Website Performance

Unread post by **Yosef** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:19 pm

We last upgraded server hosting in February, changing hosts entirely and picking what can best be described as a perennial championship caliber Division III hosting package.

Based on a few posts this morning and last night, I know there are a few that have had trouble with the website loading quickly for them. I spoke with the host this morning and had them do a deep dive on why the site loads slow for some and not for others. I mentioned the concern some have posed about ads being the main culprit, so that was evaluated as well.

I heard back just before lunch that the analysis was complete and spoke with our host again. The traffic on this site has grown considerably, even since February. We are currently one of the top 120,000 websites in the U.S., which sounds like a very low number. Compare that, however, to the Sun Belt's main website (sunbeltsports.org) which is a top 270,000 website, and our own Appalachian State University athletics site (appstatesports.org) which is just ahead of us as a top 110,000 website. All of this is viewable by everyone here at http://www.alexa.com.

The host told me that while we can stay on a Division III hosting package, we'll experience more and more issues with slow loading times as traffic continues to grow. Today we are making the jump to Division II in terms of hosting, getting set up on a server that has guaranteed resources dedicated to just this website. The site may be off and on over the next 1-2 hours at most, but this should significantly improve performance.

It is a costly upgrade but one I think needs to be made given our growth, our busting at the seams currently, and the fact that we aren't even in football season yet. Please do tell me whether you experience significantly faster, somewhat faster, or no difference in the speediness of the website over the next few days. If it provides no benefit, then we need to downgrade back to what we had and look at other things. Thanks for any feedback that anyone gives.

firemoose · Unread post by **firemoose** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:26 pm

As long as it doesn't completely mess up all the pages I've built I'm all for better performance. I'm still trying to fix everything that happened in the last upgrades. Got everything I'm able to crossed that it doesn't happen again.

AppinVA · Unread post by **AppinVA** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:35 pm

I've only been on my iPhone today, but it is already faster, and I'm no longer being shuttled to another site, and then to an app. I think they just misunderstood my desire for all things "app".

AppinVA · Unread post by **AppinVA** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:40 pm

But I still do have to log in quite often.

AppStateNews · Unread post by **AppStateNews** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:22 pm

I just turned off my ad blocker and it took over a minute to load. Now, while writing this, I am still having difficulties typing due to the "jumping" the page is doing as the ads load.

I am using Chrome with a 50 gig internet connection on a beefed up computer. While everything is loading, down in my status bar it says "Waiting for gpush.cogocast.net..." Every time a new ad loads, the page jumps (presumably because the next ad loaded).

As I mentioned in an email to you, you can have the absolute best server in the world. But unless that connection to your ads (which on my current page load is gpush.cogocast.net) is improved (can't be done by the server unless the host company has that URL gray listed), the load times will always be slow.

**EDIT** As soon as I turn my ad blocker on, everything loads with no issues at all. Even more evidence the slowness is the communication to the third party ads -- not the server itself.

moehler · Unread post by **moehler** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:56 pm

atleast today, the site is working great, not having any problems. Thanks for making the effort, and its great to hear that the site is doing so well, shows that we really support our mountaineers, and want to keep informed on whats going on, thanks again.

sixtoes9134 · Unread post by **sixtoes9134** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:33 pm

moehler wrote:atleast today, the site is working great, not having any problems. Thanks for making the effort, and its great to hear that the site is doing so well, shows that we really support our mountaineers, and want to keep informed on whats going on, thanks again.

Agree and it was never my intent to complain, but wanted to see if others experienced same things I was experiencing, often had to restart my computer.

Thanks for the effort, this is my favorite App site!

~six

3rd · Unread post by **3rd** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:13 pm

I am having to re-login just about every time I refresh the page now on my computer. This happens on my phone as well, don't know if anyone else is having this problem or its just me.

AppinVA · Unread post by **AppinVA** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:35 pm

3rd wrote:I am having to re-login just about every time I refresh the page now on my computer. This happens on my phone as well, don't know if anyone else is having this problem or its just me.

It's not just you.

AppDawg · Unread post by **AppDawg** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 6:48 am

Definitely much quicker.

However, like others I am having to log in multiple times. Also after logging in and clicking on a thread it oftentimes takes me to the beginning of the thread and not the 1st unread post.

Unread post by **Yosef** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 7:31 am

Thanks for the info on the multiple log-ins. I've adjusted the cookie settings which may help with those issues. Please let me know if the multiple log in issues are resolved, better, or if there's no difference.

Dmanuhone · Unread post by **Dmanuhone** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 8:57 am

I have to login every time but no real delay in the process.

AppinVA · Unread post by **AppinVA** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:40 pm

Faster, but other than that, SSDD.

