# Remember the days when we'd watch an Internet site load one line at a time? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087 "2012-01-20T02:10:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/1 "2012-01-20T02:10:42Z")
We’re pretty much there again. I go to places like CNN, or Yahoo, or MSN, and bingo!, the first paragraph and a half of the news story is right there. Good, I start reading. Oh, the ads are still loading. Well, this ad server must be fucked; it’s taking forever. There, it’s done. I manage to click at just the right time, and get another two sentences of the story before the next stalled out ad server kicks in. And when all the ads are done? Facebook and Twitter links take their turns. Then I manage to click down to an entire page of text, and the popup ad takes over. It seems that Internet sites are _encouraging_ me to block their ads and links. I fully understand where the money comes from for them, and I have no objection in general to those ads and links. But for Pete’s sake, if I have to sit there and wait for 5 minutes or more until all the extraeneous sites have kicked in their part before I can read your article, your ads and links won’t do you any fucking good, 'cause I’ll be elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/2 "2012-01-20T02:16:10Z")
Websites have ads? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/3 "2012-01-20T02:17:54Z")
I am having the same reaction to sites that post articles in the form of a slideshow, or divide up the content into 19 pages that all have a single paragraph of text each. It’s a crappy way to generate more ad views, and it’s annoying as shit. If I load a page that is set up that way, I just close the tab. I’m not rewarding this behavior anymore. I don’t care how interesting the article sounded. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/4 "2012-01-20T03:00:14Z")
Between AdBlock and NoScript, It’s not a problem at all 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/5 "2012-01-20T03:03:37Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Websites have ads? > [@saje](#): > > Between AdBlock and NoScript, It’s not a problem at all 🙂 I did not, perhaps, make it clear in my OP that I have no problem with websites loading ads and links; my problem is that they take forever to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/6 "2012-01-20T03:36:07Z")
I hear and agree. There was a brief period in, oh say about 2007, when DSL became common but bandwidth-wasting ads had not. It was nice. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/7 "2012-01-20T04:44:37Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I am having the same reaction to sites that post articles in the form of a slideshow, or divide up the content into 19 pages that all have a single paragraph of text each. It’s a crappy way to generate more ad views, and it’s annoying as shit. If I load a page that is set up that way, I just close the tab. I’m not rewarding this behavior anymore. I don’t care how interesting the article sounded. Yep. I don’t mind ads in general, but if a website is designed in such a way that clicking Next for the next slide means the whole goddamned page reloads, then I exit the site and never return. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/8 "2012-01-20T05:04:08Z")
I remember being angered when they added pictures to the internet, which tremendously slowed down loading over 300 baud modems. Now, though… THEY CAN TEAR MY MY INTERNET PORN PICS OUT OF MY COLD DEAD LUBRICATED HANDS! ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/9 "2012-01-20T05:44:56Z")
Porn keeps your hand soft and young-looking… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/10 "2012-01-20T13:51:37Z")
Even after you’re dead? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/11 "2012-01-20T14:26:46Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > It seems that Internet sites are _encouraging_ me to block their ads and links. I agree. For years I’ve heard about AdBlock (here and elsewhere) but never really considered it necessary. It was those websites that have so many ads they freeze my computer that convinced me to install it. Kinda like how I’m tempted to make illegal copies of DVDs so I can watch them without being forced to sit through all the trailers and disclaimers and anti-piracy warnings. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/12 "2012-01-20T14:29:24Z")
Try a text browser like [Lynx.](http://lynx.browser.org/) Sure, you don’t get the eye candy, but it eliminates the vast majority of ads and loads faster than a speeding bullet. It can also leap tall buildings with a single bound. [ELinks](http://elinks.cz/) is pretty snazzy, too. Why bother with a text browser? Well, here’s what the Elinks website has to say about that: > [@](#): > > It may seem strange that anyone would develop a text mode browser in a world where the power of computers keep improving and most people favor graphical applications. Most graphical browsers are slow (especially to start up) and eat a lot of memory. For some people, this is unacceptable, so avoiding these browsers to harvest your critical system resources when doing basic tasks on the net is one thing. Text browsers are also invaluable on servers without a graphical environment and over SSH (or similiar) text-only sessions. Besides, text mode browsing is fun and highly addictive when you get the hang of it. 😉 > > And if you think that the current web is unbrowsable without images, you are wrong. 