Website redesign – Update

Not for me this new mobile version, main bug bears being slower navigation and no zoom but I’ve at least learnt i can go to Menu and select ‘Request desktop site’ in Android which I never realised existed…silver lining and all that 😀

I know this is not the normal channel to report this but you guys really need to stop this rogue advert that keeps taking over!

Due to the suspect pop-ups the site isn’t really usable in Chrome on Android.

When using Opera for Android the hamburger menu is unusable.

Speaking of ads and popups. The video banner at the top of the page doesn’t mute, or pause. Couldn’t read STW at all while listening to my Christmas Carols…

I miss the days when websites were fast, didn’t jump around while you were reading and you didn’t need three different browsers in order to be able to use all the sites you needed. Its worse than bikes and wheel sizes these days

Its worse than bikes and wheel sizes these days

Steady on, old boy…in the bike industry, they are apparently called ‘standards’…out here in the Wilds, it is called ‘Survival’…

I miss the days when websites were fast, didn’t jump around while you were reading and you didn’t need three different browsers in order to be able to use all the sites you needed. Its worse than bikes and wheel sizes these days

What other sites give you issues?

I know there are forums, so click on the drop down menu in the top left. But would new visitors know how to find the forums?. (Old tech: iPad 2, Safari, iOS 9.3.5).

The “hamburger” icon is pretty much a standard these days (though it must be 30 years old). I’m guessing most folk would know to try it. Getting to your Profile by selecting your username from that menu should be intuitive given it is highlighted by the same colour as other buttons.

Now it’s William Hill spamming Android with a whole screen popup.

I have also been getting the fake Google play pop-up posted by gofasterstripes et al.

Three times in two days (Samsung Galaxy Android 6.0.1).

Two further days of not viewing STW on a phone – no pop-ups.

Please can you add the last poster name and a link to the last post back to the main forum view.

What other sites give you issues?

for banking I always drop back to IE and the Eurostar site sometimes misbehaves in Chrome. It’s random, but whenever I struggle with misbehaving sites these days I just switch browser as a first fix. Chrome can be a bit of a resource hog as well so I often end up in Edge which I would never have expected

I do like to check on the progress of threads I have previously posted on. The lack of ‘forum activity’ link on the mobile versions has made this too tricky to bother so my visitations have significantly reduced.

She says if I’m an idiot and there is another way to do this now I have not spotted not to tell me as I’ll get back to my bad ways.

Click the 3 horizontal stripes top left(menu)
Click your forum name(green button)
Click forum activity.

Well one good thing about the update is that it gives encouragement to those who’s NY resolution is to spend less time on here 😕

Just been getting a warning message that Firefox would like to use my camera and record audio when opening some threads on here.

Firefox on Android fwiw.

The site keeps freezing on Chrome. Other tabs still working perfectly, but STW can’t scroll.

And the lack of zoom on a tablet/phone is hideous.

All good on MacAir/ Safari, just tried it out.

And reiterate iPhone and iPad all good too.

Hi all,

The ad issues are unrelated to the site changes. It’s the time of year that’s the issue. Let me explain..

In the run up to christmas the demand for advertising increases and the CPM paid (cost per 1000) subsequently increases. This has the positive effect of improving the quality of the ads as only the big and generally respectable ad agencies can afford the higher CPMs. This drives down the instances of the rogue and shitty ads that trigger pop ups and other nasty crap.

Now we are in the post christmas ad slump their are more instances of the crappy low value ads creeping into the system as demand is very low right now. It will pick up again in the next few days and the first couple of weeks in January will be good too.

Now, the other factor at work is the frequency of user visits to the site. The ads work by being capped per user. ie. the high paying ads will be capped so that typically a single user will only see 4 of that particular ad in a 24 hour period. The theory (backed up by good evidence) is that after the 4th impression the chances of that user clicking that ad drops off a cliff.

The effect here is that if you come to the site with a clean browser or without having visited the site for 24 hours then the first ads you will see will be the highest paying and generally highest quality (well behaved) ads. The more pages you visit in that 24 hour period the more of the good inventory you will ‘burn through’ until you reach the cheaper and less well behaved ads.

When demand is low for advertising you will hit the low quality ads quicker then when demand is high.

All that said, when the rogue ads (and by that I mean the ads that cause pop ups that break the toc’s of the networks) then I do my best to track them down and report them to the networks that are supplying them. We work with trusted networks only that have a human being at the other end of my support emails. But it’s still impossible to drive them all out for good – it’s a constant battle.

Premier users will soon have ads off by default on login – you won’t need to go and push a button…. unless you want them on.

And the new site layout is causing the entire ad system to relearn itself and I’m hopeful that as the networks learn what we have done the ad quality will increase and the instances of shit ads will decrease.

Keep reporting any ad issues to us though at tech@… and I’ll do my best to fix things. Screen grans always helpful but urls of where they try to take you are better.

