Website almost un-usable most days lately - Is it the advertising?

[StephenWagner7]

For the last couple months I've been noticing the site is almost unviewable or usable 50-90% of the time. I could be wrong but it might be the advertisements? I noticed it usually happens when there's video ads on the side.

Example, this week I've tried viewing the site at least 14 times. 12 of those times I ended up just closing the window and leaving because I couldn't scroll (jolty), it locks up my entire browser (occurs on IE, Edge, and Firefox).

Even typing this thread, there's a massive delay with the keys following me actually typing. Occurs on desktop, Lenovo X1 carbon, and Surface Pro...

Am I the only person that this is happening to?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

For the last couple months I've been noticing the site is almost unviewable or usable 50-90% of the time. I could be wrong but it might be the advertisements? I noticed it usually happens when there's video ads on the side.

Example, this week I've tried viewing the site at least 14 times. 12 of those times I ended up just closing the window and leaving because I couldn't scroll (jolty), it locks up my entire browser (occurs on IE, Edge, and Firefox).

Even typing this thread, there's a massive delay with the keys following me actually typing. Occurs on desktop, Lenovo X1 carbon, and Surface Pro...

Am I the only person that this is happening to?

Are your browsers updated? especially firefox. You could also use an ad blocker though the website owners might not like that

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

It's very annoying. I understand the need for ads on a website, but the experience causes me to close the browser way before I even think about clicking on an ad. Pretty much defeats the purpose of having ads in the first place.

 

[tgp]

This issues comes up in the forum every so often. Have you read the other threads? In short, you need an ad blocker of some kind. The system you're using, as in OS or browser version, doesn't make much difference. You must use an ad blocker!

This is a bit more difficult if you use Edge. You need to install a host file, but that can cause issues in other areas. The best way is to use a browser that supports ad blockers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.

 

[Steve Adams]

It is the bombardment of advertising on this site. I started using edge and just gave up on it. I use IE 11 with ad blocking and the website is fast and smooth, no ads are visible and makes WC life much nicer.

 

[jeffchapik]

I only come here with Tapatalk on my phone. It's not worth it otherwise. I can't believe they let the ads overrun this site as badly as they do. It's ridiculous.

 

[AV2RY]

Lately? I was never able to use this site, I just give up. Its worse on my phone, IE and UC browser just crash before it loads

Android Central is better actually

 

[StephenWagner7]

Are your browsers updated? especially firefox. You could also use an ad blocker though the website owners might not like that

Everything is up to date...

Even coming back to check on replies on this thread is extremely painful.

I wonder how many new visitors are coming, only to immediately close the site because it's locking up their browsers.

I'm all for advertisements and sites creating revenue... But they gotta get rid of this video ads and whatever else is bogging down the browsers.

 

[Steve Adams]

They also have to ditch pop up ads. That's brutal. I am glad my IE has full ad blocking.

 

[StephenWagner7]

I think I'm done!

Yesterday couldn't even view the the site! Today, I was able to read the first 4 captions on the main page (while the page loaded all the Ads), until it became unresponsive and froze Firefox.

Even typing in this thread right now, massive lag with characters catching up with typing because of these ads.

Maybe some day they'll get this sorted out, hopefully before they lose too many regulars.

(On a side note, I don't care about ads, I know some sites need them to stay online, but c'mon, they shouldn't be killing the browsers of viewers and freezing them up).

 

[James Falconer]

@StephenWagner7 - really saddened to hear this! Would you mind letting me know more specifics about the browser(s) you're using? Anything else you can run, (if you're able to pull diagnostics for example) would be extremely helpful.

We do realize there can be problems viewing the site on PC (edge in particular seems to be really bad), but we can't fix the problems if we can't reproduce in the first place

Really appreciate the feedback and honesty from your side. Hope you'll stick with us.

 

[MatsuDano]

James, is there a specific log file or event in event viewer that would be most helpful? There are a lot of threads now with individuals expressing less than satisfactory browsing experiences and I find it hard to believe that there aren't targeted logs you want to see or that you can't recreate the problem.

Show me an example of what you want to see and I'd be happy to help.

 

[PepperdotNet]

Seems usable finally in Edge... on 14342 with Adblock extension installed that is.

 

[StephenWagner7]

@StephenWagner7 - really saddened to hear this! Would you mind letting me know more specifics about the browser(s) you're using? Anything else you can run, (if you're able to pull diagnostics for example) would be extremely helpful.

