Functions blocked or unavailable /Tech Support
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I apologize for having to put this in this thread – I am writing about a different issue, but nothing I can do in my computer/browser settings is allowing me to get the “make a new topic” button to work for me.
I searched for a “contact us” section where maybe there would be an email address, but I didn’t see one. So I don’t know how else to get the attention of the site team.
I worked out that I am able to reply to a thread that someone else has started. (Although I shouldn’t say that I have worked that out completely, because I don’t know if the “post quick reply” button is going to work!)
I skimmed all the topics in the support subforum, but none of them describe the issues I am having with this site.
The closest other question might be “this site isn’t working for me in Edge”, but I don’t use Edge, so that’s not exactly my problem.
I use IE 11, Windows 7.
The only ad/tracker blocker that I use is a custom set-up of Peerblock, which does a great job for me.
Once in a while on Fatwallet, I would have problems seeing some of the graphics or using some of the buttons, which I would mention on the Fatwallet subforum so that they knew about it. I am fine with not being able to use all of a site’s features, if I don’t want to allow various IPs through for my own privacy and security. I could still enjoy about 90% of Fatwallet, and nothing that I was missing was crucial to my participation there, so I was okay with my compromise.
I signed up a few days ago over at Fragiledeals and I didn’t even notice that anything about the site was hampered by my computer/browser setup - it went great, everything I wanted to do I could do (sign up, edit my settings, start a new thread, post on someone else’s thread.) I don’t really have a problem on most of the internet.
But with Phatwallet, which I just signed up for 15 minutes ago, I’m having a lot of trouble even barely getting around.
Peerblock is blocking a LOT of ads/trackers, that kind of thing, here, although maybe some of them are necessary for rendering the graphics or whatever it is (I forget what those libraries are called). How many trackers etc. are on this?
It is curious, because every single page I go to in Phatwallet is initially screwed up (I just get the swirling circle like it’s trying to load and is stopped in mid-stream), but when I hit the refresh arrow-circle thing at the top of the brower page, the page I’m trying to go to WILL come up readable, so the IPs here that Peerblock is blocking when I first try to view a page do not seem to matter the second time I try to view the page (only 2 seconds later).
I hate to unblock Peerblock wholesale when I’m online, but I will do it in exceptional cases when I have to do an important thing online quickly (e.g., the Anthem insurance website is always very combative with me unless I turn all my protections off and even allow TLS 1.0, so I do that quickly, just to download my EOBs and pay my monthly bills).
After I created my account here, I tried to set up my PhatWallet settings, and I tried saving my choices several different times in several different ways, even turning off Peerblock completely and allowing DOM storage in the IE settings, but the “Save” button wouldn’t do anything, and the next time I’d click on the Settings area, my settings would be back to the default settings.
I came to the Support subforum to ask for help in saving my settings, but, again, I couldn’t get the “create a new thread” button to do anything for me, even after turning off Peerblock entirely and allowing DOM storage.
I realize that I could try another browser, but I would rather not put another browser on my computer.
Plus, I am pressed for time, and putting another browser on, and learning about its features and choosing from the external add-ons and filling in the security gaps and customizing new ad/tracker blockers for that browser and making sure the browser doesn’t allow IP leakage on VPNs, etc., would require me to spend hours of reading and tinkering, in a subject area (I.T.) that I do not enjoy for its own sake but view as a means to an end.
[I actually spent an entire weekend doing that last month for Firefox (which as a browser is going through huge changes, so much of how I set it up would have been wiped out soon anyway, which is very annoying), but then when I was 80% done with that malarkely I discovered that a website that I must use frequently does not work at all on Firefox on Windows 7/IE 11, so I had to scrap the whole thing.]I don’t know what else to do, to be able to use PhatWallet. I don’t care if I don’t get served some of the graphics or if I can’t “vote” on posts (which I couldn’t do on Fatwallet on the original posts, a.k.a. the first posts in threads, in some of the FW forums, but not in all of the FW forums), but I’m not going to have the patience to refresh every page here twice just to be able to view it, and I need to be able to set my account’s fundamental settings, and to be able to start threads.
Does anyone have any tips for what I could try to change in my setup to allow PhatWallet to work correctly?
I may not agree to reduce my security/privacy setup in order to participate or read this website, but it would be good to know what exactly the stumbling blocks are, and then I could judge whether to allow things through or not, on a case-by-case basis.If the mods want to create a new Support thread for me, and copy over this post as the OP, that would be appreciated. I do feel bad about injecting myself into someone else’s thread.
And now to click on “post quick reply” button, fingers crossed…
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The Contact is:
C/O dangeRuss
support@phatwalletforums.comThis site DOES have minmal ads but they may be on your blocked list, I block doubleclick and a host of others by my router so I understand what you are experiencing somewhat. The only way I can see to fix would be to whitelist the ad network. Fragiledeal doesn’t have ads yet. the owner and moderators want this website to have longevity so the community has a place into the future and that requires revenue. Big things are going to be happening here.
Hope this helps Oppidum
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Phew, it posted.
I don’t see an “alert mods” button on individual posts, like there was on FW. Maybe there is one here, and I just can’t view it in my browser. I would have alerted the mod to my above post, so they could move it to the right place.
Would someone let the mods know that this is a new Support question? Thank you.
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Thanks FrugalFreak, just saw your post (after I refreshed the page 3 times, it came up).
I am glad to see that you, as the Global Moderator, have seen my post here.
I assume that I do not need to email the support email address about my issue, since you folks have now seen my description of my problem, but it would be good for you to put a “contact us” or “about us” link somewhere prominent, so that others who are having questions can immediately find it.
(Or maybe you do have a “contact us” link displayed prominently, maybe I just can’t see it on my screen as an outcome of my various problems in using this site.)
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I added to it, please read the rest of it.
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Thank you FrugalFreak, I had to refresh 3 times again to read what you added.
Unfortunately, what you added does not help me at all, because, as I say, this site is totally dYsfunctional for me and I cannot post a new topic or save my account settings EVEN WHEN I HAVE PEERBLOCK TURNED OFF. In other words, when I am not blocking any ads or trackers of any kind.
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I would appreciate it if you would make my question into its own Support thread.
Even if I am unable to use this site, which would not of much consequence to anyone but me, I do think it would be helpful to other people who may be having the same problems I am to see that it has been described on the Support thread.
If it’s happening to me when my Peerblock is turned off and when DOM storage is allowed, you may have other issues with the site that the 50% of the world that still uses Windows 7 and IE 11 might be experiencing.
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ok, I will do that, I have created a contact us section, https://phatwalletforums.com/topic/966/contact-us
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I have to move on to other things this evening, and I’ll check back in a day or two to see if anyone has some ideas for what I can do.
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Done @Oppidum
I’m gonna tag the admin so he might can better assist you.
@dangeRuss
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@oppidum said in Time of last post in the topic list:
I have to move on to other things this evening, and I’ll check back in a day or two to see if anyone has some ideas for what I can do.
Whitelisting will help.
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I just thought of something, This forum runs on javascript, so make sure that is allowed.
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I think the ads may have been disabled, Maybe russ can clarify.
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There are 4 possible cookies that may be causing your issues
Advertising:
Commision Junction /affiliate linking
Doubleclick
Ebay Stats /ebay linking
Site Analytics
Google analytics /Whom visited, how long, etc.
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@frugalfreak said in Functions blocked or unavailable /Tech Support:
I think the ads may have been disabled, Maybe russ can clarify.
I turned the ads off maybe a week ago.
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@FrugalFreak @dangeRuss - is there a way to force the site to display in mobile view from a desktop browser? It would be interesting to know what @Oppidum sees/doesn’t see that way.
I use a lot of blocking/filtering/anti-malware/anti-exploit software and settings and I’m not seeing issues like those described above. @Oppidum, if you’re willing to give it a shot, try launching an InPrivate browser session in IE11 by clicking on the gear icon located at the top right of the window. Then click on Safety and then click on InPrivate Browsing. You can also just press CTRL + SHIFT + P to open an InPrivate session. If that displays okay, then it’s one of the add-ons/filters loading in a standard session.
Hope this helps!
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I use user agent switcher, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-agent-switcher-for-c/djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg?hl=en-US
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@oppidum Thank you very much for your detailed bug report. I was able to replicate last night with IE11 on Win 10. I reached out to the devs and we were able to find a resolution.
We upgraded to a new version of the forums yesterday and it looks like the upgrade was incomplete, but was only affecting IE. It should now be resolved.
On another note, if you are concerned about security, maybe IE is not the best option for you. In the past there were a ton of exploits for IE, and while they are greatly reduced now, I’m sure there are plenty of bugs in there left to exploit. Especially if you are going to stay on an OS that is going to be EOL in a couple of years (January 2020). If you are still using it then, you won’t be getting any more security patches for IE and will be vulnerable to any 0-day drive by hacks that the bad guys have in store.
I would suggest Chrome, which has a great plugins ecosystem (AdBlockPlus to block the ads for example), and it auto updates pretty frequently. You also don’t have to worry about sites not working properly as much, as IE is one of the more finicky browsers and most developers use Chrome to develop.
