Top of Member's Library Missing

I have just veiwed 2 different members libraries and the top of the list/column headers are missing. I can see the link to "Next Page" but then all the column headers are missing ie. Title, Author, Tags etc and the first work that shows, not sure if it is actually the start of the list, fades out strangely.

These are the 2 pages I was looking at if that's any help.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BTRIPP
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bookel

ETA: and now the problem is appearing on my own page. This is very annoying as there is no possibility of sorting the library by any field. The viewing style doesn't appear to fix the problem.

The weird white fuzziness into which whatever is on top disappears makes it almost like being snowed in...

So I'm not the only one? I was just beginning to wonder if it was something I stuffed up.

My top has disappeared too! Fades out to white.

I get the same problem, but only after clicking "next page".

I have it as well! In addition, some of my books are not visible in List Mode. If I switch to Book Covers you can see them, but not in list mode.

I have this as well. The column headings have gone and the top book on the page in My library is anywhere from half gone to completely invisible. (XP/IE7)

I have problems in Cover view - some of my covers are just a black rectangle, though they appear in list view and on the work page - but the weirdest bit is when I click on the cover the "info" box is displaced down from the cover. And I have a large white strip also, at the top of my cover view for my library.

Add when I try to hit next page at the bottom of some pages in cover view an info rectangle appears - like when you hit the cover - and won't go to next page so I have to go to the top or click on the number. It is very random - not all pages.

XP/FF3.0.5

edited to fix spelling

I got this Snow Crash, too.

Missing selections and editing in power edit, as well.

All seems well here: Mac OSX/FF3 (also fine with Safari).

So if we look out the Windows we see snow. Makes sense.

same problem here. and not only are the column headers gone, but the top half of the 1st title is gone. ive tried it in two different browsers...

Hey. Chris and I must have miscommunicated about something. You got half a change that, when full, is rather good. Chris will fix it later this morning if I don't get to it earlier. (I've got Liam until 11:00 which means I can type a talk message, but not exactly code.)

the sooner the better. Though I suppose Liam can take priority for a few hours more.

XP / IE7 seeing the same problem.

I took a look. He actually pushed the whole thing. It works and looks as it should on Safari/FF, at least on the Mac--its a new fixed-position top bar, with more space around. (It's a good change anyway, but adding collections makes it more important to always have the bar available, I think.) Windows is the problem.

It's fixed fine on my FF on PC - like that it's fixed now ...

Can't you get Liam coding? Little fingers type quickly ... it could be the modern day version of sending babies up chimneys ... especially with the obvious genetic predisposition he'll have inherited :))

eta 'fixed' as in stuck not as in 'not broken' ...

Using XP/FF 3.0.5. I'm not missing anything but there is something wrong with the bottom edge of the header: it is kind of invisibly fuzzy, so that when I scroll the items at the top of the page kind of fade as they meet the header, and I can't click on them. Usually a link is clickable as long as the least part of it is visible.

I hope this is comprehensible - it's so hard putting these kinds of visual things into words.

v

Those of you who are getting clipped headers, what browser are you using?

I am having the same problem. I am using XP not sure of the version though. I am only seeing the very bottom of the first book in my list so that when I count the number of books on a page I only count 19 instead of the 20.

I'm using XP too.

I'm assuming that you are using Internet Explorer on XP, no?

Yes that is so. At home I use FF or Safari on PC or Mac. At work I only use IE (can't stand it).

Do you know what version of IE? I'm testing it on XP IE 6 and I don't have the same issues.

LOVING IE today! {/sarcasm}

Chris, it's not the png issue? (Chat me on Google if you want. I'm downstairs and don't have AIM.) Thanks for handling this.

Chris, we have IE7 upstairs here.

FWIW, no header issues for me on IE6/XP.

It's IE7 that I'm having this problem on.

Figures. LOVING it.

Tim, no, it's not the PNG issue.
It's a complex issue of having to move the top margin of the content down to make room for the breadcrumb lines and the fact that IE doesn't respect fixed positions for elements, hence the powerbar isn't fixed for IE users.

I did quite a bit of testing (and it's been live on athena for a few weeks now and I've used IE quite a bit in that time) but I've been using IE 6 thinking that if there was going to be problems that it would be in 6, not in the "fixed" v7. Of course, Microsoft Zuned me.

Is it fixed for you IE7 users now?
I know that IE6 users will have a little extra space while I work out the styling but at least it's not the opposite.

