Allotments 4 All

General => The Shed => Topic started by: Paulines7 on January 21, 2010, 10:33:17

Title: A4A problems
Post by: Paulines7 on January 21, 2010, 10:33:17
Is it just me or does anyone else find A4A very slow at times?  I belong to other forums and don't have any trouble but on A4A it seems to take ages to go from one place to another, then another time it is very quick.  I wonder how long it will take to post this message?   ;D
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: lottiedolly on January 21, 2010, 10:48:32
i have noticed that quite a lot lately
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: reddyreddy on January 21, 2010, 12:10:54
me too, if I post something or click to another link within A4A I can go and make a cup of tea whilst waiting for the page to refresh, glad it's not my computer!!
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Poppy Mole on January 21, 2010, 12:17:04
Me too - I get fed up waiting.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: betula on January 21, 2010, 12:18:46
I have sent a message to SL and hopefully she will let Dan know there is a problem  :)
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Trevor_D on January 21, 2010, 12:46:59
I've found the same. A4A is only one of several tabs open, so while I'm waiting I check the weather or my bank account or something.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: tim on January 21, 2010, 13:20:53
Yes - no complaint, but very slow to open up.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Hyacinth on January 21, 2010, 13:40:19
Me too - only this site, too :-\ Just pleased someone else has noticed it too, so thanks for the thread. It's why I haven't been around here much, tho I've had a lot of questions to ask....sometimes life's too short . Specifically I can get to one forum when I log on BUT then switching to another? ::) Just doesn't load, so quicker to go somewhere else. Only so much tea I can make/drink ;D

Do hope that Dan can identify the prob I see many of us are experiencing and get a fix.

Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: PurpleHeather on January 21, 2010, 14:02:10
Thank goodness it is not just me.

It was getting my parannoya going.

It is quick to scour the site unsigned in then only sign in if you want to actually reply.

.........................Then wait
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: SamLouise on January 21, 2010, 23:20:02
Quote from: betula on January 21, 2010, 12:18:46
I have sent a message to SL and hopefully she will let Dan know there is a problem  :)

SL = me?  No message come through but I have dropped a line to Dan anyway :)
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: rosebud on January 21, 2010, 23:28:45
  Well i cannot believe this thread , i have just posted to a friend RANTING how long it has taken me to get to send her a message. I have given up on previous nights. waste of time trying to get on here in the day this last week.
Thank goodness my puter is safe for now i was going to throw it out  of the window it annoyed me so much ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D.
Mind you Hotmail is no better this last week either ::) ::).
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Admin aka Dan on January 21, 2010, 23:38:08
I will look into it - might need a server type tweak ....
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: betula on January 22, 2010, 10:00:56
Sam Louise.........I sent you the message re the moderator link so that is obviously not working.Suggest you ask Dan to look at that too.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: grawrc on January 22, 2010, 10:31:26
Seems a lot better today! Thanks Dan.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Hyacinth on January 22, 2010, 12:04:40
Thanks Dan.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: grawrc on January 22, 2010, 12:22:47
On second thoughts it's maybe still a bit sporadically sluggish.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: rosebud on January 22, 2010, 23:29:07
 Thank you very much Dan. ;D
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Jayb on January 23, 2010, 10:31:20
It does seem much better this morning ;D

Thank you
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Flighty on January 23, 2010, 10:40:41
I don't think that it is any better at all!
It's still infuriatingly slow at times, just as it has been most of the past week!
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Jayb on January 23, 2010, 10:46:07
Perhaps I just hit a good spot, fingers crossed :-\
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Paulines7 on January 23, 2010, 10:54:02
I haven't had any problems so far this morning so "Thanks Dan".  Fingers crossed that it is all right for everyone.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Hyacinth on January 23, 2010, 13:27:12
....just for info, in case any more tweaking needs to be done, Dan, after I replied under Grawc this morning, Sod's Law, it took an age to post my reply and then so long to try to post a reply somewhere else I gave up...so, yes, it seems to be sporadic atm. Sorry.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: tonybloke on January 23, 2010, 13:48:11
this seems to have started when everyone got those new avatars? (did anyone except me read the disclaimer before deciding to get one?) Loads of info-gathering software add-ons wanted to be installed, do any of these effect the site??
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Flighty on February 04, 2010, 19:51:55
I am still finding this forum infuriatingly slow at times. It's been like it now for over two weeks!
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: manicscousers on February 04, 2010, 20:03:14
can't use the search, says the server is under severe pressure  ::)
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: betula on February 04, 2010, 20:03:59
Yes sometimes it is ok ,other times really slow,wish it would get sorted.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: lewic on February 04, 2010, 20:49:13
Quotethis seems to have started when everyone got those new avatars?

