sadams101

I believe the recommendations was to use ipstack when I set up the GeoIP Service (it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure...and I don't see a way to check what service is used--the only setting seems to be disable it). Is there another free service that can be used for this?

I don't use google ads anymore because there was no way to make money, especially given this issue. Unfortunately removing the google responsive CSS code does nothing to prevent this. We sell our own ads and use static sized webp banners, and have verified that this was an issue when I did run google ads, and this is still an issue now with our own ads. Most people who run ads and want to make any money at it will need to display separate ads targeting mobile devices, tablets or desktops, but not also load the ads in the background that are not targeted for their device. I posted this in the "feature suggestions" forum in the hope of a future programmatic solution, but for that to happen Invision would need to also view this as an issue, but apparently they don't. As with other issues I've complained about, for example site speed issues (no problems to see here right?), I'll likely need to use my own resources and developers to solve this issue.

Ideally I would be able to turn off any and all caching. I will try to recommend this as a feature.

Understood, and as mentioned, the way I've displayed these ads worked just fine in that location for at least 2 years, until this upgrade, which is why I brought this up in your forum. Whatever cashing changes you made to those blocks in the last two updates seems to no longer account for the viewing device, which can lead to other issues, not just this issue. I actually have had to turn off all of your cashing features, as I've discovered (and reported in older threads here) issues with cached pages that are related to incorrectly cached pages per device. Unfortunately I am unable to turn off this cashing feature, which now seems to also have the same issues.

Update on this bug: I'm still unable to search at all through the Templates CSS and HTML files, even if I add a space after. Do you know if this is being fixed soon?

I made the feature suggestion. I also disagree that I'm using the IPB "Define your own location" for ads in a way that was not intended. What did you mean by "Define your own location"? I did do this, but now you're essentially telling me that because I did this you can't help me? Strange response indeed.

I believe there is a serious issue with how ads are delivered--the fact that even though desktop or tablet ads might be hidden to the viewer using the desktop, tablet, mobile check boxes you provide in Blocks, or by wrapping the ad code in the CSS tags that hide them from various devices, the ads hidden from mobile are unfortunately still loading in mobile (in the background, and vice versa, mobile directed ads load hidden in desktop, etc.), which makes it nearly impossible to make money with Google or other network ads for the obvious reasons that Google sends ads to sites based on viewability and click through rate. When viewability and/or CTRs drop, worse quality and lower paying ads are served. This also greatly slows down the mobile version for those who run ads. I discovered this issue using Google site speed tests, which revealed that my large 728x90 and 300x600 desktop display ads were still loading in the background, though hidden, on the mobile speed tests.

Just an update that 755 permissions also works, and is more secure.

I realize IPB's ability to provide support now seems to have become severely limited (at least in comparison to my experiences prior to 5 years ago), which is why I've posted this in your forum. Perhaps you already know what programming changes were made that would cause this big change in how those blocks are cached, but if not I think it could be important for you to figure this out, as I've displayed my ads for years this way without issues. Perhaps there is a coding issue? It would certainly not be the first time. Also, in this thread I've pointed out another (what I believe to be a serious) issue with how ads are delivered--the fact that even though desktop or tablet ads might be hidden to the viewer using the desktop, tablet, mobile check boxes you provide in Blocks, or by wrapping the ad code in the CSS tags that hide them from various devices, the ads hidden from mobile are unfortunately still loading in mobile (in the background), which makes it nearly impossible to make money with Google or other network ads for obvious reasons (and this also greatly slows down the mobile version for those who run ads). If what I've described is actually happening, wouldn't you agree that this is an issue with the software that should be addressed?

I think I solved the issue of not being able to save admin settings. I saw this error on the Data Storage page when trying to save anything: In order to enable this setting you must make the /path/to/task/task.php file executable (i.e. chmod 0777). I have always had this chmod 0644 without issues, but after the upgrade something changed. Is 777 even secure? Now I am able to save admin settings. Unfortunately this did not fix the caching issues I am having with my ads. Mobile or Tablet versions of certain areas are still being cached and served to desktop, which seems to be the cause of my issue.

I think I solved the issue of not being able to save admin settings. I saw this error on the Data Storage page when trying to save anything: In order to enable this setting you must make the /path/to/task/task.php file executable (i.e. chmod 0777). I have always had this chmod 0644 without issues, but after the upgrade something changed. Is 777 even secure? Now I am able to save admin settings.

I have both a live site, and a test site. Recently I upgraded to 4.6.9 from 4.6.7, and now I am unable to save any admin settings. None will stick--if I go to a different ACP page, or log out and log back into the ACP, the old settings are there. Strangely, both my sites are doing this now, and my test site does not use any caching at all. What could be causing this?

I also have the issue where the setting for "Cache sidebar, header and footer blocks" will not stay to where it is set. It was set at 16 minutes, but if I change it to 1 minute then log out and log back in, then check that setting it goes back to 16 minutes! I've reproduced this 10 times, and it does this every time. Why?

