This website seems pretty slow
polycounter lvl 9
Is it just me or this website's load times range from pretty slow to reasonably fast? Is this because of the traffic on the website? I doubt that because I have been moderating on forums with much more traffic :S
Replies
In the mean time, the best thing to do would be to report any errors you see using our Contact Us form (top right of Polycount) with the URL of the page you were on and the time it happened. Thank you!
We have all types of green going on up in here, the hoes be flocking.
-Sent from Mars on my 56K modem.
You know, sometimes I almost believe that you actually live on mars and surprisingly get the internet reception using the 56k modem.
You must be with Rogers.
jks jks lol
By all means, enlighten us. Let us know which forums you moderated with more traffic than us, and what you guys did to help keep things stable.
0x10cforum.com (I asked to be unmodded because I do not visit the forums nay more due to University work) and com.puter.tv (community dead basically and they fucked up the database) which was an online division of Tigerdirect. There are many reasons why your website could be slow. If you blame just the traffic.. the main reason could be because of a poorly optimized website (install Firebug and Yslow extension on your browser, optimize the website)
Perhaps these would help.
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/481
Since this is a dynamic, database driven website you could optimize your databases as well as increase chache space and speed.
Use something like http://loadimpact.com/ to simulate traffic and adjust your website.
By the way, upgrading server does not always solve the issue. It could be just the way your website is.
The front page is by far the slowest because you are dynamically linking posts/images from posts.
There has been maybe 1 moment, in the last year or so, where I noticed a slow load time here, and that's when the announced the current contest (and caused a high traffic hit).
Slow websites should be fixed is all I have say. My download speed is 2-3 MB/Sec (not Mbps, MBps).
If you guys are busy, I won't mind helping.
Let me be a little clearer: This site is already very fast for myself, and others, world wide. The kind of improvements you are talking about would be minuscule. You may get a few hundred milliseconds out of the load time... 500ms tops. The site is not suffering from poor database queries. Compressing their js files would be the only performance boost I could see (which would probably give you those milliseconds I mentioned a second ago).
Most of the time, the only thing slowing down pages loads here, are images. And since those images are typically hosted by 3rd party sites, there is not much polycount can do, which would make much sense.
I'm curious what pages you're seeing slow load times. Because, if it's not traffic, as you seem to believe, then it should easily replicated.
It just strikes me odd, that someone with so few posts, would out of the blue, start telling them their site is slow, and offer to help improve it, when no one else is in agreement that the site is slow.
It was in the what are you working on thread 2013 edition.
Again since then no probs, bob.
But I also find it a bit odd, out of the blue and all I agree with you notman. hmmm
"Is this because of the traffic on the website? I doubt that because I have been moderating on forums with much more traffic :S"
And here is what is slowing down your website.
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130424_CH_5XC/1/details/
Consider offering hosting of images on your server (or your CDN)
The website is slow sometimes, not all the times. Please read my words carefully I feel like some people have not fully read my posts and just reply for the sake of replying.. what the fuck?
Edit: The website uses vBulletin, why did you say it doesn't need dB optimization?
Least you can do is compress your images because that's whats taking like a full second on just the root directory!
Edit 2: Someone is going to mention that they dont wana lose details, I can sense it
Edit 3: Quiet frankly, judging me for my post count is offending. Can a mod please lock this thread? I suggested what I felt like I should suggest. It is just a suggestion, no need to shoot it down. It was meant for the owners/admins of this site.
Why don't you look at my join date? I do not post on the forum a lot because I like to avoid situations like this. I am on the website for at least an hour or more combined daily since the signup time. Dont even have to login.. so please don't shoot out an opinion because of my post cunt.
Also what's with this guy? He barely has any posts. Seems like he just joined a few days ago to post this.
This premise is bogus since judging by Alexa traffic rankings 0x10cforum.com is nowhere near the traffic level of polycount.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/polycount.com
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/0x10cforum.com
As for compressing all the images, that's not really gonna work. First of all, many people host their own images so you can't fix that. Secondly, people tend to post much more images here compared to a regular discussion forum. Lastly, we are artists, we value nice images.
