Speed

[board]

How is the speed of the site for everyone? We want to make sure that everything stays as quick as possible and I think possibly the number of images we have rotating on the front page of the site is slowing things down a little for first time visitors especially (while all the images load).

If anyone has any feedback on the comparison of the speed of the front end of the site, the forum and the site as a whole that would be great. If you can also run a speed test on your connection by using speed.io we can get an idea of what we can do to make sure you are getting your zed fix as fast as possible.

Thanks everyone.

 

[HornelZ3M]

I never complain but when i click on to .org it does take a fair time to load. I thought it was the computer but the other site comes straight up :zap

 

[Snoops]

For me personnaly I have to confess I more often than not skip straight to the forum and I'm finding the home page a bit heavy with all the features. I find navigating to the Wiki section quite slow to load if I go straight from the home page but not slow if I go from one of the other pages ??

Do you think, just a suggestion, now we have a photography section and the opportunity to upload all the photos we want that it's worth considering removing the pics from the homepage, I tend to see only the one - the one that's on the page when I first come on to the site. Maybe put the logo back but have a birthday or any other "special pics" just as an occassional change? Just my opinion.... I think you're doing a fantastic job :-bd

 

[Jonttt]

I link stright to the forum page as well and totally bypass the homepage. Nothing against it but I tend to jump in and out quickly stright to the latest posts summary.

 

[Boysie]

I link straight to forum page
I go from emails from org to topic
i Did the speed test
Results
Download 38110kbits
Upload 1831 kbits
Ping 14
Evaluation 2992
i think the net was busy tonight

 

[Snoops]

Speed test in case it's helpful

 

[Titan]

My download speed averages about 6mB but with #2 son playing XBox live it is abysmal.
I rarely visit the home page (my shortcut takes me to new posts) but I agree it is getting slower.
The rolling pictures is a nice idea but I think Snoops' idea of the banner except for birthdays is better.
Not many people use the chat function although it is a novel idea that some may find attractive as we progress.

 

[La_vida_diver]

I can give two feedbacks. one in stockport where I have 38M fibre connection and the home page is fine and I notice no delay the other is in Devon where we have 700K shared between 3 houses and then even when everyone else is in bed I do not get to see the pictures as I can't be bothered to wait and I move onto the forum board.
I hope that is of use. If nothing else it rules out computers as I use the same one at both ends


TTFN

 

[board]

That's great everyone. Thanks for the feedback. I'll do some tweaking in the next few days to speed it up a little by removing the amount of images we have etc.

I think it's important to keep the front end so that we can build a knowledge base that doesn't get lost in the forum. It also helps us with google to have the information clearly available so as the wiki area grows it will all help. I'm looking at various things so hopefully those with progress threads will be able to have a progress page which can be updated, again having a nice page all about the specific car. Then linking into the forum where the questions can be asked and the discussions take place. I think this is more of a long term thing that you may see the benefit of in time and also help new visitors to the site to get right to the information they need quickly so encouraging them in to the forum too.

It would be really nice to have some reports from events that we can display in a section on the front of the site so that will also hopefully encourage people to join in.

I don't think the chat is used much, as you say, so we can leave it on its own page and drop it from the front page. How do the static forum links compare to the scrolling version? Is it quicker for you to see the latest posts by scanning the static links or do you want to keep the scrolling version. The down side with the scrolling version is that it is flash based so doesn't work on everything.

I also have another trick up my sleeve to make it go faster but that is going to require a fair bit of work so still doing the feasibility side as the site needs to be easy to manage by those that look after it.

Keep the feedback coming so we can continue to move forward

 

[board]

Ok so I couldn't wait and had to have a quick play with the layout for the front page.

Dropped the images and the scrolling posts box (I am hunting for something to replace this which is fast to load and globally compatible - I think we may have to code something for this)

Zorg logo added top left

Right hand column removed to give more space for the news

Left column;
forum user details (if logged in) at the top
Upcoming event
Latest posts (this we will replace with something nicer)
Forum quick links

At the bottom we have links to the wiki pages
Current zorg Facebook status
Recent zorg tweets
Quick Links

If you click on the down arrow next to the search then you will get some weather info. We can set this to whatever locations we want so i just made a selection up for an example.

This should load much faster now. While looking at it on the screen just now I have been thinking that we might move the latest posts into the centre of the page (with a nice scroller) and have the news in another tab like the charity tab.

Thoughts?

 

[Jamezee]

Fast enough for me :-bd but i do tend to go straight to the forum

 

[La_vida_diver]

I particularly like the upcoming events as it addresses a concern I had that the Zfest being an older topic was less likely to be spotted by newcomers. What about doing it as a link to the topic though is that an easy change?

In that vein whilst I think we do not want to regionalise the site for events the East Anglian crew and the Welsh sheep chasers appear to be active at putting things together socially I wonder if it is worth identifying the region of events. Along the line of National (for Zfest and the like) Wales (Élan valley cruise) Scotland, Lakes, Europe etc?

As I think about this I think the front page could have direct links to big events but then a hook maybe identified as regional events which takes you to the forthcoming events page.

With regard to speed I am in Stockport again at present and for me it was instant. Not as pretty especially for newcomers and as others have argued most regulars will go direct to the forum pages. Do we lose newcomer impact?

I like both to be clear just trying to constructivly contribute things that come to mind :-bd ^^

Just seen the Event Calendar which I like much so!! the event details could do with a link to the thread though is it can :-bd

 

[hard top]

Not as pretty especially for newcomers and as others have argued most regulars will go direct to the forum pages. Do we lose newcomer impact?

I agree 100% with this comment.
I have spoken to people (non Z owners) who had visited the site and commented on the fact that it looked like a very slick and professional car forum and were even more impressed when I told them that most of the pics are of members cars.

No one complained about the speed of the site!
Just my 2 Euros worth.

 

[Titan]

^^ +1
The front page needs at least one piccy of a Zed
Could you cycle it on eg a daily basis?
At the moment it looks very bland
The stuff we need is tiny down the LHS and the 2/3 to the RHS I've never used
I agree with losing the scroll though - IMHO it was an un-necessary attempt to recreate something from the past :ymblushing:

 

[Boysie]

A bit slow this morning
It must be James playing
Like most on here, i dont go to the home page
It looks a bit bland now 'Sorry' its lost its wow impact
Thats only my opinion

 

[billz]

Same here. Without the pics on the front page it isnt very appealing especially for new members wanting to join.
bill

 

[TWO]

^^ +1
The front page needs at least one piccy of a Zed
Could you cycle it on eg a daily basis?
At the moment it looks very bland
The stuff we need is tiny down the LHS and the 2/3 to the RHS I've never used
I agree with losing the scroll though - IMHO it was an un-necessary attempt to recreate something from the past :ymblushing:

With the old addage "No one likes change", I have to agree with Titan.......I'm afraid the new front page looks very very bland & unenticing with too much information thrown at you in one screen.......brain overload ~x(

I also like a few other members go straight to the Forum links......now further down the LHS

As we all love looking at our Zeds for insperation; at least one pic would be appreciated

That said, its still a great site :-bd

 

[Jonttt]

Not sure if its any use but results from a 50mb fibre optic connection this morning:

Everything looks spot on to me in terms of speed and ping (the upload speeds are better than I get on most sites)

 

[stevie_a]

I like the look of that speed test what site is that ?

 

[Jonttt]

Speed.IO

Board tried to create a clicky above but got the code wrong :-^