DST?

[amyb]

Is it just me or has DST's site been moving really slow lately? It seems like I have to wait a long time for it to process any click! :confused:

[Amy Carey]

yeah it's really bad this morning. I can't get any page to load at all :blink:

[uptowngirl]

It has been that way for like the past two days... boo! I hate slow internet.

[meems]

yeah, it's been slow for me the past couple of days.

[newfiemountiewife]

It's been horrible for me the past few days too. In all honestly, it's been bad for me since they made the server switch, that was supposed to make the site faster. It took me ages to post my LO last night over there. :cursing:

[ditzyscrap]

It's always been super slow for me, but I realized what was really slowing it down was all those ads, so I found an adblocker and removed them. Moves MUCH quicker now - but is still one of the slower sites I visit.

[kscwgirl]

It's been sooooo slow for me the past 2 or 3 days.

[Priscilla]

They did some kind of an upgrade last night. I saw the banner when I was on last night. i guess it didnt't help. :(

[charlize]

yeah me too ... I've been wonder when they will finish the upgrading :(

[BeccaBoo]

Oh yeah, it has been realllly slow the past few days.

[Nettio]

It's been really really slow for several days now. I haven't hardly left any praise there because it just takes forever and now that we're not supposed to open multiple tabs it's going to just be ridiculous. I really hope they can figure out a solution soon.

[Hom74]

It's always been super slow for me, but I realized what was really slowing it down was all those ads, so I found an adblocker and removed them. Moves MUCH quicker now - but is still one of the slower sites I visit.

Do share which one you used. I already have siggies disabled, would love to do that w/the ads too.

[mummytothree]

It was terrible for me yesterday, but I was just there about an hour ago and it seemed back to normal.

Karen if you use Norton you can turn on ad blocker in there and it doesn't show the ads at DST.

[ditzyscrap]

Do share which one you used. I already have siggies disabled, would love to do that w/the ads too.
Well I use Firefox, so I grabbed the add-on Adblock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) and then disabled these 2 addresses (add on the http://www part, lol...didn't want them to link):

digishoptalk.com/adbanners
digishoptalk.com/oldopenads

Now they don't show up. I tried another one but all it did was leave the space where they should have loaded with a blank square, it was so annoying, lol...this one makes them go away completely. :)

[ZaCola3]

Uggg its been just horrible!

[mummytothree]

Karen I just dug up my post over at DST when I was not seeing the banners and here it is.

http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=20541&highlight=banners

You can block ads through Firefox and then I explained how i blocked mine through Norton!

[tuneskids]

Well I use Firefox, so I grabbed the add-on Adblock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) and then disabled these 2 addresses (add on the http://www part, lol...didn't want them to link):

digishoptalk.com/adbanners
digishoptalk.com/oldopenads

Now they don't show up. I tried another one but all it did was leave the space where they should have loaded with a blank square, it was so annoying, lol...this one makes them go away completely. :)

Thanks Bree!!! I am breezin' through DST now! hehehe

[AmyM]

I keep getting an error message, since yesterday.

[Shawna]

It's been super slow for me too lately!

[AmyM]

wow thanks Bree! I just got onto DST and it is much faster with those ads disabled.

[ditzyscrap]

wow thanks Bree! I just got onto DST and it is much faster with those ads disabled.
Yeah, I don't know why her ads slow the site down so much, but they do. Even on high speed, I would find pages loading for 10 minutes AFTER all the siggies and avatars loaded, and it was just the dang ads. I was like...ixnay on the ads, I don't look at them anyway, so it's slowing me down AND using up my precious bandwidth (I'm limited to 10GB/month)...so off they went.

[BeccaBoo]

Oh I am going to have to try the ad blocker thing! Thanks for the info!

[juliemarie]

great idea on the ad blocker, because that is one of the slowest sites I visit. Although this morning (for me anyway) it has been faster than it has been in awhile

[Hom74]

Well I use Firefox, so I grabbed the add-on Adblock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) and then disabled these 2 addresses (add on the http://www part, lol...didn't want them to link):

digishoptalk.com/adbanners
digishoptalk.com/oldopenads

Now they don't show up. I tried another one but all it did was leave the space where they should have loaded with a blank square, it was so annoying, lol...this one makes them go away completely. :)

Thanks! d/l and hopefully it'll be installed the next time I restart :)

[meems]

thanks, Bree!

