Bug, Admin Error or Working as Intended?

[Carsafety]

I have a google ad placement in my ad_showthread_beforeqr template. It works fine for most users.

For unregistered users, who do not see the Quick Reply Box, the ad placement does not appear. It still leaves a placeholder the side of the ad, making a gap between the last post (or social networking bookmarks if enabled) and the links for "<< Previous Thread | Next Thread >>". You can even highlight the missing ad even though it is a blank spot filled with the forum background color.

Though usually the cause of all my "bugs", I'm leaning against Admin error this time, since it works for those registered usergroups who should see the ad.

I'd say working as intended, except that it's leaving a placeholder.

Any help appreciated. Not a big deal, but I would either like it to appear or remove the gap.

[Jake Bunce]

I just tested this on my test forum and guests are able to see code from that ad template just fine. Maybe your SHOWTHREAD template has been customized such that the $ad_location[ad_showthread_beforeqr] hook is within the quick reply conditional. Check that code or try reverting the whole template.

[Carsafety]

I just tested this on my test forum and guests are able to see code from that ad template just fine. Maybe your SHOWTHREAD template has been customized such that the $ad_location[ad_showthread_beforeqr] hook is within the quick reply conditional. Check that code or try reverting the whole template.

Nope- it is 3.7.0 default and that ad location call appears to be outside of any conditionals. All my templates are default now except for some minor changes to the header.

The weird thing is that it is just a background color box, but you can highlight the missing ad and even right click and see the google ad properties. It's like the code is working to some extent, but just not displaying an image.

Works fine for me logged in as admin or on a test account as a basic member, but not as unregistered. I just verified it on another computer, too.

I will double check that I didn't mess up the Google ad code. In the mean time, here's a typical thread. Can anyone else see the "hole" in the location I mentioned?

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=47847

[Carsafety]

It appears to have something to do with the google leaderboard in that particular location. The same leaderboard works fine in the first post location for unregisterd users.

On a whim, I put in a Google ad links script in the qr ad template and it worked fine. When I put the leaderboard back, I recopied it from the google code generator to make sure I had it right and it is still bugged the same way.

[Carsafety]

It now seems like it's probably a Google issue. One common link among those usergroups where the hole appears turns out to be that those are the only usergroups that meet the conditional to see the Google Leaderboard in the ad_showthread_firstpost template.

So, I made a completely stock 3.7.0 template from scratch again. The only changes I made are to these templates:

ad_header_end
ad_showthread_beforeqr
ad_showthread_firstpost

The only thing in those templates are the Google ad scripts, I removed all the conditionals and formatting from my regular styles.

So, I guess I'm hitting some sort of cap on Google Adsense placements per page that only affects those usergroups who see the extra leaderboard and links placement after the first post? I say this because if I remove either the header or firstpost template content, the beforeqr ad appears. With all three templates in use, the beforeqr leaderboard disappears- but only for those usergroups who meet the conditional to see the firstpost template ads.

[Carsafety]

Yup problem resolved. Replaced the unit with a different type of unit so I wasn't exceeding the limit. Sure seemed like a Vbulletin issue since google leaves an empty hole when you exceed the limit lol. Maybe this will help someone else down the line at least.