New Site Slow And Sticky

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

It is now also likely that you have to scroll the page down to make the close (X) button visible, whereas before it was closable from the window's title bar or taskbar.

Hi Chris.

When you have an image open, if you click on anywhere off the image, it automatically closes it

[Chris Knight]

Hi Chris.

When you have an image open, if you click on anywhere off the image, it automatically closes it

Thanks S_B_1

[Mondy]

Just me, or does anyone else prefer the old board?

I understand the hosts (IP Board) need to do major upgrades from time to time, but after a week or so, still prefer the older version.

Just me personal thoughts :-)

[Somerset Squall]

I'm liking the new board a lot. The only thing I don't really like is the PM system, over complicated IMO. But the other new features are pretty good.

[len]

It's definitely not running slower, so it may be worth you clearing out your cache and cookies as that is often the cause of slow downs on sites.

Definitely not ignoring you Paul!

When I replied that I "maintained my PC meticulously" I meant that I did those clean-outs (and much more) regularly.

I understand your point about the (seeming) inevitability of technological change. But it's a question of pace. What is reasonable? What is its purpose? Who gains?

I think the digital switchover analogy poor because it can be remedied by a very cheap box. (I still think it's a fraud in quality....bandwidth sacrificed from resolution to more shopping channels)

The advance of PC hardware seems to be driven by gaming enthusiasts, but, like many PC users, PC games leave me cold.

The frequency of new OS's from MS seems to be a cynical abuse by a quasi-monopoly to extort.

My PC is not yet nine years old. It was bought with win98SE which many experts still claim to be in a sense "the best OS from MS". (Even the vendors warned me off the ME system then extant).

I personally think it a bad thing to send my PC to landfill because of microsoft's need to maximise profits with monopoly abuse. But for the complicity of third-party Websites with MS, I and many other simple-surfers, could use their PCs for many years.

But I know I may be in a minority feeling this way. That does not make me wrong.

I will be forced to buy a new PC. I have 4 here and parts from several others. I could make them work perfectly adequately but for the OS issue.

But I will not buy Vista, with Windows 7 imminent.

I dont know if your 0.29% figure for Win98 users includes Win98SE & ME users. But even if we made up one per cent I guess that's pretty unimportant compared to the new features?

Len (Posted from wife's XP machine)

Edited August 4, 2009 by len

[Paul]

Personally, and you probably think I would say this but I don't think it's unreasonable that win98 is no longer supported by some web applications, if you consider than when it was created internet forums were in their extreme infancy, broadband was something only the very few had or had heard of and web video hadn't been touched. So, it's hard to expect the newer technologies, to work properly on that system as it wasn't created with that sort of use in mind at all.

There's not been a concious decision to move the site beyond the likes of win98, but the forum software creators have pushed things forward at their end and the video format we use is pretty new, so unfortunately it has resulted in some items not being available to users with that or older systems.

What I would say though is costwise it's not so expensive to pick up a legal copy of windows XP which is a very good os - I've seen it going for around £30 on ebay..

[len]

Personally, and you probably think I would say this but I don't think it's unreasonable that win98 is no longer supported by some web applications, if you consider than when it was created internet forums were in their extreme infancy, broadband was something only the very few had or had heard of and web video hadn't been touched. So, it's hard to expect the newer technologies, to work properly on that system as it wasn't created with that sort of use in mind at all.

There's not been a concious decision to move the site beyond the likes of win98, but the forum software creators have pushed things forward at their end and the video format we use is pretty new, so unfortunately it has resulted in some items not being available to users with that or older systems.

What I would say though is costwise it's not so expensive to pick up a legal copy of windows XP which is a very good os - I've seen it going for around £30 on ebay..

Paul I don't have Win98, I have Win98SE which was only first released in May 1999.

Microsoft ended support less than 7 years from first intro in July 2006. If you think that is reasonable I would have to disagree.

ME is only Win98SE messed-up and does not count. I daresay any ME users may be experiencing the difficulties I am.

