# Off-Color Thread Topic Links

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 30, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464 "2000-07-30T19:14:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/1 "2000-07-30T19:14:12Z")

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This is extremely minor, so don’t waste your time unless you’ve got time to waste - I wouldn’t even be posting it, but I ran out of Math questions in GQ. Anyway, I’m using Netscape Communicator 4.61, and occasionally, on the front page of a forum, one (count 'em: one) thread title will be listed in some color that’s not “unvisited link” or “visited link” or even “active link”. It’s a sorta deep violet color. I just noticed it on “Thread” (MPSIMS), and I also remember seeing it on “Do you swim for exercise?” (MPSIMS) and “Hostage negotiation questions” (General Questions). I know it’s been on more, but I can’t remember any titles.

I’ve tried Viewing the Source, to no avail. Is this just some glitch, or is there a code to these that I just haven’t worked out?

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**Author:** ![Nessy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f04885/32.png) [@Nessy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nessy)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/2 "2000-07-30T19:28:04Z")

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Your degausser is misfractaled. Just select “hover without prjudice” and it will clear up right away.

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/3 "2000-07-30T20:21:26Z")

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I think I got rid of that problem by turning off style sheets in the preferences. Edit-\>Preferences-\>Advanced, uncheck ‘enable style sheets’. See if that fixes it. If so, you can decide if it’s worth it or not. I think that’s what I did to get rid of the problem.

Netscape just gets confused sometimes. Hope this helps.

Jim

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**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2000, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/4 "2000-07-30T23:48:26Z")

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Had you clicked on those threads? There’s an “Active Link” (i.e., link that is in the process of being loaded) color in CSS\< and maybe in other places.

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/5 "2000-07-31T05:15:48Z")

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Alright. I just noticed it again with the thread “New England hotdog buns?” in General Questions. As it happens, I have not visited this link, but even so, I already thought about the active link thing, as you’ll see in my OP. I did a screen capture and got the values of all the colors of my links. Here they are:

Unvisited link - #0000EF  
Visited link - #501580  
Active link - #FF0000  
Weird color - #2F3090

Now, this is pretty strange, considering only one of those colors shows up in the \<STYLE\> tag when I view the source. Netscape must be confused indeed!

Eh, I don’t consider this a problem - just a curiosity. And my degausser’s Mandelbrot Interpolation Sequence uses a complex array hash with a subnegative parity, so it _can’t_ get misfractaled - belive me, that was the first thing I thought of!

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/6 "2000-07-31T19:55:34Z")

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It happened yet again! This time, though, it happened on a thread that I _have_ already visited, and it’s in a fifth color! Specificially, #7F007F. Just more evidence.

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**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/7 "2000-07-31T22:24:40Z")

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I get the same thing. I’ve noticed it before in a handful of threads, but I haven’t wondered enough about it to determine the color values or start a thread about it. Just to let you know you’re not alone.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/8 "2000-07-31T22:31:56Z")

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I’ve seen the same thing, too, but I’d always assumed it was a Netscape issue, rather than an SDMB issue. I’ve only seen it here, but then, 90+% of my web browsing and 99+% of the links I’ve seen lately have been here, so I didn’t think much of it.

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**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/9 "2000-08-02T21:30:49Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chronos \*  
> \*\*I’ve seen the same thing, too, but I’d always assumed it was a Netscape issue, rather than an SDMB issue. I’ve only seen it here, but then, 90+% of my web browsing and 99+% of the links I’ve seen lately have been here, so I didn’t think much of it. \*\*

From what I understand, this software does NOT like Netscape. However, I’m not a technical type person. At any rate, if you’ve got IE available, and you can stand to use it, you might try using it for the SDMB. That’s what I do.

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**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-color-thread-topic-links/27464/10 "2000-08-02T23:41:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> At any rate, if you’ve got IE available, and you can stand to use it, you might try using it for the SDMB.

And if you have or download [Opera](http://www.opera.com) you might try using that; perhaps you’ll then wonder, as I do, how people can _ever_ look at a message board with an SDI browser. Slide the main window to the upper right corner, scan down the list for anything interesting, \<Control-Shift-Click\> (open link in new window and leave the original window with the focus) on anything interesting. I might have 20 windows open while researching an answer. It’s the True Path\<grin\>.