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Slow motion replay

My blog is a happy oasis away from the idiocy that I deal with in everyday life. I work damn hard in just about everything that I do, but it doesn't seem to pay off a lot of the time.

It pays off more often with my blog. The blog is my baby, my creation, and I try to make sure it's working as smoothly as I can. The successes on Night Owl Cards far outweigh the failures.

But there is one issue that my diligence can't seem to fix.

I have received complaints periodically that it takes a long time for my blog to load. At first I shrugged off these comments. Anything worth having is worth waiting for, right? Besides, this blog was for me, not anyone else and their damn computer.

But as blogging continued to connect me with collectors around the country and beyond, I began to place greater importance in what others had to say, to the extent that the periodic complaints of the "slow-loading" Night Owl Cards started to bother me.

Finally, I decided to do something about it. About a month ago, I gutted half of my sidebar. I removed images and categories. I moved some of the stuff to the tabs that you now see underneath the banner. I think things are now easier to find and the blog looks better, too.

After getting things the way I wanted them, I tested and re-tested the blog. It seemed to load a lot more quickly. No more spinning wheel or circle or whatever device you have that tells you that, yes, jackass, you're STILL WAITING.

I tested it on my computer at work, too, and got the same result. It loaded more quickly there, too.

Problem solved. I thought.

Yesterday, a couple of comments on this post made me think the slow-loading problem may never go away. It was deflating.

Perhaps it still loads slower than other blogs because of all the card images I use. If that's the case, I'm just going to have to be a slow, backward hayseed, because I'm not cutting back on the images.

But I'm also wondering whether people are remembering the old days of Night Owl Cards -- one whole month ago -- and haven't truly noted the changes of the last month. Maybe the quicker speed hasn't registered yet.

Or maybe it's just as slow as before.

So, what's the deal? Have you noticed any change in the loading speed of this blog recently? Are things quicker, the same, or slower?

Would you like it if I took more drastic action to make it quicker? Or doesn't it matter?

I'll take your comments under advisement, but realize that I may chuck any recommendations for a new, shiny, sparkly blog gadget that I found that means my blog will load sometime in 2017.

Oh, and as a thanks to the person who inspired me to ask for some advice instead of quietly sulking, here are some cards recently sent by Brian at Play at the Plate:


Thanks, Brian.

And thanks for your kind comments, too.

Comments

I gotta tell you, I was a little disappointed not to have that last Fleer Greats to finish that one off for you.

I don't have any issues with the page loading. What I've noticed is the tradelist posting much faster so I think whatever you've done has made an improvement.

And you're welcome.
Greg Zakwin said…
It seems to be loading a bit quicker for me. Even when it was slower, it was worth the wait.

Oh, and that second Bills card is sweeeeet! Congrats on the pick-ups!
SpastikMooss said…
Seems the same to me! But my computer never had an issue with your site, so that doesn't meant much haha.
Cardsplitter said…
I never had problems either. And I think it is worth the wait anyway.
Matthew Glidden said…
No problems here, but I could see old computers or browsers slowing down when rendering all the sidebar pieces. Do you have an older system to try it on after your improvements?

(My hunch is that the Index of labels and "Nightly Reading" blog roll take a while, given their many, many entries.)
Andy said…
Seems faster to me. I think it's definitely faster when loading just a single post instead of the root blog where a bunch of past posts come up. You might want to limit the # of previous posts displayed to a smaller number.

Sorry if my complaints were unpleasant for you to hear--I agree with the other commenters that the quality of the content prevented the delay from being a deterrent.
AdamE said…
Greg you are well worth the wait. It is faster than it was but just not as fast as some other blogs. It is probably all the images.

You may try changing the setting on Nightly Reading to not include images and that may speed it up. I think this because if I page down as your page load it is blank under Nightly Reading for a bit and then the screen refreshes itself and nightly reading appear. (Along with all the stuff after them)

Either way don't worry. I'll keep reading no matter how long you take to load.
Jeremy said…
I noticed the page was slower to load around the time that you used the new blogger templete thingy. It's really not a deterrent to checking out your blog though. Maybe we're becoming too impatient in our society. It does seem to load more quickly now. FWIW I only notice the slow loading on my old computer. I haven't really paid attention to it when I'm on my newer laptop so maybe it's the old computer that's the problem.

Anyway, it's not a big deal to me.
AdamE said…
Here are some other Blogger problems I am seeing...

http://thoughtsandsox.blogspot.com/2010/11/does-this-happen-to-you-follow-up.html
night owl said…
Thanks for the input. I've made a few more small adjustments in terms of posts per page, the blog roll, and the index. Maybe that will help slightly.
Anonymous said…
I always make sure my blog is sleek and self-contained with little standing in the way of reading my posts of quality and distinction - and 99% of the other posts.

That's why I use Wordpress. Never liked Blogger's interface thing deal bit. I worry that I have too many categories, actually, but I can deal with that, ya know.
Anonymous said…
Oh, but I've never had much of an issue with the loading speed of your site. I use Firefox and most of the time use Google Reader to peruse - and only jump on the site if I want to comment. No web site will load perfectly 100% of the time - sometimes the 1's and 0's go flying off into never-never land much like a piston going through the bonnet of a 1970 MG.

I have more of an issue with the CAPTCHA than anything - I am NOT an 'bot - I AM A FREE MAN! Or something.
Captain Canuck said…
it's a lot faster than it used to be... a lot.
but let's put things in perspective here. Most blogs load in under a half second on my computer at home. Yours used to take around 5 seconds. We're not talking about huge amounts of lost time here, everything is relative.

and no, don't you dare cut back on images. I like me some pictures!
Orioles Magic said…
I've never had any issues with how your site has loaded either.
Ben G said…
Webpages loading slowly can be caused by many things..

1. Slow internet .. Dial up or too many people sharing one connection.

2. Processing power. Too many programs open, too many windows open... all using a bit of the computers speed.. so when it comes across a page where it has to do a lot of things at once (like load images) it slows way down.

3. Your browser.. this also has to do with processing power. Webkit browsers like Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome are becoming standard. They use a computers processing power much more efficiently. Internet explorer is a 1998 Mazda compared to a 2010 BMW of a Webkit browser. Not to mention IE will probably constantly mess up formatting because newer code that many pages use isn't supported.

4. Sometimes a site's servers will be overloaded as well.. so if amazon.com loads like a snap.. but any blogger page you visit loads slowly.. it's probably blogger's servers just overloaded.
AlbuqwirkE said…
I also use Google Reader... so no issues at all.