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El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

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  1. Kepler
    FAIL

    El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

    El Reg's new ads prevent the actual stories from loading. Repeatedly. This has been going on for nearly a week now, or at least for the past several days. (I do not recall just when it started happening.)

    Those new rectangular ads that open up at the top of the page appear to be the culprit. The ad is there, but the rest of the page is blank. The page starts to load — including the red rectangular field at the top of the page with the vulture head between "The" and "Register" (and the lovely motto, "Biting the hand that feeds IT"), and the solid colored page border as well (sometimes solid El Reg red, and sometimes a faint powdery light blue) — but then everything else disappears just before the ad appears.

    Although this problem is getting to be pretty darn annoying, I mostly just wanted to bring it to El Reg's attention. It happened yet again just now, and that was the final straw.

    .

    P.S. In case it makes any difference, I'm using Chrome under Windows 8.1. My version of Chrome is Version 37.0.2062.120 m, which is very close to current. (I can't close all the gazillions of tabs I currently have open, so I cannot yet "Relaunch Google Chrome to finish updating.")

    .

    P.P.S. Ironically but coincidentally, the particular ad that was for me the final straw asks "How do the right ads make the Internet better?" Supply your own snappy replies below!

    1 0 Reply
    1. User McUser
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      Re: El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

      FWIW, I am also seeing this issue which also creates a weird entry along the lines of "wyciwyg://444/http://normal-url-for-article/" in my browser's back/forward button history (but not in the "History" sidebar oddly.)

      Firefox ESR 24.7.0 on OSX 10.9.2

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  2. Matt@ElReg

    Re: El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

    Thank you both for the heads-up. It's always appreciated.

    We're pretty confident that we've now tracked down the rogue ad, and put a bullet in it. You should be able to get back to enjoying The Reg uninterrupted.

    Should you find otherwise; please do shout.

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    1. Kepler
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      Re: El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

      I'll keep an eye out for the problem's presence or absence as I open new articles, Matt. Thank you for looking into it!

      But I must emphasize, it was not any one ad in particular. The one I quoted above was just the latest instance, in a series of well over a dozen different ads all of which produced the same result! It was the form and placement of the ad — not the identity of the advertiser or the content of the specific ad — that appeared to be causing the problem. Or rather — more precisely — not the shape or position of the ad, but some code common to all (or at least most) of the ads that occupy the new rectangle at the top of the page.

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      1. Kepler
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        P.S.

        P.S. Another new ad form El Reg has just started using is annoying, but does not appear to prevent the rest of the page from loading. I refer to the videos that slide into the bottom of the screen from the right.

        I hate all videos on any site that start themselves automatically — without my permission — causing my computer to suddenly emit sound that bothers those around me. (This is why I no longer click on links to the Huffington Post or open news stories en route to my AOL In box anymore.)

        (I also begrudge the extra bandwidth and CPU cycles such video advertisements eat up, and I just hope they do not contribute to memory leaks that will eventually require me to reboot — losing my backlog of more-than-a-week-old Register articles I hadn't gotten to yet!

        And moving ads in general are distracting, and therefore annoying. By diverting the eye they make it harder to read the actual story.)

        But again, these ads merely annoy the Hell out of me; they do not prevent other content from loading. I add the advertisers who placed them — along with any company or product whose logo blocks my view of the cheerleaders during a televised NFL football game! — to my list of companies and products to boycott, as punishment for pissing me off, but there are no deeper repercussions or technical consequences.

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    2. User McUser
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      Re: El Reg's new ads prevent content from loading

      I haven't seen this again since the fix, so looks like you nailed it.

      1 0 Reply
  3. Kepler
    Happy

    Appears solved!

    Ditto. Me neither.

    I meant to come back here much sooner to report that I had not seen the problem recur, but I got sidetracked. Sorry for my delay — I can't believe it has now been some 12 days.

    In any event, the problem appears to be fixed, and I thank you again, Matt, for taking care of that. Thanks mucho!

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