Hi,

The staff around here does a good job. I like the website appearance and forum structure.

However, gamedevDOTnet is by far the slowest loading website which I visit since the first time I did. When I compare the slowness of this website loading to other large forum websites (or any website for that matter), then the difference is huge. Sometimes I cannot load a gamedev page when all other websites load just fine. Sometimes functions such as the text editor or emoticons are missing, even with advanced options chosen.

I have up to date Windows 7 running on a factory fresh reinstalled system. Everything on the hard drive was erased and I restored to factory fresh condition. The problem existed before and now after the factory fresh restoration.

Compatibility view has been tried many times and also without it, but seems to make no difference.

As earlier, all other websites load just fine.


Any ideas?

Please see what can be done to optimize the webpage code.


Thanks for such a great website other than this! (I would put a very happy emoticon but they do not appear with this website, though other website have all functions.)


Clinton

Hi, Michael

I really appreciate this site and community. I want to do my little part to improve it any way that I can.


Well, Michael, here's the thing: No matter what computer or IP that I use, it is about the same - gamedev by far the slowest to load. I live in Southwest Michigan and travel this region, getting the same sluggish loading of gamedev everywhere I go. Some of the IPs are broadband high speed. When I check the connection status, the streaming capacity has plenty of room to spare. Other huge forum websites load quickly and reliably.

I would prefer to not feel obliged to write this, but I have skipped taking actions or even logging into the sight because of the wait. In this busy life of mine like most people, minutes are precious.

For these reasons, I feel that it would be a huge cumulative service to the community, gamedev commerce, and public if such advances could be made to make the website page loading faster. It would free more time for all the above mentioned - good for all of us. Over the coming years, one could perhaps consider faster loading as a kind of compound interest toward, um, website synergy.

As a former administrator of a busy website for over 2 years in the past, I realized the advantages of a competitive loading time.


Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi, Michael

I really appreciate this site and community. I want to do my little part to improve it any way that I can.


Well, Michael, here's the thing: No matter what computer or IP that I use, it is about the same - gamedev by far the slowest to load. I live in Southwest Michigan and travel this region, getting the same sluggish loading of gamedev everywhere I go. Some of the IPs are broadband high speed. When I check the connection status, the streaming capacity has plenty of room to spare. Other huge forum websites load quickly and reliably.

I would prefer to not feel obliged to write this, but I have skipped taking actions or even logging into the sight because of the wait. In this busy life of mine like most people, minutes are precious.

For these reasons, I feel that it would be a huge cumulative service to the community, gamedev commerce, and public if such advances could be made to make the website page loading faster. It would free more time for all the above mentioned - good for all of us. Over the coming years, one could perhaps consider faster loading as a kind of compound interest toward, um, website synergy.

As a former administrator of a busy website for over 2 years in the past, I realized the advantages of a competitive loading time.


Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.

Thanks,

Clinton

just out of curiosity what is the load time?

for me, a fresh download with a cleared cache of gamedev, takes ~7 seconds to load the forum, and ~2-3 with the cached css/html pages.

It sometimes doesn't load at all, but almost always takes far more than 7 seconds, minutes once in a while, but the typical 30 - 60 seconds is far too long. Other forum websites always take a fraction of the time.


Clinton

Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.
[/quote]
Don't guess - use the developer tools in your browser to examine the load times. The feedback will help the staff pinpoint exactly what is causing you problems.


For example, the home page takes 7.31 seconds without caching (from Ireland). The notable events are:

• About 3 seconds for the main page to be returned
  
• Concurrently:
  
  
  
  • 404 for http://public.gamedev.net/public/ipc_blocks/compiled.css (doesn't take long, just interesting)
    
  • 404 for and http://www.gamedev.net/public/ipc_blocks/compiled.js which takes ~2.7 seconds.
    

Concurrently:

• http://public.gamedev5.net/images/footer_gradient.png takes .9 of a second
  
• http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?... takes .9 of a second
  

All the other requests are relatively small so nothing obviously amiss.

Trying a couple of more times I'm getting different results, I don't see a consistent issue on my end. Alexa reports that 78% of sites are faster than GD.net, and it is clocking us at 2.409 seconds for load.

New Zealand here, I'm reaching the site in ~250ms, and a cached load of my content takes on average 2.8 seconds. Cached load of home takes 4.1 seconds. Without caching, my content takes 6.6 seconds and home takes 7.5 seconds. Did you try investigating which request exactly is slowing you down?

Today all is well! That's very strange!

I might have to get back with you guys.



Clinton

I am surprised. My laptop is what I use most of the time. The wifi service which I have been getting at many locations, because I do much traveling, is much worse than I thought.

One of my regular wifi spots has much better internet service and I can load the gamedev website in normal times there. It is still slower than everything else, but I can live with 5 to 10 seconds. This does show me that gamedev is loading slowing than all the other sites which I visit. Having a good internet service is better for business, it seems, so I hope that more places realize this.


Thanks for the feedback,

Clinton