Forum display "from the Stone Age"

[alison]

The last few times I've tried accessing this forum using the Royal Opera House wifi, I get what I'd now regard as a "20th century layout" - a basic text page with all the "boxed" letters which replace avatars coming up absolutely gigantic - rather than the forum as it usually looks.  I don't appear to have the problem with other websites.  Does anyone else find this when using a tablet or laptop?

[alison]

Horrid: I'm starting to wonder if it's something inherent to this laptop/browser (IE11), because I don't usually get it with my older machines and I'm now getting it at home as well. Makes the entire site virtually unusable.

 

Edit: Okay, I'm guessing it's maybe a combination of this forum software and a Windows 8.1/IE8 computer because I'm getting the same thing on another forum which uses the same software. I can't even post a screengrab from here.

[alison]

There didn't appear to be anything in the cache to clear, but even after doing so the problem is still there.

[John Mallinson]

Have you tried different browsers?

[alison]

No, I only have the one browser on that laptop, and don't have room for any more.  It's only recently it's started happening, too.  I did think at one stage it was just because the broadband/wi-fi signal was poor, but now I'm not so sure.  Will try and copy my screen grab over from the other computer so I can post it here.

[Lizbie1]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but IE8 (as well as I think IE9 and IE10) has been out of support by Microsoft for a good 18 months now, and many (if not most) applications providers have followed suit by no longer testing on it. You should probably expect things only to get worse

 

Not good news for those who can't upgrade, I know!

[alison]

Sorry, mental block there - I meant IE11.  This is what I mean:

 

 

[John Mallinson]

I've had similar problems from time to time on other websites but not Balletco. I assume that the Style sheets (CSS) are not being applied for some reason, hence it drops back to a rather primitive html appearance. I can ask around. 

 

IE11 with Windows 10 works fine on my machine. Which version of Windows do you have?

[alison]

This machine is 8.1.

[alison]

I am now DESPERATE to get this sorted, if anyone has any more ideas!

[John Mallinson]

I've enquired of the powers that be and they can only suggest clearing caches and restarting. Have you any extensions or addons installed? (AdBlock has been implicated by some people with similar problems.) There's discussion of this here, though I don't understand the half of it. There's also stuff here about compatibility issues with IE11.

[alison]

Well, this is interesting.  I'm currently on IE11 in the library, and can access the site fine, so obviously it's not simply an IE11 problem, not that I ever thought it was.  I have twice managed to access the forum "properly" on the laptop - but only ever when I'm not logged in.  The minute I log in, we're back to the HTML thing again, which is not much use.

 

I have - as far as I know - cleared my cache several times to no effect.  I hadn't installed any extensions or add-ons.  I did disable some of the existing add-ons, including Shockwave, and thought for a moment that had done the trick, but the next time I visited the site it was HTML again.  So I suppose I could delete the cookie that keeps me logged in, but that's not a lot of help either.

[alison]

I've taken a piece of advice given to me on another topic and downloaded PortableApps' "portable" Firefox browser.  That at least allows me to get on the forum, but doesn't solve the original problem.