reply to post by SkepticOverlord
Mista Skeptic.. I know how these things go, been there, done that, seen it happen before to other sites.
As more and more people become interested in ATS, a broader segment of users are hitting our pages. Our Google Analytics data is showing a significant
increase in dial-up, slow-DSL, and slow-Cable users coming to ATS and joining ATS.
Who the hell uses dial up anymore? Most of these "visitors" and new "members" are probably the ones who sign on once, make a name, never post,
never do anything and probably never come back.
This time last year, more than 80% of all our users (members and guests) were on fast broadband connections. But last month, our biggest month ever,
over 40% of all our users were on connection speeds either somewhat less than broadband, or a lot less.
As I said, the 20% decrease in fast speed connections relations to the new advertising blitz that ya'll are doing could come down to.. people surfing
the web in obscure countries where there is no super fast speed roadrunner type internet, and see all your pretty new adds, click on the add, wait for
it to load, sign up, read a thread, leave.
We've always had a graphically rich environment because of our heavy "skew" toward experienced online users who tend to have fast connections.
One reason I love this site.. and hate so many others..
But after our recent round of advertising, we're reaching a broader base.
So degenerate? Knock back the site a few years in technological advancement so to speak? I pay for my highspeed damnit, I want graphics, pictures,
color, streaming video and music, 3d buttons and the whole nine yards! We are lowering the standards of ATS to a crowd THAT DOES NOT POST .. We may
have the thousands upon thousands of members, but NEVER forget that there is a CORE population of posters. Since the advertising blitz you see all
kinds of new people posting, but no where near as many as you say join the site as members. Who are we pandering to?
Dial up users have only ever complained about Google Vids in the past, and the posters always give them the description.
So, it was time to make the hard decisions of putting our pages on a diet. For example, a page analysis tool I'm using shows our "Recent Posts"
page comes in at a whopping 322 kilobytes with 55 different images totaling nearly 200k... that's a heavy page!
I happen to like that page. I load it in about .8 seconds. Keep it.
These new menu buttons are a fraction of the total file size of the previous menu, since they're text with a small graphic background.
Didn't we go through the same story last time though.. when we got rid of the "views" column because it somehow made the loading of the pages
"slower" .. and then once the changes where implemented in the script of the site the site was slower, sluggish and sometimes went off line?
So in short, these changes are not about any "bandwidth issues" with our servers, but the need to consider an increasingly broader base of users who
may not have the fastest connections.
In most areas a "slow" high speed internet connection is roughly $10 more then the cheapest dial up services. Who the hell uses dial up??
Has anyone actually complained????