ASF Site Performance

pixel said:

Hello Joe,

I've just noticed an oddity that is most likely related to shortened lists:
Usually, I logon early in the morning and leave the ASF tab active all day. Works well - but - there seems to be a problem with your program's interpretation of "visiting". At shortly after 2pm local time, I find this text in the top notification row: "Welcome, pixel. You last visited: Today at 12:43 PM."
Not surprisingly, only "New posts" added to after 12:43 show in the list.

If I may hazard a guess, your program might have a timer that runs down for - guessing only - 30 minutes after my last keyboard or mouse action on its browser tab, then considers my "visit" ended. If that were the case, increasing the timer to 3 or 4 hours would help all those of us who feel we don't see enough posts.

Click to expand...

Hi Pixel,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Yes, the current user session timeout is set to 30 minutes. The problem I have with extending it to three or four hours is that it would give a very distorted impression of how many people are actually online at ASF. If I set to three hours, those who hadn't interacted with the forums for over two and a half hours would still be showing up in the list of "Currently Active Users" and would be considered online. Twenty or thirty minutes are usually the default user timeout time periods for this reason.

When this happens to me I just select the "Today's Posts" option in the "Quick Links" drop down menu and review recently updated threads to see if I have missed anything I want to read. I find that I now use both this and the "New Posts" feature to review recently posted content.

However, I am certainly open to suggestion, and compromise if there are others who feel that this is something that they'd like to see changed. If anyone else has an opinion one way or the other on the issue, please feel free to let me know by posting in this thread.

Joe Blow said:

Hi Pixel,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Yes, the current user session timeout is set to 30 minutes. The problem I have with extending it to three or four hours is that it would give a very distorted impression of how many people are actually online at ASF. If I set to three hours, those who hadn't interacted with the forums for over two and a half hours would still be showing up in the list of "Currently Active Users" and would be considered online. Twenty or thirty minutes are usually the default user timeout time periods for this reason.

When this happens to me I just select the "Today's Posts" option in the "Quick Links" drop down menu and review recently updated threads to see if I have missed anything I want to read. I find that I now use both this and the "New Posts" feature to review recently posted content.

However, I am certainly open to suggestion, and compromise if there are others who feel that this is something that they'd like to see changed. If anyone else has an opinion one way or the other on the issue, please feel free to let me know by posting in this thread.

Click to expand...

Thanks Joe,

yes, there are always ramifications: tweak a parameter for one reason, and you'll suffer side effects in another area. One way out of the predicament would be two timers: One for site stats, the other for content display. But that would probably require heaps of reprogramming: too much cost for too little benefit.

Of course, your suggested detour via Quick Links is a neat way around the problem. As it takes 2 clicks and has to be known to be used, it tends to be forgotten and underused.

PS to my last post:
Although I have selected "Ignore General Chat", the list of "Today's Posts" is still showing them.
That's been another reasons why I haven't been keen on the detour via quick links.

I often leave ASF open in my browser window. Perhaps this is why I often get no new posts when I come back to it. This would suggest that the web page is pulling info - perhaps advertising - via client side javascript. I'll start making sure I close any open windows when I finish my browsing session and see how I go.

G'day Joe,

Is it me, or has the home page shrunk from it's normal size. Seems to be that the lettering is smaller and the blue side columns are wider than usual. I know I'm getting older but hopefully not to the extent that I'm getting that forgetful ! Thanks, Bf

Buckfont said:

G'day Joe,

Is it me, or has the home page shrunk from it's normal size. Seems to be that the lettering is smaller and the blue side columns are wider than usual. I know I'm getting older but hopefully not to the extent that I'm getting that forgetful ! Thanks, Bf

Click to expand...

Hi BF, give this a try: Hold down the CTRL key and press "+".

Let me know if that works.

Joe Blow said:

Hi BF, give this a try: Hold down the CTRL key and press "+".

Let me know if that works.

Click to expand...

Presto Joe, worked a treat. I did give my keyboard a good clean all over this morning so must have pushed a few buttons at the same time to trigger the shrink. Glad to know I now won't have to go and see one! Thanks.

Buckfont said:

Presto Joe, worked a treat. I did give my keyboard a good clean all over this morning so must have pushed a few buttons at the same time to trigger the shrink. Glad to know I now won't have to go and see one! Thanks.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it worked!