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@mikk1 said in Functions blocked or unavailable /Tech Support:
@FrugalFreak @dangeRuss - is there a way to force the site to display in mobile view from a desktop browser? It would be interesting to know what @Oppidum sees/doesn’t see that way.
I use a lot of blocking/filtering/anti-malware/anti-exploit software and settings and I’m not seeing issues like those described above. @Oppidum, if you’re willing to give it a shot, try launching an InPrivate browser session in IE11 by clicking on the gear icon located at the top right of the window. Then click on Safety and then click on InPrivate Browsing. You can also just press CTRL + SHIFT + P to open an InPrivate session. If that displays okay, then it’s one of the add-ons/filters loading in a standard session.
Hope this helps!
Not sure why mobile view would help with this issue, but there are plugins like User Agent switcher which may help. I don’t believe this site acts any different on mobile though, it’s a responsive site, so if you make your browser window smaller, you will see the mobile view.
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I have just logged in for the second time.
Thank you everyone for the responses. I will address them in turn… in a second message.
First though, some info about my initial setup and my site-browsing experiences at the start of my visit tonight:
I have Peerblock on and DOM Storage off (which are my usual settings. I mention those 2 because they seem to be the cause of most of the internet browsing issues I run into).
When I came to the site tonight, before logging in, I got the swirling circle and a stuck page, and I had to refresh a second time to see the page I was trying to see. This happened with every click I made to go to a new page.
I then logged in. The stuck page and swirling circle continued to happen on each page I tried to go to, and I had to refresh to have the page appear on my screen.
(This gets tiring quickly.)This may or may not be a function of Peerblock blocking some IPs (although yesterday, turning Peerblock off didn’t help this). Google, ValueClick, Microsoft Azure and Bing are some of those being blocked on this site.
I will now turn Peerblock off and refresh the page 3 times to see what happens: No change, it still happens = the page I navigate to does not appear, and all I see is a swirling circle, until I refresh and then the page appears.I will now allow DOM storage and refresh the page 3 times then see what happens: No change, it still happens. Frustrating.
I will now attempt to change my site settings (with Peerblock off and DOM storage allowed): No, the changes I made (such as moving from 50 posts per page to 100 posts per page and changing the “skin”) were not saved, and clicking the “save changes” button appeared to do nothing.
I will now try to start a new topic in the Support subforum: As I feared, clicking “new topic” doesn’t do anything. I am not allowed to start a new topic.
So my poor experience tonight of using the site is the same as it was the last time I logged in.
Okay, now I’ll address the comments from above in a second post:
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Addressing the help tips above:
(I am just stopping by for a few minutes, so I’ll just put the different comments in quotes without attributing them to individuals)
tip: "Whitelisting will help"
response:- Whitelisting isn’t quite how Peerblock works, you can’t whitelist by name, you can only whitelist by specific IP address or range of addresses. Many different IP addresses are flying by on my Peerblock screen when I’m on this site, and it would be tedious for me to look in the Peerblock block history and click “allow” for each one, so I’d have to turn the entire program off, which I’m not willing to do for a site that is a “nice-to-have” but not a “need-to-have”.
- Above and beyond that, though, the overarching problem is that this site is giving me the same problems whether or not my Peerblock is turned on, so it’s not Peerblock that is causing this, and it’s not any sort of ad/tracker blocking that is causing my issues on this site, because I don’t have any of those programs except for Peerblock. So whitelisting would not help.
tip: "This forum runs on javascript, so make sure that is allowed."
response: My javascript is always enabled.
To make sure I have it set right, I have just followed the following tiny “tutorial”, and my javascript was indeed already enabled: https://grok.lsu.edu/article.aspx?articleid=17508tip: "There are 4 possible cookies that may be causing your issues"
response: For cookie handling, I have my settings on medium-high. (To see what that entails, go to the following page and scroll down just a few inches to see an image describing the IE 11 medium-high cookie settings: https://www.ebates.com/help/article/supported-browsers-115009257328).
Do your cookies require more lax settings than those?tip: "try launching an InPrivate browser session in IE11. …If that displays okay, then it’s one of the add-ons/filters loading in a standard session."
response: I always use InPrivate browsing, it is my default. Plus, I do not have any add-ons/filters that load in my IE 11, besides my computer’s antivirus/security/firewall program.tip: "I use user agent switcher"
response: this appears to be something for Chrome and Firefox, not applicable to IE 11DangeRuss information: "Thank you very much for your detailed bug report. I was able to replicate last night with IE11 on Win 10."
response: That is great, I am glad you could replicate.
