This was recently discussed, but I’m going to bring it up again. BMG has gotten to the point where if I even do decide to wade in, I open it in a separate tab within my browser and do other things while I wait for it to load. For those of you who remember the nomenclature of the glorious mainframe computing days, I’ve relegated BMG to a “batch” job.
The time varies and there seem to be several components that contribute, but the thing that I really notice is that it hangs multiple times, several seconds each, while “Transferring data from www.facebook.com”. Each such pause corresponds to a point where the plugin/widgit that creates the “Like” image and link is processed and displayed. Those of us who subscribe to BMG get it without ads – Maybe we should also have a configurable option to skip the social media stuff (which I never use).
The other thing that I don’t understand is why the right sidebar code appears last in the HTML. That piece paints really fast – it’s the content that takes up the majority (left side) of the browser that is slow. If the sidebar painted first, then it would give the user a full screen of usable content while the slow stuff fills in below the viewable window. This is web development 101 advice, not web rocket science.
I refrained from creating a thread for the Cup game last night because, if I had spent much time waiting for BMG, I probably would have missed a goal. Or two.
Anyway, thanks for the post. We are working on it – there is some testing ongoing now, and we’re hoping soon to implement some changes that will help.
According to Pingdom, the BMG homepage loads 1.1 MB of data, makes 268 HTTP requests, and takes 9.86 seconds to load. That seems like a lot of baggage. I would think leaner and meaner.
I was away for a few days, and when I came back, BMG was much slower than before. No other sites load this slowly.
about the slow “performance” of this terrific site. Personally I don’t mind — gives me more time to suppress negative thinking and gather the strength to resist making snarky disagreeable remarks to some of the …………….. never mind.
how to I get it back?
found the subscription link and just re-upped for a year. For the record BMG loads fine for me.
Why on Earth would I give money to a blog that cannot seem to provide normal loading speeds – let alone the promised comment-editing? As it stands, I’m on the verge of abandoning the place as unusable. Maybe you’ll count that as a feature.
about wasting 9.8 seconds, please consider checking in later to see if our editors have fixed it.
No BMG page loads that fast for me. Long threads that have a lot of comments take over a minute. I have been “checking later,” and have seen the opposite of progress.
It loads in a second or two every time, even on the longest threads. The right margins load last on the home page. Maybe once or twice I’ve had to wait 20-30 seconds, but only on a few occasions over several months, which I have always thought was network traffic rather than BMG servers. Comcast broadband? Google Chrome? That is why I use. Anyway, certainly sorry to hear about your frustrations and we are working on it: faster is always better. Subscribers certainly help: any money goes straight to the site.
As in a democracy, the more the communication, the slower it goes. …but one would like to believe the outcome is better. It’s loading fine over here, BTW.
Daily Kos just loaded for me in under four seconds. I’m not going to count bytes vs. bytes, etc., but information-wise it is comparable.
BMG home page is clocking in at about five seconds right now – not bad at all. I don’t know why it is so inconsistent for me.
Load times are reasonable now. I hope it lasts.