Tower on Fire thingy screwing up the site?

[boojam]

It's clearly an ad issue. Please report what ad is appearing that is messing things up so that we can get that fixed.

It's true on my IPAD there is a Nissan ad punching in , running OS8.

On Windows 7 in Firefox it looks as if the ad is blocked but page loads only the tower, a refresh clears it.

[The Ned's Little Girl]

It's clearly an ad issue. Please report what ad is appearing that is messing things up so that we can get that fixed.

I'm not sure it's a particular ad, at least not for me. There are two usual occurences.

1. The page shows only the graphic of the burning tower and nothing else. This happens about 85% of the time. I can briefly see the Westeros "W" logo and the "Latest News", but it is quickly covered by the picture of the tower.

ETA: the ad's blue triangle arrow appears on top of the tower picture. Hovering the cursor expands it to "AdChoices (blue arrow)" and clicking on the arrow opens the box that explains how they chose that ad especially for me. I tested it three times each on Chrome and IE and each time it eas a Comcast ad.

2. The page loads with the ad panel on the left, but the burning tower is transposed to the right of the ad, on top of and blocking the listing of topics, which cannot be accessed as clicking on them does nothing.

ETA again: on these occasions it is various ads that are displayed in the ad panel.

On the rare occasions that the page loads correctly, the first click to open a topic causes the problem to re-occur, 100% of the time.

Only on extremely rare occasions does a page refresh correct the problem, at least for me. Statistically, a reload corrects the problem 0% of the time.

I'm far from a web designer, but I hope this is helpful anyway. Perhaps it's the tower picture that is the problem. Would removing that temporarily be beneficial?

Once again thank you very much for continuing to research this issue.

[White Harbors Wrath]

May as well start listing the ads. It's been terrible lately.

1. Nissan Ad

2. Samsung Galaxy Ad

3. ATT ad...but not every time....which leads me to think it's not simply specific ads.

4. Taxact ad

[DreamSongs]

I'm not sure it's a particular ad, at least not for me. There are two usual occurences.

1. The page shows only the graphic of the burning tower and nothing else. This happens about 85% of the time. I can briefly see the Westeros "W" logo and the "Latest News", but it is quickly covered by the picture of the tower.

ETA: the ad's blue triangle arrow appears on top of the tower picture. Hovering the cursor expands it to "AdChoices (blue arrow)" and clicking on the arrow opens the box that explains how they chose that ad especially for me. I tested it three times each on Chrome and IE and each time it eas a Comcast ad.

2. The page loads with the ad panel on the left, but the burning tower is transposed to the right of the ad, on top of and blocking the listing of topics, which cannot be accessed as clicking on them does nothing.

ETA again: on these occasions it is various ads that are displayed in the ad panel.

On the rare occasions that the page loads correctly, the first click to open a topic causes the problem to re-occur, 100% of the time.

Only on extremely rare occasions does a page refresh correct the problem, at least for me. Statistically, a reload corrects the problem 0% of the time.

I'm far from a web designer, but I hope this is helpful anyway. Perhaps it's the tower picture that is the problem. Would removing that temporarily be beneficial?

Once again thank you very much for continuing to research this issue.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!

[Ser Creighton]

Still going on and getting worse, have no idea what is causing it.

I'm not sure it's a particular ad, at least not for me. There are two usual occurences.

1. The page shows only the graphic of the burning tower and nothing else. This happens about 85% of the time. I can briefly see the Westeros "W" logo and the "Latest News", but it is quickly covered by the picture of the tower.

ETA: the ad's blue triangle arrow appears on top of the tower picture. Hovering the cursor expands it to "AdChoices (blue arrow)" and clicking on the arrow opens the box that explains how they chose that ad especially for me. I tested it three times each on Chrome and IE and each time it eas a Comcast ad.

2. The page loads with the ad panel on the left, but the burning tower is transposed to the right of the ad, on top of and blocking the listing of topics, which cannot be accessed as clicking on them does nothing.

ETA again: on these occasions it is various ads that are displayed in the ad panel.

On the rare occasions that the page loads correctly, the first click to open a topic causes the problem to re-occur, 100% of the time.

Only on extremely rare occasions does a page refresh correct the problem, at least for me. Statistically, a reload corrects the problem 0% of the time.

I'm far from a web designer, but I hope this is helpful anyway. Perhaps it's the tower picture that is the problem. Would removing that temporarily be beneficial?

Once again thank you very much for continuing to research this issue.

