Is RF Running Slow For You?

[Brent W]

We have had a few complaints that RF is running slower on the new software than it was on the older software. I would like to take the time to fill you in on why this might be happening.

Our forum software now is state of the art when it comes to traditional forum software. This means it makes use of new technologies and uses more javascript (a type of programming language that can be more resource heavy on browsers). This leads me into a more than likely scenario of why the site might be slower than before:

The state of your computer plays a much larger role than it used to. Older browsers and older computers will be slower on the new software than on the older. However, those with newer hardware and are updated on the latest browser they are using will notice a significantly better experience on the new software than the old.

More data is also being sent over your internet, continuously, so your internet speed also will be a factor in performance over the old software.

From the data that we are seeing, the vast majority are having a better experience and this has lead to a 25% increase in posting overall across the forum.

So if you are having speed issues and you would like input on what it might be, feel free to respond to this thread with the following information:

1) What kind of computer do you have? How old is it? What operating system does it have on it?
2) What is your internet speed? (Dial Up, Cable, DSL)
3) What internet browser and version of that browser are you using.

 

[Godobeyer]

Yes is very slow ,btw i guess sent a PM about "Attention required |CloudFlare"
but you did not anwser me

 

[oldbadger]

Hi......
I love that I can upload pictures straight from my docs..... so much so that I can forgive any drawbacks....... totally!

Yes, each page seems to hold much more data. Recently I have been running out of my 1g per month pre-pay limit in about 15 days instead of 30 but by paying a little more each month I can get 3g download limit and the problem just disappears.

I think the new system is brilliant, and I like the 'Auto-Alerts' function which keeps me in touch with all who want to quote/contact me.

It's all good. Great site. Yeah.

 

[Brent W]

Hi......
I love that I can upload pictures straight from my docs..... so much so that I can forgive any drawbacks....... totally!

Yes, each page seems to hold much more data. Recently I have been running out of my 1g per month pre-pay limit in about 15 days instead of 30 but by paying a little more each month I can get 3g download limit and the problem just disappears.

I think the new system is brilliant, and I like the 'Auto-Alerts' function which keeps me in touch with all who want to quote/contact me.

It's all good. Great site. Yeah.

You might want to look into Tapatalk

We are on Tapatalk and it will be much easier on your phone's data plan.

 

[oldbadger]

You might want to look into Tapatalk

We are on Tapatalk and it will be much easier on your phone's data plan.

I'll look into Tapatalk.
I don't often access RF on my 'phone. I tend to use a netbook with prepay dongle. In any event I'll look into it, but I'm perfectly happy buying 3g of download at £15 per month..... no probs.

 

[Revoltingest]

I replaced some of the vacuum tubes in my computer, & it helped immeasurably.

 

[Drolefille]

I'd like the whole site to work better on my tablet/phone. I don't care about data as I mostly use wifi and don't want to use an app, my tablet lacks app space as a rule anyway.

But chat and the site in general slowly lag out on Chrome on Android Kitkat.

 

[Brent W]

I'd like the whole site to work better on my tablet/phone. I don't care about data as I mostly use wifi and don't want to use an app, my tablet lacks app space as a rule anyway.

But chat and the site in general slowly lag out on Chrome on Android Kitkat.

What tablet are you using? I have a Nexus 7, Nexus 6 and an iPad 2 and browse the site without any issues at all. In fact, pretty snappy. Are there certain points where it hangs or slows down?

 

[Drolefille]

What tablet are you using? I have a Nexus 7, Nexus 6 and an iPad 2 and browse the site without any issues at all. In fact, pretty snappy. Are there certain points where it hangs or slows down?

Chat in particular and when making responses, I find the response box doesn't always "activate" or "load" and I have to refresh the page to get it to recognize that there's a box there.

ETA: It's an Envizen 10.1, I don't have the money for fancy things.

As an aside, if we're talking technical things, changing the favicon would go a long way towards making me happy. Removing the Vlink spam would be even better, did you know it tagged an affiliate link onto the "God Hates F**s" website? I wouldn't care about making Amazon links affiliate links, but just adding links to my posts are the reason why I'll keep using adblock on the forums.

