Adverts over the forum text?

[eFestivals]

For those of us who have bad sight or sit far from their computers (me on both counts) the site is now nearly un-useable when viewing zoomed in (see image)

strudders is registered as fully blind, but find it much better.

That's more than good enough for me.

I suggest sitting nearer your screen.

This is a huge pain in the ass, and I doubt I'll be using the site after glasto, if nothing can be done - and to be honest it will put me off coming back next year.

Oh well, maybe I can use cheaper servers with all the lower traffic I can expect next year. It's all good.

Also going to get the blogs working?

They are.

[crow]

I'll add that blocking the ads does not solve the problem for those with accessibility issues (listed above) the block to the right is still just as big.

As others said each page now takes an age to load. I am happy with ads - but 3 per page is a lot, esp. if all flash.

I fully understand you guys have to make a living and I love the community you built here - I try to click if anything is useful to me - but I don't see any about camping items, just bank ads etc.

Anyway, good luck getting it all working - I know what a pain these things can be, but hopefully you can make the site easy to use at zoomed in states again, and get the blogs working.

Cheers Admin,

Crow

[crow]

Blogs don't seem to be working for me:

/blog/crow/index.php?">http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/blog/crow/index.php?

/index.php?app=blog">http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/index.php?app=blog

I take what you say about site speed - I guess you are more popular this time of year. But as i said, need to have the text zoomed in to be able to see it generally - before i'd go to x4 zoom to be able to read from 4 foot (sat on my sofa) on a nice 24" screen - now i can't do either.

[eFestivals]

and get the blogs working.

which part of "the blogs are working" didn't you understand?

[Keyser Soze]

1. the site is running very slow today due to the hits the site is getting, and not for other reasons.

2. that 4 times difference (if it really exists) has far more to do with your own net connection than this website.

3. seeing as there's only pop-up set per session, you're either telling porkies or it's trying to call it every time only due to you using a blocker.

4. oh do f**k off you very sad little man.

5. oh dear how sad never mind. It stopped working for me on the BBC site last week. Because I became you, I demanded my licence fee back.

[scaryclaireyfairy]

having read this, i'm gonna stop blocking ads for this site. they bug the utter hell out of me but i can only imagine what the hosting and stuff costs for this place so i'm gonna grow up and accept it. i hadn't thought much about it before. besides, there might as well be something in the vast wasteland on the right of the page.

my only question is will the 'top' button be coming back under posts or does this version of ipb not have it?

[eFestivals]

Blogs don't seem to be working for me:

/blog/crow/index.php?">http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/blog/crow/index.php?

the fixed URLs for the blogs aren't currently working, but the blogs are.

I'm not sure if they've been discontinued in this version, or whether I just need to find the right place to switch it back on (I've looked and can't find it, but it might be there somewhere)

[crow]

which part of "the blogs are working" didn't you understand?

[pie_and_a_pint]

The site is running quicker for me; the ads are not causing any delay for me. I am running these forums no differently to anyone else.

So the issue is not the change to these forums but probably something to do with your own setup.

[eFestivals]

Yet loads of us are reporting issues? That we didnt have before, but no of course it's our connections?

It's not "loads", it's a small minority.

And the 'issue' that's bugging you is quite possibly to do with the traffic this site is getting today and not anything else.

Personal insults how nice, ah but you are all powerful, now wheres that forum decorum thread, or is it do as I say don't do as I do?

And what did I say in that thread? Nothing at all perhaps?

[Wiggum]

And what did I say in that thread? Nothing at all perhaps?

[eFestivals]

FYI I'm running exactly the same 'setup' as I was running before the site changed, and I estimate the load speed is about 4 times more than it was before.

an issue that's due to the traffic today, and not the forums change.

And you want me to PAY to use the site ad-free?

I don't "want" anyone to pay. It's an option, an option I made available a long time ago (well over a year) at the request of some users.

And as for you attitude to accessibility, suggesting someone 'sits closer to their computer screen' is, frankly, ridiculous.

No less ridiculous than someone with sight issues expecting any website to work well for them when sitting 4 feet away from the screen.

Had strudders said it wasn't usable, I'd be very concerned.

But for crow, the issue is very largely one of his/her own making, by their choice to sit a very long way from the screen despite having sight issues. It's simply not possible for any website to present things in such as way that is able to address every scenario that anyone might want to create.

[eFestivals]

Also, if the increased traffic is the reason for the slowness, why does it load at a reasonable speed with the adverts blocked?

I've little idea, just as you have.

But I'm able to do a proper test of it, unlike you. And those tests show that there's almost no difference, with the small difference (and it is small) being able to be accounted by the smallish amount of extra data that's transferred because of the ads.

