h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On my preferences it says classicgoo which, I assume is the wonderful blue background, but sometimes
during a session on h2g2. It changes to alabaster on it's own. Why?.

Iain

Are you all igoring me? I asked a question & no one wants to bother to answer it.
Thanks for nothing everyone.

rant over

Don't worry,
I'm also waiting for replies...

It could be when you write an entry and preview it, there is a choice of skins to preview it in(it defaults to Alabaster). Next time, please be more specific, otherwise help is difficult.

I have changed the background option of one of my entries (http://www.h2g2.com/A459461) from alabaster to classic goo. The preview worked but not so the update! At least on my pc I cannot change that permanently!?!
What does the entry look like on your screen?

HollePolle

Late last week & over the weekend there were some h2g2 server problems - one of the results might have been that the h2g2 system wasn't able to access your preferences so it defaults to Alabaster (the white skin).

Another cause of the sudden change of skins is page cacheing somewhere between you & h2g2 - usually at the ISP.

ISPs cache pages to improve performance by providing a copy of a recently requested page from a cache copy rather than requesting a fresh copy from the site.

hope it helps
;^)#

Refreshing a page should help, shouldn't it?
But it doesn't!

HP.

Refreshing won't help because all that happens is that your ISP sends you another copy of the cached page it is holding.

;^)#

I have an example for you:

I have "My Space" open in one window.
I am posting this message in a different window.
After posting I refresh "My Space" in the other window and my conversation will already be updated.

Is this a different thing from that with the background skin?

HP.

That means that your My Space page hasn't been cached by your ISP.

;^)#

btw - my comments on cacheing & server problems related to the original question on pages sometimes being served up in an h2g2 skin contrary to the user preferences.

The other possible reason is, of course, that some users are so fond of a skin they will code it to look similar to their favourite skin. Though there's nothing in HollePolle's http://www.h2g2.com/A459461 that attempts to set such a thing.

Just in case there's any confusion on what a skin is here is the page this forum is hanging from in Classic skin
http://www.h2g2.com/A308206?skin=Classic
& here it is in Alabster (the default)
http://www.h2g2.com/A308206?skin=Alabaster

hope it helps
;^)#

Thanks, finally, for your untiring efforts with me!
I think, I got it!

The background-thing with ?skin=... will obviously work fine!

»--

HP.

No worries - anytime

;^)#