Unreadable posts caused by publicity

_blackhole_ · Yesterday, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike1950r

BTW if logged in, the publicity is still there.

You should never see any whilst logged in, but you are running what looks like Windows XP and an ancient version of Firefox... so who can say...

Official support for Windows XP ended nearly 10 years ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20120720...pha=Windows+XP

Mozilla ended support for XP (and Vista) in Firefox 53.0 back in 2017.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo.../releasenotes/

Quote:

Windows XP and Vista are no longer supported. XP and Vista users running Firefox 52 will continue to receive security updates on Firefox ESR 52.

boughtonp · Yesterday, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _blackhole_

you are running what looks like Windows XP and an ancient version of Firefox... so who can say...

I can say they're definitely not running Windows XP, and I see no evidence of that Firefox version being ancient.

It's Windows 7 with the Classic theme, and a Firefox version between v70 and v115.

(Microsoft no longer support Windows 7, but Mozilla is supporting it via Firefox 115 ESR for another four months.)

I'm not sure if it's relevant that the padlock isn't green? Maybe that indicates an incorrect certificate because the connection is being hijacked and the ISP inserting adverts - which is the appropriate English word here, "adverts", "advertisements" or "advertising", but not "publicity". In any case, clicking the padlock should bring up a dialog to allow verifying that.

Visiting the site in IE or Edge might help confirm whether Firefox itself has been compromised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by _blackhole_

New users who come here looking for help, finding this site via a search engine, only to be presented with what amounts to an utter mess, with huge ads actually embedded in the posts, probably won't stick around for long. It presents the site as a "low value" result. If I had seen LQ in that state back in 2005, I would have moved along. Nowadays its more likely they will - to the plethora of alternatives. I fully understand the site needs revenue, but the ads should not be positioned to as to be intrusive, distracting and disruptive to the layout.

I really hope that screenshot isn't actually representative of what LQ looks like to the average visitor...? :/

_blackhole_ · Yesterday, 08:52 AM

Yes my mistake... thanks for pointing that out.

(I can clearly see the "hamburger", the shield, button styles - as well as obvious Windows 7 unthemed start button, sys tray icons, MS Edge icon, numerous other clues, etc, etc...

)

I think the padlock is how it should be. I use the dark theme in Firefox these days, but I have a white outline padlock, (in whichever OS), which is a black one when using the light theme.

Perhaps your green one is the result of some theme?

Edit:

Looking at the OP's screen again - they were definitely logged in when those ads appeared, as the "Quote" and "Report" buttons can be seen along with the "did you find this post helpful?" reputation thing.

I suspect that some cookie controls this for logged in users, vs guests, and it may that the OP is refusing that particular cookie. Maybe clear the cookies and browser cache, to start with, log in again and see if that resolves it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by boughtonp

I really hope that screenshot isn't actually representative of what LQ looks like to the average visitor...? :/

Log out, exit firefox and try for yourself:

Code:

% firefox --safe-mode https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/