* Slow Forum

[TSG]

The FHUG forums seem to be suffering from poor performance. It seems to take ages for the pages to display (compared to other web sites). Does it need a bit of weeding maybe?

ID:5833

[Jane]

I don't find it that slow, are there particular options which you find slow?

Also remember I pay for the hosting of this site and other than the occasional donation and a bit of commission from Amazon, I don't have the funds to pay for top of the range hosting.

To be honest I have been looking to replace the base software for the forum for a while, but have not had time to write all the programs required to export all the data and convert to one of the more modern software programs such as Joomla, I estimate I have around 3 weeks (solid) coding to do all the converts, as the current forum is completely text based so I need to write conversion routines for every element as none currently exist.

[TSG]

I understand the resource problems - just mentioned because as I am moving around the Beta Testing posts it sometimes takes some minutes for the details of a post to appear.

[Jane]

It shouldn't be that slow, I am getting around .5 second responses this morning.

[johnmorrisoniom]

I have had a lot of slow responses from lots of websites while using IE (8 and 9), so slow that pages timed out.
I have now given up and switched to google chrome, even though the FMP enhanced viewer doesn't work in it.

[TSG]

I agree re Chrome! I only go near IE for compatibility testing or if I get to an MS site which needs it and although I used to love Firefox and mourned the loss of the Google toolbar for a while I now only use it for testing.

[Dagwood]

Jane said:
It shouldn't be that slow, I am getting around .5 second responses this morning.

Hi Jane, just to let you know down here in darkest Cornwall I'm getting response times of less than a second also.
It's seems a shame that not everyone makes a donation to FHUG or AS. Possibly the answer is to emulate CuriousFox and have viewing only members and Full members. The latter being those who have made a contribution. The full member has the ability to respond to, and ask, questions. What do others think? Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Dagwood

[KSS]

No problems here with XP Home/SP3 and IE8.

[TSG]

Dagwood said:
It's seems a shame that not everyone makes a donation to FHUG or AS. Possibly the answer is to emulate CuriousFox and have viewing only members and Full members. The latter being those who have made a contribution. The full member has the ability to respond to, and ask, questions. What do others think? Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Dagwood

Although I appreciate the resource problems, personally if FHUG were to become a chargeable service then I would expect something more for the money. The thing I personally would want for my money is for the Wish List to be actively responded to by FH ie for users to be able to get submit bug reports and change requests directly and get a direct response from the supplier. My understanding is that FHUG is independent from FH so this is not likely to happen.

[nsw]

TSG said:The thing I personally would want for my money is for the Wish List to be actively responded to by FH ie for users to be able to get submit bug reports and change requests directly and get a direct response from the supplier.

I have never before heard anyone suggest they'd pay to be able to report bugs in software they've bought!

[TSG]

I agree it would be weird - like having a support contract for professional/commercial software when it's just a home software package.

[nsw]

Support contacts for commerical systems are for rather more than just reporting bugs - you expect something to be done about it! Usually they allow you to speak to someone, get fast responses, get someone to look at your particular problem, possibly visit you on site, etc. In many cases it will also get you free upgrades even to major new versions. I agree that some people might be prepared to pay for that!

[PeterR]

Meanwhile we should all be very grateful that we have this User Group with so many  users who are prepared to provide considerable assistance to others, and to provide some financial support.

[nsw]

Yes indeed well said Peter. Please make a donation to the FHUG website if you find it useful and you haven't made one for a while. You'll miss it if it disappears one day.

Nick

[Johnyeates]

I have had no problems with slowness, it all seems instantaneous.
Could it be something to do with the guys hardware/software.