…and this is a 
IMPORTANT ADMINISTRATIVE QUERY!
Category: Administrative
Posted on: April 2, 2007 10:56 AM, by PZ Myers
A lot of people (really, a lot—I've got a stack of emails on this subject) have been complaining that their browsers routinely crash on loading this site, and a few have been telling me about other peculiarities. The epidemic struck about the time we added the new video ads.
As an experiment, those ads have been at least temporarily pulled from this site. Now we need some important feedback from those of you who have been having problems.
If your browser was formerly crashing and now everything is smooth and sweet and easy, let us know in a comment. That means it was the ads, and we've found the source of the problem.
If your browser was crashing and it's still crashing, send me email if you somehow read this. Otherwise, the complete silence from anyone who has experienced the problem in the past will tell us there is some other source of the problem.
If your browser wasn't crashing with the ads and is now crashing with them gone, we don't want to hear from you, and fortunately you won't be able to comment here, because that result just causes too many headaches.
If your browser didn't crash before and still isn't crashing (like mine), ignore this message. We aren't worried about you.
If you do send me a note about continued problems, it's very useful if you include your OS and version, and the browser you use and its version.
Thanks!
Comments
Although I did not e-mail you, my browser was crashing allt he time recently. It hasn't done so yet for this morning, which is encouraging. OS: windows XP pro, browser: IE 7.0
Posted by: makita | April 2, 2007 11:21 AM
I sometimes crashed when video ads loaded, sometimes not. No current problems, though.
Posted by: Mark | April 2, 2007 11:22 AM
XP w/ all updates, IE7
the only probs I had were having to hit the back arrow twice, sometimes not loading page completely, and not returning to the same location on the previous page. While bothersome, none of these were worth copmplaining about.
Posted by: jufulu | April 2, 2007 11:32 AM
Mine started crashing as soon as the video ads started up, and is not crashing as of their removal. As a matter of fact there was a time when the ads were not working for a brief period, and my browser did just fine.
Actually while I called it crashing, it was not exactly so... what would happen was that I would be redirected to the following monstrous search URL:
http://www.quickbrowsersearch.com/search.cgi?k=YflNczTNW8S4CFtYZQi-auYhcm2ITOfNl2sU4xxGC9OzVULC5SEhNtgm0OYCdzlv6eOt*XlsbdzJ6EaKg4mUrJ4*nfmGPY-ahC4VogDWG8RPPD7fszRs419JTNwXRGgAmnt*QFrF69cPpqmrwMl7xxsnEHfyBgiAG6B-NK6LCWRZNw0mgUbpQK43i2MbRJPxfX8xV2POhfWjy6Z9nS*N
I found I could circumvent the redirect by hitting the stop button until the video ad finished trying to load. Annoying, but at least I could read the blog.
Browser is IE 6.0 and OS is XP Pro
Hope this is useful!
Uncle Don
Posted by: Don Culberson | April 2, 2007 11:32 AM
Mine sometimes would load the page all the way up so I could read it, then a window popped up that said "Internet Explorer failed to open the page." I can't be 100% sure, but I do think it started when the video ads popped up, especially since they seem to be the last thing that my browser loads up.
Hasn't happened today.
Posted by: Fatmop | April 2, 2007 11:32 AM
Failed to note, I run Windows 2000 on a seven-year-old laptop, version 6.0.2800.
Posted by: Fatmop | April 2, 2007 11:34 AM
My FF2 and XP Pro has never had a problem, if that info helps.
Posted by: Stuart Coleman | April 2, 2007 11:39 AM
I am running Windows XP Pro, it never crashed, but it does seem to load faster now.
Posted by: Brian | April 2, 2007 11:41 AM
In my case the page would still try to load even though everything had been loaded. A couple of times the page would just half load. Win Pro w/ IE 7.0.
All is good now w/o the ads.
Posted by: Chaoswes | April 2, 2007 11:45 AM
My browser never crashed on the video ads. However, when scrolling down the page, the scroll speed slowed down noticeably when passing the video ad section, then came back to normal speed on the rest of the page. I've noticed that behavior on a few other sites running video or flash-intensive ads. It happens frequently on the New York Times home page (but not this morning's edition, I just checked).