My apologies to all for the delay in cleaning up the forex spam attack that occurred today. It was just very bad timing unfortunately. I was away from the PC this afternoon and the spammers hit very soon after I left.

Usually spam gets put into a moderation queue, but these guys were smart not to include links and it made it out into the open forum immediately.

Anyway, it has all been cleaned up now. Sorry that it took so long.

Joe Blow said:

My apologies to all for the delay in cleaning up the forex spam attack that occurred today. It was just very bad timing unfortunately. I was away from the PC this afternoon and the spammers hit very soon after I left.

Usually spam gets put into a moderation queue, but these guys were smart not to include links and it made it out into the open forum immediately.

Anyway, it has all been cleaned up now. Sorry that it took so long.

Click to expand...

Hi Joe,

don't feel bad about it; most of us would've had a good laugh, no harm done.
You certainly deserve a break - given the work you do, even more than everyone else.

So, thanks again and be assured that your effort is truly appreciated!

pixel said:

Hi Joe,

don't feel bad about it; most of us would've had a good laugh, no harm done.
You certainly deserve a break - given the work you do, even more than everyone else.

So, thanks again and be assured that your effort is truly appreciated!

Click to expand...

Pixel, thank you for the understanding and the kind words.

Unfortunately, spammers are relentless and they never stop. I'm usually pretty good at keeping them out but sometimes they manage to sneak in under the radar as they did today.

Significant page loading problems over the last few days. Becoming very frustrating. Back arrow going to "Problem loading page: try again later".
Multiple attempts to access threads by having to exit site, log in again.

Cannot now edit last post. I wanted to post example of what I'm getting. Herewith:

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About ten attempts to access threads in the usual way now. Might as well give up.
No problems at all on any other site.

Julia, sorry to hear that ASF is causing you problems.

Is anyone else experiencing ASF site performance issues that are similar to what Julia is describing?

Everything seems fine from my end. Am happy to investigate further if others are also having problems.

Joe it has just taken me nine attempts to access your post. Unable to get there via my usual means of Quick Links/Today's Posts, finally succeeded instead via "New Posts".

It's very annoying. Are you only going to investigate if I'm not the only one having difficulty?

Julia said:

It's very annoying. Are you only going to investigate if I'm not the only one having difficulty?

Click to expand...

With site performance issues it's often hard to tell if it's an isolated issue or more widespread. If it's isolated, there's usually nothing I can do. In those cases it's usually ISP or PC related.

ASF is actually quite fast for me tonight, but I'm on Optus Cable and not far from the Brisbane CBD. If others are experiencing problems similar to yours it helps to know so I can get a sense of how widespread the problem is.

Sometimes these site performance issues can be traced to particular ISP, or geographical area. In other instances it is server related. However, it always helps to have confirmation that more than one person is experiencing issues.

Julia said:

Joe it has just taken me nine attempts to access your post. Unable to get there via my usual means of Quick Links/Today's Posts, finally succeeded instead via "New Posts".

It's very annoying. Are you only going to investigate if I'm not the only one having difficulty?

Click to expand...

Hi Julia,

if nobody else has the problem, it's most likely a corruption in your web browser.
Firstly we'd need to know what browser you're using: if it's MS Internet Explorer, which version, when installed, etc. With Firefox or Chrome, many of IE's problems simply don't exist.
We'd also need to know the operating system - Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, ... ?

Sometimes, only the cache of a single web page may be corrupted; then only that website will display the chaotic behaviour that you describe. In such a case, it may suffice to clear the history; in the latest Firefox version, you find that under the option "History". In IE, it would be something similar. When done, shut down your computer and see whether it's OK after restart.
Otherwise, it's quite possible that you caught a virus that gobbles up all resources. But if other websites perform OK, that's less likely.

I use Firefox. I have had absolutely no problem with any other site.
ASF is OK today.

Julia said:

I use Firefox. I have had absolutely no problem with any other site.
ASF is OK today.

Click to expand...

What OS are you running, Win 7? 8? Is firefox up to date? Have you tried another browser, like Chrome, to see if you still get the same problem?

All is OK today, as I've already said. If it was my OS, Ff updates or anything like that, presumably I'd be having difficulty with other sites as well.