Don't know if it does this in IE, but I'm using firefox, and the columns aren't being pushed to the top. For example, when you do a PM, you have to scroll down to see the left (main) frame. If you have a long thread, you have to scroll down to see the sidebar. This is a recent thing as far as I can tell.

To easily correct it, in your table definitions, use the valign=top option on the TDs that include the main and sidebar content. Like this:


I didn't include margin columns and stuff like that, but that's the idea.

examples:

Which version of Firefox? (It's not happening on 3.0.11.) And is it only happening in the forum?

Sandy

My sidebar looks the same as in Frank's second picture. I use Firefox 3.0.12 under Win XP.

It looks almost as if the sidebar were centred vertically on the page - the longer the page the lower the sidebar.

The problem in Frank's first picture occurs when the thread is much shorter than the sidebar (ie. short post with no replies). Maybe you can try changing the alignment of both columns to "top" or something?

Edit: I should finish reading Frank's post before posting

3.0.13 is what I am currently using. But now it's not doing it, it looks fine.

I just tried it on my home PC, with FF 3.0.13, and it's still doing it. Two different computers. But it wasn't doing this when I posted earlier.

Try clearing your cache. Firefox seems to be a bad one for that. If it's still happening, could you tell me if it's also happening elsewhere on the site? This is a critical question that I've asked a number of people in a number of placed but I don't have an answer. Since I can't see the problem, I have to know where to look. If it's just the forum, I look one place, if it's everywhere, I look somewhere else. If it IS everywhere, check the shop too... like the forum, it's a special case.

Thanks for your help so far in tracking this down, everyone.

Sandy

I've just cleared my history. Everything seems ok now except for Home. There is some extra space on the right.

I think that's how it's supposed to look. If not, I'm having the same problem in safari v4.0.2

That took care of the problem. I looked all over the site, and right before I cleared it, it was on at least the forum, and right after I cleared it, it works fine all over. Perhaps there was an include (css file maybe?) that didn't get refreshed or something.

Anyway, I'll let you know if I see it again. I'll clear the cache first.

thanks!
Frank

Yeah, for now the Home will be like that. It's carefully measured to fit into a certain rectangle. A reconfiguration of the home page is in order to suit this new 100% width design, but I'm not sure what that'll look like yet. One common method of solving this problem is to adding a section of scrollable content (text, image thumbnails... etc) that can easily expand and contract to fill all extra space when available.

That's on the backburner for the moment.

Sandy