"New" Twins Daily

[CDog]

Seems like when I can actually get a page to load, there is comments here and there about pages not loading or slow loading or similar. I don't know if this is "thread-worthy," but I also don't know where else to mention this. The last several days, more often than not, when I open a thread, one of the following things happens: 1) The original poster shows, but without showing the post itself and showing nothing below it (and not being able to scroll down at all). 2) The original post and maybe some responses show properly, but at some point the thread seems cut off with the final entry showing again the poster, but no post. (The # of replies in the thread being larger than the last post showing.) It seems better when I'm logged in than when I'm not, but happens both ways. Basically has made the entire site more frustrating than it's worth to try and even read. Sometimes refreshing will remedy the problems, but not very often. The end.

[snepp]

It's likely a problem with the ads.

[Brock Beauchamp]

If you've had problems with pages loading, post here.

 

Be sure to list when it happened and what model and version of browser you're using (for example, Firefox 3.6).

 

I'll get this sorted in time but right now, it's a really bizarre problem that only happens occasionally. I need to see it happen a few more times before I can troubleshoot the problem.

[Brock Beauchamp]

BTW, I'm particularly interested in what time of day it's happening. I've only seen it happen at night when the forum is busy with game traffic. That narrows down potential problem areas but still doesn't really give me enough information to start figuring out the problem. It could be the ads but I don't think it's the ads themselves; I think the problem might stem from the ad delivery service. It could also be the server itself. I need more information before I can figure it out.

[DaveW]

Dude pig, its happening to a good number of people on the site, it has happened with my firefox and safari browsers, and it has happened to me throughout the past few days day and night, the only device I haven't had an issue on it is with the iphone browser. I don't know what versions of the browsers I have but it shouldn't be an issue, 99.9999999% of the web works for me, this is the one site that seems to have issues.

 

At this point I don't mind having to refresh a page 3-4 times to see a thread, however it could get old and drive away users pretty quickly.

 

Also, is it really necessary to have 2+ video ads running per page all at once in the 300 x 250 ad units? I know you can talk to whichever network you are getting those from and request those be turned off.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Dude pig, its happening to a good number of people on the site, it has happened with my firefox and safari browsers, and it has happened to me throughout the past few days day and night, the only device I haven't had an issue on it is with the iphone browser. I don't know what versions of the browsers I have but it shouldn't be an issue, 99.9999999% of the web works for me, this is the one site that seems to have issues.

 

At this point I don't mind having to refresh a page 3-4 times to see a thread, however it could get old and drive away users pretty quickly.

 

Also, is it really necessary to have 2+ video ads running per page all at once in the 300 x 250 ad units? I know you can talk to whichever network you are getting those from and request those be turned off.

I never said I thought it was a browser issue... Well, not since the first day it happened, anyway. Still, it's good to know what browsers are most affected by the problem, if any. That's why I specifically asked what time of day it's happening. That helps me narrow down what might be causing the issue. It's not as simple as "turn off the ads!", which might help the situation but still doesn't answer the question "why is this happening in the first place?"

 

Changing things helter-skelter doesn't fix things in the long term. Finding the cause of the malfunction is the only way to determine how to properly move forward and make the necessary adjustments. And to do that, I need to gather more information about when it's happening and how it's happening.

[DaveW]

I never said I thought it was a browser issue... Well, not since the first day it happened, anyway. Still, it's good to know what browsers are most affected by the problem, if any. That's why I specifically asked what time of day it's happening. That helps me narrow down what might be causing the issue. It's not as simple as "turn off the ads!", which might help the situation but still doesn't answer the question "why is this happening in the first place?"

 

Changing things helter-skelter doesn't fix things in the long term. Finding the cause of the malfunction is the only way to determine how to properly move forward and make the necessary adjustments. And to do that, I need to gather more information about when it's happening and how it's happening.

FWIW I just had to open/re-open this very thread 4 times in order to see your response, the first time all responses but yours showed up, the 2nd and 3rd only the first post in this thread showed up.

 

If I had to guess anything it might be a specific ad code or code coming from the ad server when a specific set of ad(s) loads/pops on a page.

 

It doesn't look like a server issue to me as things are still either loading quickly, just things seem to be cut off from time to time. If you want I can hook you up with our Hungarian programmers who can probably debug/find the issue in a few hours time.

[Brock Beauchamp]

FWIW I just had to open/re-open this very thread 4 times in order to see your response, the first time all responses but yours showed up, the 2nd and 3rd only the first post in this thread showed up.

 

If I had to guess anything it might be a specific ad code or code coming from the ad server when a specific set of ad(s) loads/pops on a page.

 

It doesn't look like a server issue to me as things are still either loading quickly, just things seem to be cut off from time to time. If you want I can hook you up with our Hungarian programmers who can probably debug/find the issue in a few hours time.

There you go. That helps immensely. I had only witnessed the issue twice and both were during game time when forum traffic was through the roof. The fact that it happened during a time when the server wasn't dealing with heavy forum traffic virtually rules out the server. One of the options I had considered was that the forum database (which is incredibly complex and data-intensive) was having problems delivering page content. If it's happening now, that's almost certainly not the issue.

 

Which takes me back to the ads. I'm going to start looking into those now.

[notoriousgod71]

I typically can't read the last post of a thread due to some random add in the lower right hand corner (Firefox).

[CDog]

If you've had problems with pages loading, post here.

 

Be sure to list when it happened and what model and version of browser you're using (for example, Firefox 3.6).

 

I'll get this sorted in time but right now, it's a really bizarre problem that only happens occasionally. I need to see it happen a few more times before I can troubleshoot the problem.