[Shows that I’m not crazy and it’s not my Peerblock setup that is the problem.
]DangeRuss information: "we were able to find a resolution. …It should now be resolved."
response: Thank you for spending time on fixing this. Many people do still use IE 11 (some don’t have a choice).
Unfortunately, it appears that for me tonight, the site’s problems are not resolved and are the same as before.DangeRuss tip: "maybe IE is not the best option for you… I would suggest Chrome"
response: Thank you, I am aware of the security issues with IE and of the cut-off date of Win 7.
Actually IE 11 isn’t as insecure as some people think, especially when combined with other sorts of security measures and smart behaviors, as compared to the security or not of Firefox and Chrome as they stand today; but beyond that, it is indeed an old browser, and I am running into some sites that no longer support it, which is why I spent a huge amount of time last month learning all about Firefox and installing it very carefully, only in the end to have to get rid of it when I found out that the website which I need to use on a weekly basis which no longer works on IE 11 on Win 7 ALSO doesn’t work on Firefox on Win 7, but they didn’t think to put that Firefox warning in the same announcement as their warning about the site’s not working with IE 11 anymore, so I just assumed that Firefox would be okay for them.
I realize that I will have to install Chrome in order to use that one website on my Win 7 computer, as it’s now my only mainstream-browser choice with that site.
But I don’t like Chrome, I don’t like Google, don’t trust them, and I don’t like the experience of using Chrome, and I also think it’s got safety issues of its own.
Plus I need to understand how to guard against IP leaking, which doesn’t happen on IE 11, but has been a big problem on Chrome and Firefox in the past. (e.g., https://zenguard.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201259661-How-can-I-protect-myself-from-IP-leaks-caused-by-Flash-or-WebRTC-, https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/8204/how-to-stop-webrtc-local-ip-address-leaks-on-google-chrome-and-mozilla-firefox-while-using-private-i, https://www.howtogeek.com/253475/how-to-see-if-your-vpn-is-leaking-your-personal-information/)
I can find a lot on the internet saying that Chrome used to, and it might still, easily allow IP address leaks when using a VPN, but I don’t know the most up-to-date information on guarding against that while using Chrome, or even if there is a specific and reliable fix for it yet on Chrome, so I’d have to read up on it, and to download and set up Chrome carefully from top to bottom, and I don’t have time for that right now.
Besides, it is possible that I’ll have to switch to a Win 10 computer soon, even though I desperately, passionately prefer Win 7. So it’s probably not worth it to spend a lot of time customizing my current computer.
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Can’t edit my prior post (clicking on 3 vertical dots doesn’t do anything for me), so I’m just going to do an @dangeRuss here to let him/her (a him I would guess?) know that my post tonight of
https://phatwalletforums.com/topic/967/functions-blocked-or-unavailable-tech-support/20
was in reply to his post from yesterday.
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@dangeRuss, to save you time, a summary of my comment in post 20 would be
"Thank you for spending time on fixing this. …Unfortunately, it appears that for me tonight, the site’s problems are not resolved and are the same as before."
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@mikk1 @Oppidum I forked (a.k.a. split) the discussion on VPNs into a new thread of it’s own to keep this thread on topic. You can find the new thread here: https://phatwalletforums.com/topic/1019/vpns
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@oppidum I’m not sure how tech savvy you are, but hopefully you can figure this out. Can you check the console and see if there are any errors on there?
You can get to the console by opening up developer tools (which is one of the options under gears).
You may also be able to fix things by clearing your cache, although if you’re using private browsing it probably doesn’t stay in the cache.
You can also check the Network tab of the developer tools and hit the green play button and then browse around the site and see if you can see any blocked scripts or anything having trouble loading. You can also save the results if you don’t know how to read them and send over the har file (although I’d have to figure out how to read it.)
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on IE 11 is is F12 key
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bg182326(v=vs.85).aspx
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Is the problem I described with Win 7 + IE11 – which you could replicate a few days ago – now gone from your test machine? That is implied in your comment to me, but I just want to make sure I understand the situation.
I don’t expect that I have a cache to clear, as I use InPrivate Browsing and frequently click on IE’s Delete Browsing History and frequently run the external program CCleaner (not to clean the registry, just to do the safer cleaning).
I don’t know how to use the developer tools, or what a blocked script would look like, so I can’t go down that road.
(I’m sure I could figure it out if I wanted to spend time studying it and tinkering, but I don’t enjoy learning about computer-tech topics for their own sake, and the console appears to be kind of complicated for the uninitiated.)All I can say is that I have never run into so many problems with a discussion forum site, before now. If a site is not working normally for me, usually one of my workarounds will work [unblocking one or two IP addresses temporarily on Peerblock, allowing DOM storage, turning on TLS 1.0 (rarely needed).] I participate on a number of forum sites.
