Board Very Slow to Scroll!

I call a conspiracy!!

It's a conspiracy to slow down my reading of ATS so that I can't find out the truth before the NWO can alter history!

Anyone else seeing this? FireFox 3.0. I don't know where else to post - the ATS General Forum right at the bottom is read-only. It's only started in the last day or so, and affects only ATS.

It does not affect IE (another conspiracy?).

reply to post by mirageofdeceit


scrolling slow for me too, i checked configuration of my mouse and everything, so why is it scrolling slow, because of firefox. i dont know

Maybe you have some malware on your computer.

I'm using FF3 and haven't noticed anything wrong.

Originally posted by TheComte
Maybe you have some malware on your computer.

I'm using FF3 and haven't noticed anything wrong.

I noticed it going faster
even have a few addons / plugins running at same time
but yea nothing wrong on this side with FireFox3

Working great on IE. Just try bashing your PC with a bat. You never know it might work.

I dont know much about computers, but could all the ads that they put here now, slow it down?

Running FF3 here and no problems ....

Might want to empty your cache and delete your cookies and see if that helps...

I would also make sure I had nothing "extra" running in the background taking up resources...

Semper

I doubt very much that it is malware - it only affects ATS.

I disabled all the add-ins for FF3 just in case, but it made no difference.

IE seems fine (Vista 64-bit, IE 64-bit).

reply to post by mirageofdeceit


I have the same set up and everything is fine on my end..So I would guess it's not ATS..

Maybe one of the computer experts will jump in...

Semper

its the new red-ish black background..
I have a few sites with it and it does slow things down a bit. [depending on you monitor size]

then with the ads.. it really starts to bog down.. :-p jk

It is the red background that doesn't move. It takes a lot of computation power to keep a background statically positioned in Firefox because of the way the layout engine works.

If you have Firefox just get AdBlock Plus extension:
adblockplus.org...

Once you have ABP, add a filter rule for:
"http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/wrap-default.jpg"

You will never see the silly slow reddish background again, pages will load faster, and a panda will mate.

Jon

reply to post by Voxel

Just installed AdBlockPlus, for this reason. Note to everyone: T&C's don't allow blocking ATS ads, but since the default wrapper isn't an ad, I'm assuming it's okay to use AdBlockPlus for that purpose alone (with an otherwise empty filter list).

reply to post by mirageofdeceit


Yes I noticed that too, running FF 3.01. I thought I picked up some malware or something so I flushed the cache cookies etc but that didn't help.

edit to add: Thanks Voxel. That worked. Cheers

[edit on 3/8/08 by styxxz]

It does have a code that's controlling the scrollbar, for there to be one, when there would be anyways, and not sure why a width and height has been assigned, because this won't work on different size monitors. Window size can be controlled if desired, without controlling the scrollbar dimensions, as the scrollbar will adjust automatically, and can be controlled to not even have one (as in popup windows), or only have horizontal or vertical.

EDIT: Unless this scrollbar code is needed for reasons that are entirely the site's business, I think it might help to scrap it. At least remove the H&W dimensions. It's trying to control the height (width too) and as the page loads avatars, ads etc at different rates, it jams up and won't scroll, because it's trying to keep your window locked into one positon.

It's been scrolling slow quite awhile for me and it's aggravating. First it happened in I.E. and was fine in firefox & netscape. After it killing my IE, I switched to netscape, that worked fine for weeks, then it too was killed. On to firefox, fine for awhile, then it started on that. Now I have to go back & forth from FF to netscape and put up with this scrolling issue.

It keeps trying to load a cachfly ad in status bar, or it says document done, but it's never done. I don't see any red thing to know what you guys are saying about that.

It's only been happening on ATS, and no I don't have virus', mouse issues, or spyware, etc. It did it last year, then I went away from ATS for awhile and my comp fixed itself, I returned to ATS, all was fine, then it slowly started up again, and of course the site had been recoded for a new layout and features.

It might be all the ads, images and scripts, css conflicting with each other and causing slow loading. Maybe it has script code overload, as some scripts will over-ride others, unless you assign the right id code to them. It might be the pages need to be re-coded and errors adressed to work more efficiently for all browsers, operating systems and monitor size.