Win XP/SP2
Firefox 2.0.0.3
Adblocker Plus for Firefox installed
Posted by: Foldedpath | April 2, 2007 11:46 AM
My browser did not crash but slowed down to a crawl when the videos were loading, sometimes to the point I couldn't scroll.
Posted by: Sarda Sahney | April 2, 2007 11:48 AM
Wow. People still USE Explorer? I thought that was the official browser of the 19th century...
Switch to Firefox!
Posted by: DaveX | April 2, 2007 11:52 AM
Mac OS X, Safari 2.0.3: crash crash crash, with the ads. No crash w/o the ads. Further evidence: I just popped over to Respectful Insolence, where the ad was still on the site, and kaboom. Okay, and I do have hella slow basic DSL.
When I use Firefox, however, no crashes with ads. But I *like* using Safari.
Oh yeah, this is my first post ever here, though I have been an avid reader for some time. PZ is one what rocks!
Posted by: Andrew Scudder | April 2, 2007 11:57 AM
Never crashed for me, Macs running 10.3/Safari 1 10.4/Safari 2, or Firefox 2
Posted by: Dave Munger | April 2, 2007 12:02 PM
No crashes before or after (on Firefox/Win and Seamonkey/Linux). However, the video ads did make the page load and scroll lag intensely, and now that's gone.
Posted by: Djur | April 2, 2007 12:03 PM
My browser never crashed, but I never looked at the ads! (I use Firefox).
I did notice, however, that your "PREVIOUS/NEXT" option has been intermittently disappearing from the bottom of the page so that I had no convenient way to browse through the older material.
Ian
Posted by: Ian Wood | April 2, 2007 12:07 PM
Mine was crashing, running Mozilla 1.7.3. Crashed on a lot of sites though - here, Pandagon, Majikthise - and I was beginning to think Bill Donahue had something to do with it. So I updated Mozilla, and we're kool and the gang. That's my tower PC, which is old and on its last leg. It ran fine on my new laptop, which uses IE.
Posted by: Matt T. | April 2, 2007 12:08 PM
Mac OS X, Safari 1.3.2 crashed nearly every time I tried loading your site with the ads. Everything OK today w/o the ads.
Posted by: charles stores | April 2, 2007 12:12 PM
I never had a problem. FF2.0+ with AdBlockPlus is greater than IE7.
Posted by: themann1086 | April 2, 2007 12:13 PM
My browser slowed to a crawl when they were first added, and sometimes stopped loading altogether, but then after some laborious adblock work with Firefox it isn't as bad. It still does hang up on everything downpage from the video, but not to the extent it did before. It's livable, for the most part.
Posted by: Carlie | April 2, 2007 12:16 PM
Was crashing during video ad era using Safari 1.3.2.
Wasn't crashing with Firefox 2.0.0.3
Not crashing in Safari now.
Mac OS 10.3.9
Posted by: nobody | April 2, 2007 12:16 PM
The page loads MUCH faster now. The loading lag before was so bad I sometimes thought I'd lost the connection. I'm running WinXP and IE6.
Something else I've noticed, which has been happening for at least a couple of months:
When I read the post intros, everything is okay on the page, but when I click on the comments link, suddenly the post and the comments section is forced down to the bottom of the page, down below everything in your right column.
...
You Firefox fans, I'll switch to Firefox when it allows you to use Ctrl-N to open a new browser window WITH the Back-button loaded with all the previous sites visited. I often create new browser windows when I'm reading a news article, and then use the back button in the new window to regress to the original page, so I can continue to search other stories.
Posted by: Hank Fox | April 2, 2007 12:17 PM
I never had the crashes either, but the load time is so much quicker. Before, I had to wait around 10 seconds for the background white to load, which was a bit annoying, but it's been fine ever since the ads were pulled.
Posted by: Silmarillion | April 2, 2007 12:20 PM
You Firefox fans, I'll switch to Firefox when it allows you to use Ctrl-N to open a new browser window WITH the Back-button loaded with all the previous sites visited.
A new window? We all use new tabs now.