Update: Recreating the ads in the database did not fix this issue. I ran an experiment where I put in the word "Mobile" in place of the mobile ad code, and "Tablet" in place of the tablet ad code, and the correct ad code for Desktop ads, and to me it seems that the cause of this issue is the right column is getting cached by a Mobile or Tablet user, because when the ads don't show I could see either "Tablet" or "Mobile" instead of the ad. I also saw no way to turn off the sidebar, header and footer caching, and could only set this to 1 minute, but not to OFF.

Actually I am using your feature called "Define your own location": Did you not intend for anyone to actually do this? 😄 But the bigger issue that I think you might want to think about, especially for site speed and those who use google ads, is that why, if I use my own CSS tags like this: <div class='ipsResponsive_block ipsResponsive_hidePhone'> My Ad Code here </div> OR if I use the check boxes you provide in the Blocks method, which allows you to check the same boxes to only show the ad on Desktop and Tablet, why do the ads still load on Mobile (they do, I've verified this using Google speed tests...you just can't see them on Mobile, but they do load)? This is a big issue, as it causes google ads, for example, to load ads that will never been seen or clicked on, thus, dramatically driving down your CTR, and causing advertisers to drop you as a place to show ads. PS - I also tested my Blocks versions which no longer work after the upgrade. To get them to work I had to re-create them. I suspect that if I re-create the ones I'm using now it may fix my issue as well, and will let you know. Does this provide any clues here? Why would the database references be gone or corrupted after the upgrade?

The issue with loading ads using the method you mentioned is that all ads for all devices are still loaded, even though the only visible ones are those with the CSS settings done per device. The only way I could stop ads from loading for other devices which were hidden by CSS was to use my method, plus using a 3rd party plugin that was working to stop this behavior. My ad network is on my server (Revive Adserver), and hasn't changed since this upgrade. The only change was updating IPB, and now, if I go to the different areas that they should show up they do not about 50% of the time. When this happens, if I clear the cache in the support area, it fixes the issue...for a few minutes anyway. The issue is definitely related to the upgrade.

After upgrading from 4.6.7 to 4.6.9 I am noticing that my sidebar caching, at least 50% of the time, is not showing my ads. Once I clear the cache the ads show up again, but this never used to happen. Is there a sidebar caching issue with 4.6.9?

Google Analytics. Google Analytics also told me they are on visiting my forums, pages, and blogs, and no other areas of my site, as there are no other areas for them to visit. If you subtract 71.9% and redistribute those visitors to one of those other 3 areas, then this pie chart might actually reflect what Google Analytics is telling me.

The data is essentially meaningless to me...but worse than that, it corrupts the data shown--71.9% of these visitors are definitely not on core, like messenger, online list, account settings. They are on my forums, pages or blogs...nowhere else.

I've run IPS for probably 15 years or more now, and I still have no idea what this widget is trying to tell me. Below, for example, I have 526 users online, and 71.9% of them are using an app that I don't believe I have...it is an app called "System" 😃 After all these years "System" still makes zero sense to me, and it only obfuscates the ability to see what these 526 users are actually doing on my site (I know for a fact that every single one of them is visiting either my Forums, Pages, or Blogs areas, but can't really see how many are visiting my blogs below, and the percentages are totally off due to the "System" slice of this pie. If System were eliminated, I might actually be able to know what users are doing on my site, but, unfortunately this widget has never been able to convey this.

Yes, the bug actually came back after I thought it was gone, and if you can believe it this also now affects my live site, which is very strange because I haven't upgraded it yet. I believe it may have something to do with browser caching, but I did figure out a workaround. If you put a space after anything you are searching for the search will work.

I ran the upgrade from v4.6.7 to v4.6.8, and the search templates feature is no longer working. Will re-building the search index fix this issue, or is this a bug? Very strange...it seem to have been a browser caching issue. After clearing my cache the search now works.

I did look at each category, in the example I gave there is only one parent category, and the "Set custom permissions" was not enabled. The article is visible in its category, so I don't believe this is the issue. Interestingly, if you search for the entire headline the article cannot be found "Top Brands of Gluten-Free Canned Chili", but if you search for part of it, for example "Canned Chili" it comes up first, so I do think there may be an issue somewhere, and perhaps caused by my expanding the number of characters in that field, but again, in this particular case the headline is well under 128 characters anyway, so I'm not even sure the field size change is the issue.

Great, it sounds like an easy fix, but I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. How would I give the permission necessary to make the search work correctly?

I can tell you that I initially imported articles into your application, and your team helped me with that, and in that process we did have to increase the field size of the title to accommodate the titles in my old app. I am not sure if @Ioannis D also changed the character length in his app, or if doing that is related to this issue. PS - I'm going from memory here, but I believe that original character length was 128, and I may have bumped it up to 256.