[Hom74]

Woot! I didn't have many tabs open so restarted. Now I can visit ad free too :)

[Hom74]

Very cool...and in ABP, it shows you how many 'hits'...whatever that means. Just 1 visit to DST (clicking on main forum page) showed 12 'hits'.

[ditzyscrap]

That means how many ads should have showed up but that you blocked. :) I think I have blocked about 2000 hits, lol...

[~Julie~]

It has been really slow for me.. I almost dont want to even go over there until it gets faster. I hate waiting for pages to load LOL

[Julie Billingsley]

Does anyone ever have the problem at DST where the page freaks out like the page turns black and the ads starts really freaking out like on super fast blinking. Then my whole internet freezes. It's so hard to go to DST anymore because that keeps happening to me. :( I have no idea how to solve it! And I use Internet Explorer.

[Shawna]

I installed the ABP in Firefox too & it seems to be going much faster so far! Thanks Bree!

[newfiemountiewife]

Does anyone ever have the problem at DST where the page freaks out like the page turns black and the ads starts really freaking out like on super fast blinking. Then my whole internet freezes. It's so hard to go to DST anymore because that keeps happening to me. :( I have no idea how to solve it! And I use Internet Explorer.

Mine locks up, and when I scroll down, the whole screen just turns into lines going down.....and the posts don't show. It's hard to explain, but it locks up my entire computer for a few minutes until it, I suppose, loads all the ads. The slowness lately has prevented me from visiting as much as I'd like to :(

[kscwgirl]

Mine locks up, and when I scroll down, the whole screen just turns into lines going down.....and the posts don't show. It's hard to explain, but it locks up my entire computer for a few minutes until it, I suppose, loads all the ads. The slowness lately has prevented me from visiting as much as I'd like to :(

Mine does that exact same thing Jamie, so I know exactly what you are talking about.

[Joan]

I have barely been visiting DST lately because it has been so slow. I know Shannon says it is almost entirely due to PhotoPost, but I honestly think there's more to it than that. PhotoPost would affect the forum to some degree, because they would share a database, but I can't see it being the sole reason.

I'm far from an expert, but their problems to me scream design issues. I suspect whoever designed/is designing their website doesn't have the cleanest code and is maybe not equipped to design a site of that size and traffic level. I don't know if they hired someone, or if it's a friend, or what the case is, but I think they might have to look into it. I love DST and I miss popping by there regularly, but there's only so much time in the day and it's way too time consuming to do anything there lately.

[newfiemountiewife]

To be honest, BEFORE the upgrade, the site ran a lot faster for me. Since they switched to the dedicated server, it's been horribly slow for me, and I run a DSL connection. I'm guessing dialuppers couldn't even get anything to load over there.

I miss hanging out over there like I'd like to, also.

[ditzyscrap]

Yeah, I really don't think the problem is PhotoPost. LOTS of sites use it, with just as much traffic, without problems...so I don't know.

[Joan]

Okay, so after posting I got around to checking out DST today and it is going much faster for me (the gallery is still a bit slow for commenting, mind you). I won't be surprised if it's bogged down again in a few days though. Seems like an ongoing cycle.

[amyb]

I installed the ABP in Firefox too & it seems to be going much faster so far! Thanks Bree!


I just installed this but do you have to go through and click on every ad to block it?

[mummytothree]

I just installed this but do you have to go through and click on every ad to block it?

I add those two that Bree suggested and it didn't work for me. I re started Firefox and my computer and it still didn't work. I had to open ABP (the little stop sign up in the right hand corner) and manual block all the ads. I might be an idiot though and not have know how to "do it right"!! :p :D

[ditzyscrap]

Go into your add-ons area and click on "Options" under AdBlocker Plus
When you are in the options, click on "Add Filter"
Type in http://www.digishoptalk.com/adbanners and click "OK"
Click on "Add Filter" again
Type in http://www.digishoptalk.com/oldopenads and click "OK"

They SHOULD disappear...at least they did for me! LOL!