So a more than reasonable assumption is that your own 'net connectivity is poor in some directions, such as the in accessing sites in some places but not others.

Also have to agree on the "sitting closer to the screen" tip. Great advice there...

4 ft is a far from standard distance away from a screen, and will always make the user's viewing worse, with a much higher impact for someone with sight problems.

It doesn't take a genius to work that out, and I'm no genius. Gawd knows what that makes you.

[pie_and_a_pint]

an issue that's due to the traffic today, and not the forums change.

[eFestivals]

Well, the old site was never this slow, even on t-day...

oh yes it was. I'm in the position of being able to see all the relevant data, which you're not.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one, but may I politely suggest that a week before the biggest festival on the calendar was a bit of a daft time to make all these changes... people will assume they are the reason for the 'dialup' speeds being experienced at the moment.

This was all within my considerations, but was over-ridden by other factors which I consider of more importance.

[pie_and_a_pint]

oh yes it was. I'm in the position of being able to see all the relevant data, which you're not.

[eFestivals]

Fine, you have access to all the behind the scenes stuff. But from a USER point of view, I am telling you that this site is slower today than I have ever experienced before. Just take it as a bit of constructive feedback, will you, instead of sniping back at anyone who dares to suggest anything other than perfection...

There is no sniping, just informing you of the real facts rather than your wrongly assumed ones.

I'm well aware that things are slower today than normal, but I'm also aware of why - much greater traffic.

Things slowed down far more on all of the t-days of the past 4+ years than they are now - but there was also a lot more traffic on those occasions than there is now. If you didn't experience things running this slow, then you cannot have visited here at a particularly busy time on those days.

Considering the traffic today and the load that traffic is putting onto the servers, things are running as well as might be expected with that context in mind.

[eFestivals]

Considering the traffic today and the load that traffic is putting onto the servers, things are running as well as might be expected with that context in mind.

.... as is now being proven now that the load has come down significantly (while still be 3 times or so what it might normally be), while the number of users on the forums is about what it's been all day.

[Red Day]

I liked the old forums

Maybe it's just that I'm not fond of change

[crow]

Just to clarify what I was refering to before - here is an example of the standard Engadget homepage not zoomed in:

And here is the page when you do zoom in - notice how you can scroll left and right to see the whole page:

As you can see you can now see the text is larger and also has more space - I am guessing that there is some fixed width stuff going on in your new design - so you can't make the actual page bigger and be able to scroll left and right, it's just constrained the boxes and making the text larger in the same space:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2418a4k.jpg

---

Anyway, if there is nothing you can do about this - that's fine - just making you aware - I don't know of many other sites that constrain the page like that, generally zooming in on most modern sites is fine, used to be a big problem in the past.

I don't think 4 foot is really that far - when sitting close I bet most peoples faces is still around 2 to 3 foot (eye to monitor distance), but again - just explaining my use case, but wasn't saying your site has to work for me, just the situations under which others (without my poor sight) might want to zoom.

---

I understand you guys probably feel under attack a bit at thte moment - but as I said - cheers for all the work you guys do - it's still a fun community and addressing the needs of every customer is never easy! And the site is faster right now - so doubt anything to do with the adverts, for me at least.

Cheers efestivals

Edited June 14, 2010 by crow

[sprocketrocket]

I don't want to stir things up too much, but the site was extremely slow today at 'work'.... yet its running absolutley fine at home and on my iPhone. I can only assume its due to the prehistoric version of ie we have at work.

[elbongo]

Can we still have a lo graphics version or is that dead in the water? Obviously you don't earn money from this so its unlikely. Trying to view this on a mobile is pointless. Its definitely slower. The full graphic befoe change was ok but now its a complete waste of time.

I miss my efest fix. I can only view when I am home. Thats not often at the mo,

Niel! Jeebus would you snap out of it man! Whats happened bud???

[eFestivals]

As you can see you can now see the text is larger and also has more space - I am guessing that there is some fixed width stuff going on in your new design - so you can't make the actual page bigger and be able to scroll left and right, it's just constrained the boxes and making the text larger in the same space:

yep, I'm aware of this issue, and am trying to find a solution - there might even be one in the next hour or so, fingers crossed.

[crow]

cheers mate - excellent stuff. Now we can all just go back to important things in life - like deciding which cider is best or how to stick a foil sheet to a tent...

Edited June 14, 2010 by crow

[eFestivals]

An amended skin has just been uploaded and applied, which should stop some of these issues for some users.

Other issues are still being looked into, but due to a funeral and related issues to that, there's limited time for issues such as this for the next day or two.