75% of the actual sites you visit are perfectly browsable (especially with the tables support) and another 15% are not exactly pleasant but still well-viewable. And even in text browser you can easily view individual images through some external viewer (like zgv on Linux console). Some people are actually using ELinks as their exclusive browser. However, you obviously do not need to be so extreme to still have many good practical uses for a text browser. It’s certainly not a perfect solution, but there have been plenty of times when my connection has slowed to such a crawl that Lynx was a very viable alternative. It’s especially useful if you ony have dialup and and an old computer. Plus, you get that warm, nostalgic feeling for the good old days of 1 Mb memory and 20 Mb hard drives before graphical browsers took over! Give it a try and see if it works for you. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/13 "2012-01-20T14:50:44Z")
Eh, quitcherbitchin. You’re obviously browsing the wrong sites. Have yourself a fun time looking at quick loading sites, like those for restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/14 "2012-01-20T15:52:10Z")
You will love Ghostery [http://www.ghostery.com/](http://www.ghostery.com/) ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/15 "2012-01-20T17:01:02Z")
Earlier yesterday I was thinking exactly what the OP posted when I tried a Wall Street Journal link from Google News. It was excruciatingly slow with the scripting and ‘rich content’. I made a mental note not to bother trying to load anything from WSJ again. Just for fun, though, I just went back and loaded a page from WSJ. I am running a Lenovo T400 with 2GB RAM Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz, and IE 7 (which could be the problem). I am at work and performed a Speedtest which came back with 93Mbps down/48Mbps up. It took **2 minutes** to load [this page](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171050876619534.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) thanks to the ‘rich content’ (and ads). The text was visible almost immediately, but I couldn’t scroll due to all the content still loading. It even locked up my ability to switch between tabs in the browser. Well, they have a lot of content embedded in the site tabs for that page, they must be loading it in the background so that the rest of the experience is seamless…not! It took 90 seconds to switch to the Interactive tab. And even just scrolling lags \*\*after \*\*everything is loaded. Hello, text browsers! How YOU doin’? ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/16 "2012-01-20T17:08:23Z")
> [@cantara](#): > > It took **2 minutes** to load [this page](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171050876619534.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) thanks to the ‘rich content’ (and ads). Yes, Ghostery reports no less than 13 ad servers and other crap on that page. (With Ghostery blocking them, it loads with no delay.) ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/17 "2012-01-20T17:27:45Z")
> [@splatterpunk](#): > > Yep. I don’t mind ads in general, but if a website is designed in such a way that clicking Next for the next slide means the whole goddamned page reloads, then I exit the site and never return. I don’t mind the ads in general, but I don’t like the page hanging on one of the ad servers. I also don’t like ads that pop over the content. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/18 "2012-01-20T17:40:59Z")
> [@cantara](#): > > It took **2 minutes** to load [this page](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171050876619534.html?mod=googlenews_wsj) thanks to the ‘rich content’ (and ads). > > The text was visible almost immediately, but I couldn’t scroll due to all the content still loading. It even locked up my ability to switch between tabs in the browser. Maybe your speed isn’t what you think or the site was overloaded. It took me less than 5 seconds to completely load (cable, 25Mb down but limited severely by an old router and heavy LAN traffic). What bugs me are the ads that pop up before the content you wanted. Since I keep my sound off most of the time, I don’t hear them, but if they persist in displaying for more than 5 seconds, I will rarely visit that site again. Forbes is especially bad for this. I don’t like popup blockers, because the few times I’ve tried them, they blocked some of the stuff I want as well. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/19 "2012-01-20T18:51:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Kinda like how I’m tempted to make illegal copies of DVDs so I can watch them without being forced to sit through all the trailers and disclaimers and anti-piracy warnings. Indeed. I realize this is a hijack, but that was one great advantage of VHS over DVDs: they couldn’t make you watch all that junk. It irritates me that, no matter how long you’ve owned a DVD, and no matter how many times you’ve watched it (a LOT, if you have small kids who like watching the same thing over and over again), you’re always going to have to sit through the anti-piracy warnings _one more damned time_ the next time you pop the DVD into the player. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087/20 "2012-01-21T00:06:20Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …you’re always going to have to sit through the anti-piracy warnings _one more damned time_ the next time you pop the DVD into the player. And yet, ironically, with pirated DVDs you never see those. I think their plan is severely flawed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-the-days-when-wed-watch-an-internet-site-load-one-line-at-a-time/610087.md?page=2)