Animated ads slowing this place down?

[Frustrated Father]

Well, I thought about putting this is the feedback/bugs list forum but it seems half the time no one reads that or gets a reply (it could be in private PM\'s but it doesn\'t read that way from the people screaming in there).

Anyhow, is it me or are the animated ads slowing the hell out of this site? I\'m all for ads and even simple ones without too much animation, but every time that Adikens one comes up, EVERYTHING slows down, it takes bit to move on to next mini, post to the forum .. etc.

Seems like the animated ads might be more of a hindrence to this site. Is it possible to make them simply static or low key animation?

Better yet, for those of us that subscribe to this place, is it possible to TURN OFF the ads or the EBAY list on the left? I\'ve gotten to where I can ignore them, but I do think it would speed up load times for when I\'m cruising through miniatures and voting.

Just a thought.

 

[Shadzar]

i can tell you how to prevent them from showing, but i dont think borg would like that.

anythime i go to a site with adds i just block them by hand on my computer.

i think ads should NEVER be animated, as they are taking up bandwidth and abusing the viewer. you can say all you need to in a static image. if i like what i see then i WILL click it, if not i wont. and i personally HATE dynamic ads.

but in the long run, yes animated ads ARE slowing down CMoN like everywhere else. cause the ad providers could care less about the viewers. and god help those people behind 56k connections when shockwave ads start running.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I ran a thread a while ago about CMON load speed and the concensis seemed to be (I have found this to be true) was the time of day made all the difference speed wise. That\'s not to argue that animations dont slow things down, I have no doubt they do. There just may be more to it. Earlier today (12 noon) the web was almost unsuable things were so slow. Right now (6pm) things are popping right along.

 

[borg]

I was not even aware of the fact that we have an ad from adiken... as far as in house ads, we are very careful as to the file size of the ads. As far as banners directly given by advertisers, we have little control over how big they are. Maybe what we will do in the future is to have a max file size for these things. Thank you for putting it to our attention.

Also the traffic of the site is ever increasing. Every little thing slows down the site, ie, sig files in forum, avatars, voting... etc... we are looking into the speeding thing up as we speak.

 

[provoke_me]

thats odd

for me its the adds that load the fastest. is my computer weird?

 

[Shadzar]

Originally posted by borg
I was not even aware of the fact that we have an ad from adiken... as far as in house ads, we are very careful as to the file size of the ads. As far as banners directly given by advertisers, we have little control over how big they are. Maybe what we will do in the future is to have a max file size for these things. Thank you for putting it to our attention.

Also the traffic of the site is ever increasing. Every little thing slows down the site, ie, sig files in forum, avatars, voting... etc... we are looking into the speeding thing up as we speak.

*bows* we\'re not worthy. we\'re not worthy.

i love seeing an admin that actually cares about its users in relation to conn speeds. i know you gotta get paid to run the site, but if users cant see the ads it dont help, and some of the advertisers dont seem to understand that.

(on a side note i tried PMing you about my article #334 i re-submitted after fixing the images, but it wouldnt let me. if you have time to re-check and aprrove/disapprove it whicever, thanks.)

 

[ZeCorto]

FF, you might want to check on your browser settings if you are caching the images or not. This is an option you can turn on so that the recurrent images (like ads) are only loaded once, then saved locally. That way you will not get slowed down by ads except the very first time you see them.
I hope this helps

 

[Wolf_Fang]

i havnt really noticed..... it seems this site always went slow for me... eny way (rather ironic i think) the ad for adiken poped up when i entered this thread and when i replied lol... altho things to b quite honest didnt slow down ???

 

[Frustrated Father]

Thanks for taking the time to reply (everyone). I look forward to the possiblity of the sizes being limited, I think that would help things out greatly.

I don\'t mind ads generally, I think most of us actually have trained ourselves to not even see them since the internet is so overrun with them, though I certainly notice(d) when everything slows to a crawl.

Thanks Borg.

 

[Klute]

I think banners in sig files should be restricted too.
Ive recently added my website banner to mine and at first it was twice the size so I halved it.I still think its bigger than needed and will likely reduce it more.
Some stuff in sig files is huge.
It doesn\'t bither me much as in loading times cos Im on Broadband now but the way I view the site is suffering.

For all you lot not wanting the full adds then subscribe.Its not that much you know.

 

[Frustrated Father]

Yup, actually I cut my sig file in half yesterday after Borg\'s reply as it got me thinking - much more managable I think.

As for getting rid of the ads, can you do that? I\'m subscribed and I still see the ads up top there. Keep in mind, I subscribed almost as soon as I got on here so I don\'t really remember if there are other ads that I\'m \'missing\' out on.

 

[E-Arkham]

If you\'re using Firefox, you can easily block ads with the Adblock plugin. I\'m not entirely sure if this actually stops the code from executing or merely hides it, but it sure is nice all the same.

Ironically enough, I don\'t block the banner ads at CMON, though I block them just about everywhere else. Sometimes I like to click on MicroArt or other sites that advertise just to see what new stuff they\'ve got.

Kep

 

[borg]

Couple of things:

I do see the adiken banner now, I will contact them to have it changed. Rather crazy to have such a big banner, should have made it flash or something, not in .gif format....

Yes, the forum is pretty active, so each time you load your avatar or your sig file, it adds up. At one point I was going to disable sigs, not sure why I gave in, so use your sig files responsibly, especially for those of you that are prolific posters. Because everytime people come check the thread, your sig file will load multiple times.

If your image is reported or updated, it will be in cue with the new images, which are normally approved about twice a day except weekends.

 

[Klute]

@FF I think I was meaning the initial ad page that pops up not the smaller ads.Heads a bit fuzzy at the moment.

I am going to reduce my website banner link further,it doesnt need to be that size.Maybe others will follow.I dont mind a normal size its just some are huge.Ooo er missus.

 

[borg]

Adiken banner has been deactivated and they will be notified to provide a more user friendly version. Hopefully that will speed up your load time.

Thank you again for the heads up.

 

[Frustrated Father]

No problem. Didn\'t want to sound like I was bellyaching (I was, but that\'s besides the point!).

Well, I for one have cut my .sig down and will try and keep it so.

Thanks for taking care of the banner issue.

 

[borg]

Not at all. There will always be issues with a site with such high traffic and graphic intensity, some are easy fixes and I am more than happy to do them. Others require a little more techical expertise and I have to defer to others. So don\'t get spoiled, damn it lol

 

[finn17]

I do find it kind of odd....

That folk with huge graphic sigs can summon the nerve to complain about other things that slow down the site...

You may have reduced it FF, but it is still a drain on site resources that serves no useful purpose other than to advertise your presence.

It\'s not against the rules, but makes you look a bit of a \'dipstick\' as far as I am concerned

And that goes for everyone else with huge egocentric banner sigs......In my own, humble and personal opinion, of course...

 

[Legacy Account]

...no idea what you\'re on about old bean....

 

[finn17]

Yours is tiny.....in comparison...LOL

Plus, you are a paying advertiser marketing a product. (Nice ad in Harbinger by the way )

If your sig just said \'SpaceMunkie\' in a hugely graphical way, I\'d think you were a dipstick as well:flip: