Its a problem of which I am not sure if it has to do with someone's signature links, or something. But at certain times browsing the Grogheads forums triggers an .swf file download and it causes and infinite loop op opening new tabs in my Firefox browser.
It's highly annoying and I was wondering if people have come across this before and if there is a fix?
is it related to the presence of YouTube embeds in the thread?
Ah yes that might very well be it.
The filename is some random string followed by .swf.
plug that random string into Youtube and see what you get. I bet it's a video :)
I'm using Firefox and haven't seen it, although it sometimes has trouble recognizing embedded videos and trying to save them to the desktop (via separate save request windows). Not the same as infinite loop loading tabs in my browser, though! -- I haven't seen that yet.
I just checked on a thread with at least one such video (the Star Trek Beyond thread in Movies and TV category), and didn't see an extension at the end of the hexadecimal file name that it wanted to open or save to my desktop. .swf sounds like a shockwave file, however, so it's probably the same problem -- the save window says it's an adobe shockwave file.
Firefox prevents you from using outdated software (add-ons). In this case I got a message yesterday that flashplayer was outdated.
After allowing the blocking of the flashplayer content I also got these small swf files firefox wanted to open or download.
Updating flashplayer took care of it.
I'll raise the issue again.
It seems to be triggered by embedded videos indeed. Now the current 'Friday-thread' in Computer Wargames triggers it for me;
opening endless tabs in Firefox.
I have to kill the application with Alt-F4.
Is there anything I can do about it? It's quite annoying and Grogheads is the only forum I have these troubles with.
According to Wikimedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWF), "SWF is an abbreviation for small web format, an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript."
I use Firefox and have NoScript (https://noscript.net/) active so I don't have the problem you are experiencing, Yskonyn.
Quote from: Greybriar on November 24, 2016, 04:48:21 AM
[...]
I use Firefox and have NoScript (https://noscript.net/) active so I don't have the problem you are experiencing, Yskonyn.
NoScript is a MUST! noscript, ublock and common sense make the www go 'round... ;)
(HTTPS Everywhere isn't bad either! very useful!! - https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere )
Quote from: Yskonyn on November 24, 2016, 04:28:20 AM
I'll raise the issue again.
It seems to be triggered by embedded videos indeed. Now the current 'Friday-thread' in Computer Wargames triggers it for me;
opening endless tabs in Firefox.
I have to kill the application with Alt-F4.
Is there anything I can do about it? It's quite annoying and Grogheads is the only forum I have these troubles with.
Check if you have the latest version of flash player
https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Updating fixed the issue a while ago for me.
What Pete said
I have the latest version of Flash but I still get the .swf downloads. The odd thing is that I don't get it with all the videos posted here, and in some cased I get the download with a resulting big empty spot in the forum post that contained it and others I can still see the YT window ready to play. ???
sigh... OK - let me look into the latest update on the video player. I thought we were up to date, but I might have to try to find a different youtube embedder.
Quote from: Staggerwing on November 24, 2016, 08:08:57 AM
I have the latest version of Flash but I still get the .swf downloads. The odd thing is that I don't get it with all the videos posted here, and in some cased I get the download with a resulting big empty spot in the forum post that contained it and others I can still see the YT window ready to play. ???
This I have as well. :-\
I do have the latest flash player installed. I am willing to install NoScript, but I'll refrain until doing so after you've made the changes to the video player so I can check wether that would solve the current issue.
I sometimes get the save message on my phone, but not on my PC and I use Firefox on that.
The weirdness I get is that none of the photo links Brant posts ever show up on my PC or my tablet. I assume it's because he's always got the s at the end of https. I just see a broken green box.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on November 24, 2016, 07:45:59 PM
The weirdness I get is that none of the photo links Brant posts ever show up on my PC or my tablet. I assume it's because he's always got the s at the end of https.
I wonder if it's b/c a lot of them are coming out of Facebook
Shouldn't be an issue. I have FB on my desktop and can see other images taken from there. FB is blocked at work so it would make sense that I can't see them over my lunch break, etc.
Quote from: Staggerwing on November 24, 2016, 08:08:57 AM
I have the latest version of Flash but I still get the .swf downloads. The odd thing is that I don't get it with all the videos posted here, and in some cased I get the download with a resulting big empty spot in the forum post that contained it and others I can still see the YT window ready to play. ???
Jumping in to say this describes me to a "t", except it is on my Android phone (since phone and not PC, only a lower case "t'" O:-)). Any progress on this topic?
This issue still vexes my browsing with almost every other YT vid linked here.
Since I got my new PC I am getting the pop-ups, too. Like this one:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi67.tinypic.com%2F2wnbqcz.png&hash=41af6bdc8e9b4cba0fa415c2817bf646501c6fe7)
I dropped many of the Firefox add-ons and other programs I had previously but I am still using No-Script.
I found something that might solve the problem.
testing now
OK - so I think I've found the condition here, and been playing with it some overnight
note the embed instructions from the users guide sub-forum
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi747.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx120%2FStaggerwing%2Fyoutubehowto_zps7e2c7f01.jpg&hash=10e0dbc07cde47d72e74a7422950dddad71e061c)
See where it's telling you to pull the link from?
