What would you change about the new SFN?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

So. If you were in charge, what would you change about the new ScienceForums.Net?

[D H]

Speed. The new scienceforums.net is slow.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Speed. The new scienceforums.net is slow.

 

Hmm. Could you characterize this slowness? Does it take forever for anything to happen, or does the page start slowly appearing on your screen one line at a time, or is it just unusable for a while as images and other things load?

 

I'll look into what speed improvements could be made, but I'd like to get a handle on where the bottleneck is.

 

Whoops. There was a stuck PHP process using most of our CPU for a while there. Perhaps that was part of it.

[Zolar V]

If i could change something i would go back to the old color and format, it was easier to navigate and read.

not all of the old format, but the mainpage was great. The actual forum listing could have used a little work but imo it was awesome.

 

Personally i am actually having a bit of a hard time reading the posts now. The color scheme and the contrast just make it difficult.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Zolar V

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Personally i am actually having a bit of a hard time reading the posts now. The color scheme and the contrast just make it difficult.

Could you be more specific? The contrast between text and background is nearly the same as it used to be.

[Zolar V]

Hmm, the green when quoting, and the color of the blue, seems lighter and it makes the text seem to blend into the background. It may be just my mind playing tricks on me or something. but i love the new logo tho.

 

Honestly i am not totally sure of the nature of what is causing my difficulty reading the text. maybe its not the color at all. maybe its the size.

 

 

Testtest

 

merge

Could you be more specific? The contrast between text and background is nearly the same as it used to be.

 

Yea i still think its the color scheme. though the increased size of the text seemed to help slightly.

 

is this text black

[ydoaPs]

I'd separate the 'scienceforums.net' from the logo more. And perhaps adjust the size. Also, I'd have the atom thingy be less regular(like the old one was).

[Moontanman]

You have changed this forum to the same format as the NANFA forum, i seldom go there because it's awkward, clumsy, and it locks up my computer even though that forum deals with one of my main areas of expertise. It's slightly more difficult to find new content on this format than the old was. Reputation was more than a bit more straight forward on the old format. I'm sure I'll get used to the changes evntually...

[timo]

My old wishes:

- (Option to have) Avatar back on the left.

- Automatic ignoring of threads (full threads, not only the posts; and also on the forum search level) started by people on my ignore list (or whatever the current equivalent for people on my ignore list is).

[D H]

Hmm. Could you characterize this slowness? Does it take forever for anything to happen, or does the page start slowly appearing on your screen one line at a time, or is it just unusable for a while as images and other things load?

The entry page can take a long time to load.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

You have changed this forum to the same format as the NANFA forum, i seldom go there because it's awkward, clumsy, and it locks up my computer even though that forum deals with one of my main areas of expertise. It's slightly more difficult to find new content on this format than the old was. Reputation was more than a bit more straight forward on the old format. I'm sure I'll get used to the changes evntually...

 

If you have continuing problems with the forum being slow and locking up your computer, I suggest scrolling to the bottom left to the style selector drop-down (it currently says "SFN") and selecting IP.Board Mobile. It's a layout designed for mobile phones that have trouble with loads of graphics and huge pages.

 

If you do try it, a hint: the button in the upper-right (to the right of "Science Forums") is actually a drop-down menu with search and a few other things.

 

If there's anything specific you find clumsy ("the button to do x is hard to find"), let me know. I'll be adjusting, tweaking and redesigning as time goes on.

[insane_alien]

as i've said before, i miss the indicator for whether you've read the post or not. i'd have that back and thats really about it.

[Klaynos]

Two things about the mobile site, the pictures at the tops of the posts are profile pictures not avatars, and there doesn't seem to be a way of viewing your notifications.

[insane_alien]

decided to try accessing the site from my mobile. turns out that orange thinks its a porn site and that i shouldn't be able to access porn sites for some reason.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Two things about the mobile site, the pictures at the tops of the posts are profile pictures not avatars, and there doesn't seem to be a way of viewing your notifications.

Yeah, IPB loves using profile pictures. I'll see if I can swap that. Dunno about the notifications though.

 

decided to try accessing the site from my mobile. turns out that orange thinks its a porn site and that i shouldn't be able to access porn sites for some reason.

 

I'm afraid I have no idea how to fix that one.

[insane_alien]

me either. luckily i don't browse the web often from my phone.

[jackson33]

If you have continuing problems with the forum being slow and locking up your computer, I suggest scrolling to the bottom left to the style selector drop-down (it currently says "SFN") and selecting IP.Board Mobile. It's a layout designed for mobile phones that have trouble with loads of graphics and huge pages.[/Quote]

 

CR; Moon is basically saying the same thing I have and continue to experience. I'm becoming convinced, google or some new influence in your program in downloading on each new click (navigation) has resulted in the current slowness and any attempt to click before it or they are done results in the problems. If this makes any sense what so ever, before when navigating to another page, whatever was to be downloading stopped and we went on, today it seems to say NO, I'm not done. What's worse, in when leaving this site or anywhere this problem exist, I have to clean my files (twice), run a scan (deleting tracking whatever's), many times having to reboot as well. I and assume others on dial up have accelerators (Juno Turbo, ATT accelerator) and we can see when something is being downloaded, when nothing should be (the page is completed).