3rd · Unread post by **3rd** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:39 pm

Yosef wrote:Thanks for the info on the multiple log-ins. I've adjusted the cookie settings which may help with those issues. Please let me know if the multiple log in issues are resolved, better, or if there's no difference.

Right now it is just logging me out every time when I go from reading posts to clicking on the "Mountaineer Message Board" at the top of the page.

NewApp · Unread post by **NewApp** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 4:36 am

Yosef wrote:We last upgraded server hosting in February, changing hosts entirely and picking what can best be described as a perennial championship caliber Division III hosting package.

Based on a few posts this morning and last night, I know there are a few that have had trouble with the website loading quickly for them. I spoke with the host this morning and had them do a deep dive on why the site loads slow for some and not for others. I mentioned the concern some have posed about ads being the main culprit, so that was evaluated as well.

I heard back just before lunch that the analysis was complete and spoke with our host again. The traffic on this site has grown considerably, even since February. We are currently one of the top 120,000 websites in the U.S., which sounds like a very low number. Compare that, however, to the Sun Belt's main website (sunbeltsports.org) which is a top 270,000 website, and our own Appalachian State University athletics site (appstatesports.org) which is just ahead of us as a top 110,000 website. All of this is viewable by everyone here at http://www.alexa.com.

The host told me that while we can stay on a Division III hosting package, we'll experience more and more issues with slow loading times as traffic continues to grow. Today we are making the jump to Division II in terms of hosting, getting set up on a server that has guaranteed resources dedicated to just this website. The site may be off and on over the next 1-2 hours at most, but this should significantly improve performance.

It is a costly upgrade but one I think needs to be made given our growth, our busting at the seams currently, and the fact that we aren't even in football season yet. Please do tell me whether you experience significantly faster, somewhat faster, or no difference in the speediness of the website over the next few days. If it provides no benefit, then we need to downgrade back to what we had and look at other things. Thanks for any feedback that anyone gives.

In short, no problems at all, and for that matter, I have never had a problem since the first couple weeks this site was created....many moons ago.
Thanks for all you and Glenn do for this the Yosef's Cabin site.

AppDawg · Unread post by **AppDawg** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 8:12 am

Yosef wrote:Thanks for the info on the multiple log-ins. I've adjusted the cookie settings which may help with those issues. Please let me know if the multiple log in issues are resolved, better, or if there's no difference.

For me it is worse now. Rather than logging me out every 2nd or 3rd time going into a thread or returning to the MMB main page via the MMB link, it is logging me out every time. Also, everytime now that I click on a thread title (one that I read prior posts, like recruiting thread) it goes to the 1st post in the thread - not the most recent unread post.

Happening both in iPhone (updated for most recent software) and My laptop (running Windows 8).

APPdiesel · Unread post by **APPdiesel** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 8:40 am

Have you guys ever considered developing a more mobile friendly site and/or an app? WordPress discussion boards can be a little tedious on a cell phone.

asu66 · Unread post by **asu66** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:34 pm

The biggest change I've noticed is that a lot of folks (and I'm included in that group) have seen their avatars simply disappear. I tried to put the exact image back in place and the system wouldn't take it. What's up with that? Any suggestions for us to get back to where we were?

Unread post by **Yosef** » Mon Jul 27, 2015 7:33 am

AppDawg wrote:
Yosef wrote:Thanks for the info on the multiple log-ins. I've adjusted the cookie settings which may help with those issues. Please let me know if the multiple log in issues are resolved, better, or if there's no difference.
For me it is worse now. Rather than logging me out every 2nd or 3rd time going into a thread or returning to the MMB main page via the MMB link, it is logging me out every time. Also, everytime now that I click on a thread title (one that I read prior posts, like recruiting thread) it goes to the 1st post in the thread - not the most recent unread post.

Happening both in iPhone (updated for most recent software) and My laptop (running Windows 8).

Ok - sounds like the worse part is just the logging in. Please let me know if the website is not faster at loading. I'm working on the log in issue, which is tough as I don't experience the same problems. I made a few more changes this morning so please let me know if it improves.

APPdiesel wrote:Have you guys ever considered developing a more mobile friendly site and/or an app? WordPress discussion boards can be a little tedious on a cell phone.

APPdiesel - this isn't a Wordpress discussion board. For mobile, you're welcome to use tapatalk, which is a popular forum app that we are a part of that is free for you to use and I think will accomplish most of what you're looking for.

Unread post by **Yosef** » Mon Jul 27, 2015 7:34 am

asu66 wrote:The biggest change I've noticed is that a lot of folks (and I'm included in that group) have seen their avatars simply disappear. I tried to put the exact image back in place and the system wouldn't take it. What's up with that? Any suggestions for us to get back to where we were?

I see your avatar right next to you. Did you fix it or do you not see it?

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