Kitz Forum
Announcements => Site & Forum Discussion => Topic started by: broadstairs on November 21, 2016, 08:14:10 AM
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I have seen an oddity but only on some occasions when using this site. I normally view unread posts and sometimes when I select one after a few seconds the page seems to reload on its own and after this the back button only re-loads the same page, it does not go back to the un-read list. It happens on random pages and I had not seen any pattern until this morning when I remembered seeing the same advert at the top of the page and it is a light green banner advert for ASOS. So could this advert cause this issue? I can think of no other cause right now but I am certain that when it has happened this advert was showing.
This time I reloaded the page and a new advert appeared after which I could use the back button to go to the un-read list.
IF and its a big IF adverts are able to do this it is completely unacceptable.
Stuart
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I'm not sure how a [google] ad could cause a page reload. :-\
Google ads are displayed in an iframe, by which time the page headers (http://www.w3schools.com/php/func_http_header.asp) will have already loaded. I suppose there may be some way of doing in in javascript to cause a meta refresh, but it would require a specific page url to redirect to.. and aside from that the google ad code is all still in an iframe so it would be just the ad refreshed rather than whole page.
I'm not saying its impossible as I suppose if there was really bad code it could take you off site by using some sort of XSS /injection exploiting existing page code.
Google ads have strict policies (https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182?hl=en) about auto-refresh and even site owners are not allowed to display google ads on any page that would auto-refresh from code they themselves have inserted.
I'm also seeing the ASOS ad today and Ive just had a look at the code and cant see anything untoward.
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It is very strange Kitz, I only see this on your site and as I said from memory the ASOS advert is the common thing. I wonder if it could be something in Firefox or linux? My FF has just been updated to V50 by an openSUSE update I just did, so I'll see if it happens again.
Stuart
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Thanks for reporting it, but Im sorry that I really don't have any idea what could be causing it :(
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Kitz the same issue has come up again and the ASOS advert was showing at the top of the screen, I am unable to use any back button or gesture to go back a page. Reloading the page gets me a new advert and then going back works.
Stuart
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Im really unsure how or why it could be causing it, the asos site seems respectable and I cant see anything in the code which could cause this.
However Ive just put a block on asos.com to see if that fixes it.
TBH Im really really strict with what I allow to show to the point whereby it is actually harming any revenue.
Despite 100's of 1000's of impressions, this is income so far this month from google ads.. as you can see its no wonder that I worry and just how hard it is for independents to keep running. This doesn't even meet a small % of server costs.
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Kitz I appreciate what you are saying. I suspect your revenue is not helped by many folks using an adblock which I do but had whitelisted your site. I was on the verge of undoing that. I just dont know how I could do anything to determine why it was happening. All I can say is that it was and only when the asos advert was displayed and as soon as I reloaded and got a new ad then all was fine.
Stuart
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Sorry if it came over harsher than I intended, because I really couldn't understand how the ad could do that.
Google ads allows me to blacklist certain sites, which I now have done.. Im hoping that should put a stop to whatever was happening :fingers:
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No not at all, I do fully understand. I just wish I had been able to find out what was happening. All I can say from memory is that once the page loaded and went to the last unread message it seemed to reload sometimes and end up at the top of the page. Once this happened I could see the ASOS ad and then had to scroll down to where I was reading. I was then unable to use an back button, well more specifically it looked like it was trying to go back but then went forward again back to the same page. When tis happens using the back button the widget in the tab bar rotated backwards and forwards as if it was trying to go back but was then sent forwards again. The whole situation is really strange.
Anyway lets see what happens for a while. If after a week or so I've not had a problem maybe worth unblocking the ASOS ad again and seeing what happens. It would be good to know if it was the ad or something else.
Stuart
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I have had this error happen again this week, the second time today when I noticed that the advert was from a company called Binary Brokerz (note that is the correct spelling of the site). I ran HTTPfox extension which displays the http calls when you do anything on the page and certainly it showed strange things, initially a POST error and then a whole bunch of other stuff which basically reloads the page from the cache. Unfortunately I have not yet found a way to trace this to a file of copy and paste the trace. However the urls mentioned in the trace including the initial post error relate to a site which seemed to be that advert.
Once again this only happens on certain adverts like before, the previous time it happened this week I was a tad surprised so did not check the advert.
Stuart
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Just to say that this has just happened to me again this morning while viewing a thread, the ad at the top was Binary Brokerz again and no matter how I tried to go back with mouse gesture, back button on mouse of the back arrow at the top of the Firefox screen it simply refused and reloaded the page with the same advert. I tried visiting the advert site but was blocked by my ad-blocker but that made no difference I could not go back.
Stuart
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binarybrokerz.com blocked.
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This just happened to me again this morning with a booking.com advert at the top of the screen. Most annoying that adverts seem to be able to do this.
Stuart
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Stuart, this is puzzling me. It seems as if you are the only member experiencing the problem . . .
I can appreciate that it is annoying when it happens but would you please make a critical review of how all your systems are configured and connected, then keep precise notes of all the details when the problem next occurs.
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I will try to see if I can see what happens with the calls when I next experience this. I can assure you that it ONLY happens on Kitz and only with a very few adverts. I have never seen it on any other site. I am using Firefox on Linux and normally use the back button on my mouse, however once this happens no back command works, not the mouse and not the back arrow at the top of screen. I've also tried Alt/back arrow and that fails as well. It happens rarely and only with a very few adverts, so far none of the tech ones. I have an extension which allows tracing the html calls and responses so next time I will run this trace and save it. I expect when I next see booking.com it will happen again.
Stuart
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Thank you. That is a good plan.
As I think you know, I routinely use RHEL-6 (64-bit) and the packaged ESR of Firefox that is part of that distribution. (Currently 52.1.0.) As for plugins, I have Flashblock, Ghostery and Adblock Plus installed. The latter two plugins are configured with kitz.co.uk white-listed . . . so I see all advertisements, etc.
As an experiment, I called up binarybrokerz.com and received a screen as shown in the attachment, below --
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Interesting... however this latest issue was a booking.com advert. Lets see what happens if booking.com appears again.
Stuart