Posted on 12/14/2004 8:12:47 AM PST by avg_freeper
For some reason the Free Republic opinion poll refuses to go down beneath my sidebar after I've voted. This started with the last poll on my mac at home. I just thought it was a screwy mac thing but now with the new poll the mac behaves ok but my computer at work (PC) now keeps the poll on top of my sidebars.
The last time I voted at work I believe. This time I voted at home so maybe that has something to do with it.
Anyone else having problems with this or know how to get the page to behave? Right now I have to scroll down about 2 1/2 windows to get to breaking news.
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
My C drive has no plans for getting renamed. At least until she gets married.
Buy a Windows machine and your problem will go away.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Put something heavy on it. I prefer using the < brick > code.
If I take the link to the Polls at the the bottom of the Poll result box it shows the latest Poll as "Open" even though I've already voted in it.
But if I click on the poll link from that page it just takes me to the Poll results not to the vote page. If I click on any of the other "Open" links it takes me to a vote screen.
So I believe that there might be two conflicting systems at work here. I'm guessing that there is a system on Free Republic's server that "remembers" who's voted. But there is probably also an additional system that queries cookies on the client computer.
These systems might manage different things. Like one managing the "Poll Box" placement and Open/Voted status. While the other manages whether to display the vote prompt or the poll results. I believe that it is possible for these two systems to have differing results.
For instance, I've voted in the latest poll on my mac at home. The server and the cookies probably agree and my poll results are shown below all my sidebars with everything else normal. But at work my cookies probably don't register that I've voted but the server does.
This conflict might result in the two curious phenomena that I've noted.
1) Poll results shown above sidebars instead of below. Usually when it's above it's to ask you to vote not to display poll resultsMaybe that will help.2) Text on "Available Polls" page says "Open" even though I've voted but link goes to poll results instead of vote page.
More info in post 7 above.
Ah, yeah, that could be a problem. I'll fix it next chance I have.
This poll results above the sidebar thing is driving me nuts too, it doesn't let you see the headlines without scrolling down...
John, I hope you go back to the old way of moving it down after you've voted.
I have this same problem with this poll thing now at the top of my screen on my home computer. Can't make it drop down even though I have voted. It's at the bottom of the screen on my work computer.
It is annoying. Did you ever get a fix for this?
No, I think it requires a FreeRepublic software fix. I'm sure John will find a solution during the next update.
The following is just my completely uneducated guess: I believe that your vote is not only registered on the FreeRepublic server but also sets some special cookie info on the computer you used to vote. (cookies in the internet world are just small packets of data that websites keep on your computer for future reference)
I also believe that the cookie info determines if the poll/vote box is displayed at the top or bottom of your sidebars. But the info on the server defines whether or not you get to see the vote prompt or the poll result data in the box. So when the server doesn't agree with your cookies strange things like this happen.
I'm guessing that the complication arose out of safe guards against people voting multiple times coupled with the new tracking of registered vs. non-registered votes.
OK, thanks, will persevere then. Kind of getting tired of looking at the Scalia/Thomas poll all the time. Maybe Santa will bring us a new poll (or cookie) for Christmas or something.
I've also just had a new modem installed by Dell & then a connection issue with Bellsouth on home computer, so I thought I could have lost cookies with all that. That support person who may have been from Bangladesh could have de-cookied me.
This is the great thing about FR, there's always someone who's got good educated or uneducated guesses to share with the completely clueless like me. Merry Christmas, Nana.
Didn't know if I should start a new thread with this (and suffer all the consequences ;O)...
You know the "tool tip" that pops up when we hover the mouse pointer over a member's name, which gives the member "Since xxxx-xx-xx" date? Well, do you think you could put that feature on the Latest Articles page so that, when we hover the pointer on a Posted-by member name, we can see the member's born-on date?
Just a thought.
Thanks for all you do.
bump...
I tried this
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/poll?poll=87&vote=437,171458,491706b7b4a42e99a3917b6916c3d29a4ae71c1f
but gave me a tamper proof message. Think you could plop in the cookie value that says you voted for it in the tamper check? So even if you already voted, it will update your cookie and move it down the page... just a temp fix for us nerds.
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