8 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Yeah, it's curious. I find that nothing "downloads" when I access the site via the iPad. It's only on the laptop. And if I enter the web address manually on the laptop, it asks me if I want to authorise a download from the site. I don't get this with other websites. Maybe I should clear the cookies and see if that gets rid of it.

I've tried a few things and I couldn't get RationalWiki to ask my permission to download, nor any evidence of a surreptitious download. What is the file type of the download?

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

I have just tried to access the Rationalwiki website and was alarmed to see that by clicking on it something instantly downloaded itself onto my laptop. When I checked the downloads file all I saw was a 175kb file called Main Page. I deleted it and tried again with the same result.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? My first slightly paranoid thought was of spyware.

It's downloading the homepage automatically because you have (inadvertently?) set the browser to create an offline page copy when you open a page. That's why the file is called Main Page. You can open your browser settings and turn off this automatic response.

37 minutes ago, TheVat said:

It's downloading the homepage automatically because you have (inadvertently?) set the browser to create an offline page copy when you open a page. That's why the file is called Main Page. You can open your browser settings and turn off this automatic response.

Why would it do that just for one website?

5 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Why would it do that just for one website?

Because it's a site setting and not a global one. Probably somewhere back there in the mists of time you got some prompt or query that asked if you wanted to have an offline copy of the homepage. If you go to browser settings, there should be some kind of site settings menu choice - I think. I don't know much about Apple browsers. Speculating here.

21 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Because it's a site setting and not a global one. Probably somewhere back there in the mists of time you got some prompt or query that asked if you wanted to have an offline copy of the homepage. If you go to browser settings, there should be some kind of site settings menu choice - I think. I don't know much about Apple browsers. Speculating here.

OK thanks, I’ll dig around and see if I’ve pressed a button by accident at some point. So site settings is what I need to look for.

Anyway, stand down , just a goose, eh? 😁