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Hi is it just me or does anyone else have the problems with the speed (or lack of) when in the forum - I wait to go from page to page for seconds at a time - I have checked my service which is running around 2.04 mbps?
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C'est normale !

Each successive wonderful 'upgrade' has bug.gered it more, nobody in the mothership cares so don't bother complaining, it will fall on deaf ears.

This used to be the premier French forum but now it's just for the diehards.

Edited to bypass the pathetic censoring !

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I do wonder if the browser used makes a difference. Mostly I use Firefox which is fine, except for a week or so ago when the site slowed down for a couple of days.

Otherwise it's Chrome on my tablet, which is usually faster than FF.
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I don't believe this Forum is unique with the decline in postings, just reflective of the advent of competing social media such as Facebook, twitter, instagram and whatsapp, none of which existed when I joined this forum in 2004!

The 'other' main French forum has seen a similar drop off when you exclude the postings of one very prolific poster.

Other non French forums I am a member off are all much quieter than they used to be and will probably not survive our older generation!

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More and more people access the internet using smart phones and PC sales have as a result fallen off a cliff.

Most Forums are designed for PC use and are often more difficult to navigate and use with a smart phone.

I am not sure updating forum software is the answer, as the traditional page layout of a forum does not lend itself to the smaller screen of a smartphone.
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Hi,

I'm Emma the Digital Editor for this website. Just wanted to say that we are aware that the forum is slow and we're sorry if this affects your enjoyment of it. The main problem is that the forum software is old. And although the website as a whole was upgraded to become mobile responsive, the forum software itself hasn't been updated for a while. Our developers are aware of it and we have asked for the software to be updated but we don't know if or when this will happen.

Some people find that it works better on different browsers. For me it is quicker on Firefox or Internet Explorer than Chrome.

I only began as Digital Editor in January and before that no one was really responsible for this website which is why in the past, users may have felt no one was listening to their complaints. This has changed now and I'm always happy to hear from you with problems and suggestions. You can PM me on here and I will do my best to address the problems.

Thanks,

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[quote user="Digital Editor"]Hi,

I only began as Digital Editor in January and before that no one was really responsible for this website which is why in the past, users may have felt no one was listening to their complaints. This has changed now and I'm always happy to hear from you with problems and suggestions. You can PM me on here and I will do my best to address the problems.

Thanks,

[/quote]

The only suggestion from me is take a look at another Anglo/French forum which has just had a makeover, and whatever they've done don't do it. For a start it closed down for about two weeks then changed the colour scheme to a shocking YUK, It's almost unreadable. I don't know what it is about forums but please remember that the majority of your clients/members are of advancing years and tend to be a bit conservative, (not in a political way), and like the written word to be easily readable, with the least amount of gimmicks possible.

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Yesterday I changed to a new 'puter and the pages on here change almost instantaneously . Even with a new post.  Firefox same as before. Still get that spinning blue circle, but I ignore it.

I don't use a phone ipad laptop etc for forums so can't compare.

One idea - I belong to a few forums with phpBB software and for some reason they've always been very quick, to access and change pages. Fingers crossed.

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That sounds very much like a prompt for yet another new and improved user experience [blink] the last couple killed the forum but never managed to completely extinguish all signs of life, no doubt this one will outdo the others.

 

Funny how the IT bods or Digital Managers or whatever they call themselves these days are never heard of again after each enhanced user experience.

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Emma don't worry too much about Chancer. He always has a friendly glint in his glass eye [:-))]

There was a comment on the haunted fish tank the other day about smart (?) phones and are they actually a physical extension of the arm of people these daze?? Everywhere you look, young or old, all you see is the bleedin things clenched in the fist and the things holding them are punching away at them! I have heard that you can actually get an application for them that will warn you if you are walking into a lamp post or anything while you are nailed to the screen and walking!

Edit : - Shame really that they don't have a compulsory application that smacks the idiot holding it whilst driving!

As for the forum speed? I probably wouldn't notice much difference until we actually get our connection speed above a meg and a bit [:-))]

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I don't understand the "old software" excuse. Is it "new" old software? i.e. a different system, but still very old, because whilst this forum always did use outdated forum software it did at least work to an acceptable degree, which it doesn't do now.

