So a couple of times opponents have been kind enough to share helpful variations of the execrable move sequences that I actually played with me, but the ones I get on my end are not linked (in the browser I was using then) so I couldn’t see the intended content. Both of the opponents in question hadn’t heard of a bug like this before and were baffled.
I decided to do a little due-diligence before reporting the bug, and went to see if trying a different browser helped. It did, and I guess I’ll be using OGS in Chrome exclusively from now, because not only this but several other easier-to-ignore issues with formatting and UI etc just went away when I switched browsers, and the site is much easier and more pleasant for me to use now.
I’ve been trying to move more and more of my web-browsing from Chrome to Firefox, but there are still some sites with so little regard for browser portability that they work much better in Chrome. I’m sad that I’m adding OGS to this list. But maybe you do want Firefox users to be able to view the content of Variations links posted to them in their games?
I just tried Firefox (120.0.1) and variation links work for me there. Are you on an old version of Firefox? Or maybe you have an extension installed that’s interfering?
I’d just like to point out, if things are broken in Firefox, it’s not because OGS devs have written it off as a browser. Testing on a variety of platforms is part of the process, and FF is even the browser of choice for some.
Do you some active extensions that could be causing issues?
Come to think of it, I wonder if this is an accident of timing.
There was a bug fixed this week related to variations on reviews disappearing for games with analysis disabled, and it also affected players with analysis permanently disabled in their settings. I just remembered that the same (now-fixed) bug was breaking links to variations (although no one reported that problem).
Incidentally, there were a few UI tweaks that were deployed around the same time.
@arkiuat, perhaps if you try again in Firefox, you’ll see the same improvements you noticed in Chrome?
Or, if the bug seems to persist, it might be helpful to point at the game where the links don’t work for you.
I just went back to check, and the text that ought to be linked “Variation etc” is still just plain unlinked text in Firefox. I did have analysis disabled in one of the two games showing this, but analysis is enabled in the other one.
I’ll look over my extensions to see if there’s something I’m running with Firefox that I don’t have the equivalent running on Chrome.
I think most of the other things that seemed very improved in Chrome compared to Firefox might have to do with my using a slightly larger than usual font size. The website + Chrome responds to this change better than the website + Firefox, which may be more on Firefox than on the website.
Are you able to share a link to a game where this happens?
Have you tried clicking on the “Variation: …” text, even though it doesn’t look like a link? (maybe it’s just a display bug)
Do you get the same result when you visit the game from Firefox while NOT logged in? (you can probably use a private browser window to experiment with this)
It’s not related to your account, since the variations are broken even when you’re logged out.
It’s not a general Firefox issue, since others using Firefox see the variations (even for the games you’re pointing at).
That leaves:
Firefox version. Are you up to date?
Firefox extensions. I suggest disabling all extensions, temporarily, to see if that fixes things (maybe restart Firefox, but at least reload the game page after). If disabling all extensions and restarting Firefox fixes the bug, you can do a bisection to find the culprit. I.e., re-enable half of the extensions… if it breaks again after reloading/restarting, then you know the culprit is in that half, and you can drill down further. If it doesn’t, then try the other half.