Notice that it's not the URL from the address bar?
compare these two URLs:
followed YT embed instructions
https://youtu.be/ScuwBnXgCv8 <----- embed works fine, no SWF download
didn't follow YT embed instructions, grabbed link from address bar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScuwBnXgCv8 <----- embed doesn't work, triggers SWF download b/c YouTube parser won't display it
I also experimented with "https" vs "http" and there appears to be no difference either way
I've tested this on a Mac, a Win7 machine, my Android phone, my Kindle Fire tablet, and an iPad mini and it seems to work the same in each case
I don't know if this closes the case, but it seems to be pretty solid toward fixing the problem
That makes sense. I'll start checking which Urls trigger the download on my rig and which don't to see if the pattern holds.
Badly formatted YT url from Brant's post =
BOING! (even leaves a big space above it where the YT player window should be)
Looks like that's the ticket!
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 17, 2017, 09:34:16 PM
That makes sense. I'll start checking which Urls trigger the download on my rig and which don't to see if the pattern holds.
Badly formatted YT url from Brant's post =
BOING! (even leaves a big space above it where the YT player window should be)
Looks like that's the ticket!
It looks like I used a few bad url in the past but I never noticed it as everything worked for me. When I click the badly formatted Youtube link in your post the video plays without issues ... (using windows 7 with firefox).
After Staggerwing's most recent post, I began getting a popup.
After Pete quoted Staggerwing in his post I began getting TWO (2) popups.
That ought to tell us something.
Quote from: Greybriar on January 18, 2017, 07:41:36 AM
After Staggerwing's most recent post, I began getting a popup.
After Pete quoted Staggerwing in his post I began getting TWO (2) popups.
That ought to tell us something.
Edited my post to remove the link. Should eliminate one popup.
Quote from: Pete Dero on January 18, 2017, 08:01:26 AM
Edited my post to remove the link. Should eliminate one popup.
You're right. I'm only getting one popup on that page now.
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 17, 2017, 09:34:16 PM
That makes sense. I'll start checking which Urls trigger the download on my rig and which don't to see if the pattern holds.
Badly formatted YT url from Brant's post =
BOING! (even leaves a big space above it where the YT player window should be)
Looks like that's the ticket!
That explains a lot of the big blank links I get
I got six popups when I opened this thread (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=18660.msg496931#new).
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 09:52:23 AM
I got six popups when I opened this thread (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=18660.msg496931#new).
that's because all of those "Let's Play" videos that Grim Reaper posted are all using the wrong link URL, as noted above.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 21, 2017, 09:54:30 AM
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 09:52:23 AM
I got six popups when I opened this thread (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=18660.msg496931#new).
that's because all of those "Let's Play" videos that Grim Reaper posted are all using the wrong link URL, as noted above.
What can I do to prevent them?
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 09:56:08 AM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 21, 2017, 09:54:30 AM
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 09:52:23 AM
I got six popups when I opened this thread (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=18660.msg496931#new).
that's because all of those "Let's Play" videos that Grim Reaper posted are all using the wrong link URL, as noted above.
What can I do to prevent them?
Teach your fellow forum-goers the proper way to embed YouTube files!
I don't mean to be flippant, but that's honestly the fix - the SWF downloads are being triggered by improper linking, and I don't know enough code to manually change the mod that allows the YouTube embedding to detect/prevent the use of the wrong URL :-\
I didn't even know that this happened until I started to use my mac to post youtube links. Anyway, I've learned to use the share link and placed a few points into my using youtube skill. I still suffer from my negative intelligence modifier however.
Thanks for the responses. At least I, like Bison, have learned to use the YouTube share link.
How about an announcement to bring this matter to the attention of all forum members? Including the instructions about how to link a YouTube video that are contained in a previous post in this thread should help rectify the situation.
Didn't we have a stickied thread on this already? ???
we had answered it here, but I'll also include it in the YT guide thread, too
http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4814.new#new
Not to be a wise guy, but I doubt 95% of our forum members will ever see it there. I hadn't even noticed that sub-forum existed until you posted a link to it.
Recommendations on where we should put it?
My guess would be the Computer Wargaming forum. Most (if not all) of us visit it.
Is it linked to the front page? Everyone visits there. :)
They don't post video links there.
Quote from: Bison on January 21, 2017, 05:11:46 PM
Is it linked to the front page? Everyone visits there. :)
I was just there last year.
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 05:07:58 PM
My guess would be the Computer Wargaming forum. Most (if not all) of us visit it.
There's actually about 35% of the forum crowd that doesn't ever visit Computer Wargaming, based on back end stats.
Plus, if we get brand new visitors, they'd never think to look in Computer Wargaming for a user guide.
Those User Guide threads used to be spread all over the forums until we pulled them all into one place
Quote from: mirth on January 21, 2017, 06:01:58 PM
Quote from: Bison on January 21, 2017, 05:11:46 PM
Is it linked to the front page? Everyone visits there. :)
I was just there last year.
That was soooooooo 3 weeks ago...
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 21, 2017, 07:08:49 PM
Quote from: Greybriar on January 21, 2017, 05:07:58 PM
My guess would be the Computer Wargaming forum. Most (if not all) of us visit it.
There's actually about 35% of the forum crowd that doesn't ever visit Computer Wargaming, based on back end stats.
Plus, if we get brand new visitors, they'd never think to look in Computer Wargaming for a user guide.
Those User Guide threads used to be spread all over the forums until we pulled them all into one place
Is there a rule against having an announcement in more than one location?