 

For the record, just signing in it took google leads(?) three minutes to finish and Sf(n) a second to transfer.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Hmm. We have three external programs that your browser gets on each page:

• Google Adsense
• Google Analytics, which gives us audience statistics, number of visits, and so on
• Quantcast, which does demographics

I just removed Quantcast because it hasn't been very useful anyway.

 

Google Adsense has always been a part of SFN (well, at least for the last several years), but perhaps its location on the page means it blocks anything else from loading until it does. I will investigate if there's anything I can do.

 

Also, a note: tracking cookies that your virus program finds can't cause any slowness you observe, and I wouldn't worry too much about them. Tracking cookies are not programs that can run and slow down your computer, nor do they slow down page loading. The primary reason virus programs remove them is privacy concerns; cookies are small bits of text your browser stores for certain sites, and those sites can use the text as an identifier when you visit. Some advertisements or analytics programs used on many sites can use the cookie to follow you across all your sites and store statistics about what sites you visit. SFN uses a few cookies to keep you logged in. Whatever your symptoms are, tracking cookies aren't the cause.

 

If you have to reboot your computer, rather than just closing your browser and reopening it, I think there's something very wrong as well.

 

I will, however, investigate what else I can do to speed up page loads and make SFN a better experience for everyone.

[jackson33]

I miss spoke in "google leads", all that shows is "googlea" and read it as goog lea, assuming leads. Since only one google A is NEW, then the problem would either be my computer or that addition. I now do know that same googlea appears at other sites this problem occurs.

 

I just wrote formed a post for another sub forum, signed in, said successful and was redirected to the original page, still about three minutes, but was not signed in. I don't know if it was needed, but did reboot, got back on and made my post.

 

If possible and it doesn't interrupt anything, you might want to drop that program for a day (with out telling anybody) and if there is a difference, your posters will respond. Actually the figures your going to get from this poster won't be accurate, since I've signed in far more time than would have been necessary. Does 'Google Analytics' work for both those signed in or not (in any way)?

 

I have only been here on this session and just ran the tracking scan, with these confirmations, if it means anything to you....@doubleclick.net/, @2o7.net/, @insightexpressia.com/ and Ophan Cookie clean up.

 

If you have to reboot your computer, rather than just closing your browser and reopening it, I think there's something very wrong as well. [/Quote]

 

When something is downloading and my little arrow is moving, after leaving here or the others place, especially google search, which I keep as an icon, the only solution SEEMS to be a reboot. Other than Windows Up Date, I generally know what all might be trying to update and as I understand this is a problem with MS Vista...

 

"just closing your browser and reopening" I think IE works through Juno Turbo, and just learned I can shut off and then turn back on, which may have saved a few dozen reboots, I'll check that out...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

doubleclick.net serves some of our Google ads. I don't know about the rest.

 

Google Analytics is designed to load only after the rest of the page has loaded; it waits for your browser to finish loading the page, and then does its work. The only script that can be causing trouble is Google Adsense (googleads.doubleclick.net would correspond with your observations) and that is how we pay the bills.

 

For the moment, I've put you and moontanman in a usergroup that shouldn't see any ads. Let me know if it works.

[jackson33]

CR; Before signing in, I can Navigate, as I always have here and only after signing in do any problems occur. Google ad's and all, alone CAN'T be the problem. In fact when clicking to the next page, googleads while not registered, the command just clears itself (stops) and I move on. Also, best I can recall, you have had ads on all pages for at least a couple years and has never been a problem. I don't know what's been added or would any guess from me likely make sense, other than possibly, something is not adaptable to other than HS providers.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

So, let me get this clear:

 

• This problem only occurs when you are logged in.
• SFN itself loads quickly. It's some sort of google ads or google something script that's taking minutes to transfer.
• Removing Google Adsense doesn't solve the problem.
• Removing Quantcast doesn't solve the problem.

This is immensely puzzling. The best guess I have is that some JavaScript downloaded by IPB when you are logged in takes too long to run, but that doesn't coincide with your google observations. Also, you shouldn't have to download any of the JavaScript more than once a week, since your browser can cache it.

 

I'm going to do more investigating and see what I can discover.

[Genecks]

If I were to accept the new format, then I'd at least like for that orange to appear blue. But what Zolar V said about the main page is/was very true: Unique, insightful, and a pleasant experience. However, I never really cared for the front page that much and went straight to forum.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Really? I was never a fan of our old front page. The news item (the image on the front page) was never up to date, and just displaying a list of threads wasn't particularly engaging.

 

However, the current SFN front page can definitely be improved upon. I'm going to be doing some programming to get better features on the front page so you can dive right in to interesting discussions.

 

Also, we tried blue for the tab bar during the testing phase. It ended up not working at all -- there was too much blue all around. I'm fairly confident the theme works better with orange.

[Genecks]

That's a biased opinion if I've read one.

 

"Oh, me and a select few rather than the majority of individuals here decided we just didn't like it, so we decided to not instate it."

 

That sounds awfully like rule by the minority.

And even regulars like me never saw it.

 

I don't remember seeing it during the testing phase.

 

I think I like the idea of blue more. Perhaps if I think about this too much, I'll push toward black.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Genecks