Ashby Canal vandalism.

[tree monkey]

11 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

The presence of the picture in the avatar is beyond Athy's control - not everyone is seeing it and when it was first reported we didn't know what the report was on about until a screen shot was sent. I see a picture of Athy's boat, not the alternative you are all discussing. 

At the moment posted content turns out to be the result of third party intervention, then there is no longer an issue of whether any rules have been broken - they haven't. The issue is more "how did this happen?"

We are investigating how this has arisen, I think I can safely state that none of us on the staff side could plan an alternative avatar that only appeared intermittently, I know plenty of people (not necessarily forum members) who could post content or change the avatar of a member without that member's knowledge, but the change would be 100%, everyone would see it. 

 

It is intriguing that's for sure, was it malicious?

3 minutes ago, john6767 said:

I just tried clearing the browser cache and I still see the “alternate” avatar, so utterly is not that simple, there is stuff of the server end that is still serving this image.  Caching can certainly be a pain, when I worked for a living developing web software I have been caught out more then once by it.  I would expect that the forum software it set up to aggressively cache avatars, as they are a really changed item.

It was said slightly flippantly tbh but it might have worked, trees I do, computers are a bit of a mystery nowadays 

[magpie patrick]

Just now, tree monkey said:

It is intriguing that's for sure, was it malicious?

 

Fair question - we don't know

At the moment it's a one off incident which makes it particularly difficult to track down

[tree monkey]

Just now, magpie patrick said:

 

Fair question - we don't know

At the moment it's a one off incident which makes it particularly difficult to track down

Let's hope not and thank you all for trying to sort it out

[Rob-M]

If you clear your browser cache or use an inprivate browsing session Athys alternative image is shown.

 

I'm with the others, I don't really care about the image but would like an explanation on how it was able to be changed as this should be a protected file so must call in to question the security of the forum software or its configuration.

[john6767]

2 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

If you clear your browser cache or use an inprivate browsing session Athys alternative image is shown.

 

I'm with the others, I don't really care about the image but would like an explanation on how it was able to be changed as this should be a protected file so must call in to question the security of the forum software or its configuration.

Yep, and the fact that it is Athy’s avatar suggests someone having a laugh to me, and not some random event

[David Schweizer]

1 hour ago, john6767 said:

Yep, and the fact that it is Athy’s avatar suggests someone having a laugh to me, and not some random event

 

Yes, and that has also been my assumption.

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Rob-M said:

If you clear your browser cache or use an inprivate browsing session Athys alternative image is shown.

Oh yes. Just did a private browsing window on my phone and I get the ladies again, both as a guest and when logged in. Back to the normal browser mode and Trojan reappears.

[Alan de Enfield]

Yup, still there, screen shot taken a couple of minutes ago,

 

If I log in its the boat and house, if I don't log in its the Ladies.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[Athy]

14 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

So why is it still there Athy? Its not what I would expect of a forum moderator, should you not be reconsidering your position?

Prhaps you could clarify what you mean by "your position", and explain why I should be reconsidering it.

[Athy]

13 hours ago, john6767 said:

Yep, and the fact that it is Athy’s avatar suggests someone having a laugh to me, and not some random event

I'm not so sure. Ever since I got my first computer, 20 years ago now, I have observed that they do the most extraordinary things for no apparent reason.  This may be a prank, but it's just as likely to be a random malfunction in whatever it is that makes computers work.

[Bod]

I am seeing the "young ladies" rather than the boat.

 

Bod

[Athy]

I have now clicked on "remove my photo" in my profile section, and would be interested to know if members can see the house and boat, the cheeky ladies or neither of these.

[Rob-M]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

I have now clicked on "remove my photo" in my profile section, and would be interested to know if members can see the house and boat, the cheeky ladies or neither of these.

Currently I see nothing.

[john6767]

36 minutes ago, Athy said:

I'm not so sure. Ever since I got my first computer, 20 years ago now, I have observed that they do the most extraordinary things for no apparent reason.  This may be a prank, but it's just as likely to be a random malfunction in whatever it is that makes computers work.

And that is exactly why.  Not everyone is going to appreciate your humour in playing the fool like this, as you well know it is going to antagonise some people.  Computers do not do random things.

 

Anyway good to see that you have removed you avatar, I await with baited breath as to what you will do next.

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, Athy said:

I have now clicked on "remove my photo" in my profile section, and would be interested to know if members can see the house and boat, the cheeky ladies or neither of these.

 

 

This is what we now see (even when not signed in)

 

 

[Midnight]

It's pretty simple the avatars are saved in your browser cache.  Clear your cache or try incognito mode  Press Ctrl + Shift + n. Mac: Press ⌘ + Shift + n. this is the mode developers use to ensure no cached files are used in new content.

