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Board Speed

I have "show signatures" turned off in my profile (in fact, a recent scan of the signatures thread prompted me to remove the annoying one I set up when I first joined the FTMB - I had forgotten all about it!).

For me, the pages always load at a blistering speed.
 
Mal_Adjusted said:
Not sure if the problem is with the FTMB itself.

I get the feeling that the entire internet is s-l-o-w-i-n-g d-o-w-n
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Yeah - I couldn't get onto Amazon at all on Tuesday (just sat there looking at me and timing out) and even the BBC site was really slow a couple of days ago, and that usually zips along nicely.

This board is going in fits and starts atm.
 
ArthurASCII said:
I have "show signatures" turned off in my profile (in fact, a recent scan of the signatures thread prompted me to remove the annoying one I set up when I first joined the FTMB - I had forgotten all about it!).

For me, the pages always load at a blistering speed.
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Do you think that makes a noticable difference? The vast majority of signatures are simply a line or three of text. I would have thought that this would make next to no difference in a thread of text-based messages.

You certainly have more computer-knowledge than i do but it seems unlikely to the layman.

I think another clue is that the slowness comes and goes - it seems - at semi-predictable times. Could it perhaps be some kind of background board maintenence, or just the times of peak usage. Either way, i'm guessing something could be done.
 
theyithian said:
Do you think that makes a noticable difference? The vast majority of signatures are simply a line or three of text. I would have thought that this would make next to no difference in a thread of text-based messages.
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Sigs, pictures and avatars do make a marked difference (quite how and why I'm not sure, but they do) - we're discussing this very topic here as we speak.
theyithian said:
I think another clue is that the slowness comes and goes - it seems - at semi-predictable times. Could it perhaps be some kind of background board maintenence...
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HA! Oh bless....

Chance would be a fine thing :roll:. We might get some modifications actually done...
...or just the times of peak usage. Either way, i'm guessing something could be done.
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We did have a major problem with bandwidth for a long time, and we do have to share it, so if other sites have a lot of traffic that could well have a lot to do with it. Whatever the issue is, it's out of our hands.
 
theyithian said:
Do you think that makes a noticable difference? The vast majority of signatures are simply a line or three of text. I would have thought that this would make next to no difference in a thread of text-based messages.
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I may be in error. Not having the darn things turned on myself, I assumed that many of them were still of the "unnecessarily large graphic" type that once plagued the board. I don't have a speed problem with page loading though.


Some details
OS Vista premium
IE7
10mb Tiscali connection
 
It seems to be an intermittent thing. At least with me.

Sometimes everything is 'normal' - though not perfect - and other times it just takes forever waiting for something simple I have requested to happen. So much time that sometimes you have to multiple click all the options in a mad frenzy, eventually having to abort all your frantic efforts, shutting down the window, and logging in again. And then to have to correct whatever mayhem 'you' have inadvertently caused - multi posts / no posts (that's a sod if you have spent loads of time typing) or whatever.

I've just had to block copy this post 'cos I know it may not send and it'll be about 10 minutes before I can check!
 
I've noticed (when rarely on IE) that if you shut off the phishing filter, it speeds up big time. There are probably lots of other settings that can be tweaked.

The weekends are very busy, my internet slows down incredibly starting Friday, and lasts through Sunday. If you're not on dial-up, you really have no room to complain.
 
ArthurASCII said:
theyithian said:
Do you think that makes a noticable difference? The vast majority of signatures are simply a line or three of text. I would have thought that this would make next to no difference in a thread of text-based messages.
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I may be in error. Not having the darn things turned on myself, I assumed that many of them were still of the "unnecessarily large graphic" type that once plagued the board. I don't have a speed problem with page loading though.
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Well, on reading this the other day, I turned off signatures, and the board still loaded pages at its usual "manana" speed. It's so bad today, in fact, that after posting this and then turning signatures back on, I'm seriously considering doing some work instead. Bad news indeed.
 
The 'problem' is server side. But it's not really a problem as such. Just bandwith limitations from as shite ISP.
 
And there was me, thinking it's faster today than it's been in ages! It's almost normal.
 
Peripart said:
And there was me, thinking it's faster today than it's been in ages! It's almost normal.
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I stayed at my folks' house last night and so I've been abusing their broadband over the last 24 hours. However, when I tried accessing the board at home on dial-up before I left, it was pathetic. It needs a 'glacier melting' icon on the status bar rather than a blue bar.

Out of all the sites I frequent on any kind of regular basis, it's the worst by far.
 
The board speed must be the reason for the decrease in the number of active posters.

I must read about half the number of posts in a given time as I used to, because of waiting for stuff to down- or upload.


Will the last person to leave the board please turn out the lights....


:evil:
 
rynner said:
The board speed must be the reason for the decrease in the number of active posters.

I must read about half the number of posts in a given time as I used to, because of waiting for stuff to down- or upload.

Will the last person to leave the board please turn out the lights....

:evil:
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I don't think it's the reason, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a factor.
 
It's certainly the reason I don't post as much; hell, I barely even check the site anymore as I'm on dial-up right now.

I long for the dark and stormy nights when I could, at will, search the archives and scare myself witless. Now by the time I read the next story, I've already forgotten the previous one!
 
I don't usually have that much trouble with board speed, but my goodness it's bad today, plus it just logged me out without me asking it to five minutes ago.
 
You know those nightmares where you are running away from something, but you can't run as it's like trying to run in treacle or in a swimming baths?

That's this board, that is.


6z6jho7.jpg


Close up of the power supply of Dennis' servers in action.
 
Bear in mind that it may not be the board's fault - I'm on dial-up (still) and I can honestly say I've never noticed the board being particularly slow.
 
WhistlingJack said:
Bear in mind that it may not be the board's fault - I'm on dial-up (still) and I can honestly say I've never noticed the board being particularly slow.
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I'm also on "dial-up (still)" and this place, by far, is the slowest site I use and I use a fair spread of forums - from small private ones, to bigger ones than this or even perhaps the whole Dennis network of forums.

I use Firefox 2.0.0.9, use Adblock Plus, default Firefox theme and generally keep my machine pretty lean. If the problem lay chez Lovestone then surely it would impede all my interweb experience, not just here?
 
I'd hazard a guess at it could be your browser. This is the only place that I use IE - I rarely get timeouts. I find Firefox stalls and generally fritzes out. I know this has affected some users (although not all) but I do find Firefox stalls and can cause me login problems.
 
TheQuixote said:
I'd hazard a guess at it could be your browser. This is the only place that I use IE - I rarely get timeouts. I find Firefox stalls and generally fritzes out. I know this has affected some users (although not all) but I do find Firefox stalls and can cause me login problems.
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I'm afraid your post doesn't really make sense. :)

You say this is the only place you use IE as Firefox "stalls and generally fritzes out" and causes "login problems". Which to me reads as if you generally use Firefox but can't on this site. That doesn't sound like a browser problem to me at all.

Similarly, I've used Firefox for years now and have no problems with it anywhere else - in fact, I adopted Firefox because of the problems IE had with a couple of other forums.

None of this sounds like a browser issue to me, or at least one where the browser is at fault.

Also, how do the Dennis servers run? Are all the sites on their own dedicated servers or are all the Dennis sites using the same hardware/network/servers? If so, why is Den of Geek - which doesn't actually appear to be a print magazine to my knowledge* - compete for the same access as Fortean Times (or any of the other print magazines)?

I don't mind Den of Geek per se as the pop culture stuff ticks my own boxes, but if it's not a print magazine, what's the point? Is it the vanity project of some Dennis employees or something?

*happy to stand corrected.
 
I'm on dial-up browsing with Opera and the board speed seems pretty average. Mind you, I am using an internet accelerator (a branded version of Slipstream) to compress the images, which helps. And I have Flash and Java turned off by default.

(This site does seem noticably slower on Firefox, but then so does everywhere, no matter how much I fiddle with the Firefox configuration file. )
 
jefflovestone said:
TheQuixote said:
I'd hazard a guess at it could be your browser. This is the only place that I use IE - I rarely get timeouts. I find Firefox stalls and generally fritzes out. I know this has affected some users (although not all) but I do find Firefox stalls and can cause me login problems.
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I'm afraid your post doesn't really make sense. :)
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Not to worry, what I mean to say and what I actually type is usually at odds with each other.

You're right, the browser isn't causing the problem it is the the site itself. As FF works fine elsewhere, I'm loathe to tinker with my settings so I fallback to IE which isn't ideal but - as I mention - rarely causes any of the problems that others have.

As far as the other questions re: servers etc., I'm sorry but we (mods) can't address them - only the Admin can answer those as we don't have any connection to the webhosts or other Dennis sites.
 
It seems to me that FTMB pages have recently taken much more time to download. This may be connected with the addition of the sponsored links at the bottom of each page, although as they're only a few lines of text I can't see they'd make that much difference.

Anyone else experiencing this?
 
No wonder it’s slow. It was the Xmas Party of the Internets last night. This place got hammered at the bar with The Anomalist, a retired but still feisty Magonia, several interesting podcasts, and a somewhat belligerent New Scientist Forums - who later headbutted The Nexus Magazine Facebook page after a difference of opinion with them and Qanon in the lobby. The latter subsequently thrown out of the gig for doing lines of Ivermectin in the toilet cubicles. (Tried to get back in via a bog windows, but miscalculated and ended up in the cupboard they store the cleaning stuff in. Still there. Now snorting bleach – because it cures a hangover. Apparently.)

Started on the karaoke with the Wayback Machine at three in the morning. Last thing it can really remember is doing Nirvana in the style of Shirley Bassey, but vague recollections of The Paranormal Database hiring a stripper – who for some reason brought a bassoon with her.

Woke up on a park bench wearing someone else’s trousers. And a bassoon.

It’s fine. A bacon roll and a few eggnogs and it’ll be up to speed again.
 
It does definitely seem to be on a go-slow today - or should that be a 'ghost-slow' (blame the cracker jokes).

Whatever magic it is that makes this message board function must be wearing thin. Perhaps it needs another sprinkling of fairy dust.
 
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