It's pretty much this but for me a reload will sometimes correct the issue. Not sure how to explain it but on a rare occasion it will work fine, then there is a middle ground were I have to reload a lot. When it's during these times where constant reload is required the problem will either be getting better or worse. Then there is not working at all. So it can go from not working at all for long periods of time, to reloads suddenly help but I have to do them a lot, and then to the board working pretty much normal for a bit and then back. Time of day when it happens seems random at first it mostly happened at night and morning, now it can be at any time. Using PC to post now, it's really my only way to visit the forum.

[Ran]

Can I get a run down of what device, what OS version, and what viewer(s) people are using?

[The Ned's Little Girl]

I'm using a Windows 8 desktop, with Chrome and I can switch to IE if needed on the same PC. Both browsers are up to date.

In addition I use a Nexus 7 tablet, running Chrome.

I have no problems with my Android phone using Tapatalk (I think?), nor with the standard web browser on my Nook Color e-reader (also Tapatalk?).

[boojam]

Can I get a run down of what device, what OS version, and what viewer(s) people are using?

Windows 8 in Firefox when I do an inspect element I see Adclick , not sure if that's it?

[Ser Creighton]

I have an Ipad 3, OS version 8.1.3 Web Browser is Safari.

My PC is just fine on the site, I use Firefox for that.

What ever is going on it's damn strange. I think from now on I will try and post the times it is occuring.

6:43 Central time, asoiaf.westeros.org

Left side of the screen is the Citadel nothing else no Westeros sigil or anything, the rest of the sceen is blank save for a Best Buy add at the bottom, this add does not seem to matter at all when it's working it might be there and when it is not it might be there. Been down since last night for me started around 9:30 to 11:00 I think. Not much since then.

When I do a refresh the Citadel sometimes falshes off and I see the Westeros sigil and latest news with a grey background then the tower pops back.

6:48 PM Refreshed a dozen time and nothing, will try to let you know when it comes back, maybe if I time when the problem happens you will be able to figure it out.

[Ser Creighton]

6:50 PM just got the Forum home page. I think for the first time in a long time. Currently working just fine for my Ipad, will let you know when I lose the site.

[Ser Creighton]

Ok, sometime between 6:50 and 7:18, US central standard I lost it again back to the tower and grey screen.

[Ran]

Thank you for the reports, guys. I will be passing them on. Can anyone else manage to inspect element as boojam has done? Boojam, can you describe where you inspect the element so others can do the same?

For those who have a handle on how to inspect, a screenshot can be helpful in providing more info.

[Tellus Explorer]

If you are still in want of a screenshot, here is what happens when I'm viewing the full website from my cell.

Before this Tower of Joy ad hiccup, I never had a problem viewing the site.

http://i.imgur.com/EWzdHxv.jpg

[boojam]

Thank you for the reports, guys. I will be passing them on. Can anyone else manage to inspect element as boojam has done? Boojam, can you describe where you inspect the element so others can do the same?

For those who have a handle on how to inspect, a screenshot can be helpful in providing more info.

Now I'm not seeing it. Here's what Inspect-Element shows, but right now I am able to access the page.

It is always odd that first there is left hand tower strip, then an ad overlay which is not always the same ad, then what looks like a permanent site overlay with links.

Odd this happens in both Windows 7 and Mac OSx, Firefox or Safari, happens in other browsers under Windows 7.

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[ladyinblack]

Ok, sometime between 6:50 and 7:18, US central standard I lost it again back to the tower and grey screen.

I also have the same problem on my Nook with both Chrome 8 & Firefox. Exactly as described. This has been going on for a couple of weeks.

Last night, even repeated refreshing didn't work.The page just froze after the flaming tower took over.

Damn Hightowers

[Ser Creighton]

Still can't get on using Ipad. Can't use Web Inspector right now, Have a Windows PC so I can't inspect Safari on the Ipad as Windows no longer supports it. Oh well.

[Ran]

Thanks guys for your efforts, and very sorry about this. The most frustrating thing is that I simply have never had the issue. If I could just replicate it, I could dig into things and figure it out, but it's eluding me.

[Tellus Explorer]

Its not as frequent as it used to be for me. Though as others have mentioned before, it continues, and sometimes refreshing doesn't help.

ETA

I was just checking my PM when I got this a few minutes ago.

http://i.imgur.com/zCOvH2r.jpg

[ladyinblack]

Yesterday, the pages loaded perfectly but this morning the burning tower problem is back.

Other posters are describing the sequence very well.

[boojam]

I am on travel and have been in a hotel for three days, using the hotels wifi and am getting zero glitches since being here. I bring my MAC Air with me so running OS 10.9.5 and Safari.

Hard to believe it's an IP address problem.