Page loading speed

[RandallNeighbour]

Manny, everyone I have visited with in person or via PM's on this forum has stated that the pages load slowly. So it's not something on the side of one or two users with old machines, not enough ram, firewalls, or virus software. It's a global problem for all the users I've visited with, meaning it's a site issue, not an end-user issue.

[Stroked & Blown]

Attached is a YSlow report against this thread in txt format. Change the extension to .htm to view it properly (can't upload .htm attachments).
Looks like the biggest impact is that the webserver expires all images immediately, causing them to be re-downloaded every time a page is loaded.
These images never change and should have an expiration date far in the future.

[HDManny]

I did not get into how hardware could cause slowness. I explained that you have to compare apples to apples. There may be an issue with this site but unless you know exactly how was created and know that another site was created exactly like this one if would not be a fair comparison. I opened the main page with IE8 and it takes a few seconds longer than with Google Chrome, I noticed that the YSlow Report was run using Mozilla. It’s like comparing the top speed of a Mustang GT, Boxster S and a Ferrari and being surprised that they are not the same.

[Stroked & Blown]

HDManny - It's not a client issue.

I found a decent workaround for the speed issue. Apparently all the slow-to-load ads are a part of the 986forum skin. Changing to a different skin improves load times significantly.

Go to Quick Links>Edit Options (or http://986forum.com/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions )

Under 'Miscellaneous Options' set the 'Forum Skin' to 'C7forum substyle'.

Note that the other VBulletin skins change the formatting of posts.

The drawback with this is the left hand navigation is based on the C7 forum. Not a problem for me b/c I never use it, but a consideration for those that do.
The main forum listing remains the same.

[Motobob]

Originally Posted by Stroked & Blown

HDManny - It's not a client issue.

I found a decent workaround for the speed issue. Apparently all the slow-to-load ads are a part of the 986forum skin. Changing to a different skin improves load times significantly.

(snip).

Well that fixed something that has bugged me for two years.... :-) thx! Bob

[RandallNeighbour]

Dang! I just changed it to the C7forum.com skin and WOW, it's fast now!

S&B, thanks so much!

[tonycarreon]

it loads faster mostly because the ads are not shown, so the browser doesn't have to spend as many cpu cycles building the DOM. the downside however is that the ads are not displayed, so the forum owners are not making any $ from them.

while i am sad the site is slower to load on the default skin, i don't mind it if it keeps the forum free for members ( or at least offsets some of the costs to the owners a little bit ).