[meems]

Go into your add-ons area and click on "Options" under AdBlocker Plus
When you are in the options, click on "Add Filter"
Type in http://www.digishoptalk.com/adbanners and click "OK"
Click on "Add Filter" again
Type in http://www.digishoptalk.com/oldopenads and click "OK"

They SHOULD disappear...at least they did for me! LOL!
that's what I did and it worked for me. :)

I think DST is running much faster now though. On our desktop I don't have the ads blocked and it seems to be zipping along. Haven't ventured in the gallery though.

[LenaGardner]

I know I got really discouraged the last couple of days, until they made some changes last night and today the forums are working for me great...I've not been in the gallery though :)

Here is what they did last night /will be doing this weekend to make a difference:

http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showpost.php?p=1130731&postcount=38

[shannonbieger]

Yeah, I really don't think the problem is PhotoPost. LOTS of sites use it, with just as much traffic, without problems...so I don't know.

If you can point me to one then I'll gladly contact them for their tips on how to clean up photopost's inefficient code. :) According to the photopost tech staff, we are not only one of their biggest but probably their busiest clients. I have yet to find a site that generates the same traffic we do in a photopost gallery. There are busier sites but those are usually busy in their stores or their forums. We're mostly busy in the forum and gallery. And they are integrated and that is why they effect one another. The ads program also effects it. We've turned off the verbose statistics and that's been a significant improvement. Those are the two major softwares that have caused us problems.

Truly, if you know of a site that generates as much photopost traffic as we do, please direct me to it. I'd love to know how to get it working faster.

[shannonbieger]

P.S. You're welcome to turn on your ad blockers but you'll be taking income away from us that way. Maybe you don't care and that's ok. But DST's survival depends on those ads. I'm not trying to sound .... however I might sound. :D You've gotta do what you've gotta do to make your experience at DST the way you like it. I just wanted you to be aware how that effects us. :)

[tuneskids]

it still took quite a while for it to load today before I put the ad blocker in. It has been a slow-loading site, for me anyways, pretty much since I started posting the odd post there. Which is one of the reasons for very few posts from me in the 1.5 years I have been a member there. And I've always had high-speed.

If it would load easily for me, I would gladly take the ad blocker off. But today was the first time any page has loaded in less than a minute for me.

[DogwoodMama]

I will say that I personally noticed improvement today since Shannon & Eric changed that "verbose ad" thing! It was running *unusually* slow the past day or so, and for me it is much better now. I don't block ads or siggies & it's never been as slow for me as some of you have described. *scratching head*

[ditzyscrap]

If you can point me to one then I'll gladly contact them for their tips on how to clean up photopost's inefficient code. :) According to the photopost tech staff, we are not only one of their biggest but probably their busiest clients. I have yet to find a site that generates the same traffic we do in a photopost gallery. There are busier sites but those are usually busy in their stores or their forums. We're mostly busy in the forum and gallery. And they are integrated and that is why they effect one another. The ads program also effects it. We've turned off the verbose statistics and that's been a significant improvement. Those are the two major softwares that have caused us problems.

Truly, if you know of a site that generates as much photopost traffic as we do, please direct me to it. I'd love to know how to get it working faster.
Well, I don't frequent any anymore, but back when I was paper scrapping there were tons of sites with as much traffic using PhotoPost and they worked well. Can't say for sure what their activity is anymore, but back in the day...lol. I haven't been to most of them in 3+ years. Maybe PhotoPost did some upgrades that really sucked in the last 3 years, I don't know...but from what I know, it's a pretty reliable gallery.

I wonder if the problem is PhotoPost and PHPadsNew running together, with so much traffic...I don't doubt that they bog down the database and sever. Maybe you could try hosting the ads on another domain/server and see if that speeds things up? It probably wouldn't have to be a big server...just to test it out and see.

[shannonbieger]

I've checked photopost's top sites and still haven't found anyone with as much gallery activity as ours (well I should say I checked it about a year ago and no one came close so I've never gone back). So if you happen to remember any of the names of the sites, please let me know. I'd love to pick their brains for ideas!

Photopost is reliable in that it's accurate and not buggy. But it's a system hog. We've been with 3 different server companies and all 3 have told us that photopost is the primary problem. These other issues (ad statistics, downloads at the beginning of the month, etc.) would all be a drop in the bucket if we weren't running photopost.