Posted by: melior | April 2, 2007 12:20 PM
Like several others using MAC 10.something or other and Safari, I crashed everytime. Sometines on loading and othertimes after a short time on site. First time back since you deleted the ad and have had no problems. Thank You. I missed Pharyngula very much.
Posted by: James Morris | April 2, 2007 12:22 PM
as Safari 2.0.3 is FINALLY able to stomach this site for the first time since those ads went up i can thank you for pulling them down. I would add also that even if the ads were fixed such that they wouldn't crash innocent browsers they shouldn't be put back. Sidebar maybe, but right after the top post = crass and annoying.
Posted by: jgs | April 2, 2007 12:37 PM
melior:
In Soviet Russia, web browsers keep tabs on you!
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 2, 2007 12:40 PM
as Safari 2.0.3 is FINALLY able to stomach this site for the first time since those ads went up i can thank you for pulling them down. I would add also that even if the ads were fixed such that they wouldn't crash innocent browsers they shouldn't be put back. Sidebar maybe, but right after the top post = crass and annoying.
Posted by: jgs | April 2, 2007 12:44 PM
Completely off topic, but FYI:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070330-giant-squid.html
Posted by: marcel | April 2, 2007 12:44 PM
The site had been regularly crashing Akregator when I'd bring up a tab to read a full story. Don't know if that's an issue with Akregator or with the KHTML renderer. Seems fine today though.
(KUbuntu 6.06)
Posted by: spook | April 2, 2007 12:47 PM
The page now loads normally. Formerly, during the period of the video ads, the page would only load partially, with varying proportions of it available with repeated reloads. I could never access more than the top page. I have Windows 2000 and IE 6.0.
Posted by: Fred Levitan | April 2, 2007 12:48 PM
I've experienced sporadic crasher using IE on Windows 2000, but I think this was happening before the ads. Not so much crashes, but the page would load and then I would get a "page couldn't load" alert. On the Mac using Safari I've had no problems.
Posted by: Mark Borok | April 2, 2007 12:48 PM
WinXP fully patched, FF 2.0.0.3
No crashes before, or after.
I love firefox.
Posted by: Geral | April 2, 2007 12:52 PM
Crashed every time previously, but not now.
IE 6.0
XP Pro
Posted by: igor eduardo kupfer | April 2, 2007 12:57 PM
Twice it crashed on me using Mac OSX Safari with the ads. It has not crashed with the ads gone.
Posted by: Robin Byrne | April 2, 2007 12:58 PM
The page was displayed complete but the browser continued laoding it (winXP laptop). Now (no ads) everything is ok.
Posted by: Gyvates | April 2, 2007 1:01 PM
My problems: incomplete page loading, (not a big deal--refresh would always cure that), and constantly getting the message that "windows has encountered a problem and needs to close", then it would close the window and I'd have that option of sending/not sending the error report. That happened all the time. Also, there were times when I couldn't even get on the site.
I haven't had the problem yet today.
Windows XP, IE 6.0
Posted by: abeja | April 2, 2007 1:04 PM
I am using Firefox 2.0.2 on WinXP - When the ads first appeared I noticed the site was very, very slow to load. I saw the new video ads and immediately used Adblock Plus plug-in to block the ads. After that it has worked fine.
"laborious adblock"
I just used a simple *.brightcove.com\* rule
Posted by: Dave | April 2, 2007 1:08 PM
Much better; the whole page loads successfully and returning to the main page positions correctly, rather than at the top of the page. Using Internet Explorer 6.0
Posted by: Cranky in L.A. | April 2, 2007 1:12 PM
My browser [SmartExplorer] hung, too, when the video ad started. The fix was easy: add
127.0.0.1 admin.brightcove.com
to the hosts file.
Posted by: George Atkinson | April 2, 2007 1:12 PM
Mine was crashing both with Safari on my Mac (office) and Firefox on my PC (home). Neither has happened since the ads went, and both started the day they arrived!
Posted by: Dave Hone | April 2, 2007 1:16 PM
My browser never crashed before on this site and isn't crashing now, either at home (4-year-old eMac running OS X.something and Firefox) or here at work (PC running Windows XP Pro and IE 6.0).