Sometimes not all the functions will work for me on a discussion forum site when I have Peerblock turned on – with Peerblock on, I couldn’t do about 10% of the peripheral stuff on Fatwallet (such as seeing people’s icon photos and badges, being able to vote in certain posts, being able to mark a thread with the little graphic of a red circle with a line through it), but the difference is that ALL of Fatwallet worked just fine for me when I would turn Peerblock off, so this is not the same type of thing, because I can’t use necessary parts of your site like saving my profile settings and starting a new thread even when Peerblock is off and DOM storage is on.
Twice in the past few years (both European government websites), for a website to work properly, I have needed to open a normal IE window and not use Private Browsing, so I will try that in a second with your site. If it does work, I’ll post a new comment below. If I don’t return here tonight, then that didn’t work either.
If I am (after your site updates of a few days ago) now the only person to report experiencing these problems on your site when using Win 7 + IE11, that is curious!
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I just tried logging into the site and moving around in a standard IE window, not InPrivate Browsing, and nothing is different. I still can’t edit my posts or start a new topic.
If it helps you to know what happens, when I click the 3 vertical dots to try to edit a post that I wrote earlier, a red circle with a plus sign appears in the lower right corner of the screen, but nothing else shows up (like an editing window).
The same thing pops up when I try to reply to someone’s specific post using the “reply” link that is next to “quote”, the up and down arrows, and the 3 dots. I can only contribute to a thread at the moment by doing the general “post quick reply” window/button at the bottom of a thread.At the moment, because I both tried to edit a post that I had written earlier and then to reply to a post by clicking the “reply” link that is next to “quote”, I have two red circles with white plus signs in them at the bottom right of my screen. They don’t do anything when I click them.
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In good news –For a good portion of this evening while I’ve been logged in, I have noticed that I have been able to go to a subforum’s list of threads and click on a link to a thread and be taken right to the thread’s page – I am no longer seeing the swirling circle in limbo and having to click “refresh” once on the browser window to get the page to load!
And, when I click the number between the up and down arrows, I can now see the pop-up window that says who has voted up or down for that post.
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@oppidum said in Functions blocked or unavailable /Tech Support:
Is the problem I described with Win 7 + IE11 – which you could replicate a few days ago – now gone from your test machine? That is implied in your comment to me, but I just want to make sure I understand the situation.
Yes after the fix I am able to fully use the site in IE 11 with no issues. There must be some script that your configuration is blocking that is preventing the site from functioning. Unfortunately, unless you’re able to provide more information, there’s not much I can do to help you. We haven’t had anyone else report the issue, so for the moment it does look like it’s just you having the problem.
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Does anyone have any idea what the script that my configuration is blocking would be?
Is the only way to find it, to go into the F12 area?
I fear that I wouldn’t know what I was looking for there.
It’s strange that it’s ONLY this site where I experience this (I have had my computer, and it has been set up this way, for about 4 years).
At the moment, the two “fixed” things I commented on last night are back to being broken –
clicking on the vote tally doesn’t bring up any window of who voted in which direction,
and clicking on a thread name to go to that thread (or any other site link) first brings up a swirling circle and then I have to refresh the browser page to get the page to show up.It is probably a clue as to what is going on that those things have toggled on and off, staying off on my previous visits, then staying on for hours at my last visit, then being off at my present visit, without me changing my computer/browser settings, so seems to be something from the site that is loosening up a bit and then tightening up a bit.
Thanks for everyone’s help above.
I’ll still swing over here from time to time, so if anyone has another idea for me to try and wants to relay it here, I’ll see it.
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Ha ha, it’s like I’m being gaslighted -
Those 2 functions have suddenly started to work for me, after being active on the site for about 30 minutes:
“clicking on the vote tally doesn’t bring up any window of who voted in which direction,
and
clicking on a thread name to go to that thread (or any other site link) first brings up a swirling circle and then I have to refresh the browser page to get the page to show up.”
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I was not clear a moment ago – I meant to indicate that the vote tally IS suddenly showing me the pop-up window of who voted, and clicking on a link to another part of this site does now take me to the new page right away instead of requiring me to refresh the browser window.
(Sorry, normally I edit my internet forum comments carefully, but I can’t edit my posts here, so that’s why I’m leaving some mistakes and typos.)
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Yes it’s definitely gaslighting; those functions have stopped working for me already, after being “on” for just 5 minutes.
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For best possible viewing, use a latest current browser set to default configuration for
Google chrome , Firefox or Edge
