Is there now a "minimum OP length" that pads OPs with space if they're short? (Likely cause thought of)

[muriel_volestrangler]

Last edited Mon May 6, 2024, 06:32 AM - Edit history (1)

I've only just noticed this, so I think it started today or yesterday. Any OP that has less than, approximately, one screens-worth of lines on my screen (25, perhaps?) gets padded with blank space at the end of it. It looks ... odd. I'll add a screenshot of this OP, after I've posted it.

(On edit: sl8's suggestion that it's blocked ads - down the right, I guess - seems most likely. It seems it's now often 2 ads, not 1.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. What that looks like:

[sl8]

2. I haven't noticed it within individual posts, ...

but I have noticed "blocks" of whitespace on some pages, e.g. the list of all posts on the "Latest" page. I'd seen something similar in the past, but not recently, until the past few days.

I suspect that the blank space is an artifact of a blocked ad, but I don't know what's changed recently that would affect the display.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. I did wonder about that, but with slightly longer OPs, the padding is smaller, so the total is the same

eg an OP of mine from a few days ago: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218917882

Unless the blocked ad is something tall and thin at the right hand side? (or 2 or 3 blocked ads?)

[sl8]

4. Got it.

I'm not seeing what you're describing, so maybe we're encountering two entirely separate root problems.

I am curious as to the cause; hopefully somone with real knowledge will weigh in.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Now I've come back to this, the padding is now pretty much half the length.

I think you're right that it was ads that were blocked (I do the minimum blocking - when the loading of pages are delayed enough for me to be able to see the URL of which ad page is slowing things down, I add it to an effective list of "do not visit" URLs). Maybe it had switched briefly to 2 (blocked ads), and now it's back to 1, so half the length, which isn't so obvious.

And then, when the page reloaded after I made that post, its back to full length. it must be the number of side ads on the right, and they're all from some useless ad firm, so I have them blocked.

[jmbar2]

5. I did one like that last week

It was purposeful. An exercise in "read this... think about it...OK now read this".

[EarlG]

7. Nothing has changed at our end

When designing DU4 I did what I could with the initial layout to be respectful to people who choose to use ad blockers, but if you are using an ad blocker and you start to experience formatting problems or errors, there's not much I can do I'm afraid. The problem would have to be resolved at your end.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I don't use an ad blocker as such; I just add ad firms who delay pages loading to my hosts file

redirecting their URL to 127.0.0.1, ie my own PC. If it is just an extra ad, that's fine; I wondered at first if there was something strange going on.