 

It might be possible for the site techies to add a Unix time-stamp argument (?ver=timestamp();) to each pic/avatar which forces the browser to download the latest incarnation of the image because the file name is changed. e.g. image1.jpg?ver=1626770621 then one second later the filename is image1.jpg?ver=1626770622

 

Update I just checked the source code for my avatar on this page 

<img src='https://www.canalworld.net/forums/uploads/monthly_2018_01/avatar-1.thumb.jpg.068282ce533f9ed3135a07d6ab726581.jpg' alt='Midnight' loading="lazy"> Not sure what the loading option is but wonder if that's an option to force new files

Edited July 20, 2021 by Midnight

[Athy]

35 minutes ago, john6767 said:

And that is exactly why.  Not everyone is going to appreciate your humour in playing the fool like this, as you well know it is going to antagonise some people.  Computers do not do random things.

 

 

I am not playing the fool, as you so kindly put it. I did not install the Cheeky Ladies avatar, so why are you attempting to put any blame on me?

No, I do not know that it is going to antagonise some people.

Yes,,they do.

 

Those things apart, I am entirely in agreement with you.

38 minutes ago, john6767 said:

 

 

 I await with baited breath as to what you will do next.

Worms? Maggots?

[john6767]

2 minutes ago, Midnight said:

It's pretty simple the avatars are saved in your browser cache.  Clear your cache or try incognito mode  Press Ctrl + Shift + n. Mac: Press ⌘ + Shift + n. this is the mode developers use to ensure no cached files are used in new content.

 

It might be possible for the site techies to add a Unix time-stamp argument (?ver=timestamp();) to each pic/avatar which forces the browser to download the latest incarnation of the image because the file name is changed. e.g. image1.jpg?ver=1626770621 then one second later the filename is image1.jpg?ver=1626770622

You are correct, but this was not a browser cache problem, clearing the cache was still showing the alternate image.  Putting a timestamp of epoch is a common technique to discourage caching by browsers, but I would say that you not want to do that for avatars, they are a rarely changed file, and you want the browser to cache them normally.

[Midnight]

Just now, john6767 said:

You are correct, but this was not a browser cache problem, clearing the cache was still showing the alternate image.  Putting a timestamp of epoch is a common technique to discourage caching by browsers, but I would say that you not want to do that for avatars, they are a rarely changed file, and you want the browser to cache them normally.

but you just hammered Athy because the image didn't change

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Athy said:

I am not playing the fool, as you so kindly put it. I did not install the Cheeky Ladies avatar, so why are you attempting to put any blame on me?

No, I do not know that it is going to antagonise some people.

Yes,,they do.

 

Those things apart, I am entirely in agreement with you.

Worms? Maggots?

 

 

Why not try putting another (different) picture as you avatar and we can see if we can see what you intend, or, if the ladies are still there in the background of your 'puter.

[john6767]

6 minutes ago, Midnight said:

but you just hammered Athy because the image didn't change

Not sure what you mean, if it was a browser cache issue, then if the real image had been put back then those seeing the alternate one would be because of the cache, but this I do not believe is the case.  Clearing the cache still gave you the alternate one, but surprise now the avatar has been removed you don’t see one.  It would be interesting to see what happened with the avatar put back though.  However,  Athy is always doing stuff like this, the other day I think he was claiming that he had never heard of SI units or something like that, now it’s that computers just do random stuff.  It does get a bit tedious.

Edited July 20, 2021 by john6767

[Guest]

Well all I can see now is the forum default blank avatar.

[Athy]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Why not try putting another (different) picture as you avatar and we can see if we can see what you intend, or, if the ladies are still there in the background of your 'puter.

I'm trying to re-install my original picture, but my computer tells me that its size, 102.4 something-or-others, is too big - even though it was the picture which I had displayed for at least ten years!

Watch this space.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Athy said:

I'm trying to re-install my original picture, but my computer tells me that its size, 102.4 something-or-others, is too big - even though it was the picture which I had displayed for at least ten years!

Watch this space.

 

I think the forum got particularly fussy about image sizes a couple of updates back. I find the quickest way to re size is to take a screen shot of the image and use that.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by The Happy Nomad

[Athy]

3 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

I think the forum got particularly fussy about image sizes a couple of updates back. I find the quickest way to re size is to take a screen shot of the image and use that.

 

 

Thank you.

Having no idea what a screen shot is or how to take one, it looks as if I'll be remaining anonymous for the time being! While this suits my self-effacing nature, it would be nice to have a picture on my avatar.