I’ve seen ScreenGrans(.com) – never again 😮

I wish my tablet would remember to request the desktop site, otherwise all good.

How do you request the desktop site? I’d rather this than the crappy version I currently get on the iPhone.

The more pages you visit in that 24 hour period the more of the good inventory you will ‘burn through’ until you reach the cheaper and less well behaved ads.

When demand is low for advertising you will hit the low quality ads quicker then when demand is high

So we will see less dodgy adds by visiting less. Gotcha!

I’d rather this than the crappy version I currently get on the iPhone.

Version on my iPhone seems pretty good. Text is now a good size and no need to keep zooming in all the time.

Anyway, you can request the Desktop version of any website by holding down the Refresh arrow in Safari (the one on the address bar) – but it is just a “request” and many sites (including STW I think) make a lot of layout/sizing decisions based on the available screen/browser area, not just on what device the browser says it is running on. So in other words, you may see no difference.

Well Scruff…. Yes, that’s technically true. If you want to be a bit arsey about it. I could just not bother explaining how things work if you’d prefer.

I don’t mean to be arsy, but I would prefer not too have rogue adds as I’m sure you would too.

This morning the rogue add I had was trying to access my camera and microphone. This was over my morning coffee so

will be the highest paying and generally highest quality

.

Previously I’ve had an add for “**** local ****’s near you” adds with full nudity, legs akimbo whilst browsing on my work computer (raised at the time).

Some things are annoying yet understandable – full page massaratti adds for example, whilst some things leave alot to be desired…

Aren’t most ads targeted by previous browsing habits…?

and many sites (including STW I think) make a lot of layout/sizing decisions based on the available screen/browser area, not just on what device the browser says it is running on.

Generally speaking, “browser sniffing” is seen as bad practice these days, anyway. Mainly because it constantly changes.

The iPhone version (at least on my little 4 inch iPhone 5 SE) is really good now – a huge improvement over constantly having to zoom in.

I do appreciate that “muscle memory” comes into this, though. I know I spend far too much of my time checking up on STW and my fingers used to just know what to do to navigate around. Things have changed and, regardless of the fact that the change is for the better, change is scary and bad.

I’ll get over it. Eventually.

Rachel (who can’t possibly be a proper web developer because she doesn’t even have a phone with the screen size of a TV from 20 years ago…)

(Tech talk) I was more thinking of media-specific stylesheets rather than browser sniffing but yes both seem to be falling out of favour these days(/tech talk)

GrahamS – so far as I’m aware, STW *is* using media-specific stylesheets…

They are using basic @media queries fairly poorly to be honest, good luck with targeting the right devices accurately with those!

You guys were mentioning that all your efforts were speed related too.. why don’t you even have a minification workflow on your production files?

oh and this is horrific by the way..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mla140k2f9z7ba8/Screenshot%202016-12-29%2012.19.53.png?dl=0

Alexxx getting banned in 5….4….3….

lolz at the ASCII art, tho.

Alexxx – in what way are they “poorly used”? How would you use them differently?

Rachel

Ads aren’t really a problem for me I’m not a premier member so expect them but it’s the fake Google prize winner pop ups that’s the problem, I don’t get it anywhere but here and it never happened to me prior to the site update

It struck me that Mark was hinting at a rather different way of avoiding dodgy ads:

alexxx – Member

If we don’t see you before, have a great New Year.
Not being able to open the last post on Android is a bit of a pain.

So is anything being done about the rogue pop up adverts on Android? I appreciate the explanation above about what’s going on but at the moment I refuse to use the site on my mobile due to the horrible pop ups.

Or is there a workaround? If i use a different browser will that stop it happening?

And good work on the new site, it’s far easier to view on mobiles than the old one.

Ads aren’t really a problem for me I’m not a premier member so expect them but it’s the fake Google prize winner pop ups that’s the problem, I don’t get it anywhere but here and it never happened to me prior to the site update

As above.

Or is there a workaround? If i use a different browser will that stop it happening?

There is a work around, but if I were to tell you it would result in me getting an arsey email from the powers that be, threatening to ban me from STW.

I would like to ‘support’ STW by ‘allowing’ ads in my browser, but until the rogue pop up issue is addressed I’m afraid it’s no can do.

Jut don’t go out one night a year – there’s £15 to spend on a P and not having to worry about any more ad problems. 🙄

I bailed about 3/4 of the way though it and haven’t been back since.

I bailed on the first page of the digital signup simply because I didn’t know how I was going to be paying and couldn’t be bothered to fill out all the info to find out. If there was a paypal subscribe button then I would have subscribed there and then.
On that first page there’s no clues as to whether it’s paypal, direct debit, credit/debit card etc.

Jut don’t go out one night a year – there’s £15 to spend on a P and not having to worry about any more ad problems

Or just make puppy dog eyes at a P member, and hopefully they’ll take pity on you and give you a month of P as a gift 😀