Bizarre Firefox behavior: MeFi background colors get lighter hue over time.

April 27, 2008 3:45 PM

Bizarre Firefox behavior: MeFi background colors get lighter hue over time.

As I sit reading a thread, the background colors of the main reading area get lighter and lighter over time -- blue fading to light blue to really light blue to near-white. Latest Firefox, Greasemonkey installed but no MeFi-specific scripts running. Happens to all MeFi pages (mefi, ask, metatalk, etc).

Help me, Obi-Wan.

posted by Cool Papa Bell to Bugs at 3:45 PM (21 comments total)

Click "Make It Stop" in the Links column at the bottom of your page.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:47 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

That's bizarre. It's only happening in firefox?

I've had something similar happen, but it was not program related and was definitely the whole monitor though. Just your browser though? Yeah, that's far outside of my experience regarding weird computer problems.
posted by Stunt at 3:47 PM on April 27, 2008

Oh. Ha. The april fool's link maybe then? I didn't even think of that.
posted by Stunt at 3:48 PM on April 27, 2008

On April Fools' Day 2008, the background colors on MetaFilter slowly changed from their normal colors to radically different colors while people read any page on the site. The change was very slow, it took several minutes before you could even tell that something odd was going on. Some JavaScript that slightly incremented and changed the background color did the trick. You can read members' reactions in the two MetaTalk threads from that day: nice trick and Taste the rainbow!.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:49 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

...woah. You know, I hadn't really messed with that until now. I turned it on, waited a bit, went back on my merry way, eventually noticed that the askme question I was reading was somewhat lighter. Neat.

So I tab back over to this thread and BAM. Metatalk is near pink. Salmon? Muddier than that. Regardless, that was bizarre and awesome.

Now to just find a way to get it enabled on my friend's computer without him knowing.
posted by Stunt at 3:56 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Click "Make It Stop" in the Links column at the bottom of your page.

Thank you.

Oh God, is that what it was? Can't believe I fell so hard for it and waited so long.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:57 PM on April 27, 2008

THIS IS FULL OF WIN
posted by loquacious at 4:06 PM on April 27, 2008

Are people who have not logged in since before 4/1/08 going to get hit with the prank when they next log in, or did you have to be on the site during AFD to activate the insanity?
posted by Rock Steady at 4:08 PM on April 27, 2008

The only way you should be able to see it now is to actively click on the "Make It Start" link in the footer of the page. I think it would be pretty dickish to just have everyone get zapped by it the first login post-4/11.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:09 PM on April 27, 2008

jessamyn: first login post-4/11.

EVERYTHING CHANGED POST-4/11. NEVER FORGET.

was that on purpose or just a typo?
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 4:15 PM on April 27, 2008 [5 favorites]

it was just a typo, but now that you've made fun of it it's here to stay.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:35 PM on April 27, 2008

4/11 = INSIDE JOB
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:44 PM on April 27, 2008

April 1, 2008: The joke that keeps on giving.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 4:50 PM on April 27, 2008

Maybe for a level between the ban hammer and "geez, this guy is getting sort of annoying" the mods could turn these feature on for specific users. It would be kinda a pink salmon warning flag.
posted by Pants! at 4:56 PM on April 27, 2008 [3 favorites]

MetaTalk: now that you've made fun of it it's here to stay.
posted by cosmonik at 5:00 PM on April 27, 2008

MAKE IT STOP DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:03 PM on April 27, 2008

OMG OMG OMG<blink
posted by louche mustachio at 6:31 PM on April 27, 2008

Ah, shit, that was all coming together and then the meds wore off.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:35 PM on April 27, 2008

Some people just don't appreciate a gift! I still have the pages rainbow-ing. Sure glad this is not a "professional" site that is stuck with dumb old white background.
posted by Cranberry at 10:11 PM on April 27, 2008

As much as I love the idea of this question coming up over and over again, there might be a solution in which the 'Make It Start' link gets a <title> attribute to ensure that people understand that it's going to do something funky.

Make It Start

or

Make It Start

or

Make It Start

Or something kinda like that.
posted by quin at 8:09 AM on April 28, 2008

If you click on "Make it start" you go to a page that explains the April Fools joke, and explains what's going to happen, and then there is another link you can click if you want to actually make it start.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:18 PM on April 28, 2008