# X? Y? What do these have to do with forums? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 1, 2002, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779 "2002-08-01T00:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/1 "2002-08-01T00:08:25Z")
So I’m browsing the boards today, and I notice the following url for the pit: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=5&x=11&y=14](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=5&x=11&y=14) I understand everything except the last two parameters. What in blue blazes are x and y, and why should they affect how I see a forum? Do they show up when I’m not cookied? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/2 "2002-08-01T16:43:59Z")
I checked, and there’s no x and y when I’m not cookied. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/3 "2002-08-01T21:01:04Z")
It isn’t because of the cookies. It’s the pixel coordinates of exactly where you clicked on the image of the ‘go’ button. The browser sends them along with the form that is used for the forum jump or sort menus, because their submit button is an image. The server might want to evaluate them and give different responses for different parts of a map, for instance. Doesn’t make sense for a simple ‘go’ button, though. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/4 "2002-08-01T21:16:49Z")
OK, thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/5 "2002-08-01T21:28:26Z")
The software includes those links when you click on the “go” button next to the “Forum Jump:” field (position of the go button in that field I guess) but not when you click on an URL. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/6 "2002-08-01T21:42:51Z")
I was wrong; they do show up when I’m not cookied. ---
**Author:** ![milquetoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@milquetoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milquetoast)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/7 "2002-08-02T11:55:01Z")
I never click on the **Go** button. I simply choose my forum from the drop down list and away we go. Is that related to cookies? Or could it have something to do with my OS and browser (Windows 2000/IE 5.0) (I don’t get the x and y coordinate info in the URL when I jump forums) ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/8 "2002-08-02T14:33:49Z")
There’s an “onchange” attribute in the form of the forum jump select box. For people having JavaScript enabled in their browser, making a selection automatically executes an instruction that will jump to the new location (bypassing the browser-added x/y). ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-y-what-do-these-have-to-do-with-forums/121779/9 "2002-08-02T21:45:45Z")
Right, but if you want to jump to the forum that’s already displayed, you have to pick the “go” button. Of course, you could scroll up to to the top of the window and pick on the URL there, but who wants to do all that work?