blocked content funny ?

[vinifera]

if you block these 2

fbcdn.net
www.gravatar.com

forum main page won't display half of user avatars

ain't it funny how you guys/gals are interconected with s***ty services ?

Edited February 2, 2014 by vinifera

[Kelsenellenelvian]

if you block these 2

fbcdn.net

www.gravatar.com

forum main page won't display half of user avatars

ain't it funny how you guys/gals are interconected with s***ty services ?

What like ipb???

[buyerninety]

I think Vini 'shot from the hip without thinking' - actually, pretty much

every one of those blocked avatars isn't a unique avatar chosen by

those users... it's just the MSFN default user avatar that is shown if

users haven't chosen something other than the default... yep, the

MSFN default avatar is a Gravatar avatar...

Edited February 3, 2014 by buyerninety

[vinifera]

facebook avatars are affected too via gravatar

at least here

Edited February 3, 2014 by vinifera

[buyerninety]

OK, I think I've got a handle on this now...

(After looking at how Gravatars work;

hxxp://en.gravatar.com/site/implement/images/ ) .

Board (in this case IPB, possibly with add-ons) software causes a

hash to be done of a piece of user unique information (probably the

email address), sends this info to Gravatar server, who reply with a

URL for the gravatar avatar pic to be served from if the hash matches

one held in their database, - if the hash doesn't match then the

(Gravatar?) server redirects so the request is served from a default

URL, and the Board server sends HTML to your browser with URL's

as seen, similar to this;

hxxp://www.gravatar.com/avatar/82cc8a5a115a4ffe285b3efd030ccaf9?s=100&d=hxxp%3A%2F%2Fwww.msfn.org%2Fboard%2Fpublic%2Fstyle_images%2Fshift%2Fprofile%2Fdefault_large.png

The above default location is more easily read as;

hxxp://www.msfn.org/board/public/style_images/shift/profile/default_large.png

a 1.93 KB (1,972 bytes) size, 150px × 150px PNG .

(When seen on the 'Forums' main page, the default PNG pic is resized to a

smaller seen pic.)

Incidently, sometimes you may see e.g. i2.wp.com instead of gravatar.com

http://omegadelta.net/2012/10/15/gravatar-the-type-of-image-you-are-trying-to-process-is-not-allowed/

- so that's a gravatar redirect to a caching service.

I'm not sure what effect Ahh, I see - fbcdn.net redirects to facebook.com -

I don't see any difference with fbcdn.net blocked because I already have

facebook blocked.

(None of this explains what's going on with Member aviv00's photo - I

guess the Board software just can't understand or is suspicious of the

link/info that aviv00 input into the avatar section.)

[vinifera]

fbcdn.net seems to be profile exchange/tracking site/server/data

I also considered blocking akamaihd.net, as seems many blogs and tardish sites like facebook/twitter use this too

then again both MS and Apple use its services for some type of movie streaming (this is from wiki)

dunno should I block it or not ...

Edited February 3, 2014 by vinifera

[Tripredacus]

(None of this explains what's going on with Member aviv00's photo - I

guess the Board software just can't understand or is suspicious of the

link/info that aviv00 input into the avatar section.)

Aviv00 doesn't have an avatar. His condition is not unique of IPBs that have been through migrations. Some users who have a default or "no avatar", after some upgrade levels the original "blank" resource (or whatever) no longer exists and results in it displaying strange. But, this display issue is browser specific. In Mozilla browsers it puts a box around the username and sometimes a post title.

[buyerninety]

I'm aware of the seldom seen condition you are referring to, (I believe

only encountered with certain ~2007 and earlier Board members) -

the sections normally displaying Country, OS and Member Title info

simply do not exist for certain members (apparently these sections

did not exist or existed in a different format or were never previously

populated since earlier IPB versions, and later version updates have

not created or populated these sections [with the default entries] for

certain earlier members). An example is member $ Dolla-Bill $

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/50552-giving-up-props-to-yal/#entry351659

I don't recall any instance of any member not having an avatar section -

I believe the Board software always tries to display something in every

members avatar section.

