# The SDMB is switching to HTTPS **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 7, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808 "2017-12-07T18:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/41 "2017-12-13T00:55:19Z")
Did something recently break with this? In the last hour, the site isn’t loading style pages with the HTTPS address, so pages are an unformatted mess. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/42 "2017-12-13T21:24:55Z")
FYI, the site is a horrible mess for me in Chrome + HTTPS. None of the post formatting controls are available (they show up as plain black text, no link or icon) and the reply buttons show up like this: Reply With QuoteReply With Quote Multi-Quote This MessageMulti Quote Quick reply to this messageQuick Reply (where the second portion is a plain unadorned hyperlink that actually performs the function). None of these problems appear if I view the site through http://… ETA: it’s probably related to TroutMan’s issue above, but it’s been going on for me since yesterday. not just in the last hour. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/43 "2017-12-13T21:35:46Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > ETA: it’s probably related to TroutMan’s issue above, but it’s been going on for me since yesterday. not just in the last hour. ignore this. It would help if I would check time of the post first. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/44 "2017-12-13T21:58:55Z")
Am I supposed to be getting re-directed to https? I still have http for the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/45 "2017-12-13T22:21:02Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Am I supposed to be getting re-directed to https? I still have http for the Dope. Same here. This thread’s URL (right now) is: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844051&page=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844051&page=2) No https. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/46 "2017-12-15T21:47:46Z")
Still no redirect for me, either. Firefox reports this is not a secure connection. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/47 "2017-12-15T22:05:59Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) redirects to https for me. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/48 "2017-12-15T22:58:43Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > [http://boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) redirects to https for me. Interesting. I wonder if this is because I use a bookmark to get here. When I clicked on your link, it worked as expected. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/49 "2017-12-15T23:25:40Z")
HTTPS also prevents ISPs from injecting ads and other fuckery into your pages. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/50 "2017-12-15T23:56:24Z")
@ **Bullitt** & **Morgyn** : Yeah. It seems pretty clear that if you navigate directly to the base address of [boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) using http you’ll be redirected to that same address via https. But if you navigate directly to \*any \*specific page address within the site using http, you’ll remain using http as you click from link to link. Which makes complete sense for how this stuff is usually wired up in the server. @ **Derleth** : It would if SDMB did it right. I get warnings and blockings when using SDMB via https because they’re letting all kinds of cross-domain crap in there. IMO https is useless if you (the browser) allow cross-domain content or you (the server) expect to serve it and have anyone receive it. Screen door meet submarine. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/51 "2017-12-16T02:03:30Z")
If you click “New posts” you get a list of non-https links to threads, so I think if you reached a boards page by clicking on a search result, it will be non-secure. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/52 "2017-12-16T02:54:51Z")
John our tech guy made some code tweaks he thinks will solve many if not all problems. He’s taking the weekend off, so please report any persistent issues and he’ll resume bug eradication on Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/53 "2017-12-16T02:57:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > @ **Bullitt** & **Morgyn** : Yeah. It seems pretty clear that if you navigate directly to the base address of [boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) using http you’ll be redirected to that same address via https. > > But if you navigate directly to \*any \*specific page address within the site using http, you’ll remain using http as you click from link to link. > > Which makes complete sense for how this stuff is usually wired up in the server. > @ **Derleth** : It would if SDMB did it right. I get warnings and blockings when using SDMB via https because they’re letting all kinds of cross-domain crap in there. IMO https is useless if you (the browser) allow cross-domain content or you (the server) expect to serve it and have anyone receive it. Screen door meet submarine. Yep. The link to your post is http, not https. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20668580&postcount=50](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20668580&postcount=50) Is that a problem, or is it working as designed? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/54 "2017-12-16T04:34:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’ve just tried the https set-up. No oddities on nav that I’ve found. Though I didn’t venture far. Because … > > I’ve set IE 11 to warn about any non-secure content on an https page. And I get that warning on every page view. https is a screen-doored submarine unless 100% of a page’s content is served that way. So I’m not going to switch that warning off. > > Which means I’ll be using http for the foreseeable future. > > The board \*can \*get configured into a legitimately secured config. But it’ll be a bit of a PITA for the IT folks. Good luck and best wishes. Thanks, LSLGuy, for explaining this. I’ve been getting the same warnings on IE 11. And I’m still getting them today, presumably after John’s tweaks have been implemented. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/55 "2017-12-16T08:45:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Preaching to the converted, are we? 😃 As a matter of fact, this machine is running Linux. (ETA: Fuck Windows!) The box itself is about 10+ years old, has all of ONE Gig of memory (almost), Ubuntu Ver. 9.10, Firefox is about equally as old. Last time I tried upgrading (several years ago), it crashed incessantly (some hardware incompatibility apparently), so I re-installed everything that I had just wiped out and haven’t upgraded anything for years. > > Little by little as various web sites get updated, more and more of them don’t work for me. This pisses me off because most of the stuff that doesn’t work consists of HTML/CSS/JavaScript stuff that worked perfectly well in older versions, and they don’t need to be using all the newest versions of HTML/CSS/JS just because they can! Hey, c’mon, simple buttons have worked since Day One, and still do, and they don’t need to write fancy-schmancy custom button code just to do what a simple button has always done. So my attitude is screw those sites. > > In fact, this has forced me to discover that paying my credit cards by phone instead of on-line not only works, but is actually faster and easier! Oooh, ok. Only one gig of ram. You might benefit from NoScript, if you aren’t using it already. When I was limping an old laptop along around the time your machine was new, I became addicted to it. Finding out which scripts to allow to get the content you want can sometimes be a pain in the ass, but it’s fantastic at lowering the memory requirements of Firefox. > [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > John our tech guy made some code tweaks he thinks will solve many if not all problems. He’s taking the weekend off, so please report any persistent issues and he’ll resume bug eradication on Monday. It looks like John did some good work. I’m able to browse via https without issue at the moment. I’m posting this from an https url. Thanks, John! ETA: After posting, I was redirected to a http url. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/56 "2017-12-16T14:09:21Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > HTTPS also prevents ISPs from injecting ads and other fuckery into your pages. Also stops ISPs from caching web pages. Works great if _everything_ on the web is set up correctly. In other words, hardly works at all. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/57 "2017-12-16T21:08:57Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Yep. The link to your post is http, not https. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20668580&postcount=50](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20668580&postcount=50) > > Is that a problem, or is it working as designed? We’re not communicating. Let me try again, simplifying just a smidgen. Rule #1: If you start your browser by going to http://{anyplace at SDMB} you’ll remain using http for entire duration of that browsing session. Rule #2: If you start your browser by going to http **s** ://{anyplace at SDMB} you’ll remain using http **s** for entire duration of that browsing session. Rule #3: So you’re entire browsing session will always be in one mode or the other and there’s no link you can click that will change from one to the other. There is exactly one exception to the rules above: Rule #4: If you go to exactly “[http://boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com)” then that will automatically switch you to http **s** before you see that very first page. There are no other pages that behave this way. Thereafter rule #2 will apply to your browsing session. Bottom line: everything depends on how you first get to the Dope. Depending on what links or cached results or personal favorites or Google searches you use to get here will control everything else that happens next. Note what I’ve described here assumes that John \*et al \*have gotten everything rigged up perfectly. There may be a gap in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/58 "2017-12-16T21:37:54Z")
So if I don’t feel like changing my shortcuts is that going to be a problem for The Dope or can I just happily ignore this new development? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/59 "2017-12-16T22:19:58Z")
My bet is … You can, like me, ignore it until they eventually do something to change things. Right now https is opt-in and ignorable. At some future date they might A) prevent http:// links from working at all or B) they’ll rescind my rule #1 and make everything always switch to https if it isn’t already. So Rule #4 will apply to every page, not just that special one. If I had to bet, I’d bet on B in a few months. Or, since this will require new advertising vendors, they’ll park the whole project just as it is and leave it half done. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808/60 "2017-12-19T16:22:24Z")
I shouldn’t browse SDMB when I’m at work, but… I get a ‘secure content’ warning every single page. Even after I click ‘Show all content’, I get the warning when I go back to the page. What a pain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sdmb-is-switching-to-https/803808.md?page=4)