It looks to be a complex task to whoever is coding it. It might be that whoever codes it, what might work great for them, isn't working for other users. They may have their own reasons why they need to use certain codes, that aren't our business to ask or critique, but it should be user friendly to most users.

[edit on 3-8-2008 by violet]

Originally posted by Ian McLean
Note to everyone: T&C's don't allow blocking ATS ads

Hah! I didn't know that but I would love to see them try to enforce that rule.

I have used university computers that automatically strip ad links and _javascripts at the proxy server. Are they planning on banning everyone who logs in from a univ?

What about mobile browser that strip that stuff automatically because bandwidth and screen space is at a premium? Ban everyone using a mobile browser too.

What about people who pay by bandwidth used or have dial up internet connections? I guess we should ban everyone from those countries as well for attempting to evilly reduce their monthly costs or maliciously trying to load a page in under a minute.

Heck, even antivirus softwares are starting to block ads because they have traditionally been the most used vectors for getting malicious code onto a victim's computer.

No layperson in these instances could stop the automatic blocking of ads - that would take a considerable amount of technical knowledge. So is it only bad if you decide to do it yourself?

Jon

reply to post by Voxel

Oops! I guess I should say... "see the T&C's", or whatever, 'cause I think they only say you can't specifically use ad-blocking software (if your ISP or browser automatically filters, well, that's okay).

I think it has something to do with the facts that 1) ATS is a free website, 2) Internet servers and bandwidth cost money, and 3) ads make money.

Good point about keeping bandwidth costs down -- has anyone tried the 'low-bandwidth' option you can buy in the ATS store (50 pts)? What's that about?

Oddly enough, I JUST noticed that same problem. Here is the answer if you are using Firefox. Go into "Tools", then "Options", then the "General" tab. Down towards the bottom, you will find a check box labeled "Use smooth scrolling". Uncheck it, and you are good to go.

reply to post by sir_chancealot


That is a good partial solution sir_chancealot. Thanks for that.

For me, it doesn't really "fix" the problem - it merely reduces its felt effect in the most common use models. You still have a slightly slower scroll from normal. It may only be a few hundred milliseconds slower but it bugs me to no end.

The problem has to do with the intensive operation that your browser is performing in order to render that red faded background. Those kind of static backgrounds force the rendering engine to re-layout the entire screen many times per second instead of simply moving the already-layout screen a few pixels up or down. The magnitude of the slowdown is something on the order of 100 times - conservatively.

What turning off smooth scroll does is simply ask the rendering engine to render fewer frames per second (since you don't need the intermediate smooth frames anymore) but it doesn't speed up the actual rendering at all.

This slowdown can happen in many instances:

1. You use the scroll bar and jog* the control
   
2. You click on the middle mouse button and use the mouse-scroll feature
   
3. You use the arrow keys or page up and page down
   
4. You use your mouse wheel to scroll the view
   
5. You use the arrows on the scroll bar
   

Each of these is a different way to scroll.

Disabling smooth scroll should only cure the problem for people who use one or more of the last three methods.

The first two ways are the scroll methods that I predominantly rely on so changing smooth scroll provided only a minor improvement for myself.

Very often I will scroll actively and slowly (with the middle mouse button scroll) while I am reading a thread so that my eye has to follow the text up. If I turn off smooth scroll or keep that background unblocked, my eye has to follow text that is jumping instead of smoothly rising. I can't read jumpy text easily nor quickly and it defeats the whole purpose - to skim over quickly the main points of a discussion.

*Jogging a scroll bar is when you click the variable sized box in the middle of the scroll bar and move the mouse up and down to smoothly shift the position of your view port.

Jon

[edit on 8.4.2008 by Voxel]

Originally posted by Voxel
It is the red background that doesn't move. It takes a lot of computation power to keep a background statically positioned in Firefox because of the way the layout engine works.

If you have Firefox just get AdBlock Plus extension:
adblockplus.org...

Once you have ABP, add a filter rule for:
"http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/wrap-default.jpg"

You will never see the silly slow reddish background again, pages will load faster, and a panda will mate.

Jon

it works !!! yay !

it was such a pain in the ass browsing "recent posts" with super slow scrolling speed