Queue the applause. The footer on antipode.ca no longer floats above the content at the bottom of the window. At one point I gave in somewhat and fixed the header, but still wanted to take advantage of fixed positioning to better use screen space. Well, after almost a year of some people liking it and others hating it, this Reddit comment thread about my site’s footer came up, and was upmodded by 4 people:
… it made it extremely annoying trying to read because I’m a person who reads to the bottom before scrolling.
I’d assumed people’s problem with the footer was an aesthetic thing, but now I’ve found out it’s interfering with the way certain people read web content. Well that’s different! I read by keeping what I’m reading in the middle of the viewport, but it seems some people consume page by page, hitting the footer every time. An easy fix while still expressing my love of fixed positioning.