Posted by: Dave K | April 2, 2007 1:18 PM
My browser [SmartExplorer] hung, too, when gratuitous download of video started. The fix is easy: add
127.0.0.1 admin.brightcove.com
to the hosts file.
Posted by: George Atkinson | April 2, 2007 1:18 PM
My browser never did crash but the page took forever to load. Now it's loading faster. Cheers...
Posted by: Josh | April 2, 2007 1:18 PM
Oh, and I use Firefox 2.0.0.3 on both Windows XP and 2K.
Posted by: Josh | April 2, 2007 1:20 PM
XP Pro here with Firefox. The pages where hanging, which is to say that Firefox would simply stop responding for 30 seconds or so, more if I opened a lot of windows from different articles I wanted to look at. It would do this ***even if the ads where disabled by having NoScript disable content from those sites***, which is bloody odd. Since removed, the page(s) load without any odd pauses or unresponsiveness.
Posted by: Kagehi | April 2, 2007 1:24 PM
I use Firefox 2.0, my OS is Vista and the page loaded incompletely/slowly/weirdly after you added the video ads. Now it's all nice and pretty again!
Posted by: Alice | April 2, 2007 1:32 PM
I think the video ads were a problem. IE7/WinXP never crashed for me, but the browser kept loading something (indicated by a rotating circle in the pharyngula tab) even 1 hour after the page was fully loaded.
I think browser crashing might be Flash issue (those were flash ads, right?). Another computer I use always crashed, both IE7 and FF2 (on WinXP).
Now, the site works like a charm!
Posted by: Niket | April 2, 2007 1:35 PM
I use XP and IE7. Your page was crashing my browser with the video ads but not without. Specifically, I wasn't able to fully load your page (but I thought this was just my ancient dial-up connection) and when I would click on a link to a story from your page everything would be fine but when I hit the back button to return I would get multiple blank page tabs. These would multiply until crash.
Posted by: BennyH | April 2, 2007 1:37 PM
Was crashing incessantly the last few weeks until now. THANKS for finally changing it. IE6/XP-home.
Posted by: Milo Johnson | April 2, 2007 1:39 PM
Wait, so you're telling me that the reason that ScienceBlogs is using an old release of mysql that's open to an easy type 1 XSS bug(*) is because I haven't spammed you about it?
If only I'd known.
(*) It is possible for me to construct a URL that, when clicked, will cause arbitrary javascript to be run in the context of scienceblogs.com. If that doesn't scare you, read that as "do anything on scienceblogs.com that the person who clicked the URL could do".
Posted by: Daniel Martin | April 2, 2007 1:45 PM
Xubuntu Linux 6.10
Firefox 2.0.0.3
Not crashing, but scrolling can be painfully slow, and I haven't noticed this on any other web pages.
Posted by: Tim Limbert | April 2, 2007 1:55 PM
Mac OS X 10.3.9, Safari 1.3.2.
Began to crash as soon as the video ads appeared; no crashes before their presence, nor after their (permanent?!) removal.
Like others, I had no problems using Firefox, but prefer Safari on a day to day basis.
Thank you.
Posted by: Goby | April 2, 2007 1:57 PM
Vista at home. Tried to access pharyngula a second time and it destroyed firefox. Apparently this is a common problem with Vista and firefox. I can't even use it now on Vista. My Powerbook is totally reliable, as usual, though.
Posted by: JujuQuisp | April 2, 2007 2:06 PM
I use Safari. When ads were posted my browser would crash. This only happened if plug-ins were enabled, and has not happened since the ads have been taken down.
Posted by: Kat | April 2, 2007 2:20 PM
Haven't suffered browser crashes, but some weeks ago I noticed that I could no longer play the videos that you and other science bloggers sometimes include as content. I get a message "loading" but nothing loads.
Opera 8.5, Windows XP
Posted by: Stephen | April 2, 2007 2:23 PM
I wasn't crashing before, but getting multiple popup errors on each page view. Now I'm not.
OS: Windows XP Pro
Browser: FeedReader 3.08 and Firefox 1.5.0.11
Posted by: CaroCogitatus | April 2, 2007 2:27 PM
To sum it up, I think there can be no doubt that the ads are the problem.
I looked throught the comments, and took some notes, and saw the following patterns.
