is Flyertalk unstable?
 

Just curious to know if anyone else has issues with the Flyertalk BA website?
I use Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 11, and frequently have issues with this website (but not with others).
A routine example is that for me, the page number selection at the top of the threads doesn't work properly. If I have page 1 selected the buttons for 2-9 do not work. If I select page 11, the buttons for12-19 don't work.
The page number selection at the bottom appears to be ok.

I quite often have the page freeze, and also often get a message from Norton saying they have removed a dodgy file wen I first open up Flyertalk.

Other than that my PC runs ok. I have completed comprehensive virus checks and all appears to be clear - but Flyertalk BA is an issue. Anyone else have any problems?

No but some of the posters are :)

pretty unstable after certain DOs and after certain hours (apart from those of us who behave impeccably at all times).

Often get slow running scripts associated with ads.

Ditto, I suspect the main site is OK but the adds seem troublesome. I do not expect to see the 'You are the 1000th visitor to this site' type of persistent window popping up on a reputable site.......... JT

I've had something similar when I browse on my ipad with regards the numbers at the top (but notably not at the bottom).

What I have put it down to is there is an advert which isn't properly rendering - it's got a bunch of text which is hanging down over that section of the website and preventing a touch on the numbers area.

Doesn't affect me on the desktop as I'm running ........

I use two machines to access FT.

One has ....... and ft is fine , fast and easy to access.

Another hasn't ....... loaded. Ft becomes slow, difficult and I sometimes impossible to access.

THe ads for what ever reasons do seem to cause problems.

The flash ads have become a real problem on FT. I have disabled flash which has fixed the issue.

I would suggest you post in the below threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...een-shots.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...alk-today.html

Yes! completely agree. Becoming unusable unless its the only thing open. I think its something to do with video advertising content thats trying to load - and on safari it tries to open right where the page numbers are. Its very annoying.

it's certainly the adverts. I find it on other sites and forums as well, highly annoying.

I have had very similar experience recently, with FT becoming super slow/unusable and locking up IE11. (Windows 7)

I modified my HOSTs file and it has made the world of difference - much faster rendering of FT BA.

So it does seem somehow related to the ads.

YMMV.

I would consider support an ad-free paid version of the site

They should just charge $10 a year to remove the ads... Like they used to :)

Get rid of Internet Explorer and use Firefox (or maybe Chrome).

Quite, and I'd happily pay that. There appears to be another suggestion though on the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...een-shots.html thread referred to in post #9 above; banning anyone who suggests using, or actually uses, ad blockers.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictu...46009/Browsers

I would suggest something other than IE - I find the others much more reliable and faster.

In Firefox the page loads okay but the whirly thing takes a while to stop.

I seem to be having all sorts of problems with Firefox lately. Regular ''Not Responding'' messages have been driving me mad. Time to uninstall it and move back to IE I think.

The intrusive slow loading ads need to be addressed by the IT folks; many users are reporting the same problems. I think almost all of us would be happy to see the ads if they weren't so distracting and disruptive to loading.

I'd suggest just loading the newest version of FF, maybe after fully deleting the old version. IE is still kludgy IME.

They should just ban the adds.

I would tend to agree with respect to the annoying animated ads. FT bans animated GIFs on the boards, apparently because they are distracting.

The company obviously needs to be able to use ads to support FT, so I don't begrudge them regular static ads; it's the bandwidth intensive annoying animated ones which are really egregious.

Especially those with sound :mad:

Again, I would recommend all those complaining to post in the below threads in the FT Technical Support Feedback section so that the complaints can be properly addressed.

I find I cannot acces the page numbers at the top of the page as an ad is partially obscuring these, although can be seen behind the ad itself. Hence why you cannot click on these.

Worth setting posts per page to 40 in settings as this means less pages to worry about.

Good idea, but I think that the only way to force this is if a mod puts those links in again and then locks the thread before anyone else posts.

It would be interesting to see how many people would be willing to pay to browse FT?
I wouldn't pay to browse this site Flyertalk would end up being HIDDY free.....that'd make quite a few people happy I imagine.

I'm sure FT would comp it to you just to keep you here.;)

I guess a lot wouldn't, but I'd pay a tenner. I'm pretty sure that there would be a mass exodus though if ad blockers were banned and there was no paid ad-free option. I'd be first in the queue.

It's more to do with the type of ads now. More videos that have sound.
Others that can hide or decrease functionality on certain devices.

Most people wouldn't object to them if they weren't overly intrusive - and they have become so.

Yep, it's getting out of control. I just viewed another couple of other forums on Safari on my iPad and it was crazy; ads everywhere. Up until now I haven't been too bothered on my iOS devices, but this pushed me over the edge and I immediately searched for a blocker. The ....... Browser app is now installed on my iPhone and iPad (it was £3.99 I think).

Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs...

This thread has been moved to the Technical Support and Feedback forum.

FYI, Internet Brands follows a protocol whereby if a member uses this site to publicly recommend the use of adblockers to others, the member may face a formal warning.

Prospero
Moderator: BA forum

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the reports of ads causing issues on FT.

First, please do follow the advice of those in this thread who have recommended reporting specific ads in the proper thread, with screen shots:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...een-shots.html

Screen shots are generally the only way for us to identify an ad enough to get it blocked.

Second, as Prospero indicated, the promotion of technologies to circumvent ad displays is prohibited on FT. If you have any questions, please address them directly to me.

When you do report a bad ad, please indicate your geographical region, your device type and browser version. This can all help in resolving the issue you're experiencing.

Lastly, I highly recommend two things:

1. Do not use Internet Explorer
2. Do use Google Chrome (or Firefox)

Thank you for your patience!

Paul
Community Manager

odd. anyone else?

if already on page 2+, can manually change page number in url.

So.....
Tonight when I logged in I got tis message:
http://i61.tinypic.com/219w3z6.jpg

Typically that is a bad browser cookie. It's possible the cookie is associated in your browser with FT. Run your AV and clear your cache/cookies.

If you can screen shot the entire page when you see that, it might tell us if there is an issue with an ad.

That's a pity, I edited the pic to post it!
I routinely clear cache and cookies - every time I boot up and close down.
Since booting up this evening Flyertalk is the only website I have visited.

Edit : just completed a quick scan using Norton and nothing found

I too had an ad appear when using chrome on my HTC One and was opening a number of threads on the BAEC forum. The ad was stating my phone was infected.

I closed chrome, restarted phone and deleted cookies. No reoccurrence so far.

Ive had ads auto redirect me from ft before as well (most recent safari on iphone 4s). Curiously enough it happened again when i clicked on this very thread earlier today! Oddly it doesnt redirect to any seeming dodgy websites, often just the apple appstore. If it happens again i'll try to get screenshots as i have no idea which ad was the dodgy one. Good luck catching whoever is uploading them.

That's an exploit that Apple has yet to be willing to address. There's not much we have been able to do about that one.

Some companies do not allow people to add onto their work computers different internet access programmes. So they have to use IE or whatever their company allows.

Are FT still supporting the use of Flash considering today's complete blocking of Flash by Firefox (not pausing videos, not click to play, but completely blocked. Not old version, current version too). Flash has had and continues to have serious vulnerabilities on a continual basis - the below is a link to search results at the National Vulnerability Database right now for Flash - over 50 individual vulnerabilities, almost all of them with a severity score of 10.0.

https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/s...months&cves=on

Using Flash is a serious risk for users. I would urge FT to review their stance/policy/intransigence on the usage of Flash.