~~ PAL ~~

Have the same issue, using newest Firefox.

Does the sluggishness have anything to do with the click-through ads from every click? It is now getting bad enough that I have had to walk away in frustration at times...

spainlinx0

It's just pathetic at this point.

ibobi

We are following up on this...

Adam Tyner

I got a database error about a bad insert into the "datastore" table. When I copied and pasted the DB error into a Word doc, it was 1,186 pages.

That's not a typo. The serialized array for the "data" column in datastore was 5,802,169 characters. When I saved the DB query as a plain-text file on my computer, it spanned 5.53 megs (for one database query!!!!).

Could that have anything to do with the extremely sluggish speed of the site? The problems I'm having aren't limited to the forum (again, things like static images spin and spin too), but maybe issues like that database query trickle down?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

That's just awesome.

I know this issue is being followed up on but we're at something like month 8 on it.

ibobi

I realize...

islandclaws

I think someone at IB needs to hire Adam to fix this thing. He's on it!

kd5

Computer was running kind of slow, hadn't done anything with it besides clean, defrag, and scan for garbage regularly. Decided to format/reinstall, got everything back up to snuff, computer's running much faster now, but the forums here are still as slow as snail shit. My god, it takes forever for a post to actually post. As long as this has been going on, you'd think they'd have it resolved by now. I'm starting to get the impression that they just don't give a shit. As long as they get their $$$, the rest can just molder away. -kd5-

TomOpus

I have not seen any issues. Posting has been quick as usual. Using the latest Firebox too. Sorry for those having issues.

kd5

I'm really glad you're not having any problems Tom, but IMHO the forum needs to work with all the most popular browsers including Internet Explorer and Chrome as well as Firefox & Opera. IB can't expect everyone to run a certain browser just because the forum acts wonky with the others.

Also, before I formatted my computer and reinstalled everything from scratch I was running Firefox 3.6.23 (w/ Adblock Plus) and the forum was just as slow as it was with IE8. It just takes WAY too long for a post to actually post.

I wish IB would figure out what the problem is and fix it.


Edit: It took a whole 10 seconds for this post to actually post. When you're on a 3mb DSL connection, 10 seconds seems like dialup. -kd5-

kd5

Actually, navigation within the site seems a little faster today, but making posts is still painfully slow. -kd5-


Edit: I spoke too soon, must be sporadic because now it's back to hanging terribly.

Adam Tyner

I don't know what the problem is, but I don't think it's browser-specific. I mostly use Chrome, but it's generally really slow for me in Firefox whenever I fire that up, it's constantly timing out on my iPad, and I've even gotten severe lag in text-based browsers like Lynx and when goofing around with wget. Doesn't matter if I'm using my cable connection at home, 3G on my iPad, the T3 at the office, my shell account in Pittsburgh, or the handful of different setups I've used when travelling. It seems to be an issue establishing an HTTP connection. Once it gets going, it's fine, but it often spins and spins and spins and spins trying to make that initial connection. (At least, that's what happens when I do tests with wget, and I've never had any problems FTPing files.) The hangups are everything on dvdtalk.com: avatars, CSS files, screenshots in reviews, the forum, the review CMS, etc. Changing networks, changing browsers, and changing computers doesn't have any meaningful impact. It's not completely consistent, so sometimes it'll be zippy and other times I'll reload four or five times, waiting for the timeout each time, before anything comes up. Time of day doesn't make a difference. I've been on the forum at 5 AM my time, and it's still acting as if it's on the brink of death. I'm not seeing any network hiccups when I do a traceroute, so I feel pretty certain it's some sort of hardware or software misfire at Internet Brands. I don't spend too much time on the server side of things, but could it be a firewall that's on the fritz? Maybe Apache needs some attention? Maybe there's some hardware component that's erratic enough to play nicely for some people and not others? I don't know, but I really, really wish someone at IB would take the time to find out. I know IBobi is doing everything he can, but no one's willing or able to followup with his requests, and...ack, trying to browse the forum is just so miserable. I don't know how many of us are affected, but I guess we keep mashing 'Reload' until it works, so it doesn't look as if there's a drop in traffic. If the financials aren't taking a hit, I guess there's no incentive to fix it.

onebyone

After clicking on the link, it took me exactly three and a half minutes to get into this thread. It's definitely slow in loading.

I find that, when I come to the forum lately, it starts out ok but then, with each click, it just gets slower and slower until it just becomes impossible to navigate.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Other than one day, it's always worked great for me using Firefox at work.

I use Chrome at home and it's always timing out or going slow but if I use my iPad, I've never had it not load quickly.

kd5

Doesn't make sense why the site works great for some and terrible for others. -kd5-

Sonic

There is lagging on random occasions throughout the day. I usually leave then come back in a few minutes.

mkdevo

it's generally pretty slow for me. i've just changed the way i browse the site because of it. i'll open dvdtalk in a new chrome window, browse the forums in one tab, and go through and open all the threads i want to view in new tabs. by the time i'm done, they're all loaded up. not ideal, but definitely saves some time.

TomOpus

I agree it doesn't make sense. I figured if it was bad enough, this thread would've been 30 pages by now. The forum is pretty quick for me and I have a pretty slow computer.

kd5

So, 8 pages, 194 cries for help isn't enough? You would expect 30 pages, 750 cries for help to make this a legitimate issue? As I said before, I'm glad the forum works well for you, but that doesn't render the issues that others are having invalid.

I acknowledge that you aren't having the issues that the rest of us are Tom, and I'm not trying to invalidate your lack of these issues or be the cause of any ill will between us, it's just frustrating that the rest of us have been having these lag issues for as long as we have and no one seems to care enough to do anything about the problem. -kd5-


Edit: It took 11 seconds for this to post.

ibobi

Again, I'm sorry this is taking so long. I do know that the intermittent nature of the problem plus the spotty area it is affecting makes it very difficult to diagnose. Last week I heard rumblings that these were being investigated. I promise I will keep you informed when I hear more.

Paul

DVD Polizei

Maybe it's 100 pages, but the rest of us can't post we're having issues.

And I'm having issues with forums loading. It's been doing this for several weeks now. I use IE 8 and Chrome.

~~ PAL ~~

This loading issue is now bad enough that I basically check in here less than usual, because it's damn frustrating...

For the last three weeks, I informally kept track of how often a page won't load properly for myself. I use the latest Firefox:

Page loaded properly within 10 seconds (50%)
Page loaded properly but took between 10 to 60 seconds (5%)
Page did not load properly, after over 60 seconds of waiting (45%)

When a page didn't load, one solution that worked for me was to hit the back button after 10-15 seconds of waiting, and then hit the link again to where I wanted to go. On the second attempt it almost always loads properly (about 90-95% success rate). Seriously, it's damn frustrating to have to hit a link multiple times to finally get there...

On those rare occasions when a page finally loads after a long wait period, I usually see the loading message at the lower left corner change 7-8 times before it finally ends up where it's supposed to go. It just seems that there are at least 2-3 click-through sites that the link goes thru before ending at the destination page. I realize that just about every site out there have the click through ads to generate revenue, but it seems that the forum's core program here handles it rather poorly.

NoirFan

It's been especially terrible the last few days.

ibobi

From tech last week:

"We're getting all of the databases onto a single server. Not only will this fix any resource issues, but it makes it easier to diagnose problems. The first part of this is scheduled for early next week."

So we are moving on this. Hopefully soon you will see a much-improved site experience!

kd5

Sounds encouraging! Thanks for the update... -kd5-