Please don’t invent answers to problems when you really don’t know what’s going on.
If I had to guess I’d say it has something to do with ads.
But Tuba, that’s just it. It’s not just my experience. You have multiple users using multiple browsers (firefox, opera, and whatever SiamSam is using) all experiencing the same problem at your site and your site only. Don’t just hand wave and blame the problem on the users. The problem is site specific. Turns out, it IS on your end.
Can I be any more clear than that?
Seems to be a Guest thing, which would lend further credence to something to do with ads.
I’m having the same problem, in Firefox. Only on this site. Clicking “back” does nothing. I have to click on the “recent pages” list and go back two or three to get to the previous page.
I just tried it using Chrome. Couldn’t duplicate the problem. Apparently, it is an issue between Firefox and this message board.
Oops. My apologies to SDMB. Now it is NOT happening here (with Firefox or with Chrome), but it IS happening elsewhere, like at IMDb. Must be something about the phase of the moon…TRM
Same problem, this site only, firefox, intermittent.
No, I’m a member and don’t get ads.
I use just the regular Internet Explorer.
I tried replicating this issue, but was unable to replicate it on Firefox 3.5.5 on Windows 7 with no extensions (logged in with no ads and logged out with ads). My back button works fine on this site.
According to this site it could be a conflict between Adobe Flash plugin and Firefox:
I tried installing and uninstalling Adobe Flash and my FF back button works fine for me in both instances.
Can anyone who is seeing this issue on Firefox disable or uninstall the Adobe Flash plugin and then try to replicate this issue?
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the Adobe Flash plugin. See if that helps. Try upgrading to the latest version of Opera. See if that helps.
I’ve merged Merijeek’s thread with this one, as they seem to be the same issue.
-xash
Administrator
This could also be linked to how Firefox handles browser caching, which might be causing the “double loading”:
“Firefox uses in-memory caching for entire Web pages, including their JavaScript states, for a single browser session. Going backward and forward between visited pages requires no page loading and the JavaScript states are preserved. This feature, referred to by some as bfcache (for “Back-Forward Cache”), makes page navigation very fast. This caching state is preserved until the user closes the browser.”
To fix this, try disabling Firefox browser caching:
Instructions here:
http://psychnet.psych.ucla.edu/tutorials/web-browser-issues-configuration/how-to-disable-your-browser-cache
Why won’t my “back” button work on the STMB
Because you can never go back son.
xash, thanks for doing an administors job. I was beginning to wonder about TubaDiva.
This may be a hard problem to track down, though. It is site specific, but it is also intermittent. And how can you test something when it’s intermittent? My second truck has an electrical problem. But the damn gremlin is intermittent so every time I take a multimeter to it… it works! But after I put the meter back in the toolbox, the damn Gremlin comes back.
Anywho, I wanted to bring this particular board gremlin to your attention, and I am very appreciative that you’re actually looking for the bug.
Oh, I formatted this machine last week and I don’t even have Adobe Flash, so that ain’t it. The browser cache? Don’t know, that could be the problem. But the gremlin IS site specific, so… well… just keep looking on your end.
One other thing, it’s working today no problem. I haven’t even done anything. Next time the problems comes up maybe I’ll just wave my multimeter at it. Gremlins don’t seem to like those.
Bugs are often not as straightforward as that. The fact that the bug is seen on this site does not mean that the bug is primarily caused by this site. It just means that there is a flaw in the code or design of one or more pieces of software that are interacting with this site and/or local browser settings and/or a flaw that is introduced when each of these pieces interacts in a specific manner.
For example, if it is a browser caching issue, and the SDMB uses javascripting, and Firefox caches the scripting and preserves state without refreshing the state between page loads, which then causes the issue, this does not mean that the SDMB is necessarily the problem. It could well be a design issue with the way Firefox handles caching. You might then say “but it only happens on this site”. Well, it might be happening on this site, but that does not mean it only happens on this site. It probably also happens on other sites which use a certain combination of software and/or settings that the SDMB uses, many of which you might not be visiting. To compound the issue, not everyone using this site with Firefox is seeing the issue (and it’s not happening on other browsers, save one report), so it is not necessarily, and certainly not primarily, a site specific issue. The SDMB certainly appears to be part of the issue, but not the whole of it.
Therefore, if this is an issue with the way Firefox handles the browser cache (assuming that’s the root cause), that’s an issue that Firefox should be fixing. If it happens on vBulletin boards only, that’s an issue vBulletin should be working with Firefox to fix. If it happens only on the SDMB, and can be traced to a specific setting that the SDMB uses, then the SDMB could look into changing that specific setting.
You probably know this, but I just wanted to address it for anyone else reading this as well. There is a distinction in each of these scenarios, and I hope everyone understands that.
-xash
Administrator
Thanks.
Could you try disabling the Firefox browser cache if/when you see this issue again, and see if it still happens?
I’m not sure if this means anything, but here goes:
A few weeks ago a poster asked here on this board what was going on with their back button on cracked.com. What is was was widgets from huffingtonpost.com were loading and preventing the back button from working. I use IE and they were affecting my back button as well. If you go there now, everything works fine (for me anyway).
You’re welcome. And I will, but first…
That’s a damn good point. I never thought about checking that, but the SDMB is the only vBulletin site I regularly go to. If it happens again, I’ll log on to some other board, see if I have the same problem, and then send you a message. I’ll also try the cache thing, though I’m skeptical.
vBulletin, though… I wonder if that might be it.
Goddamn, I HATE intermittent gremlins. Even if you hunt the damn thing down, it’s not like you can skin it and barbecue it. Not enough meat on 'em. They seem to be made of vapor. Anyway…
Thanks again, xash.
Now wait just a minute. How can we be held responsible for what’s on your computer?
Might be a different story if we had implemented changes on the site – a software upgrade, for example – but we have done nothing of late. It’s the same message board software t’s been for quite a while now, so any changes in your experience could not originate from us.
So what was different? Your experience. Your machine? Your browser? Nothing here. To expect us to solve your problem – a problem we cannot even duplicate in our experience here on the board – that’s not reasonable.
What’s -reasonable, Tubadiva, is for someone from the site to at least lend a hand in diagnosing the problem.
So it’s your assertion that it’s “not your problem” when a bunch of people report a problem using the board?
Is it not in the board’s best interest to at least investigate the issue like Xash did?
Do you actually care about the user’s experience here?
:rolleyes: