Major Changes - Need Feedback

[Mike]

Please see announcement:

Link Removed

Kindest Regards,

 

[Joe S]

It seems like the pages are loading a little slower. I'm using IE 9.
Joe

 

[kemical]

Ditto.. The site does feel 'sluggish'. Everything seems to work fine just slowly..

 

[Mike]

Ditto.. The site does feel 'sluggish'. Everything seems to work fine just slowly..

Is page loading itself slow or is the scrolling of the page slow? The scrolling down of the page is supposed to be a bit sluggish but the loading of the page should be faster. This is because images are not pre-loaded until you need to see them. I.E. If you see half a page you won't load the other half until you scroll down. This can give a weird effect of it seeming a bit slow in the browser itself.

 

[kemical]

Hmm.. it was more with posting tbo, uploading images and stuff like that. It wasn't excessively long but longer than usual.

 

[Mike]

The asset manager has always been a bummer since its implementation. Not saying the changes have made it faster. I spent around 24 hours exempting some scripts from the optimizations that were made because of weird issues. If you tried logging on to the moderation console prior to this in Chrome, it would refresh over and over. This is because some areas of the scripting just don't seem to like being optimized. On the other hand, VB5 is no longer on the horizon - it is here. But filled with slowdowns (to clarify it is not used here). There is nothing preventing us from continuing to use VB4 for years from now but the benefits of running the latest version would be good once 5.0.3-5.1 area released. There are some major bugs and I see the extra CDN as a good way to get content streamed out. For the first time in awhile, the system web servers can finally use disk-based cache on a IP basis. But overall I think this change will be needed for the plans we discussed a few weeks back regarding Forumhold... I cannot see how it would be possible to achieve it without at least making a major effort to speed up the site. Google was giving the site like a 50-70/100 for speed rank for a long time we are now hitting 92-94... so I think the change may be hitting peoples browsers until the cache sets in. Just a guess but I am collecting more data.

 

[lorenkjr1]

Pages are somewhat slower than usual.

 

[kemical]

Just trying IE10 to see if it's different... Seems slightly faster

 

[Jimbo22]

In IE 10, desktop mode the forum headers are missing, they are there in FF. Forum headers are showing in chrome. The user name and password log in doesn't work, it redirects you to the forum oops you have entered an invalid password/user name and I input the same info and then it will log in.

 

[Jimbo22]

The quick reply box is still missing. Here is a screen shot of IE 10 that shows the forum with out the headers.

Link Removed

 

[Saltgrass]

The Log In boxes do not behave the same. Clicking on the box used to removed the text so you could enter you user name, but now it does not, and clicking the password box does not enter the encrypted password.

 

[kemical]

Just to add Rich and I have been approving posts like the one above:

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Is this normal? Surely not..

 

[Jimbo22]

The quick reply box is still missing. Here is a screen shot of IE 10 that shows the forum with out the headers.

Link Removed

OK..I reset IE to default settings and the forum header is back...but everything else I mentioned is still not working.

 

[davehc]

I did mention that the "approval" thingy happened to me frequently. But I do a really large amount of testing and experimenting on my computer, and almost weekly, I put my original image back. I assumed this was the reason, as it (possibly) deleted all the old cookies.
But, on the above observations, I haven't noticed any visual slowdown in any aspects of the site.

 

[Mike]

Quick Reply is disabled for now. We can have the box always appear, but it will not be clear as to whom the reply is being made. Until the issue is resolved, you can still click on the reply button for an individual post and the reply page will load.

 

[Mike]

Just trying IE10 to see if it's different... Seems slightly faster

Some changes were made for all versions of IE:

When you use a popular script from CDNJS, your website visitors benefit from increased site performance, for two reasons:

1. The CDNJS version of the script is likely to be cached in the visitor's browser cache, so it won't be re-downloaded.
2. Script is served from a global CDN, optimized for delivery from the closest node.

The Five Selections

• ModernizrUpgrade non-HTML5 browsers to support HTML5 elements. Includes easy and automatic browser feature detection for both CSS and JavaScript capabilities, visible from both CSS and JavaScript.
  
  [*]Google Chrome FramePrompt users of the site in Internet Explorer (IE) browsers to install Chrome Frame, which is basically Chrome as an IE extension.
  Not enabled here.
• FlexieEnable backwards compatibility for the CSS3 flexible box model in browsers that don't support it.
• CSS3 FinalizeAllows you to write CSS3 without using vendor prefixes. Automatically adds necessary vendor prefixes for you.
• JSON2Enables JSON.parse and JSON.stringify in browsers that do not support it (mostly Internet Explorer).

 

[Mike]

Just to add Rich and I have been approving posts like the one above:

Link Removed

Is this normal? Surely not..

Correct Explanation: Forum Announcements and Feedback Forum were set to throw all attachments, posts, and threads into auto-moderation. This was an error on this site. I was mistaken regarding this. This is not a problem that will re-occur. Simply put, normal members cannot make announcements, but they should be able to reply to them and post attachments. In the Feedback Forum, anyone can post a thread/post/attachment. These issues have been resolved as of March 31 2:05 GMT -5. As you know, the Forum Announcements and Feedback Forum have not been used as often here as on Windows7Forums.com, and so some settings were not in proper form.

 

[Mike]

Whatever negatives that the changes have had, they have not thrown a substantial number of visitors away from the sites. If it is possible, it may be best to have an admin meeting on this after Easter? Minor issues like having to clear out the username and password when you log in are almost psychologically annoying, and are not resulting in a loss of functionality. I am trying to find the more serious problems first... what would be considered a showstopper when you are using the site. The feedback is welcome. I just get the sense I better debrief everyone on exactly what has changed and how, on the staff side of things. The reroute of traffic through new CDNs cannot slow down the site. It is not possible. Similarly, changes that have been made to make the site load scripts faster or optimize their performance cannot do this either. What can happen is a loss of functionality, which is what I am trying to identify.

In any case, I hope everyone has a Happy Easter Sunday.

 

[davehc]

I am just testing here, but in the nature of a comment on the site usage. Is there something in the settings that can change this behaviour?
I find that, if I go to "Go Advanced", in order to insert a picture from my computer, when it is completed, I cannot see the picture in my post, so am unable to add further comments until I have saved it and selected edit again. I must, surely, be doing something wrong, as I see no other posts on this subject.
Now I intend to insert a picture, just to test my own comment!'

 

[Mike]

Insert inline in the Asset Manager and double-click the image in WYSIWIG mode. You can then determine the size of the image/thumbnail to appear. Use preview mode to flesh this out. Otherwise it will always drop a thumbnail. This has always been this way.