Interesting, you may be onto something there. I stupidly didnt read any of the small print (and I work in IT......)
Did notice there was an ad on their front page which went to a notorious spyware site though, which asked you to install something. I avoided this as when I clicked on it my antivirus went mad!
The avatar site names each pic with the email address of the person who downloaded it, which made me suspicious so I renamed mine in case they are searching for email addresses to spam.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Unwashed on February 04, 2010, 20:51:46
Quote from: tonybloke on January 23, 2010, 13:48:11
this seems to have started when everyone got those new avatars? (did anyone except me read the disclaimer before deciding to get one?) Loads of info-gathering software add-ons wanted to be installed, do any of these effect the site??
I'm pretty sure the problem is on the A4A server, you can see how long it takes to do the database lookup at the bottom of the page.  The page I'm typing into now for example says "Page created in 0.202 seconds with 27 queries." but I've seen pages report 20 seconds.

My avata, like reddyreddy's, is just a jpeg served from the A4A server like most other avatars, so there isn't any ability in the avatar to be doing anything slow and malicious.  It's the browser on the client end that retrieves the avatars anyway, so that wouldn't slow the server down.  Chances are your browser has cached the avatars anyways so they're costing you nothing.  

More problematic is the advertising.  It's context-sensitive so before the A4A server can send you your page it needs a round-trip to the ad agency's server to get an advert - at least I think that's how it works.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Ninnyscrops. on February 04, 2010, 20:57:00
I don't think it general to A4A...........the beings are getting clever out there.  Try and find me the strategic planning map for Southwater, I obviously get blocked out as I live here and my address is "logged" somewhere. I've tried the Parish Council website and Horsham District Council sites, can I access it...........oh no!

I though it was my uploading Internet 8, but I think it's going deeper than that.

Ninny
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: grawrc on February 04, 2010, 21:25:14
Sorry but I do think it is A4A. It is the only place I ever have problems.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Paulines7 on February 06, 2010, 14:33:23
I often think it would be a good idea if Dan got rid of the details of all those people that signed in over three years ago and have never been heard from since.  There must be thousands of them!!   :o 

The site would then be smaller and maybe would cope better.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: lorna on February 06, 2010, 16:47:02
OK at moment but yesterday I gave up when I was trying to go to one thread from another. Quite agree with Pauline.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Unwashed on February 06, 2010, 18:18:29
Quote from: Paulines7 on February 06, 2010, 14:33:23
I often think it would be a good idea if Dan got rid of the details of all those people that signed in over three years ago and have never been heard from since.  There must be thousands of them!!   :o 

The site would then be smaller and maybe would cope better.
It's extremely unlikely that the number of registered users is an issue.  In practice a registered member adds a couple of entries to some database table on the server and databases are designed to work very quicly with millions of entries.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: tonybloke on February 06, 2010, 18:21:56
It's probably something to do with the advertising, it has to work out what ads to display on each thread (subject linked ads?)
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Hosta on February 06, 2010, 18:31:00
Havent found it slow, but have noticed a lot of folks avatars are away and showing a little red x in a box instead  - ????

Mine too LOL

Ooops !!  Spoke too soon............. It just chucked me out, forgot it does that sometimes !
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Paulines7 on February 06, 2010, 18:38:19
Quote from: Hosta on February 06, 2010, 18:31:00
Havent found it slow, but have noticed a lot of folks avatars are away and showing a little red x in a box instead  - ????

Mine too LOL

Could this be because you have not logged yourself in and are reading the forum as a guest?  Just a thought.  :-\
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Hosta on February 06, 2010, 18:40:18
Nope, I am defo logged on - can see some avatars still.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Digeroo on February 07, 2010, 07:58:45
I have also been wondering about the moving avatars they are a bit of fun, but if there are several on one thread I was beginning to think things were going a bit slow.

I sometimes find logging out and rebooting gets things going a bit faster.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Unwashed on February 07, 2010, 17:59:16
Quote from: Digeroo on February 07, 2010, 07:58:45
I have also been wondering about the moving avatars they are a bit of fun, but if there are several on one thread I was beginning to think things were going a bit slow.

Animated avatars are just files like any regular image file, it's just your browser knows that they contain several frames of an animation, so all the work is done by your PC, not by the server.

However, I find the really, really anoying, so I'd gladly see them go.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Chrispy on February 07, 2010, 18:15:10
Only had a problem once with A4A, and it turned out to be a problem with the US-UK link as every other site that is based on a US server was also dead slow.

Some of the animated adds that google serve are a bit of a pain, if I have too, many pages open that have these my computer says it has enough and throws a wobbaly and grinds to a halt.
Title: Re: A4A problems
Post by: Uncle Joshua on February 07, 2010, 20:24:35
Isn't it something that happens on here from time to time? I'm sure I recall a few threads on this subject.