Still broken for me.

I have IE7 and I can see the bottom half of the first book in my list. I don't see the Author etc labels at the top so that you can decide how to sort. I hope that is helpful.

I still have the problem too. Using IE7.

Ok...I'm off to get a copy of IE7 installed on this particular machine. Back in a bit when I have a solution.

The cut-off is, er, more of a cut-off now, the snow (or perhaps I should say fog) effect has disappeared.

I'm using IE7 on XP.

ditto 35, fadeout/snow has gone, but the header texts and maybe 2 lines of the top book display are missing.

XP IE 7

Vista/IE7 has the same problem: top of the catalog is cut off (rather, hidden under the headers) in list view. In cover view, there's actually the opposite problem: a big ol' chunk of white space above the books.

cD: you've solved the FF fadeout I mentioned above.

v

Yeah, the fadeout was a "feature." But it caused enough of a disconnect that I just disabled it. It was a one liner so it wasn't an issue.

I'm working on the IE7 issue. I love that IE6 works correctly but IE7 has problems. I love Microsoft. I really do. No. Really.

Yeah. I liked the feature, but I suspect it's the kind of feature that's more trouble than its worth--it can confuse people.

yeah. I figured that I'd throw it out there and see what the response was. It was negative enough, or at least misunderstood enough, to warrant disabling it.

I don't know if this is related, but in my library, the drop-down menu after the search box is thisbig. It's displaying just the first few letters of the selected item. When you click on it, the drop-down items do display full width.

FF3 on OSX 10.5

Not related, but it did change.
The drop down had to get smaller because we are making room in the power bar (that's what we call the top function bar thing) for a ahem.....new feature....cough....collections....cough.

42> Same here, though mine's not resizing to full width as you say. (Vista/IE7)

I'll take a look at the menu in IE7 in a little bit. You say that when you click on the menu the drop-down items are still the same small width and are cut off?

>45 conceptDawg:

That is also the case in IE6.

45> Correct.

45> Same here FF3.0.5. It's fine when you click on the drop-down menu but when you look at it before clicking 'all fields' is cut off to 'all fiel'.

v

Being an Epsilon Minus in the computer knowledge department, I have no idea whether my --uh-- ever astonishing AT&T/Yahoo browser is related to and/or runs off IE7 (which is also installed on my machine).

Whatever the reason, the column headers and half of the first entry are missing on my machine, too.

Chances are pretty good that your branded browser is actually IE in drag.

Based on its performance, that wouldn't surprise me a bit. BTW, the IE installed on my machine is (natch) IE7.

The top of my page has gone missing today 91/6/2008) - was working fine yesterday. Also, in doing a search, if multiple hits were retrieved the top one was missing, but could be found with the "power edit." Now, if there is only one hit retrieved, it cannot be found with "search" though the citation can be located by browsing.

52: That's the same issue noted in this thread. I am working on a fix and it should be ready later today.

thanks Chris -- you may have no love for IE7, but IE7 sure as hell better love you...

Should be fixed. At least it is for me.

Good man cD, well done!

List view looks fine to me now - thanks and well done, cD.

But... I'm still missing the top row of tags in the tags view. They're just out of view under the bar across the top (if I put the mouse above the 'top' tag in the column then the one that is really at the top highlights, but the top row isn't visible).

*ducks and runs away*

Cool. I'll check that out too. I had forgotten to check that page when I made the fix for IE7.

The top of my library is fine now when I look at it in IE but the top half of the first title and the sort tabs are still missing when I look at it on (blush) AOL, which is where I usually LT. Is that fixable? After I saw it was good in IE, I closed AOL then signed back on, but AOL's LT library is still halfy...

AOL? *cries* Get a real ISP? :)

Crypto, while I'd like to help I have to say that the AOL browser falls into the same category that Opera does. We can't possibly check against every browser engine out there so we concentrate on the 5 or 6 that cover 98% of our traffic. I'm not sure about our coverage of the AOL browser because it didn't show up enough to make our stats. The cutoff is .01 percent of our total traffic. So you're one of very few who actually still use the built-in branded AOL browser.

Okay, I just noticed some oddities (Mac OSX/FF). At the search box, when the field is filled, the choices are cut off, so that it reads "All fi" or "Subj". Also, if I do a search and there are no books, the "No books" is pushed so far to the left that it is quite literally bumped up against the left edge of the screen. It looks weird.

Just checked, and the same is true in Safari.

