# Recent changes in the SDMB? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 19, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319 "2003-08-19T23:05:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/1 "2003-08-19T23:05:56Z")
Folks, after returning from a one-week vacation, I see that the little slider bars on the right are now purple, and more important, if I don’t write my post fast enough, I find out the connection is “timed out,” whatever that actually means. Is this a way of making the board more available to more people? Is it a solution to the slowness and occasional impossibility of even reaching the board? How much time, exactly, do we have to try to get our thoughts together? I like to think as I type. I hope this solution is not just another problem. And where is the info on these changes? thanks. xo C. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/2 "2003-08-19T23:35:05Z")
The scroll bars have been purple for some time. I suspect you just didn’t notice before. It makes no difference how long it takes you to compose your post. Any similarity between the time it takes you to compose a post and the occurrence of the “timed out” message is purely coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/3 "2003-08-19T23:38:15Z")
I noticed the purple slider bars last year (or so) after one of the upgrades. I’m used to it now, I guess. If you have timeout problems, **CC** , have you tried composing your post in a program like Word or Notepad, then copy/pasting into the posting box? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/4 "2003-08-19T23:48:11Z")
The slider bars only change color if you’re using IE6.x (or some versions of Mozilla). Have you upgraded your computer recently? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/5 "2003-08-20T05:36:31Z")
I was going to say. My IE scroll bars are still the same turquoise they’ve always been. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/6 "2003-08-20T11:54:42Z")
The scroll bars? Mine’s grey, just like my default settings. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/7 "2003-08-20T13:03:24Z")
The page uses non-standard CSS to specify the color of the scroll bars. Not every browser will show it. I use Netscape and they’re gray. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/8 "2003-08-20T20:00:12Z")
You folks must be using some other OS. On mine, scroll bars are a property of the OS and its settings, not of the browser software or the web page’s stylesheets. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/9 "2003-08-20T20:41:53Z")
Yes, I upgraded my browser to IE6x. That explains the colors. But what about “Connection Timed Out”? Is that a function of the browswer, too? I never had that problem before. Have there, indeed, been some changes to the board? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/10 "2003-08-21T00:44:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > You folks must be using some other OS. On mine, scroll bars are a property of the OS and its settings, not of the browser software or the web page’s stylesheets. In Windows anyway, the _default_ scrollbars are a property of the OS, but programs can override them. Netscape has a number of different “skins” which change the appearance of things including the scroll bars. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/11 "2003-08-21T02:48:54Z")
I didn’t know Windows did that. I’m on a Mac (9 not X) and scrollbars are always as set in the Appearance Control Panel. I suppose someone could write a program that ignores the scrollbar-drawing toolbox calls and codes their own damn toolbars – someone like Kai Krause of Kai’s Power Tools fame – but in general it simply isn’t done. It would be nonstandard and in violation of GUI interface guidelines. I certainly didn’t know web page code had the ability to code for scroll bar colors. First I’ve ever heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/12 "2003-08-21T03:53:29Z")
As I said, it’s not standard. It makes use of the properties “scrollbar-base-color” and “scrollbar-arrow-color”, which don’t appear in any CSS recommendation. I believe that these were first implemented in IE, but maybe some other browsers are picking them up. With the CSS3 box module currently in development, they’re discussing whether to include it in the CSS3 recommendation. Here’s what I was able to find ([cf. section 16](http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-box/)): > [@](#): > > Do we want to give the designer control over what kind of scrolling mechanism is provided? Or where it is positioned? In that case we should also provide ways to set the color of the visible parts of that mechanism, e.g:[ul]scroller: scrollbar | panner | invisible > scroller-color: \ > scroller-background: \ > scroller-position: [top | bottom | left | right | center]{1,2}[/ul] Now of course, CSS implementation is completely dependent on the user agent, the browser. So even if these make it into the recommendation, browsers are free to ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-changes-in-the-sdmb/196319/13 "2003-08-21T05:23:37Z")
You can fiddle with the connection settings. If you set everything to remember as much as possible, as often as possible (this will make sense when you see the choices) you will still get the time outs, but not as quickly or as often. If you are like me, that is. 😉