Optimize the Webpage Code, Please

Where do you live? I get a really snappy response from the site but I'd love to still make the site *much* leaner. I'd love to drop advertising banners if possible (at least in the header) and see if this is at all viable. I think the next design I explore will be similar in look to this but I'm going to shoot for compactness as much as possible.

Hi, Michael

I really appreciate this site and community. I want to do my little part to improve it any way that I can.


Well, Michael, here's the thing: No matter what computer or IP that I use, it is about the same - gamedev by far the slowest to load. I live in Southwest Michigan and travel this region, getting the same sluggish loading of gamedev everywhere I go. Some of the IPs are broadband high speed. When I check the connection status, the streaming capacity has plenty of room to spare. Other huge forum websites load quickly and reliably.

I would prefer to not feel obliged to write this, but I have skipped taking actions or even logging into the sight because of the wait. In this busy life of mine like most people, minutes are precious.

For these reasons, I feel that it would be a huge cumulative service to the community, gamedev commerce, and public if such advances could be made to make the website page loading faster. It would free more time for all the above mentioned - good for all of us. Over the coming years, one could perhaps consider faster loading as a kind of compound interest toward, um, website synergy.

As a former administrator of a busy website for over 2 years in the past, I realized the advantages of a competitive loading time.


Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi, Michael

I really appreciate this site and community. I want to do my little part to improve it any way that I can.


Well, Michael, here's the thing: No matter what computer or IP that I use, it is about the same - gamedev by far the slowest to load. I live in Southwest Michigan and travel this region, getting the same sluggish loading of gamedev everywhere I go. Some of the IPs are broadband high speed. When I check the connection status, the streaming capacity has plenty of room to spare. Other huge forum websites load quickly and reliably.

I would prefer to not feel obliged to write this, but I have skipped taking actions or even logging into the sight because of the wait. In this busy life of mine like most people, minutes are precious.

For these reasons, I feel that it would be a huge cumulative service to the community, gamedev commerce, and public if such advances could be made to make the website page loading faster. It would free more time for all the above mentioned - good for all of us. Over the coming years, one could perhaps consider faster loading as a kind of compound interest toward, um, website synergy.

As a former administrator of a busy website for over 2 years in the past, I realized the advantages of a competitive loading time.


Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.

Thanks,

Clinton

just out of curiosity what is the load time?

for me, a fresh download with a cleared cache of gamedev, takes ~7 seconds to load the forum, and ~2-3 with the cached css/html pages.

It sometimes doesn't load at all, but almost always takes far more than 7 seconds, minutes once in a while, but the typical 30 - 60 seconds is far too long. Other forum websites always take a fraction of the time.


Clinton

Somewhere I read that different ads load faster if placed left to right instead of stacked top to bottom. Another consideration would be to remove the links in the header all together and have them load separately in their own board, being that different types of functions in the same block can cause delays (thread switching? memory switching?). Maybe the page is too long? How about shortening the number of entries in each section, such as the Interesting Topics and those below. One might be surprised how few people scroll far down.
[/quote]
Don't guess - use the developer tools in your browser to examine the load times. The feedback will help the staff pinpoint exactly what is causing you problems.


For example, the home page takes 7.31 seconds without caching (from Ireland). The notable events are:

• About 3 seconds for the main page to be returned
  
• Concurrently:
  
  
  
  • 404 for http://public.gamedev.net/public/ipc_blocks/compiled.css (doesn't take long, just interesting)
    
  • 404 for and http://www.gamedev.net/public/ipc_blocks/compiled.js which takes ~2.7 seconds.
    
    
  • Concurrently:
    
    
    
    • http://public.gamedev5.net/images/footer_gradient.png takes .9 of a second
      
    • http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?... takes .9 of a second
      
      
      All the other requests are relatively small so nothing obviously amiss.
      
      Trying a couple of more times I'm getting different results, I don't see a consistent issue on my end. Alexa reports that 78% of sites are faster than GD.net, and it is clocking us at 2.409 seconds for load.

New Zealand here, I'm reaching the site in ~250ms, and a cached load of my content takes on average 2.8 seconds. Cached load of home takes 4.1 seconds. Without caching, my content takes 6.6 seconds and home takes 7.5 seconds. Did you try investigating which request exactly is slowing you down?

Today all is well! That's very strange!

I might have to get back with you guys.



Clinton

I am surprised. My laptop is what I use most of the time. The wifi service which I have been getting at many locations, because I do much traveling, is much worse than I thought.

One of my regular wifi spots has much better internet service and I can load the gamedev website in normal times there. It is still slower than everything else, but I can live with 5 to 10 seconds. This does show me that gamedev is loading slowing than all the other sites which I visit. Having a good internet service is better for business, it seems, so I hope that more places realize this.


Thanks for the feedback,

Clinton

Testing something.. Renabling part of a previously disabled caching layer to see if things improve.

Test 3

Michael,

I am happy to let you know that there seems to be a noticeable improvement in general and a substantial one at the Wifi locations with poor Internet service. In a world where moments can mean the difference toward a major contributor for gamedev future or such person going elsewhere, this is important. I actually abandoned a website recently where I wanted to be involved but the loading was terrible through some Wifi locations, often page loading failure while other websites were tolerable. The gamedev website now has a competitive load time compared with all other websites, previously the worst by far and sometimes would not load at all - now quite good!

For myself and on behalf of thousands of gamedev viewers in the future, thank you! It is like a well lubricated machine now!


Clinton

Michael has been working on this, for reference my full (uncached) load times of the home page are about 30% to 40% faster, though it remains highly variable.

Michael,

I have a special request: May we have any window notifications which appear from the website stay a few moments longer before disappearing? Often I get such a window but I am very focused on something important at the moment so I can not look immediately. By the time I find an opening to look and read the notification, it is usually gone or in the process of disappearing. I feel that a few moments longer to linger on the screen would avoid some disappointment by members of gamedev. "Hey! I didn't have a chance to read that and it is gone!" - kind of thing.

Speaking to the leadership in general here, if you want to achieve true excellence at gamedev, then I am one of those who will hold you to it.


Clinton