"Immediate Live Support" ad from supportspace.com.......Huh?

[FalvinP]

I have haven't visited PC Mechanic much lately. I've been playing with my new iPod and printer.

Today I found a banner ad for "Immediate live support" from a site called supportspace.com. It appears at the top top of every page, even the window I'm typing this message in. This banner ad seems to be covering the box at the top that shows the navigation list and the log in information etc. The banner cannot be moved out of the way. I clickied on the link and it seems to be a legitimate site, but when I tried the "back" button, it wouldn't let me get back to the previoius page unless I just kept hitting the back button very quickly and repetatively.

Is my machine infected with spyware or is this situation a result of putting the "next best thing" notification in the place that I think the banner ad would normally go?

[FalvinP]

Sorry, I can't figure out how to edit the previous post. I went to the homepage of PC Mech. The ad appears normally there, next to the PC Mech notifiacation, so it would seem that the situation is merely an issue with the set up of the web site.

[EzyStvy]

I reported this issue last week. I am able to work around it by maximiziing my browser window. Hopefully they will be able to adjust the ad;)

[EzyStvy]

Had a friend look at it....

[EzyStvy]

ps. I had a friend visit the site who knows about this stuff...

They're either using absolute positioning (most likely) or negative margins. But yes, that should not happen and it is definitely fixable.

[drisley]

What browser are you using? And are you able to post a screenshot?

[EzyStvy]

IE 6 & IE7...Sent screen shots to Tyler on Friday.....Will have to resizse it to be able to attach it here. Will do so as soon as I can.

[drisley]

AAhhh...more importantly, what is your screen resolution? I am able to duplicate this problem if I shrink my browser window down past the minimum resolution required for PCMech, which is 1024x768.

Tyler isn't forum staff. It would be more direct to either send to me or George (GLC).

[EzyStvy]

I'm using 1024x768...With IE window about 80% of my screen...This worked fine for years till late last week.

[drisley]

I did make an adjustment to the layout last week, moving the ad bar down. However, I didn't change the width of anything. If anything, you would have just had the overlap covering the main menu rather than the forum navigation.

So, if I'm to understand correctly, you're at 1024x768, but the browser is not maximized? If you maximize, how does it look?

[EzyStvy]

If I max the browser, the ad moves and all is well.

[drisley]

OK, then yeah, its a resolution thing. The min resolution is 1024x768. I made the decision long ago not to even try to cater to people on smaller screens simply because of the hassle factor balanced with the fact that hardly anybody uses such resolutions anymore.

[EzyStvy]

So in other words we have to adjust on our end?

[FalvinP]

Thank you all for clearing this up. I was at 960 x 600 resolution. I put it up to the minimum resolution and the ad popped into place. I have a 19 inch Micron branded trinitron CRT and I just liked being able to see things better because at this resolution things are a little small for me.

This is the first I've seen of this type of issue. Usually, when the window is not maximized, I just have to scroll over a little bit to see the rest of the window, which hasn't been a big deal.

I guess my quick question would be (and I don't know much, if anything, about web design) why, at the 960 x 600 resolution, does the ad appear normal on the site home page, but yet is not right on the pages related to the forums?

Not a super important question........... I guess with my "Monk-like" ______ retentave nature, I'm just curious why things don't match up.

[glc]

If you purchase a Premier Membership the ad banner will be gone.

[drisley]

Falvin,
The reason it works on the main site and not the forums is because the main site is set to a fixed width, whereas the forums is designed to go 100% of your screen width. Even if you have a small screen on pcmech.com, the fixed width is, well, fixed. Over here in the forums, 100% is wide enough to most, but if you take 100% of a really small resolution, it isn't big enough to accommodate.

The ad bar at the top needs at least 1000 pixels to not wrap.

EzyStvy, I guess you could say that. As time moves forward, I simply can't cater to people who are using super small screens anymore. I apologize, but otherwise simply tell you its time for an upgrade. :)

[EzyStvy]

17" LCD really isn't that small even by todays standards is it?

On the other hand, I'm very far-sided. But with corrected lenses I can see anything put in front of me:) And as a general rule - Bigger is better when it comes to resolution. And of all the sites on the internet, this is the only one that requires me to make a change on my end just to navigate...

Food for thought - aren't you a little concerned about visitors coming here with a similar setup as mine? Not being able to click some of the built in navigation links might give some people the impression that the site isn't well maintained.

Course I respect the heck out of the fact that it's your site and you get to do what you want;)

[drisley]

No, 17" isn't too small, and that was proven by the fact that once you maximized your browser, everything was fine.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but percentage wise, people running smaller than 1024x768 make up a very small percentage of people these days. The difficulty of trying to make the layout of the site accommodate that just isn't worth it.

The only way to make this site look find for everybody is to set a fixed width for the forums, which is probably going to upset more people than it would help. :)

[bhome83]

sorry to bump up an old post, but I use an 800X600 screen resolution on my computer. Didn't know i was in the significant minority here....If i make it smaller than everything on the screen is smaller...why would i want everything smaller? I have good vision :) I just dont want to have to squint/strain my eyes...dang maybe my vision is lousy come to think of it.

[Freakitchen]

When CRT screens were the norm, it was easy to select virtually any screen resolution. TFTs today, however, have a native resolution (usually the largest available in the options), due to a fixed number of pixels on the screen. Setting it to anything less than that is essentially 'wrong', and the quality of the image you see will suffer as a result. What I recommend to people who find themselves straining their eyes when browsing using the correct resolution is to increase the text size in the browser (Ctrl and +/-), or even getting a pair of glasses!

[bhome83]

I have a flat panel monitor (BenQ FP931, 19") and i dont see a problem at all with my resolution of 800X600. I know alot of people with flatscreens that have the same resolution as me, so guess we are just weird people :)

[Freakitchen]

That screen has a native resolution of 1280x1024. Humour me for a minute and try that resolution with larger text sizes and see what you think (you can choose Large font sizes from Control Panel - Display - Appearance - Font size). I find it horrible to use anything other than the native resolution on a flatscreen, but if you don't, that makes you different, not weird ;)

All I'm saying is that as larger screens get bigger, so do the resolutions that people are browsing at. Website designers will take advantage of this extra real-estate by getting rid of support for lower resolutions - you might start finding the web less enjoyable as a result!