We do realize there can be problems viewing the site on PC (edge in particular seems to be really bad), but we can't fix the problems if we can't reproduce in the first place

Really appreciate the feedback and honesty from your side. Hope you'll stick with us.

I normally use Firefox, however the issue occurs both on Edge, IE, and firefox.

It occurs on all my systems (custom built system considered higher performance, Lenovo X1 Carbon latest gen with SSD, Surface, etc...). Also, I just want to state that all systems are clean with absolutely no 3rd party software except for Java, Flash, Adobe reader, and a few other 3rd party applications used for IT stuff (vSphere client, MS Office, etc...). Literally there's nothing on these systems that could be contributing to the issue.

I hate complaining, but I'm literally not joking when I say that it causes Firefox to completely lock up sometimes, other time's becomes non-responsive for 3-5 seconds at a time. There's been times where the site will freeze scrolling for over 10-15 seconds.

Also, even commenting or posting on the forums causes issues where keystrokes are ignored. When I posted my last post above, I can't tell you how many times I had to go back and retype letters, or entire words since they were skipped.

Again, I hate complaining, and I have absolutely NO issues with advertisements, but I'm almost positive it's the video ads. There's good days where I've been on the site and had either no issues, or very limited issues, and noticed there were no video ads on those days. Whereas the bad days I'll see 3-4 video ad's loading on the side, which while loading causes freezing, and while they play it causes delays and performance issues.

Only reason why I brought this up is because there's LOADS of useful information on this site, and it's fun to participate in the forums as well. But it's getting nearly impossible to do so. And I'm pretty sure this is also having an affect on new visitors coming to the site that probably won't return if they can't even get a decent page load when coming in from indexed content on search engines.

I appreciate you reaching out and replying. If we can get this fixed, that would be AMAZING!

 

[MatsuDano]

Adblock loaded and it works great now. Please please please please please consider advertising partners that don't compromise the quality of the site.

 

[StephenWagner7]

Just an update...

Spoke to my brother who used to frequent the site, said he no longer visits because it just locks his browser. I guess he stopped visiting months ago...

I recently updated Flash to the latest version. The front page locked immediately as soon as scrolling down. Tried over and over, I ended up doing a format (for other reasons), and the same thing. Couldn't view articles or anything.

I finally went in to firefox and disabled flash. I can now view, browse, and use the website fully!

I'm getting weird hotel ads now in Asian characters, but there's no more video advertisements, and the website is working great. Even composing text on the forums works without any issues (it used to miss key strokes, etc...).

Turned flash back on to confirm, and it locked up again. I guess I have to disable it when viewing the site. Annoying fix having to turn flash off/on, but at least I can see the content now.

To the site admins, you guys really need to look at this. I'm sure it's killing re-occurring visitors on the site...

 

[James Falconer]

@MatsuDano @StephenWagner7 - first off, thanks again for the feedback. Second, would love to get your direct feedback/diagnostics to help us dig deeper into the problem. I am pinging our ad team now with this thread (along with many others I've reported).

Can you shoot me an email at james AT mobilenations dot com? We shall discuss and come up with some specifics to help the ad team.

THANK YOU!

 

[StephenWagner7]

Just wanted to post another note/update:

Lately when going to the WPCentral page, just as it's completing loading. The entire site grey's out for about 5-60 seconds (can't do anything). I've confirmed this on 2 PCs...

Usually just wait and after that interval the grey shade disappears, or I can hit refresh a couple times and that will also fix it.

I just wanted to report this. I'm not sure if an ad is supposed to be showing and is having trouble loading or something? Nothing pops up when the site "greys" out.

(Just as a side note, I have no adblocking software. Clean install, latest Firefox and Edge)

 

[Bobvfr]

I have to say I wouldn't even bother coming here if it wasn't for AdBlock extensions on Edge (Before that I used the hosts file), and on my phone I got so fed up literally watching my battery drain by 10% for a couple of minutes browsing this site, I have given up and use the app (Not really happy about that but, it just isn't worth the hassle of waiting a minute for a web page to load and your phone running out of battery in the meantime).

No issues on any other website that I visit although I admit I am not a heavy surfer, so it tends to be the BBC, Skype help forums and one or two others.

My phone is a 950XL always kept up to date, normally plenty of fast data or Wi-Fi and before I start on this website, normally plenty of battery.........