The premature ending of support of Win98SE, and the botch of ME, was part of the arm-twisting to buy XP.

There are 3 XP pro machine in this house, and two more of my employers, all of which I maintain.....and I don't like it at all. I much prefer 98SE.

Now it is theoretically possible some new Web Applications might require XP (or IE7), but should this site require it? That is the question.

I suspect that many such new applications just require XP because it's there and that's what the software -designers use.

How many such applications would be impossible without XP were it not there? Not many I would guess myself?

Anyway Paul, you did answer the question I had posed above about whether pre-XP-OS-system users were knowingly excluded. Apparently not.

I wonder, if you had realised, would you have gone back to the software vendors and asked them if the site could be more inclusive?

But in fact I did raise this on the thread discussing these changes before the event and I was informed that only minor bells and whistles would be beyond the capacity of users such as myself.

Now I find I cannot post from my machine, page navigation is slow and sticky, and it freezes IE(6)regularly.

Perhaps the vendors should be contacted as this is not operating as intended???

Len

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

Len.

I'm sure Paul can defend himself, but...

I'm not sure what kind of answer you are actually looking for.

Was it delibrate, no. Should it change back, I dont think so. Is it better, yes (for me at least).

Just FYI - It wasnt freezing when I was using IE6.

Just a question, but have you got an LCD/Plasma TV? A TFT? A DVD or Bluray player? An Ipod? All advancements in technology.

[Paul]

Paul I don't have Win98, I have Win98SE which was only first released in May 1999.

Microsoft ended support less than 7 years from first intro in July 2006. If you think that is reasonable I would have to disagree.

ME is only Win98SE messed-up and does not count. I daresay any ME users may be experiencing the difficulties I am.

The premature ending of support of Win98SE, and the botch of ME, was part of the arm-twisting to buy XP.

There are 3 XP pro machine in this house, and two more of my employers, all of which I maintain.....and I don't like it at all. I much prefer 98SE.

Now it is theoretically possible some new Web Applications might require XP (or IE7), but should this site require it? That is the question.

I suspect that many such new applications just require XP because it's there and that's what the software -designers use.

How many such applications would be impossible without XP were it not there? Not many I would guess myself?

Anyway Paul, you did answer the question I had posed above about whether pre-XP-OS-system users were knowingly excluded. Apparently not.

I wonder, if you had realised, would you have gone back to the software vendors and asked them if the site could be more inclusive?

But in fact I did raise this on the thread discussing these changes before the event and I was informed that only minor bells and whistles would be beyond the capacity of users such as myself.

Now I find I cannot post from my machine, page navigation is slow and sticky, and it freezes IE(6)regularly.

Perhaps the vendors should be contacted as this is not operating as intended???

Len

Problem is Len that the forum has been tested in IE6 and it does work albeit without some of the fancier features, if you're finding the basic functionality isn't working then there's something else in your system that isn't compatible, but it's not IE6. And in truth there are a great many software vendors who are not supporting ie6 at all now due to it's limitations..

1999 is still light years before net video or forums were common - find some web archives and take a look at the sites which were available then, barely anyone had broadband and those who did weren't getting anywhere near the speeds available now so video was out of the question and not something any developers were considering. In time terms 10 years perhaps isn't that long - cars, tvs etc from 10 years back all still work (to a point), but in internet terms it's an eternity, everything has changed in that time and therefore the software (and possibly hardware) you're using is simply no longer up to the task.

You're using ancient software (and it is ancient in pc/internet terms), you say you like it but it's not doing what you want it to - ie you can't view video (and I know we're not the only people using the h264 encoding now - huge numbers of sites are), and you can't post on here. Perhaps it's time to stop being a fan of it, and accept the fact that the issue isn't because of a design fault or the software on this forum/site 'not operating as intended', it's purely down to the fact your software isn't able to deal with it any longer due to it's age.