Crashed with ads:
Win XP with IE 7.0/6.0 (several people)
Win 2000 with IE 6.0
Mac OS X with Safari 2.03/1.3.2 (several people)
Mac OS 10.3.9 with Safari 1.3.2 (several people)
Windows Vista with anything (several people)
KUbuntu 6.06 with Akregator
Unknown OS with SmartExplorer
Win XP with Firefox 2.0
Slow speed
Everyone else, basicly.
People with fewest problems:
Win XP with Firefox and adblock
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | April 2, 2007 2:27 PM
For me, the browser failed to display the whole page. The right hand column was missing and only the first few items were shown in the main column. The browser got stuck diplaying "Waiting for scienceblogs.com/pharyngula" in the status line.
The page is displaying OK now, without the ads.
O/S: Win XP pro; browser IE7.
Posted by: Nigel Ball | April 2, 2007 2:37 PM
I haven't had problems with crashes before or now, and I use Firefox version 2 on a PC with XP Home Edition.
"You Firefox fans, I'll switch to Firefox when it allows you to use Ctrl-N to open a new browser window WITH the Back-button loaded with all the previous sites visited. I often create new browser windows when I'm reading a news article, and then use the back button in the new window to regress to the original page, so I can continue to search other stories."
Right click, Open New Window? The Ctrl+N feature I don't like in Firefox compared to IE (one of the few downsides), but this is a good substitute.
Posted by: Callandor | April 2, 2007 2:40 PM
My problem was that the main page did not appear my history in IE, so I can refer back later. No crashes, but appeared slow. Much better without the video ads.
Posted by: Corey Schlueter | April 2, 2007 2:41 PM
Using firefox 2.0.0.3 on Mac OS 10.3.9, often had problems with the browser crashing (rather, becoming completely non-responsive, even though it thought it was still running, could use keyboard shortcuts, but the display on the screen was frozen). Now seems to be gone.
However, on some other blogs had to block sites such as sitemeter.com, so not entirely sure that the video ads were the only problem.
Posted by: Matthew | April 2, 2007 2:45 PM
What, exactly, is the ROI on ads that render a site unreliable?
This is not the first, or even the second time scienceblogs has had problems with ads that make the site unreliable for many of its users.
(However none of this has affected me personally; I run adblock on FF on freebsd, with no video or flash plugins enabled.)
Posted by: llewelly | April 2, 2007 2:47 PM
Like many of the others I never experienced a "crash" (IE7/XP).
However, the page would never fully load - epecially the lower content, large images and the righthand side menus. They would eventually load after 5-8 minutes though (even with 2.2 MB connection).
With video ads gone, the page load is instantaneous (or thereabouts)and complete.
Looks to me as if those videos were pre-loading the full video file instead of buffering for a short while when "play" is clicked. No need for that really.
Posted by: Zwirko | April 2, 2007 3:02 PM
I didn't have any trouble at all on my Macbook Pro, running under Mac OS X (10.4.9), and accessing Pharyngula with both Firefox (2.0.0.3) and Safari (2.0.4, build 419.3).
Posted by: Madhu | April 2, 2007 3:04 PM
The wannabe adblockerproof visual clutter is gone and so is the crashing...
What was the purpose of it ? To scare readers away ? To use them as guinea pigs ?
Posted by: T_U_T | April 2, 2007 3:14 PM
Much better. Wasn't crashing but was nearly impossible to scroll up or down. Under Linux.
Posted by: Ben | April 2, 2007 3:16 PM
I hadn't made a connection until reading this post, but I had been experiencing some pretty severe browser crashes for the last few days. I tried a fix this morning, but that coincides with the video ads being removed. So, put me down for a "maybe."
Posted by: Jason R | April 2, 2007 3:19 PM
All the issues that I have been having (including and especially having to click the back button on my mouse 3 times to actually get back to where I started) have been cleard up by the removal of the ads.
Win XP Pro SP2, IE6 and Firefox.
Posted by: RichVR | April 2, 2007 3:24 PM
I had problems before too with IE[67] on WinXP (Pro|Home). It is resolved now.
Posted by: Paul | April 2, 2007 3:29 PM
Thanks. It was crashing, and now it is not.