I used iGoogle, because it has dynamic objects. I guess Google could use your optimization skills too. You should contact them.
You are not reading my words carefully. YOU said that Adam was wrong to suggest traffic was the issue. YOU also said that the speed fluctuates. My response was, fluctuation is often caused by traffic. If you visit the same page, and it's ALWAYS slow, then yes, I would agree, there is something that needs to be reviewed about why that page is so slow.
Yes, the forums are vBulletin, and yes, most of the free forums packages do not have the best db structures, because they try to offer so many features to their users, which adds overhead. My point was, it's not worth breaking the vBulletin db structure, just to try gaining a little bit of speed. You then open up the problem of integrating future vBulletin patches.
The storing of user images was another point to my 'little gain' argument. First, most sites do not want to start hosting images for people, and to be honest, people prefer linking to their content, so they can share it on multiple sites. Second, if they could store images that people post... dynamically save it local version, to pull from their own server, rather than a 3rd party link. But then you need to start support updating the local version, if the user wants to update their image. Again, more hassle than it's worth for the gain.
I wasn't suggesting you wanted something financial out of it. I just posed the question, what are you trying to gain out of this? People do it for many reasons, and I'm curious what your angle is. If it's just to 'help the site', then fine, but it honestly does not feel that way.
And you insult me, suggesting I know nothing about web development, and wonder why I response by questioning your motives? You have yet to prove where this site is slow.
I can point out 3 things 'slowing down' this site. If you read my words, you would see that I point things out. But as I pointed out, in my previous response, those improvements would offer little gain. They could compress the header image more, minify their javascript files, and remove their ad banner. 3 things that probably aren't going to happen, just to gain a couple hundred milliseconds.
We have no problems with threads like these so long as things are objective and helpful. Lots of ideas/suggestions are being thrown around which we'll come to consider once the time is right.
The OP was made around the time we were having noticeable server problems. PM's, Facebook messages and Tweets were sent to us by a number of people indicating a problem. So I reckon it was made around then and things have ironed out since then.
Also, 0x10cforum.com is a subdivision of http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/enjin.com so it is not bogus information hehe. I thought you guys would be able to make the connection.
Also, there might be a vBulletin plugin/addon that allows all the images linked to be compressed, and when one clicks on the image it opens the full version on a new tab. This means that the initial page load times would be less AND users can still see "high-res" images by clicking on the one they want to see. You will also save bandwidth costs by the way.
I just started being super active now and I noticed the slows so I thought I should make a topic. I do not think my post count means I don't care about the site, which is the only thing that felt like a stab in the heart to me because I really love the community and the artists in the industry today (I envy them to some degree because I am not half as creative as anyone of you guys here, I am just a fan of 3d work).
Not so much on the main forum, but I find the Polycount Wiki is very slow loading pages. Often, I just head to youtube or google with my question instead of checking the Wiki because it's so slow.
(Not sure why everyone is whining about this guy giving critique...isn't that who we are? Critique monsters? Learn to take it
But since the problem is when the user count spikes. Wouldn't it be possible to make the site prioritize registered users, so that if I'm logged in when theres a spike the server would prioritize me instead of people who just visits?
Pretty much everyone spun into defence mode (I read adam's first reply alot more defensively pre-edit) and I'm surprised people reached for the "who the fuck are you, dr. zero-posts?!" pipe so quick.
but yeah, ziikutv, work on your shitty critique delivery. "your site sucks and I should know because I'm awesome" is a great humble brag. Following it with "do you even web-dev, bro?" is just pro, pro flaming skills.
This thread 5/10, needs reworking.
With that, I had already decided to leave my last response as my final response to this thread. I think everyone has shared their thoughts. My low post count wasn't meant to come across as "you're not worthy", as much as I meant to point how that he may not have experienced the site long enough to know how well it typically runs.
Either way... let peace return