lds.org and IE11

lds.org seems a be screwy today. Under IE11, the entire top part that contains the logo, tools, login, etc. is missing.

Looks fine in Chrome.

I am able to visit the site in IE11 and the top appears the same as when I visit it in Chrome. I do notice that in IE11 it redirects to https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng while in Chrome I'm redirected to https://www.lds.org/centerpiece?lang=en ... =64165:1:0 when I simply type http://www.lds.org into the browser bar. I also notice that the Chrome page has a significantly different layout below the main image than I get in IE. Maybe they are making some changes today and trying out different layouts.

I don't think the problem has to do with IE11. I've seen this occur several times recently while on Safari (Mac) and possibly Chrome (Mac).

It seems to do with the default way different browsers handle "lds.org". Chrome (on Windows) adds a "www". IE does not. That seems to be the difference. (or at least one of the differences.) When I enter "www.lds.org" into IE, it then looks normal.

russellhltn wrote:It seems to do with the default way different browsers handle "lds.org". Chrome (on Windows) adds a "www". IE does not. That seems to be the difference. (or at least one of the differences.) When I enter "www.lds.org" into IE, it then looks normal.

I think you're on to something.

In Safari (Mac) I usually go to lds.org, not www.lds.org. It doesn't automatically add the "www" and then I don't get the header.

To experiment, I tried going to https://lds.org in both Chrome (Mac) and Firefox (Mac). That prevents it from adding the "www" and I get the same headerless experience. They must have changed the web site configuration recently and missed something, as I frequently don't enter the "www" and it used to work.

mevans wrote:In Safari (Mac) I usually go to lds.org, not http://www.lds.org. It doesn't automatically add the "www" and then I don't get the header.

To experiment, I tried going to https://lds.org in both Chrome (Mac) and Firefox (Mac). That prevents it from adding the "www" and I get the same headerless experience.

Interesting. On Windows, I used Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and in all three cases, when I entered "lds.org" I was redirected to www.lds.org and I had the header. So my experience on Windows 7 is different from your on a Mac in this regard.

mevans wrote:To experiment, I tried going to https://lds.org in both Chrome (Mac) and Firefox (Mac). That prevents it from adding the "www" and I get the same headerless experience.

When I type in https://lds.org, on all three browsers it does stick with lds.org (no www), and I also get the headerless experience, the same as you see on your Mac.

benjamincarleski wrote:I do notice that in IE11 it redirects to https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng while in Chrome I'm redirected to https://www.lds.org/centerpiece?lang=en ... =64165:1:0 when I simply type http://www.lds.org into the browser bar. I also notice that the Chrome page has a significantly different layout below the main image than I get in IE. Maybe they are making some changes today and trying out different layouts.

What you are experiencing here is A/B testing of different versions of LDS.org for analytics research. According to a "Media and Technology Briefs" workforce newsletter, five percent of traffic to LDS.org is currently being directed to the "centerpiece" page with the circular images, and analytics are being used to see if "users click on more content, spend more time on the site, and visit more frequently."

sbradshaw wrote:

benjamincarleski wrote:I do notice that in IE11 it redirects to https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng while in Chrome I'm redirected to https://www.lds.org/centerpiece?lang=en ... =64165:1:0 when I simply type http://www.lds.org into the browser bar. I also notice that the Chrome page has a significantly different layout below the main image than I get in IE. Maybe they are making some changes today and trying out different layouts.

What you are experiencing here is A/B testing of different versions of LDS.org for analytics research. According to a "Media and Technology Briefs" workforce newsletter, five percent of traffic to LDS.org is currently being directed to the "centerpiece" page with the circular images, and analytics are being used to see if "users click on more content, spend more time on the site, and visit more frequently."

The actual problem we're observing is that the page header (with the church logo and login info) doesn't always appear.

It's nice to know something about the "centerpiece" thing. It redirects me to that much more than 5% of the time. I really like the old design better; I find it much easier to navigate and discover things.

I've got some ward clerk computers that redirect to https://www.lds.org/centerpiece?lang=en ... =69730:1:0 when browsing to lds.org. It happens no matter what is in the address (www.lds.org or lds.org -- both http and https). On one ward computer it happens in bot IE and Firefox. On my home PC it does this in Firefox but works normally in Chrome.

The problem is when it redirects all you get is a Page Not Found error. If you change the language from English (browse to https://www.lds.org/?lang=spa) then it works fine -- if you read Spanish.

Maybe they forgot to un-redirect those 5% of users after the testing was over – I'd send feedback via the LDS.org feedback page...

Update: The same thing is now happening to me! Wonder if it is a temporary bug? Maybe it only affects people who have manually navigated to lds.org/centerpiece?

Good luck sending feedback. From my experience it can take weeks and even months before anyone replies, if they reply at all. Hopefully someone from CHQ will read this and look into the problem. I'm seeing the same issue too.

I've had good experiences with feedback; usually within a few days. Maybe it depends which department the feedback is directed to.

Have you tried clearing cookies? I have seen that suggested when strange behavior has been seen. If I remember correctly, that helped once for me. If clearing cookies solves the problem, my guess would be that a cookie was used to mark which users got the test page vs. the regular page and something went wrong.

I tried clearing everything including cookies but it didn't make a difference. Tried again later and it started working again. It might just depend on which server you get when you browse to the sight.