For me it's not an occasional problem. It's more often than not and it happens throughout the day. I usually read threads here and there during down times at work where I'm required to use Internet Explorer (honestly don't know the version). At home I use Firefox, and I also don't know the version there off the top of my head (but can check when I am home later). It's been going on for several days, probably to the end of last week but I don't remember exactly.

[Brock Beauchamp]

For me it's not an occasional problem. It's more often than not and it happens throughout the day. I usually read threads here and there during down times at work where I'm required to use Internet Explorer (honestly don't know the version). At home I use Firefox, and I also don't know the version there off the top of my head (but can check when I am home later). It's been going on for several days, probably to the end of last week but I don't remember exactly.

You should check your version of IE just out of principle. If you're using 8 or 9, you're good. If you're using 7, we're not going to support that browser anymore. Get your IT dept to upgrade you to at least IE8.

 

Anyway, there's no reason to be having problems with FF. Anything produced by Mozilla in the past four years should render correctly.

 

I'm working on the issue right now FWIW.

[DaveW]

I noticed you turned off the in post 300 x 250 ads a few minutes ago, ever since you did that it has been working fine for me.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I noticed you turned off the in post 300 x 250 ads a few minutes ago, ever since you did that it has been working fine for me.

I found some redundancies in the code, bizarrely placed where I never looked before. I re-implemented the ads. Please let me know if the problem returns.

 

And I'm going to look into removing video ads in favor of static ones.

[DaveW]

I found some redundancies in the code, bizarrely placed where I never looked before. I re-implemented the ads. Please let me know if the problem returns.

 

And I'm going to look into removing video ads in favor of static ones.

It just happened 3 more times to me once the ads were turned back on, it made it all the way down to your post then loaded blank.

 

Why don't you just shorten up the entire "post' boxes by 300 or so pixels (since ones without ads just have an awkward white space anyways) and then run the 300 x 250 ads on a side bar down the page? 2-3 per page?

[Brock Beauchamp]

It just happened 3 more times to me once the ads were turned back on, it made it all the way down to your post then loaded blank.

 

Why don't you just shorten up the entire "post' boxes by 300 or so pixels (since ones without ads just have an awkward white space anyways) and then run the 300 x 250 ads on a side bar down the page? 2-3 per page?

Ultimately, I'll probably end up doing just that. Right now, I'm working within the vBulletin template until I become more familiar with the software and that ad style is all the template allows. I don't want to tear stuff apart too much until I understand how updates work, what code is safe from change, and how the software package works as a whole.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Okay, the upper thread ad (the one in the first post) has been removed. Now there is only the one at the bottom of the thread. Let me know if problems continue. I think the problem stems from that first ad and that the second is okay but I better test it to be sure.

[edavis0308]

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I have had about enough of the multiple video ads through a thread that are placed inside of people's replies. They are incredibly annoying, they take things longer to load, and they appear to screw things up.

 

/rant.

[MasterBassist]

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I have had about enough of the multiple video ads through a thread that are placed inside of people's replies. They are incredibly annoying, they take things longer to load, and they appear to screw things up.

 

/rant.

It's ironic that right in your reply there's an ad asking if you're feeling down. Time to treat that depression!

[Brock Beauchamp]

Is anyone still having any issues with only the lower ad enabled?

[edavis0308]

Is anyone still having any issues with only the lower ad enabled?

I have an issue with it. I don't know I would go so far to say 'issues'...

[freshinthehouse]

I'm using chrome, and the last post in a thread isn't showing up for me.

[Ultima Ratio]

Count me as one becoming disgruntled with the interface/experience of this site. While the sites had problems all week, for the first time today, it wouldn't even load the home page, not just the thread deformities.

[CDog]

Yeah, still pretty awful. It's taking a lot of self-restraint for me to hold in the rant I'm feeling. Hope it gets fixed soon.

[Brock Beauchamp]

We're working on it, guys. Trust me, we're working on it and we're less happy about it than you are. All hell is breaking loose and it has nothing to do with TD, our software, or our hardware. It's all being caused by outside servers delivering content.

 

Hopefully, it will be sorted soon and action will be taken if it is not.

[CDog]

We're working on it, guys. Trust me, we're working on it and we're less happy about it than you are.

I believe that and I believe that. Which is why I'm holding in that rant, because it's probably pretty unfair.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I believe that and I believe that. Which is why I'm holding in that rant, because it's probably pretty unfair.

Having been on both sides of a tech problem more times than I can count, I understand the frustration. You just want a page to load but. the. damned. thing. won't. load. EVER.

[ofx1]

We're working on it, guys. Trust me, we're working on it and we're less happy about it than you are. All hell is breaking loose and it has nothing to do with TD, our software, or our hardware. It's all being caused by outside servers delivering content.

 

Hopefully, it will be sorted soon and action will be taken if it is not.

Replying to this one, since your last post with the video ad in it doesn't load/display.

 

So ya got two banner ads, one video ad that breaks the last post, and an occasional drop-down-obliterate-the-page ad. Can you add more ads? One more per page and this thing will qualify as a pr0n site.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Actually, we currently display no more than three ads per page.

 

I'm still searching for the drop-down ad. I haven't found the code for it and I've only seen it twice. I want to see where it is and what it's doing but the bloody thing doesn't pop up often enough for me to find a code snippet so I can track it down.

[ofx1]

Actually, we currently display no more than three ads per page.

 

I'm still searching for the drop-down ad. I haven't found the code for it and I've only seen it twice. I want to see where it is and what it's doing but the bloody thing doesn't pop up often enough for me to find a code snippet so I can track it down.

I'll find it.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Okay, I changed the ad code entirely. Please, let me know if this one buggers anything up. It's pretty simple so I don't think it will be able to but with my streak lately, I won't bet against any code finding a way to make my day difficult.