Please, do something about it!

from WinCustomize Forums
I am getting a lot of e-mails from people complaining that they can not reach my page in Wincustomize, I guess, that also they can't reach other authors with a lot of work, like treetog, BoXXi etc
They are waiting a lot and in the end, the most of times, they get a blank page!!!
The most of the people around the world they don't have very fast connections.

For the authors them selves, it is very easy and helpful the new style of their page, without the thumbnails, but for the members-visitors... it is a problem!

How about if the page will saw as the rest of categories?
5,10,20 thumbnails according to their preferences, with pages 1-2-3-4-5 etc

Even the best site can be better

7,859 views 25 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Adni - If they register their Stardock products or best of all subscribe to this site they should not have these problems!

If that is not possible here are some alternate links...

http://adni18.deviantart.com/deviations

http://www.skinbase.org/gallery.php?uname=adni18
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
this subscription thing is turning into some kind of religous cult

i am pretty sure there are tens of thousands registered WindowBlinds users that have not subscribed to this site (yes, i know it is free for StarDock customers).

Adni made many skins, so his skins portofolio takes long to load, also i am pretty sure people like to see thumbnails as preview, just not as many. Adni´s idea is pretty good actually.
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So what you're saying Bill, is that if I subscribe, my connection will get faster?
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No, but this site might load faster....
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me decides to try an experiment

having just clicked on "show all authors skins" for adni18, on my work (a LOT faster than my home) connection, i get the following results:

after loading the page for 3.5 minutes, 120 items remaining to load

4 minutes - 84 items remaining

4.5 minutes - 63 items remaining

i stopped timing it at this point.

and before someone suggests subscribing, i already have, and this is a level 4 account, i just dont use SkinBrowser on this machine.

but if it will make people feel better i can repost this with a skin browser icon underneath

i think it is fair to say that for normal users a multi-page list of the authors works would be a good idea
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I just loaded Adni's entire collection from home on a so-so cable connection in 42 seconds....

I'm all for anything that will help out the site's b/w issues. If that would help I hope they add it to the to do list.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bill...........I am an OD subscriber, so I have the top of the line access here.................but as feline has demonstrated, it takes much too long to load a page such as adni's skins..............
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bill Sawyer - I just loaded Adni's entire collection from home on a so-so cable connection in 42 seconds....

/me wants Bills connection!!!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yep, me too, the whole list of Adni's skin oaded in 30 seconds here.
But I agree, most people are still on a slow modem. :/
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I made a quick test.

Adni's page took me 1:10 minutes to load when I had 630 persons connected to the site.

My page took 2:25 minutes to load when I had 690 people connected.

Well, I am on a ADSL 256kbps connection and I think it is to long for a wait, so I agree with Adni, maybe author pages should be break down to a maximum of 50 skins per page.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
treetog,

I'm a modem user and pages bog down when they have more than 10 skins per page.

My suggestion:

In "Edit Account Preferences" > "Web Viewing Preferences" there is a max # of skins per page option. You might want to make this apply to lists of author's skins as well as the regular galleries.

My $0.02
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes, this has been a long standing issue and has been on my list of things to do. Unfortunately time is a key issue. Or more specifically my time. I am working on multiple projects so trying to do updates to WinCustomize is sporadic. Making these changes is not a 15 minute fix because of the way things were implemented in the beginning.

There are many issues involving the speed of the site and we will address them as soon as possible. Unfortunately changing the author pages is not high on my list at the moment. Please have some patience while we will generally be addressing one issue at a time.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thank you T-Man in advance, from me and all the other poor users, with 56k modems

Just for the history, I want to mention, that it is not only the 1 or 2 or 4 minutes that are bothering the users, but the fact, that after this period of time, if the page doesn't make it to load, it doesn't load at all! The result in these cases, is just a blank page, "end of time" it says !!!
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Treetog: your skins page to load for me: 17 seconds. Get cable already!
It takes longer for the server to reply and show me the page (30 seconds) than for the images to load.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Only took about 8 seconds on the T3. How do you guys do it with dailup??? I think I'd have to hang myself if I had to wait on 56k. No wonder you guys are ticked!
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me wishes cable came near his house.............
The price of country living........ 28.8........when I'm lucky, normally 26.4
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I envy you paxx and I almost hate you ToeJo

My sympathy Koasati and congrats for living in the country
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well, I think it must depend on how many people are logged on the site when you try, I just made another attempt and my page loaded in 31 secs with 434 persons logged in the same time
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Try loading MY page! https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?AuthorID=194 I have never got it to load yet on this crappy modem. BUT tomorrow I am getting a 1mb Broadband connection!!!! WooHoo, can't wait.
I hope T-Man gets around to this problem soon, but I know he is a busy man, and he WILL deal with it eventually.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ah yes that is true andi. you have like 1000 skins!!!

and others too does not load or loads half the images. the best thing to do is refresh the page and maybe you will get all the stuff.

I haven't been here for as long as others but from what I have seen of the site and of database design along with asp/html web deisgn it is not a easy fix. looks like a lot of coding will have to be done in order to change the way it loads. My sugesstion is to load by catagory and send your friends the url by catorgory. that way it loads so many per page.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Adni´s work loads fine by me, i have adsl (dutch stuff ) 60kb/s
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It was never personal problem joetheblow It is not about my friends, it is a problem for thousand of visitors and members, who are still using traditional 56k modems to visit this site. I hope it is clear for you now
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just tryed upgrading to Norton Internet
Security 2003. Could not install unless
I uninstalled window blinds. Works fine
with 2002. Has anyone run into this
problem. XP os.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
gotta love cable even though im sharing it with the 4 other comps in the house, Adni's stuff won't load for me though the page just times out...