The menu is shortened to make room for a new feature to be added to the powerbar. I'll leave it to you to come up with what new feature could possibly be making its debut. :)

The menu expands when you click on it. (except on IE7, which is apparently being my nemesis today).

The 'no books' text is just a styling issue. I'll take a look at it.

Opera?

Opera is a web browser that relatively few people use to access LibraryThing. Like AOL, it's not going to be reliably tested with the site.

>61 conceptDawg:

Isn't the AOL browser someone else's with a hat on?

I put together some stats on LibraryThing members' browsers.

See here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Browsers_statistics

To me, they prove that:

1. Nothing but IE6 and 7 (and soon 8) are worth testing.
2. Firefox is more divided than I thought. (Dammit.)
3. Safari is bigger than for most sites. The extra few percent may have something to do with nine LibraryThing employees all using Safari and hitting the site hard all day long. Or it may be because excellence seeks excellence, and Mac users are excellent.
4. Opera is higher than I thought (1.5%), but it's totally fragmented between versions—with no version above 25%. Urgh.
5. Chrome is already at Opera levels. Fortunately, Chrome is mostly covered by testing Safari.
6. AOL isn't on there. That's because, after the earliest versions, it's really someone else's browser, right?

Chris, thoughts?

UPDATE: Sorry not to close i.

How do I close the above tag?

</i> Done. Had to enter two closing "i" tags.

Ah, I did one, and wondered why it didn't work. Tx

Thoughts:
I agree with most of your observations. And because we like to be as transparent as possible and ruminate about useless facts, here are our stats for browser usage:

IE: 52% (with IE7 at 71% and IE6 at 28%)
FF: 36% (with FF3.x at 82% and FF2.x at 18%)
Safari: 13% (with build 525.x at 85% and 523.x at 6%)

Chrome and Opera are both at 1.5%, everything else is >0.1%.

I'm actually quite surprised that the uptake of IE7 is so high. Windows users are notorious for continuing to use non-updated software (hell, they're using IE, enough said).

The Safari and FF uptake isn't surprising since the Mac pops up a Software Upgrade window telling you to upgrade and traditionally FF users tend to be more computer savvy.

Speaking of, 4% of our Safari users are using a nightly build. That's pretty impressive from a geek perspective (we have geeky Mac users). Of course, I contribute quite a lot to that number since I'm hitting the site all day and night with a nightly build.

Conversely, our IE users are no so geeky (or there aren't that many out there) because our IE8 usage is only 1.0% of the IE total.

Shiretoko didn't even show up in our stats so not many FF users are using a build...but to be fair is VERY early in the FF4 development pipeline for people to be using shiretoko for day to day stuff.

A few of the "other" browsers that show up in the main listing:
* Mozilla & Mozilla Compatible Agent: various browsers that use the Mozilla engine (Firefox, in essence). These may be branded browsers or small-market/niche browsers.
* Camino: A Mac browser that uses the FF engine but has enough separate usage to be shown separately.
* SeaMonkey: based on the mozilla engine (Firefox, in essence)
* Netscape: it can use either IE's Trident engine or FF/Mozilla's Gecko engine. My guess is that most people use it in FF mode. This is what AOL currently uses, as far as I can tell. Which makes me wonder if the default setting for it is to use the Trident engine since we have noticed people with AOL engine having the same issues as IE folks.

At work I have to use IE even though our tech guys would like to use FF. At home I have a Mac so I use either Safari or FF on there, depending on what my son is using on there. I also have a PC that I use FF on because I can't stand IE. I also have Safari and Opera on there but I don't use them.

I don't consider myself a computer geek I just know that I like to use what I feel is user friendly to me.

Hi, Caveman here... I was reaching the net via my selectric typewriter hooked up to a black and white tv until I upgraded to AOL. ( 8-}>
For what it's worth LT works much faster on my AOL than it does on my IE. Unfortunately, Gronk not know whut kinda IE he got... it's provided by Verizon Online but it doesn't tell me whether it's IE1 or 2 or 6 or 7...
And I really don't know what kind of browser AOL has under its hat, though I like the metaphor...
But now I've downloaded Firefox 3.0.5 and am looking at LT there... do I get a lollipop?

With a caramel center.

and i know this isnt the right place to ask this question, so i wont continue in this mode, but since the Good Gods of Geekdom gave me good advice about Firefox, if i were to abandon AOL email in favor of another service (free, please) what would ye recommend? gmail? another? thanks, over and out...