(I've encountered a few other instances where the display of a members

avatar is, er, faulty.)

Regarding aviv00's avatar, I should have instead described his

avatar as 'lost'. The underlaying link for his avatar appears to be;

hxxp://www.msfn.org/board/uploads/profile/photo-133794.gif

which returns a 404: Not Found .

Presumably, whatever he uploaded into the database in the past has

since gone to 'Digital Heaven'. He is obviously not fussed about it,

although you are right that it causes a 'strange' display on the (e,g,

Forums) webpage - (I.E. deals with it more gracefully, by simply

displaying a red 'x' where his avatar ought to be).

Cheers

Edited February 4, 2014 by buyerninety

[Tripredacus]

There is no red x in Mozilla browsers. Here is an example of when a similar thing happened with Ponch's avatar:

Ponch no longer has this problem with his avatar and it shows up as the gray man for me now, but aviv00 (among others) has always shown up looking strange.

Although, it could be caused by my particular security setup, since I have seen screenshots from other users which do not show this type of display.

[dencorso]

No. I'm seeing it all *exactly* as you described. I'm on just released Firefox ESR 24.3.0, right now.

[buyerninety]

Tripredacus said; "There is no red x in Mozilla browsers."

There certainly isn't, not surprizing as I said "I.E. deals with it more

gracefully, by simply displaying a red 'x' where his avatar ought to be."

(For myself, the I.E. tested with was I.E. 8.0.6001.18702 .)

Tripredacus said;

..."but aviv00 (among others) has always shown up looking strange.

Although, it could be caused by my particular security setup,"...

Well, no: - I'd suggest aviv00's avatar displays as it does due to the

reason I put forward - the Board software can't find it.

The link I gave appears to be in the correct format the Board uses -

so the data (GIF) is no longer retrievable.. ( ...mmm, I should allow

we could theorize other possible causes - the Board requires that

avatars are to be a maximum of 100x100 pixels, 100Kb, non-animated,

etc., maybe certain of those requirements have changed over the

years[?] so an avatar which previously met past requirements

conceivably now doesn't meet current ones[?] and the Board software

refuses to serve the data[?] .)

You appear to keep a record of past MSFN webpages saved in a

complete format, all pics, css, etc. . Are these merely 'fault' webpages,

or do you have access to an offline older copy of the database?

(This seems possible, I recall Xper posted an offhand remark several

years ago about the size of the database [i can't remember the exact

size, but it was around the 600-700MB range], so perhaps recent size

could fit on a DVD?) - I will understand if you prefer not to reply to this

particular question...

Edited February 5, 2014 by buyerninety

[Tripredacus]

You appear to keep a record of past MSFN webpages saved in a

complete format, all pics, css, etc. . Are these merely 'fault' webpages,

or do you have access to an offline older copy of the database?

(This seems possible, I recall Xper posted an offhand remark several

years ago about the size of the database [i can't remember the exact

size, but it was around the 600-700MB range], so perhaps recent size

could fit on a DVD?) - I will understand if you prefer not to reply to this

particular question...

No I do not keep a record like you say. I had taken a screenshot of the issue and it is still on the image host.

[jumper]

Image display dimensions are not explicitly set in the html, but in style sheets:

<img itemprop="image" src="http://www.msfn.org/board/uploads/profile/photo-301491.png?_r=1382667300" class="ipsUserPhoto ipsUserPhoto_large">

If the style sheets are blocked or user-modified, or content from some domains is blocked, Firefox could be defaulting to collapsing the missing or blocked images.

Note: I'm not seeing this problem in FF2.0.0.20 even with ABP enabled.

[dencorso]

For me, the problem occurs on FF ESR 24.3.0 (regardless of having NoScript enabled or fully disabled), but not at all on IE8, nor on Opera 12.16...

[buyerninety]

@jumper @ dencorso

Which problem are you referring to, the OP's original post, or aviv00's avatar,

(or something else?), as these different problems have different causes and

effects.