Why does SDMB react this way on my computer?

About This Message Board
1

This has happened before on Windows 7 and Firefox, and now on Windows 8 and IE.

Often I click on a link to a forum or a thread, and the message* says “waiting for Straight…” and it can sit there for several minutes just cycling (I never have the patience to sit and wait for this part to end). When I click the same link again it immediately moves from “waiting for” to “Straight Dope Message Board.” Usually the link will then open right away; sometimes I have to click a 3rd time because it is taking too long (i.e. more than a few seconds).

Does this happen to other people, or is it just me? Is there some setting I can change to fix this - especially the getting stuck on “waiting for”?

*I am talking about what it says at the top of the tab, while the little circle is going around and around (and around and around…).

2

It routinely happens to me, too, at least a couple times daily.

3

I have the same problem. It’s really been a lot worse in the last few weeks.

4

I’ll bet it’s the SDMB servers. The poor hamsters are tired out.

Seriously, the behaviors you describe (and I’ve seen too) can be the servers lagging or having problems responding to the web page request (e.g., database issue), or maybe communications/network issues in the network vicinity of SDMB’s servers.

It could also be all of us clients, but Occam’s Razor suggests a singular common problem source rather than dozens of independent problem sources firing simultaneously. That singular common problem source would be the SDMB hardware/software/network.

That correlates well with other server-level misbehaviors, such as spontaneously failing searches, resetting of last-visit and last-read time stamps, etc.

ETA: I have been, but currently am not, a professional system administrator. More specifically, I am not SDMB’s system administrator, so everything I’ve said is speculative based on externally-observed phenomena. YMMV. Void where taxed, licensed, or prohibited by law.

5

So Shakes has a proposal in his thread to fix this at the server level, what he calls a buffering problem. Interesting.

6

The proposal seems to be to collect money so they can upgrade from a 286 machine.

I have the same problem at work and at home, and I stop the load and reload fairly quickly if it appears hung. It usually works.
I’ve noticed that sometimes when I submit a post it hangs also. Usually the post has gotten submitted and the hanging is after the post has been added to the db. (Hit back and re-click and you get a duplicate post message.) That makes me think the hangup is having the page constructed and rendered from the db. But I have no direct experience with vBulletin.

7

If I get a lag I click the link a few more times, and that seems to do the trick. It “feels” like an ad that won’t load that’s causing the holdup, so multiple clicks gets you to something that will load.

And I run AdBlock too, fwiw.

8

Aren’t antiques usually more expensive? :smiley:

9

Ref **gnoitall **in post #4: “Also, William of Ockham had a razor, not a tazor.”

Occam’s tazor might be a more effective tool to use on CTers and other types fond of overly complex explanations.

I vote this as a new Board meme.

10

Same thing. Long pauses. Sometimes, hitting a key or link twice works. Sometimes not.

This seems a lot worse in Firefox than in IE.

11

Same problem. Much worse recently. Sometimes re-loading works. Sometimes I get scolded for submitting a request too soon. Try again in 60 seconds.

12

In the above-linked thread, Ed has said he has asked Jerry to take a look at this problem, and that fixing it is not a matter of lack of funds. Or something like that. So stay tuned for further developments.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled … scheduled … scheduled … scheduled … oh hell! ::click:: regularly scheduled program.

13

Happens all the time.

14

It’s not the ads. I think the poor hamsters are either dead or severely disabled at this point.

15

Per Ed in the other thread, the SD has migrated from private servers to hosting on a commercial server farm some time ago. So that shouldn’t be the issue.

crazyhorse has commented that there are a large number of trackers connected with the site. He suggests users run Ghostery, an application that blocks trackers.

I’ve installed it, and it appears to be working. Haven’t posted that much today, but don’t appear to be getting the hangups that otherwise frequent the experience.

16

After some hesitation, I installed Ghostery, and disabled all trackers for SDMB. Opening forums and threads is much faster now, although there is still the occasional “waiting for…” slowness.

17

I was going to mention earlier that these are two separate problems. I haven’t allowed the trackers in a long, long time. You don’t have to use Ghostery–there are adblock lists that do the same thing, like EasyPrivacy. That way you only need one extension.

I’m trying out µBlock right now, to see if I can lower the memory and CPU requirements even more (AdblockPlus has a huge memory leak due to how Firefox handles CSS). It automatically included EasyPrivacy–but that may have been because it imported my AdblockPlus settings.

18

Many thanks for that µBlock link. Just installed it and I’m impressed. (And EasyPrivacy is indeed included.)