I personally love gmail. it does everything I want and then some, great auto spam filter on top of everything else.

Seconding gmail. It leaves all the others in the dust.

I adore gmail. Using anything else now (even accessing an email for my mom or husband in their non-gmail accounts) drives me insane.

thanks all-- gmail it is

One more oddity seen - I presume it was a debugging thing, and it didn't show up the second time I tried, but just FYI. I clicked on a book title from my homepage (the Featured Author's book Installing Linux on a Dead Badger (how could I resist?) and got a long long list of "Count (a number)/n/nCount(next number)" - from count 2 to count 146793. Then down under that was the perfectly normal book page. Though the font did seem a little larger than my norm - and I think it changed fonts partway through the Count list, though I'm not certain of that. Hit the Back button and went back to my homepage, clicked on the title again and got the normal book page, no Counts.

Thanks. Debug code, not mine. I can't see it now, so Chris must have pulled it back very quickly.

Ah. It was mine. Gone now. Thanks.

Can the problem in message 62 be solved?

Chris?

Yes. I'm looking at it.
Well, I'm looking at it when I get a chance between server meltdowns. :)

KSNORT!
>72 conceptDawg:
Windows users are notorious for continuing to use non-updated software (hell, they're using IE, enough said).

Yep, describes me completely...I am a complete Luddite and know nothing about computers - but have some OCD traits (hence all the combining).

Once I decide to "learn" (to use) a piece of software - I explore it thouroughly and generally know how to do all of the things I want to do - I customize extensively and am LOATHE to change (my fingers know how to do all my little tricks without having to consciously think about it). Learning a "new" version is a Major investment from me... so I tend to hang on until the last possible second and then leapfrog a few versions so I limit the number of times I have to experience the "growing pains."

Oddly enough, I upgraded to FF3 right away - I only use FF for a few specific things and hadn't committed to it so I hadn't invested a lot in that version.

>76 Crypto-Willobie:
I'll echo everyone elses endorsement of gmail - I held out for a really long time, then Comcast did really horrible things to their email ...I made the change to gmail and wish I had done so a LONG time ago. I have it "harvest and delete" the mail from all my Comcast accounts so I don't need to figure out all the places I need to change my email address - I set gmail so that my replies always look like they come from whatever email address the original was sent to so that I don't confuse people.

87: Cognitive/Educational Psychology: It takes time to learn something, unlearn that something, and then learn how it works a little differently.

>88 infiniteletters:

So I have a plausable excuse then? YIPPEE!

I can posit to the next person who ridicules my irrational use of IE6 that it is actually a rational psychological response which minimizes the amount of time spent LEARNING a program in relation the amount of time spent USING said program?

> 88,89

Ahh, but once you've learnt a few (say at least 3) variations on the same theme then you start to perceive deeper patterns underlying them all. It stops being about IE/Firefox/Safari or Word/OpenOffice/Pages and starts being about Web Browsers and Word Processors.

This is my main beef with schools that want to teach kids how to use MS Word on Windows because "that's what they'll be using when they get into the workplace". Whatever they're using by then it certainly won't be the same versions of Word and Windows as they were taught. The difference for a typical end user between migrating from one version of Windows to another versus migrating from Windows to a Mac or Linux desktop is about the same, in my experience.

Learning how to use the second and third web browsers you encounter may take a little while.. but the fourth, fifth and sixth will come pretty easily. ;) (I've lost count, but I'm easily past 10 browsers without counting the fringe ones I played with for a little while..)

>90 felius:

Felius -

I hear you, but as someone who uses a computer as a tool and not as something that is fun to play with in-and-of-itself - the fact that I KNOW that I can always learn a new browser (OS/word processor/spreadsheet software), because I have DONE it a half dozen times already, hasn't really lessoned the pain of learning the ins and outs of each new iteration.

I gave up my beloved X-Tree Pro (which you can read about here if you are interested in ancient history) when everything demanded Windows and then bitched and complained that running the d*** OS sucked so much processing you couldn't DO anything.

I made the change from Lotus 1-2-3 and Corel WordPerfect. I made the transitions from Gopher and Usenet to the Web-as-we-know-it.
The list goes on and on...

I do these things, I know I CAN learn these new things, I know I will HAVE to learn new things over the next decades (as I have over the last few) BUT from an non-computer person end-user's perspective it seems like the computer-folks jump up and down and clap their hands over "sweeping" changes that - when the dust settles (and I have spent hours transfering/converting/customizing/ and setting settings etc) allow for one or two little tricks that are actually useful and a whole lot of fancy fluff that doesn't add anything helpful on MY end - AND will be obsolete in about 10 seconds.