Posted by: Matt M | April 2, 2007 3:39 PM
My computer was having trouble with the adverts right from the start. It got better briefly and I thought perhaps you'd fixed it. Then, quite suddenly, some days ago it was much worse again - causing repeated crashes of the browser and then wiping out the whole internet connection, email included. The trigger was your link, in a newish blog entry about Egnor, back to a previous Egnor entry.
I have Win2K with IE6 and various updates (I'm rather surprised it isn't saying IE7 but ...). I didn't try any other browsers. I just gave up on your site entirely for a while. This is my first visit since then.
Posted by: SEF | April 2, 2007 3:48 PM
I did not have crashes but quite commonly the page would open blank or if trying to open in a new window would be blank. O/S Windows XP home SP2, browser firefox 2.0.
Posted by: Malky | April 2, 2007 4:01 PM
Well that evidently worked; and the second test, of paging back to the post with the specific link which seemed to have directly caused the previous crashes, also worked. It linked, nothing crashed and (I think) I can still post.
Posted by: SEF | April 2, 2007 4:01 PM
Another to add to the chorus of former crashers. Mac OSX.4.9, Safari 2.0.4. Everything appears to be working properly now.
Posted by: Warren | April 2, 2007 4:04 PM
I was crashing and just uninstalled Flash. XP/Netscape 7.2
Posted by: wildlifer | April 2, 2007 4:07 PM
XP home (sp2) and IE7
i never crashed, but the page wouldn't load fully, I had to go to the archives page to access all but the most recent six or seven posts.
Posted by: Dave Godfrey | April 2, 2007 4:47 PM
Some other sites would crash as well as yours. The problem was Adobe Flash 8.0
Firefox 2.0 and WinXP Pro. The other sites (Huffpo, for instance, and FDL) have stopped crashing, but I don't think it is because YOU removed YOUR ads! Prolly and update to FF.
Posted by: mikmik | April 2, 2007 4:50 PM
Also, your home page is quite long and full of graphics, so if a computer is short of memory (RAM) programs can lock up, including browsers. Limiting your home page to 100 kb might help. It is close to 400 kb at the moment with 89kb of text, so that will take many browsers a long time to load your page, and with animation and videos added to that mix, you are looking at the megabyte range and trying to load all that stuff, vids and animation, on top of the already massive page, it could easily lock up browsers.
Another thing to consider is peoples connection speed and people with connections that are slow, or on networks, will begin to have troubles with larger pages.
Posted by: mikmik | April 2, 2007 4:58 PM
Safari has been crashing repeatedly, every time I load a ScienceBlog, for at least a week. This seems to happen only under OS 10.3.9; my personal laptop runs 10.4 and Safari hasn't crashed there.
As of this afternoon (~ 4 PM EDT), the crash problem persists. It doesn't seem to affect Camino.
Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | April 2, 2007 5:03 PM
Hank Fox said:
As with everything else there is an extension for that:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1859
It is called Tab History but I believe it works for windows as well.
Posted by: Kelly Clowers | April 2, 2007 5:09 PM
Was fine, started crashing with the ads, now stable. OS X 10.3.9, Safari 1.3.2.
Posted by: Peter McGrath | April 2, 2007 5:16 PM
I was having a lot of crashes using Safari 1.3.1 running under OS X 10.3.9. It appears to be better now. I had found that disabling Javascript would usually prevent the crashes, but I have it enabled now and so far, so good.
Posted by: Ktesibios | April 2, 2007 5:17 PM
On OSX 10.4.7, running Safari 2.0.4, I wasn't crashing, but I was getting some pretty dramatic slow-down with the video ads.
It's fine, now.
Video ads are per se stupid, anyway, regardless of any software issues they might cause.
Posted by: Dan | April 2, 2007 5:18 PM
My browser wasn't crashing, but it would only load part of the page. As of today, it is now loading the entire page, and very quickly. (Windows XP HOME, IE 7.0)
Angie
Posted by: premenopaws | April 2, 2007 5:22 PM
Update: this blog is fine with Javascript enabled, but Ed Brayton's blog, which has video ads, is crashing Safari with perfect consistency, as is the main Scienceblogs page.
