Formatting issue with MR Forums

[Iwavvns]

I’m using an iPad 9th generation to view the MR Forums and have noticed a formatting issue. The small icon (my profile picture) sits to the right of the icon used for each thread in the “new forums posts” list. I’ve noticed that these profile icons are all over the place. I have attached a screenshot to illustrate the issue. See the three red arrows I’ve added. The top red arrow shows the filter I’m using and the other two show the issue itself.

iPad 9th Gen running iPadOS 17.5.1 and Safari

 

[EllieCat]

Does it go away when you refresh the page?

 

[Iwavvns]

Does it go away when you refresh the page?

No, the issue is still there after a page refresh. I’ve even tried clearing cache/cookies and logging back in.. no joy. My first thought is that this is a CSS issue.

 

[chown33]

It looks to be related to the "line height" of items that lack an avatar pic.

I tried it on my iPad mini (16.6.1) and I see the problem in the Trending, New Posts, or New Threads lists under the "New Posts" item from the MR upper toolbar.

I don't have enough "participating" threads to make my tiny-avatar appear in enough threads to be sure it's related to avatar-less posters, but there is definitely a correlation. The OP's screenshot shows the problem only for list-items that lack an avatar. Every such item in the list has a lower height than all the items where posters have avatars.

 

[Slartibart]

no problem here - I think 😅 (iPad Pro 11", latest iPadOS 17.6b)

Which version of iPadOS? Any adblocker, proxy, …?

 

[Iwavvns]

It looks to be related to the "line height" of items that lack an avatar pic.

I tried it on my iPad mini (16.6.1) and I see the problem in the Trending, New Posts, or New Threads lists under the "New Posts" item from the MR upper toolbar.

I don't have enough "participating" threads to make my tiny-avatar appear in enough threads to be sure it's related to avatar-less posters, but there is definitely a correlation. The OP's screenshot shows the problem only for list-items that lack an avatar. Every such item in the list has a lower height than all the items where posters have avatars.

I didn’t see it before, but I think you are exactly right. I went back and looked at it again this morning, and your hypothesis seems to be spot on.

Edit: i’m wondering if this could be resolved by adding a “placeholder” icon to any thread in the list that lacks an icon. That would seem to solve the spacing issue. Perhaps we could benefit from some operating system icons?

 

[chown33]

We already have placeholder avatars. They're the initial character of the username, on some algorithmically chosen color.

The problem I see is that those placeholders aren't appearing for you or for me, even though they do seem to appear for Slartibart.

The main difference in reported device info so far is Slartibart is running 17.6 beta iPadOS, while you and I are on earlier versions. I'll also add that my iPad is a mini 5, which is different from the other two models so far. My browser is Safari.

I'll also note that Slartibart is using the MR Dark theme, while we're both using the Light theme. I temporarily switched to dark, and the problem still appears there, so it's not related to that (probably).


To further clarify where I see it, I started at this page:

https://forums.macrumors.com/whats-new/posts/

I then scrolled down thru New Posts until I saw a thread with no avatar. Here's a screenshot:

In this list, I think the avatar of the most recent poster is shown next to the thrad link. I don't actually see anything consistent, so that's just a guess. The name of the thread's OP appears next to the date, which is the thread start date.

The "RCS supported carriers" thread shows no avatar. The thread OP has no custom avatar. The same goes for the "I never thought" thread. Curiously, the OP of the "Nitro" thread also has no custom avatar, yet an avatar appears, but it's not for anyone I see in the thread.

(The "Edit" checkbox is a mod-only control, so we can do things like edit thread titles, stickiness, etc. Non-mods don't have this.)

(Edited above to clarify apparently random avatar appearance.)


If the problem is solved in the latest Safari (17.6 beta), then that should eventually reach everyone, so adding a feature to the forum software would be superfluous.

If the problem continues to appear in Safari on 17.6 release, then someone on staff will send a bug report to XenForo (forum software vendor).

 

[chown33]

Here's a screenshot that shows the wackiness of the avatar in the New Posts list. I made it shortly after making the above post:

The avatar shown on the left isn't of anyone who's posted in the thread. My mini-tar appears correctly on the left, showing that I've posted in the thread. And my avatar on the right shows I made the lastest post, and when.

EDIT
I just figured out what the icon is.. The "avatar" on the left is for the Forum the thread is in. Hover over it and its name will appear (unless there's no icon). Click it and you'll go to the forum.

So the "no avatar" means that forum or sub-forum doesn't have an icon.

 

[Slartibart]

@chown33 - thanks for providing that link. The displacement happens on 17.6b too:

the last thread in the screenshot above has an empty “Avatar” and as a result my Avatar in the thread above is displaced. How does a forum "Avatar" not appear for a new thread (as for the »iOS 18«-thread titled "Does anybody actually…"?

EDIT: DuckDuckGo’s browser behaves - no real surprise - identical:

 

[Slartibart]

Addendum: any thread in the tread list in e.g. »Trending« which comes from »iOS 18« or »macOS Sequoia (15) does not show a forum Avatar. time to include @arn (?) 🙃

 

[Iwavvns]

Update: I just updated my iPad 9th generation to iPadOS 18 Public Beta, and I’m seeing no change from the OP. I’m also seeing this same formatting issue on my iPhone 13 running iOS 18 Public Beta.. this doesn’t seem to be a screen size issue.

You folks are awesome, I love how everyone jumps in and provides information and ideas!

 

[Nermal]

This has nothing to do with running a beta OS or screen size. If the forum you're looking at doesn't have an icon (like the iOS 18 one) then the "mini icon" gets misaligned. This issue happens every year between WWDC and release.