Please tell me if this blog loads slowly

[Talia]

I have one person who tells me the blog loads slowly or crashes a lot.

I'd like to know if it is a widespread problem or just her computer. I know one other person (veinglory???) at the AW forum also commented on slow loading time on one of my blogs so I'd like to check it out

I'd appreciate if you can tell me if there are any problems/delays loading the blog and how it compares to other Blogger blogs.

Also any suggestions for improving the readability of the blog, the content or the loading time would be appreciated

Thanks!
NZ Reality TV blog (http://www.nzrealitytv.com/)

Edited ...
Can you please also list your broadband speed, operating system (e.g. windows XP) and browser system so I can compare the results!!!

[KTC]

Actually, it seemed to load quickly...about 5 seconds...and then it totally crashed my internet?

[nancy sv]

Yes - very slowly. It looks nice once it's up though!

[Talia]

Actually, it seemed to load quickly...about 5 seconds...and then it totally crashed my internet?
Ahhh my friend said she crashed too but I have no idea why.

Can you please tell me what internet browser you use (e.g. internet explorer 6, IE 7, firefox) and whether you are Mac or PC?

nancy and KTC - thanks for the prompt response!!!

[benbradley]

I'm on DSL and "what I could see" loaded in 3-5 seconds, a "reasonable" speed for something to load and read the text and see the pics at the top of the page (I'd say it's comparable to cnn.com) but the whole page took about 20 seconds to load. You've got a LOT on that page. It took me 28 page-downs to get to the bottom, which seems excessive. I think you could break it up into several pages and even save some bandwidth. Some people will want to look at everything, but others may only want to see a few things, like today's entries only. It looks like you have the last five days of "blogs" on the font page. I'd make the front page "today's news" only, and have easy links for each day for the previous few weeks or so. Making smaller pages may fix problems such as KTC's crash, presuming it's related to the large size of your page.

ETA: I'm running Win XP, Firefox 2.0.0.10.

[KTC]

I am trying again. I'm a glutton for punishment. It looks like it loads no problem, but when I try to scroll that's when everything freezes. I get the (not responding) message at the very top of my browser. By the size of the scroll toggle, it looks like a huge page? I left it alone this time to see what would happen. Let me go back and check...................................

okay. It's there. I guess I only thought it crashed last time because it froze while loading. I'm very impatient. I actually had to control/alt/delete and close the program last time...but it probably would have been okay had I waited.

I'm using IE7...but I also have the Rogers Yahoo Browser. Same thing happened on both browsers. And I have highspeed cable. (windows XP)

[Jessi]

Most of the site loaded rather quickly....and then it took several more seconds for things to "adjust" (like more images to load, text to align in the correct spot, etc).

[Talia]

Thanks everyone
I've changed it to show only 10 posts now (it was previously showing 15 pages on the front). I compress all the images so most are individually very small but I guess having so many slows things. unfortunately google doesn't give you the option to show only a preview of the post (or at least not yet)

I don't know whether having google adverts or feedburner links for people to bookmark to delicious etc is slowing it down?

I have no problem viewing it on IE6 and FF at home with windows XP. I tried it at a place I tutor and it viewed fine in IE7 but super slow. However as it is a network with high usage slow loading isn't unusual at that location. Everything loads slow at that place LOL

[Talia]

when i view the page the top banner and lhs appear almost immediately, then the rest fills in but it doesn't take more than a few seconds. I have DSL broadband but the download speed is highly variable. At the moment it's 177 kbps and it goes as high as 1.3 mbps (NZ broadband is notoriously slow and unreliable)

[veinglory]

Zippy for me, 5 seconds

[Storyteller5]

It's the same speed for me as livejournal so I don't have a problem.
(I'm on IE6 and use XP.)

[Talia]

great, thanks

[valeenc]

I'm on dial-up (I know, I know....) and use IE7 with a Vista OS. It was loading faster than a lot of sites do for me. The pokey factor seems to be due to all the ads. The text and your images load at a decent rate. It froze briefly, but that happens to me all the time so it didn't freak me out.

I have no idea if any of that is helpful, but I like to comment when folks are doing checks since I'm on a slower connection.

:banana:

[Talia]

thx virginia. i'm at a loss to explain because i do get a small number of people saying the website causes them problems

i was just checking my stats tonight and saw one referral site where one of the poster that says:
I'm not going to look it up at the mo, as that site seems to upset my computer for some reason

i just wish i knew why!!!

[Voyager]

I'm on cable with Win XP, I'll whisper my ISP to you cuz I'll get laughed out of the forum. It loaded up right away, about 5 seconds, and I was even able to watch the youtube vids without waiting more than a few seconds for them to load. I sometimes have a problem with that.

[Talia]

thanks voyager
i wish i could put my finger on the problem some people are having viewing the site!

[Talia]

i just spoke to one of my cobloggers who is in England and she has problems with viewing the blog (amazing she has never mentioned it)
When you first click onto the site, it takes ages to load. On occasion it freezes the computer, and I have to switch off and start again, as when it freezes, you cannot do anything with it. You cannot click off it, or anything like that, the system just hangs.

[rejectME]

I agree that it loads fairly quickly initially, but after the page loaded it froze. I have AOL Broadband and am not sure what speed it is, but this happens to me sometimes.
On another note, I absolutely love your blog. I think that the concept of covering NZ Reality is pretty cool. Yes, many of us think of sheep or the "All-Blacks" when thinking of New Zealand, but you have some good content. I think if you're going to stick to tele, you should include more serial. For instance, you had the top viewed list, which was great for me to see because I got to see that although I haven't live in the UK for 17 years, Home And Away is still on the air. I loved that show when I was younger. I think it would be also cool to do some other profiles on NZ stars like maybe Russell Coutts. Just a thought, but great job!

Best, Jerry

[Talia]

Hah! Kiwis hate Russell Coutts LOL

Thanks for your feedback. I'd love to do more content on stars. I plan to review biographies and do more profiles but I need more writers and as it's unpaid I don't get a lot of volunteers (hint). In the future I may be able to pay people but it's not an option right now.

I'd also like someone to review the observational reality shows (Police 10-7, Border Patrol and the like). I will be going on a recruiting drive in the New Year.

I've had a couple of people who were quite good but I end up spending a lot of time formatting their posts or editing them. One had the most appalling grammar ;)

I'm trying to persuade a friend to join the blog but that's also a WIP

[rejectME]

Hah! Kiwis hate Russell Coutts LOL

LOL! I know. I wanted to see how you'd react to the comment. Not many Americans know who he is, aisde from sailors such as myself. You're not alone, the current America's Cup holder has plenty of American crew and even a skipper. Weird. ~Jerry

[Talia]

:)