I'm on a slow broadband connection, 2mega at best (positively superfast! [Www]), and it takes ages now to load my first page, but I can see that it's waiting to load adverts, none of which of course are of the slightest interest to me.

Other forums to which I belong all appear to use vBulletin and I don't have any trouble with those.

 

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Firstly, welcome to Emma.

Secondly, I too have just bought a new computer which does load pages far quicker than my old one. It does have loads of memory though.

Thirdly, I agree with Nick. That other expat site is a nightmare which has prompted mass complaints and probably as many defections.

If it ain't broke!!!
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[quote user="sid"]I'm on a slow broadband connection, 2mega at best (positively superfast! [Www]), and it takes ages now to load my first page, but I can see that it's waiting to load adverts, none of which of course are of the slightest interest to me.

[/quote]

Sid could be onto something here, although I am no computer wizz kid I would have thought that having to load ads which use a load of graphics plus the actual forum stuff would make it slow on lets say older machines, slow connections, and maybe older operating systems.

I still use XP on my laptop, it is an older machine and still works so why should I chuck it away just because Microsoft says so. If they want to give me a new machine i'll chuck out the old one.

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At the top of the page (any page) there is currently an advert for "5 issues for £5" for magazines. Nothing happens on my pc until that is completely loaded; it's an animated gif or similar. Then there is a wide box at the top which  contains an advert (sometimes), and below the forum area there are a couple more. One being the advert for Britline (I'm already a Britline customer so the advert is wasted on me [:)], then a section "Our Magazines", and below that  an advert for "Baris - Beijing"; I haven't got a clue where Baris is, but I can guess, probably one of those Chinese misspellings that you get in almost anything from the Far East.

The point I was trying to make, unsuccessfully, is that old software should still work if the owners have done their compatibility checks. Oops, put my foot in it again.

I have a fairly new laptop, loads of memory, Windows 10, more importantly no problems on other sites, which leads me to the obvious conclusion; it's the forum, not us.

 

 

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If you use Firefox or Chrome, download an addon called Ublock Origin.

This is an ad blocker that stops most pop-ups etc. You can also set it to block certain elements on pages.

Right click on all the p1sh down the right hand side and select "block this element" it will then let you select in a red box the items to block, you can click around with the left button to change your selection, then click on "block" in the text box. the computer will no longer load that object when you visit the page. It takes a couple of minutes to select and block everything on here but its well worth it and only needs done once.

I have blocked pretty much everything on this forum, the headers, the logos, all the newsletter stuff down the right hand side, the links to articles nobody reads and all the footers too. Not only is it easier on the eye (plain white page with the posts and nothing else), it loads pages at a decent speed as it no longer tries to load all the superflous sh1te that appears to be badly coded and takes up way too much bandwidth.

Sadly you cant expand the posts to cover the empty space, but you cant win them all.

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Just as an example, this is how I see the forum using Ublock through Chrome.....

[img]http://s27.postimg.org/8zbbrh0nn/Sans_titre.jpg[/img]

and this is everything unblocked (firefox)

[img]http://s21.postimg.org/m8vpxvpev/Sans_titre2.jpg[/img]

You cant even see the first post yet without scrolling down through an entire screen sized header of adverts and useless junk. Its all that sh1te that takes so long to load and kills the page load speeds.
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Dave, if you have a Mac then now try Cmd + until the screen content size increases and takes out the ads from the side and stuffs them at the bottom. Then all yer wh!te sh!te will be hidden below the thread and you have nice BIG text so yer awd eyes can read it easy like [:-))][:-))][8-|]

If you are not fortunate enough to have a Mac then it might work the same on a Windoze box??[6]

[URL=http://s47.photobucket.com/user/Jonzjob/media/Odds%20and%20sods/Screenshot%202016-03-17%2012.27.25_zpszsalgtbs.png.html][IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/Odds%20and%20sods/Screenshot%202016-03-17%2012.27.25_zpszsalgtbs.png[/IMG][/URL]

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