate one of the monitors...

 

Be that as it may, I checked the security/privacy-related add-ons in Firefox. Pausing Ghostery did solve the "double listings" issue and resuming Ghostery brought it back. But the blue/gray issue remained throughout.

 

I don't have a lot of add-ons on Firefox so it won't be hard to test each one in turn. First, though, I need to address the reason that I have each of the 11 currently open tabs, as disabling some of the add-ons requires restarting the browser. I'll do that as soon as I get the chance to, and report back.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Reporting back now...

 

This is not good news.

 

I disabled every single Firefox add-on ("extension") in turn and restarted the browser after each one. That unusable blue/gray editing box is what I get every time when I go to reply to a post in FF28.

 

I'm going to re-enable them before I forget which ones I had running. What else can we check?

 

FWIW, this is Vista Home Premium x64, SP2.

 

(Posting this via IE8.)

 

--JorgeA

 

[Tripredacus]

2 things. First, in your FF28 mode where you can't type (I'm using FF28 as well) it looks like you can still click the first button on the toolbar. This changes the editor mode to text only instead of wysiwyg mode. Try hitting that and see if you can type.

Second, in both of your screenshots, the URL seems wrong. If you were replying to a topic, the URL wouldn't be board/index, but it would show topic/number-topic-title. For example, replying to this topic I have the following in my address bar:

One last thing, does the quick reply box also not work?

[JorgeA]

Replying in FF28 now. I clicked on that box at the top left and it's letting me type in the editing (or reply) box.

All the other controls are grayed out; I feel like I'm back in 1981 working on my electric typewriter.

If I click on that same box while preparing this reply, then nothing shows up, not even the text that I already typed. Clicking on the box again doesn't bring the typed text back -- I had to click on "Preview Post" and then that box.

Weird -- when I got the text back in the reply box, all the carriage returns were gone and I had to re-input them all over again. And the smiley face turned back to the original "colon + close parentheses" form.

The Quick Reply box doesn't work, it's the same blue (or gray, depending on your monitor I suppose) color as the editing box for the full-scale reply mode.

I'm attaching a screenshot of this page, taken just before I began my reply. You can see the Quick Reply box in blue (or gray), the odd "JorgeA's Photo" thingie sticking out the top left corner of the Quick Reply box, and also the URL across the top of the image which seems to be right.

But now as I am typing this reply, I see that the URL in the address bar is simply "www.msfn.org/board/index.php?".

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

D*mn, I can't attach a screenshot whether I'm in wysiwyg or text mode.

Will switch to IE8 and do it from there.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

All right, here's the screenshot, attached using IE8:

 

 

And to think that some websites are complaining to me that I'm using an "outdated" browser.

[Tripredacus]

Weird -- when I got the text back in the reply box, all the carriage returns were gone and I had to re-input them all over again. And the smiley face turned back to the original "colon + close parentheses" form.

That's a normal behaviour. I use the text mode always unless I want to add a smiley. I too notice that the hard returns get nerfed when switching between modes.

Also another thing I notice in your new screenshot... The quick-reply box is there as it is showing your name as "photo" but it is not rendering. But the accounting doesn't seem to see you as being present. Even if you were logged in as anon, it would show you as JorgeA and 1 anon or 1 member. But your pic shows only 2 guests.

Make sure you are not blocking this URL:

ajax.googleapis.com

It is required in order for the reply box to work properly. For example, if I block that URL, the quick reply ceases to function.

[JorgeA]

OK, I whitelisted MSFN in Ghostery to prevent all blocking. The avatar shows up correctly now, but I still can't type in the Quick Reply box or (unless I go to text mode) in the full editor.

 

Next, I re-enabled the blocking but disabled blocking from "ajax.googeapis.com" specifically. The result is the same as we originally had -- an unusable Quick Reply box, and "JorgeA's Photo" off to the left of the Quick Reply box.

 

I also (as before) disabled the Ghostery add-on, and once again the avatar came out right but I still can't type in the Quick Reply box.

 

Wondering if maybe something's corrupted with the FF installation and updowngrading to FF30 might change whatever's causing the problem.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Out of curiosity, I logged on to MSFN via FF28 on a different PC (Windows 7). That one doesn't have Ghostery, instead it has the Abine Privacy Suite.

There, the avatar is coming up fine in all cases, but the Quick Reply box is unusable whether or not the Privacy Suite is enabled, and the full editor works in text mode only.

Hopefully this will yield some useful clues.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

How bizarre:

 

I just logged in with Pale Moon 24.5.0, and the Quick Reply box works fine (typing in it right now) and the avatar is correct. Oh, and I do have the Abine Privacy Suite working on this browser too. So I would speculate that whatever the problem is, is an issue specific to Firefox (so specific that it doesn't even apply to a FF derivative like PM).

 

This is on the Win7 PC (not my main machine). I may try installing Pale Moon on the Vista system and see what happens. With any luck, the current version of PM (they're up to v24.6.2 now)  will also be immune to this strange problem.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

 

Also another thing I notice in your new screenshot... The quick-reply box is there as it is showing your name as "photo" but it is not rendering. But the accounting doesn't seem to see you as being present. Even if you were logged in as anon, it would show you as JorgeA and 1 anon or 1 member. But your pic shows only 2 guests.

Make sure you are not blocking this URL:

ajax.googleapis.com

It is required in order for the reply box to work properly. For example, if I block that URL, the quick reply ceases to function.

 

 

That accounting doesn't seem to work very well, generally speaking. At least, not for me: I see the same sort of thing happening, unpredictably, on any PC and any browser that I use.

 

Here's a screenshot of that phenomenon in IE8 on Vista HP x64:

 

 

Kind of funny to be logged in, viewing a thread, and be told that there are not only 0 members, but 0 users of any kind viewing. 

 

But this doesn't bother me so much, as it doesn't affect functionality. I'm more interested in getting the Quick Reply box or the full editor box working right in Firefox. (Barring a direct fix, installing Pale Moon would be the next step as a workaround.)

 

--JorgeA

Edited June 19, 2014 by JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

I wonder if you have some sort of privacy filter enabled or installed that is causing the reporting issue. It may also be why portions of the site do not work. What about that Norton toolbar?

[JorgeA]

The other day (see post #214), I disabled each FF add-on in turn and restarted the browser each time. The Quick Reply box didn't work even when I had all of the add-ons disabled, including Ghostery and Norton.

 

Barring a direct fix, when I get the chance the next step will be to try PM on Vista and see what happens.

 

--JorgeA