[Karen Ann]

Seems far too technical for me but apart from just getting used to the new layout, as an operator, my dear old horse is having no problems (now 6 yrs old). I'm trading this stupid thing in, in the New Year cause it's rubbish. I, very very occasionally have a problem watching videos but I believe that is a problem with which thingamybob I've got downloaded. I :winky: netweather.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Karen Ann

[Phil UK]

Paul is correct, Len. Times and technology changes. Windows 98SE is now long obsolete. In the days of Win98/98SE, most websites were written using basic HTML but then came along SHTML, XHTML, DHTML, all of which changed the way for website and forum programming, including new software applications such as Flash, video and audio streaming, etc...

Which is why with the increasingly new developments, so the operating systems followed suit. (Discounting WinME and Win2000 which were worse than even Win95 in my opinion!)

As Paul also states, there must be an another underlying problem other than IE6. I've been (had no choice until tonight) using Mozilla. (Earlier version I hasten to add!) and I've had no problems with either this, or any other forum which is either graphics heavy or otherwise. Now putting IE8 through its paces and there's not all that much difference apart from one or two extra add-ons.

Karen Ann... To find out which thingamybob browser you're using and which version, click on 'Help' at the top of the page inside the grey area then look at the very bottom of the frop down menu then left click on that then voila! :winky:

Phil.

[londonsnow]

Any mac users out there? The new site is much slower on my powerbook than the last. I access the net via an internet stick, as am always on the move. would this be a problem? answers on a postcard. thanks LS

[londonsnow]

Any mac users out there? The new site is much slower on my powerbook than the last. I access the net via an internet stick, as am always on the move. would this be a problem? answers on a postcard. thanks LS

just to ask again, i find the site massively slow and frustrating, and am wondering if its because i'm on an internet stick rather than broadband. having said that i dont have any other problems with other sites. it's only been really bad since the site was updated, and i'm wondering if all the ads are slowing it for me. any ideas gratefully received. cheers

[PeteG]

I'm using an imac and Firefox and if anything things are faster. As I'm 3 miles from the telephone exchange and get average download speeds of 200kbs at best I'm grateful for any increase in speed.

[Paul]

No reason at this end why anything should be slower, servers are not under any significant strain (and we'd upgrade them if they were), the page load times (at the bottom of the page) are generally around 0.1 of a second or less, so I'd say the problem is probably something local to you. The ads load in iframes and are independent to the rest of the page which means that even if they didn't load at all everything else would.

Have you tried removing cookies / internet cache, that's often a good first port of call and sorts 90% of problems.

[StormChaser]

This site requires xp/vista? bull crap I run amiga os4.1 with owb (google it if you dont know) and no problems!

[Paul]

Yep, defo no reason to have to use xp/vista and the majority of the features will work on all but the very oldest systems.

[MAF]

Yep, defo no reason to have to use xp/vista and the majority of the features will work on all but the very oldest systems.

you can say that again

[kaz]

everything working ok for me except the NW radar gets so far but wont load pic

kaz x

[Tommyboy2007]

I have been trying to get the radar up for 15 mins now but no joy was working 15 mins ago. Hope servers havent crapped out already. This would be a bad point to lose radar.

[A.J]

everything working ok for me except the NW radar gets so far but wont load pic

kaz x

yep same here Kaz, NW radar refusing to load....

Internet cache & cookies cleared, still no joy

Edited September 19, 2009 by ajpoolshark

[kaz]

selfish i know but im glad its not me

kaz

[A.J]

selfish i know but im glad its not me

kaz

its odd, the radar postcode zoom function works ok, just not the UK/Euro radar

[StormChaser]

Just for the record AmigaOS4.1 is not old it's, not even a year old yet!

Edited September 19, 2009 by StormChaser

[Tommyboy2007]

its odd, the radar postcode zoom function works ok, just not the UK/Euro radar

Postcode zoom wont go beyond 15.35pm It's definitely not working. Hope someone at NW realises soon or the afternoon/evenings chase will be harder than usual.