Leapfrogging my way through the changes (holding out until my current OS/browser/wordprocessor/spreadsheet is no longer supported and then jumping to the newest stable-ish iteration) allows me to spend fun time playing around ON my computer rather than non-fun time farking around WITH my computer.

PortiaLong's inner curmudgeon shines through.

PS: I weathered the transition from cassette tape to 5 1/4 inch floppy to 3 1/2 inch floppy to CD-ROM - now I welcome the opportunity for OTHER people to have the responsibility for preserving my data (thank you LT!). Now if the world would only catch up with the rest of my Sci-Fi vision of what it SHOULD be...

PortiaLong - ok, you're excused then ;) Seriously though, I can't help but think you must find it easier to adapt to a new word processor (for example) than someone who's only ever used one of them. Even if you find it annoying. ;)

..and I'm not so young that I don't remember XTree! I first learnt to use a word processor and spreadsheet on a BBC Micro. ;)

Woo-hoo! I'm excused...no really, felius said so!

Yes, annoying/aggravating...rather like:

THIRD button from the left....oh, wait, no SECOND button from the left...oh, so you can switch the buttons around...so put what used to be the THIRD button where the Sec..no...put "Save" there so the ... why-the-hell would anyone want a button for THAT!? - (Move the button so it falls off the toolbar) ok...so...EXPORT...NVM... right-click -
!!DAMN IT - just PRINT the stupid thing already!!!

Felius - don't worry, I'll adapt, I'll just be really LOUD about it and grumble alot.

As much of a Luddite as I am it amazes me when people haven't explored the capabilities of stuff they use EVERY DAY! So I can just imagine that computer folks find my attitudes as puzzling as I find the attitude of my collegue who would moan for HOURS that her company-supplied-and-paid-for smartphone could never hold a charge - it was set to constantly scan for a Wi-Fi connection, despite the fact that she NEVER used it as anything but a phone.

(I won't get into the record system we use at work - whose software developers have apparently never SEEN a computer before and have decided to reverse every convention that has ever been established since Herman Hollerith invented the punch card.)

e-mail - I use Fastmail.fm and am really happy with it. G-mail doesn't work for me, as someone else got my prefered name first.

I started using computers at my husband's office. We would go in on weekends, and my husband would plonk me down at a random computer, check that it had a word processor on it, and away I'd go. As they were testing various types (This was the early 80's) I wouldn't get the same one two weeks running.

But now I'm with PortiaLong. I'm under a lot of pressure to get a new computer. But that means the whole hassle of moving all my programmes and files. AND reconfiguring my Operating system, even if I manage to stick with XP, my desktop, my Word setup (even if I get 2000 to load), my browser... I think I convinced my husband that there are better ways of spending the money.

It's not just adjusting to a new version. I have this one set up the way I want it. Yes, I could learn again how to get it the way I want it, but why should I? This works fine for me. So it doesn't do x y and z. (Which really bothers my husband and son.) They have computers that do, but I only want to do a, b and c, and have turned off f, h, and n to avoid things I don't want to deal with. Another two or three years, and I'll have to. But not yet.

RE the %age using IE7. Recentish MS stuff comes with annoying "I'll logon for you and download lot's of stuff to your harddrive without asking and change loads of files on my own, and then reboot losing all your data, in order to make your life easier options which aren't always obvious to turn off" so many users may just turn on their computer one day and find they have IE7 without ever having been asked.

I'm similar to Portia, why spend any time learning a new system when the old one works fine. When it stops doing what I want it to do (which isn't the same as what it could do) then I'll change, and having zero brand loyalty I will change to the best available rather than just upgrade what I have, but till then I'll stay with what I'm happy with.

>72 conceptDawg: Conversely, our IE users are no so geeky (or there aren't that many out there) because our IE8 usage is only 1.0% of the IE total

hmm...I tried IE8 for about a week and then uninstalled it when I discovered that there were sites (including my on-line banking) that did not support it. In fact, when I tried to access my bank account, I was promptly informed that I would first need to update my browser to one of the supported versions. End of experiment.

IE8 is still Beta and has a lot of problems, I will waite for the final version.

Yeah, I would say that people not using the latest version of IE reflects more on the browser than its userbase.