H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Oct 5, 2017 08:21 AM UTC:
The top banner shares the space with the logo and the share widget, and it will jump down if squeezed out.
Well, that sucks. Page banners are not supposed to do that. Especially since in the shown case the banner is not 'squeezed out' at all: there is plenty of space to display it. The technical reason for it to happen just shows the poor design. If you want the layout of the header to change under width-pressure, it would make more sense to move the share widget to under the logo, as the banner is usually higher than logo and share widget together. Using floating style is just the wrong techology for formatting page headers. The elements should be forced to stay side by side, and in extreme cases shrink to fit or summon a horizontal scroll bar.
For what's happening in the other picture, I will need precise details on the conditions under which it is happening. This includes the browser, the OS, the screen width, the window width, the viewport width, and anything going on that could be affecting the CSS.
Well, I don't mess with the CSS, and it is very surprising you cannot reproduce this effect.It is not like I have to go looking for these things; they jump you all the time when using this website. The "ad below menu bar" happens on every page except some submission forms (which have no ads, header and menu bar at all), whenever I narrow the viewport to the point where the left side bar closes. It doesn't seem dependent on the OS or browser used, (the screenshot was taken with FireFox 10.0.1 on Ubuntu Linux, and the viewport size should follow from the image width, which is demagnified by a factor 2), and is likely caused by faulty or missing style definitions for the side bars in the various width ranges where they occur.
The relevant part of the 'Page Source' causing the "large white space" screenshot is below, and the page looks just like what you would expect if there isn't a special style definition for the rightcol or leftcol ASIDE; it would just display it above the ARTICLE, as that is where it appears in the source:
</noscript><SCRIPT>
if (window.canShowAds === undefined) {
document.write(`<FIGURE>
<FIGCAPTION>Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces</FIGCAPTION>
<A HREF="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/unicorn-and-fortress-chess-kit-with-black-natural-plastic-pieces.html?___store=houseofstaunton_en&acc=eb163727917cbba1eea208541a643e74"><IMG SRC="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/small_image/267x240/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/a/marshall-overlay_4.jpg" ALT="Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces" TITLE="Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces"></A>
</FIGURE>
<FIGURE>
<FIGCAPTION>Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces</FIGCAPTION>
<A HREF="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/spider-dragon-chess-kit-with-black-natural-plastic-pieces.html?___store=houseofstaunton_en&acc=eb163727917cbba1eea208541a643e74"><IMG SRC="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/small_image/267x240/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/a/marshall-overlay.jpg" ALT="Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces" TITLE="Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces"></A>
</FIGURE>
`);
}
</SCRIPT>
</ASIDE>
<ASIDE CLASS="rightcol">
<iframe src="//rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?o=1&p=14&l=ur1&category=topgiftideas&banner=1PS7NTZH9Z597A9KKWR2&f=ifr&linkID=dba816b2b2d0685889719280db7301d6&t=chessvariants-20&tracking_id=chessvariants-20" width="160" height="600" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe></ASIDE>
<MAIN>
<ARTICLE>
Well, that sucks. Page banners are not supposed to do that. Especially since in the shown case the banner is not 'squeezed out' at all: there is plenty of space to display it. The technical reason for it to happen just shows the poor design. If you want the layout of the header to change under width-pressure, it would make more sense to move the share widget to under the logo, as the banner is usually higher than logo and share widget together. Using floating style is just the wrong techology for formatting page headers. The elements should be forced to stay side by side, and in extreme cases shrink to fit or summon a horizontal scroll bar.
Well, I don't mess with the CSS, and it is very surprising you cannot reproduce this effect.It is not like I have to go looking for these things; they jump you all the time when using this website. The "ad below menu bar" happens on every page except some submission forms (which have no ads, header and menu bar at all), whenever I narrow the viewport to the point where the left side bar closes. It doesn't seem dependent on the OS or browser used, (the screenshot was taken with FireFox 10.0.1 on Ubuntu Linux, and the viewport size should follow from the image width, which is demagnified by a factor 2), and is likely caused by faulty or missing style definitions for the side bars in the various width ranges where they occur.
The relevant part of the 'Page Source' causing the "large white space" screenshot is below, and the page looks just like what you would expect if there isn't a special style definition for the rightcol or leftcol ASIDE; it would just display it above the ARTICLE, as that is where it appears in the source:
<DIV CLASS="middle">
<ASIDE CLASS="leftcol">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
amazon_ad_tag="chessvariants-20";
amazon_ad_width="300";
amazon_ad_height="250";
amazon_color_background="EBECDF";
amazon_color_border="AFA938";
amazon_color_logo="504706";
amazon_color_link="2B5A6B";
amazon_ad_logo="hide";
amazon_ad_title="The Chess Variant Pages Gift Shop"; //--></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/s/asw.js"></script><script language='JavaScript1.1'>
document.write("<sc"+"ript language='JavaScript1.1' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/711-53200-19255-217/1?campid=5337821335&toolid=7115320019255217&customid=&mpt=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*999999999999) + "&adtype=3&size=300x250&mpvc='></sc"+"ript>");
</script>
<noscript>
<a href='http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-217/1?campid=5337821335&toolid=7115320019255217&customid=&mpvc='>
<img border='0px' src='http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/711-53200-19255-217/1?campid=5337821335&toolid=7115320019255217&customid=&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&adtype=1&size=300x250&mpvc=' alt='Click Here'>
</a>
</noscript><SCRIPT>
if (window.canShowAds === undefined) {
document.write(`<FIGURE>
<FIGCAPTION>Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces</FIGCAPTION>
<A HREF="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/unicorn-and-fortress-chess-kit-with-black-natural-plastic-pieces.html?___store=houseofstaunton_en&acc=eb163727917cbba1eea208541a643e74"><IMG SRC="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/small_image/267x240/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/a/marshall-overlay_4.jpg" ALT="Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces" TITLE="Musketeer Chess Fortress and Unicorn Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces"></A>
</FIGURE>
<FIGURE>
<FIGCAPTION>Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces</FIGCAPTION>
<A HREF="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/spider-dragon-chess-kit-with-black-natural-plastic-pieces.html?___store=houseofstaunton_en&acc=eb163727917cbba1eea208541a643e74"><IMG SRC="http://www.houseofstaunton.com/media/catalog/product/cache/3/small_image/267x240/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/a/marshall-overlay.jpg" ALT="Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces" TITLE="Musketeer Chess Dragon and Spider Kit Bundled with HOS Luxury Plastic Chess Pieces"></A>
</FIGURE>
`);
}
</SCRIPT>
</ASIDE>
<ASIDE CLASS="rightcol">
<iframe src="//rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?o=1&p=14&l=ur1&category=topgiftideas&banner=1PS7NTZH9Z597A9KKWR2&f=ifr&linkID=dba816b2b2d0685889719280db7301d6&t=chessvariants-20&tracking_id=chessvariants-20" width="160" height="600" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe></ASIDE>
<MAIN>
<ARTICLE>