The only way I can read either is with Javascript disabled, but then you can't comment :(
Posted by: Ktesibios | April 2, 2007 5:39 PM
Didn't get any crashes, but much slower loading--and the video often wouldn't display except as a blank grey box. No problems now.
Posted by: KenJay | April 2, 2007 5:47 PM
I'm betting that the data from that experiment will show a substantial decrease in the discontentment of readers. I'm betting also that it carries a very tiny standard deviation.
Posted by: Dustin | April 2, 2007 5:53 PM
I have been informed that this particular ad will not be returning.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 2, 2007 5:57 PM
Using Safari 1.3 under Mac OS X 10.3.9, Pharyngula has crashed Safari almost every time I've visited with the video ads. The specific timing seems to be when the ad actually appears in the window. If your first post is long enough that the ad doesn't appear on load, Safari will crash when I scroll down to the ad.
Crashing means that first I get the spinning beachball, then I hear lots of hard drive access sounds for several seconds, then Safari goes away and a dialog appears stating that Safari has unexpectedly quit and do I want to send a report to Apple?
There have been a small number of times when the ad has appeared on screen and Safari has not crashed. Then generally I click on a post to read the comments, that page loads, and Safari crashes on that page.
Safari has obviously not crashed on this visit with the video ad removed, but I wouldn't necessarily draw any conclusions from a single visit.
Posted by: Matthew Morse | April 2, 2007 5:58 PM
Windows Vista Ultimate/IE7
With video ad had to continually refresh to see everything. No problem with the ad gone.
Posted by: Kountis | April 2, 2007 6:04 PM
I will sing your praises from the highest mountain.
Posted by: Dustin | April 2, 2007 6:06 PM
Forgot to mention that the problem may be with Flash rather than the browser. I think I'm running Flash 9.0 r28, although Flash 9.0 r16 is also in my Installed Plugins.
Posted by: Matthew Morse | April 2, 2007 6:08 PM
No crashes, but same issues as stated in comment #3, worse of which was not returning to the same location on the previous page when back arrowing to the main page from a link or full message. (I would be left at the top of the page, as if I just arrived there). Unlike commenter #3, I did find that annoying (but didn't think to connect it to the ads).
XP with IE6
Posted by: divalent | April 2, 2007 6:10 PM
I got the page slowing down terribly when the ads were rendered in the visible area, like others, and also found that my keystroke actions would be duplicated when on any part of the page; i.e., when I hit PgUp or PgDown, it would go up or down two screen heights, and when I tried to switch to its tab by keyboard, I'd go right past that tab to the next one. Mouse clicking worked fine, though, on the scrollbar or the tabs. Never crashed as such. Firefox 1.5.0.11 on SimplyMEPIS 6.0 (based on Ubuntu, based in turn on Debian) with Linux kernel 2.6.15.
Posted by: Randy | April 2, 2007 6:17 PM
Mac OS 10.3.9
Safari 1.3.2 (v312.6)
Pharyngula, Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and Respectful Insolence - all carrying the ad - crash Safari repeatedly. Other scienceblogs, without the ad, do not.
No problems at this site now that the ad has gone.
Posted by: Brian McEnnis | April 2, 2007 6:23 PM
My browser (firefox on Ubuntu) was crashing.
But I associated it with the GodTube videos. I remember watching some of the advertizing videos with no problems.
--
ex fundie in recovery
Posted by: ex fundie in recovery | April 2, 2007 6:25 PM
I haven't been having any problems, myself, although I view the site through RSS feed using Thunderbird.
Posted by: MarkR | April 2, 2007 6:33 PM
No crash, but the site was a lot slower with the ads. Browser - Opera
Posted by: Chris | April 2, 2007 6:45 PM
Browser: Opera v. 8.54
OS: WinXP Home Edition
When the ads were first put up on the site, I began experiencing this problem frequently, usually within 5-10 minutes of browsing on ScienceBlogs. Manually disabling Java in Opera's option menu seemed to resolve the problem. I haven't noticed any difficulties since the ads were removed, but I haven't had Java enabled again for that long; will keep you posted.
Posted by: Azkyroth | April 2, 2007 6:57 PM
My browser didn't actually crash, but it did hang up whil