Off Topic: Little Red "x" and Grey Circle on the Forum

Yes...been like that for a year or more...it is annoying

I offered my thoughts on this. While it appears to be a marketing tool, I avoid it. IMO the navigation path to restore or return to chat or to the forum seems cumbersome. I think the rule should be, "don't piss off the potential customer."

It seems to be only on the tablets. It appears to lock the thread window. Once clicked on it disappears and unlocks the thread screen for comments. It may be a security measure as tablets may be more vulnerable to hacking. As above , it has been around for about a year.
FWIW the forum was badly hacked a few years ago.

Interesting idea about it being for security. If it is, it's for more than tablets because I get it on my laptop using both Safari and Chrome. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one getting it and I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Try iCab mobile on iOS devices. Seems to handle this update call error message well.