/aside

 

[Drolefille]

Also right now -literally - the alerts are being REALLY slow to refresh, I'll notice that on one tab they've updated, but if I hover on another tab they refuse to refresh. If I have just one tab open sometimes I don't get immediate refreshes at all. Perhaps it's the repeated queries to the server? (This is on Chrome, Windows 7)

 

[Brent W]

Chat in particular and when making responses, I find the response box doesn't always "activate" or "load" and I have to refresh the page to get it to recognize that there's a box there.

ETA: It's an Envizen 10.1, I don't have the money for fancy things.

As an aside, if we're talking technical things, changing the favicon would go a long way towards making me happy. Removing the Vlink spam would be even better, did you know it tagged an affiliate link onto the "God Hates F**s" website? I wouldn't care about making Amazon links affiliate links, but just adding links to my posts are the reason why I'll keep using adblock on the forums.

/aside

If you see bad advertising or inappropriate ads, let us know and we will look into it. Can you remember where the God Hates website linked to? I would be extra curious to know this as I find that very unacceptable to and I am guessing so will Viglink.

Was your tablet updated to Kitkat? I notice it shipped with Jelly Bean. Is this the only site that this happens on? Do you go on other forums?

 

[Drolefille]

If you see bad advertising or inappropriate ads, let us know and we will look into it. Can you remember where the God Hates website linked to? I would be extra curious to know this as I find that very unacceptable to and I am guessing so will Viglink.

Was your tablet updated to Kitkat? I notice it shipped with Jelly Bean. Is this the only site that this happens on? Do you go on other forums?

I block ads on my computer so I mostly avoid it. When I see them on my tablet they seem to mostly be junk to me - just short of "THE NEW LAW PEOPLE IN *YOUR TOWN* ARE SHOCKED ABOUT" sort.
I didn't feel like giving the bigoted site a click, but when I selected it on the tablet, it had the vlink attached to it.

The fact that vlink inserts ads into our posts is a problem for me. I don't see it anymore, but I still think it's wrong.

As for the tablet, yes both it and my phone are updated to kitkat.
I go to multiple other forums for my LARPing, they don't have all the "fancy" features that RF does, but they run really, really fast.

The other problems I listed about the slowness right now are on my desktop.

Also, favicon? I know it seems like no big deal, but this is absolutely not a Christian site, and the favicon is a Christian church.

 

[Brent W]

Also, favicon? I know it seems like no big deal, but this is absolutely not a Christian site, and the favicon is a Christian church.

I understand that and as I am not a Christian either I can see how that might upset some. It will be changed to something more universal at some point.

As far as the performance issues, I am not sure what I can do about them. Keeping up with older technology is hard and there isn't much middle ground for us to choose. I know on my iPad 2, it is slower with the 8 update than with the 7. Just because its hard to keep older technology current with newer code. If we can find ways to improve the experience we will.

 

[Drolefille]

I understand that and as I am not a Christian either I can see how that might upset some. It will be changed to something more universal at some point.

As far as the performance issues, I am not sure what I can do about them. Keeping up with older technology is hard and there isn't much middle ground for us to choose. I know on my iPad 2, it is slower with the 8 update than with the 7. Just because its hard to keep older technology current with newer code. If we can find ways to improve the experience we will.

I am pointing out it's running slowly on my gaming computer as well.

Personally I think the bonus "features" hurt RF. If the alerts only refreshed upon page refresh, that would make sense. Instead they're supposed to refresh upon a server query (I assume) but fail to do so regularly - literally right now on Windows 7, Chrome, on a gaming computer - instead it's broken.

 

[Brent W]

I am pointing out it's running slowly on my gaming computer as well.

Personally I think the bonus "features" hurt RF. If the alerts only refreshed upon page refresh, that would make sense. Instead they're supposed to refresh upon a server query (I assume) but fail to do so regularly - literally right now on Windows 7, Chrome, on a gaming computer - instead it's broken.

You only get alerts on a new page refresh or some other action that queries the server. For example, if you clicked on my username, that would open a pop up box with my user card. That queries the server for information and would trigger also any new alerts that you have. Just leaving the browser open and not doing anything will not query the server. I hope that makes sense and was what you were referring to.

 

[Drolefille]

You only get alerts on a new page refresh or some other action that queries the server. For example, if you clicked on my username, that would open a pop up box with my user card. That queries the server for information and would trigger also any new alerts that you have. Just leaving the browser open and not doing anything will not query the server. I hope that makes sense and was what you were referring to.

Yes, I also know that sometimes clicking on the Alerts queries the server (or at least, it appears to by the animation on the page), and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the alerts update, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes with multiple tabs open they update on one page, but not on the other despite posting on both. That's what I'm referring to.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

I found that the new board was unusablely slow until I turned off Javascript, which only seems to be needed to log out.

This is an old computer, but it works perfectly as an office machine — I'm not going to replace it for a board!
CPU: AMD Sempron
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: Broadband over the phone line
OS: Linux (CentOS)
Browser: Opera

Incidentally, here's a site that's much bigger than this and which works perfectly. Their software is vBulletin, which costs about the same as your Xenforo.
LinuxQuestions.org

 

[Brent W]

Yes that computer is very outdated and so is the forum software that LinuxQuestions.org is running.

 

[Typist]

Our forum software now is state of the art when it comes to traditional forum software. This means it makes use of new technologies and uses more javascript (a type of programming language that can be more resource heavy on browsers).

As a forum software developer myself, a few thoughts.

"More is better" is a flawed design philosophy common to immature, but technically clever, coders. It's a philosophy that is all about the coder (hey, look what I can do!) instead of the user. The vast majority of the time the user just wants to do simple obvious things in a simple obvious way.

That said, as a developer, I constantly agonize about finding the balance between user friendliness and nifty features, and would agree there is no "one true way" solution.

I agree this software is technically impressive in a number of respects, but it's a lot like that old VCR you had with the 400 page manual. Too many fancy but largely unnecessary gizmos which distract from the core mission.

As example, while this software does have a number of new features I've not seen elsewhere or coded myself, the weaknesses of a core feature, the post editor, are kinda inexcusable. As just one example, a little arrow thingy which allows one to zoom to top or bottom of page is typically directly on top of the scroller for the post editing window, which can not be resized. Very, very annoying....

All that said, the real bottom line core mission of a forum is bringing together a significant number of interesting, intelligent and articulate posters, and I wish to share a big thumbs up for success in that all important area.

It's that significant accomplishment which inspires me to hold my nose and put up with this software. But for me, in an ideal world, you'd still be using good old phpBB, because sometimes less is more.

 

[Skwim]

As a forum software developer myself, a few thoughts.

"More is better" is a flawed design philosophy common to immature, but technically clever, coders. It's a philosophy that is all about the coder (hey, look what I can do!) instead of the user. The vast majority of the time the user just wants to do simple obvious things in a simple obvious way.

That said, as a developer, I constantly agonize about finding the balance between user friendliness and nifty features, and would agree there is no "one true way" solution.

I agree this software is technically impressive in a number of respects, but it's a lot like that old VCR you had with the 400 page manual. Too many fancy but largely unnecessary gizmos which distract from the core mission.

As example, while this software does have a number of new features I've not seen elsewhere or coded myself, the weaknesses of a core feature, the post editor, are kinda inexcusable. As just one example, a little arrow thingy which allows one to zoom to top or bottom of page is typically directly on top of the scroller for the post editing window, which can not be resized. Very, very annoying....

All that said, the real bottom line core mission of a forum is bringing together a significant number of interesting, intelligent and articulate posters, and I wish to share a big thumbs up for success in that all important area.

It's that significant accomplishment which inspires me to hold my nose and put up with this software. But for me, in an ideal world, you'd still be using good old phpBB, because sometimes less is more.

Interesting thoughts. Thanks for posting them.

Question: Would it be difficult to enable Unicode characters, such as technical and math symbols, in posts? It was enabled in the old RF but not since the move.