Faster loading of threads?

[felonybob]

Hello. This is my first post and I beg forgiveness for asking a question that may have an answer somewhere obvious. I looked through the FAQ's and didn't see anything there.

The thread indexes seem to load fast enough, but going to the individual threads seems pretty slow. So I wondered if there was some option I could choose that made for faster loading of the individual threads.

Apologies, again. And hello everybody.

[xouper]

I'm going to guess that maybe it has something to do with your location.

Alaska
The threads on this forum are extremely reluctant to go where it's rilly rilly cold and may require some additional coaxing. I think there's a setting in your browser for that, but I forget where.


:welcome4: to the forum.

[livius drusus]

Don't you listen to that xouper, felonybob. He's a bad seed. A bad seed, I tells ya.

I find the threads load slowly at times too, so you might just be experiencing server load. What operating system and browser are you using, if I may ask?

Welcome to FF. :welcome2:

[SharonDee]

FWIW, I have the same problem, usually in the morning. I get my search page quickly enough but clicking on the "newest post" button causes the thing to churn and thrash a while before giving me what I want!

*cough* Excuse me. Went off a bit there. Anyway, I'm running Winders XP Pro and my browser is Firefox 1.0.1.

(Also, :welcome: to felonybob )

[Ex-zombie]

Pages loading slowly eh? Sounds like something vm is responsible for.

Welcome to the madness, felonybob.

[viscousmemories]

Is there anything I'm not responsible for?

You might find threads load more quickly if you disable signatures, avatars, images, and other graphics under Member Options --> Edit Options. Beyond that just about all you can do is wait for future optimization of the server.

:welcome: to the FF, felonybob.

[Sauron]

Is there anything I'm not responsible for?

Dunno.

<checks list>
...
...
...


Nope. You're responsible for everything. Even tooth decay.
:whup: :wave:

[felonybob]

Thank you everyone. I have a dial-up server because there is no alternative where I live out in the woods. I am using explorer and I have several different computers here on various windows systems.

I disabled signatures and Avitars but left in images - although I understand that this is going to slow things for me. But people are responding to me with images and it seems a part of their message so I'll not ignore that. Instead, I'll just be an arrogant jerk in my replies.

I may post a little bit about me in one of the topical threads, as I think it has some valuable social policy implications.

[livius drusus]

Thank you everyone. I have a dial-up server because there is no alternative where I live out in the woods. I am using explorer and I have several different computers here on various windows systems.

Sauron's questions here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2040) reminded me that the Users viewing this thread option adds to the server load and can cause threads to open sluggishly. I have therefore gone ahead and disabled that option, activating instead the Users viewing this forum option.

I don't know if this will help you given the bane that is dialup, but it certainly can't hurt.

But people are responding to me with images and it seems a part of their message so I'll not ignore that. Instead, I'll just be an arrogant jerk in my replies.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, felonybob. As far as I know, you have only posted twice on this forum, here in this very thread, and nobody has responded to you with images. :pardon?:

I may post a little bit about me in one of the topical threads, as I think it has some valuable social policy implications.

I'm looking forward to it. :yup:

[SharonDee]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, felonybob. ...nobody has responded to you with images. Might he be speaking of the smilies?

[livius drusus]

Might he be speaking of the smilies?
Oh dear gods NO!

Okay... Breathing... Calming down.

felonybob, if you were indeed referring to the little round expressive guys people have posted to you, those aren't images per se; they're simlies, and you can easily disable them in your User CP as well.

Why would you be an arrogant jerk in reply to someone who posted something they thought was cheery or adding some emotional expression to a flat medium?

[felonybob]

I don't know if this will help you given the bane that is dialup, but it certainly can't hurt.


Thank you very much l.d. I also discovered in the meantime that in VM's introduction thread he mentioned disabling things. And he even assisted me without smacking me down for not seeing it.




I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, felonybob. As far as I know, you have only posted twice on this forum, here in this very thread, and nobody has responded to you with images.

Oh yea, as S.D. mentioned I thought the smileys qualified as images.

About being an arrogant jerk - poor attemt at humor I guess. I have not established any reputation yet so nobody would know I was kidding and I didn't use one of these smileys.

Thanks again to everybody.

[livius drusus]

Phew... I'm relieved. <insert smile here> Please call me livius or liv. No need to stand on ceremony.

There are two separate fields in your User CP: one right underneath the "Show avatars" and "Show sigs" options which when unchecked disables embedded images -- usually big pictures in the post itself or created as an attachment -- and one right before you get to the Date & Time options which turns off smilies in posts.

Most smileys are very small and don't stress out dialup very much. Images, on the other hand, can be real drains on a slow connection. If I were you, I'd uncheck "Show images" and leave the smilies enabled.

I hope that helps. :)