Greetings, Cranky Users! Perhaps you saw the good news in elfling's most recent diary, which we republished here for you.
The main offerings were, 1) a color change for read/unread links in some contexts, hopefully to make it easier to tell the difference, and 2) a personal favorite of mine, your Recent Replies list is now ordered by MOST RECENT REPLY, not by the time of your original comment!
As if that weren't enough, for those who want very much to know whether a user is banned, Mets102 describes here how you can check by a simple url tweak.
In these times of arriving ponies, it's sometimes hard to remain cranky. Our reader CroneWit has done considerable research into the issue of tracking cookies and slow DK4 speeds for dialup users such as herself. (Note: I don't know CroneWit and am rashly assuming a gender based on username, so I apologize if I have it wrong.) She does not wish to diary these results herself, but has asked that we print them in this space, so I will give over the space below the squiggle to her crankiness-inducing work, which ends by posing some questions.
At the end, we'll look at a conversation on slowness in elfling's thread, in which kos gives a couple of rounds of response, not to CroneWit's research but on the general topic of speed. I offer this neither as rebuttal of CroneWit nor as dismissal of kos, but just to show the latest example I'm aware of, of the general thrust of site management's view of the speed issue. We know that kos reads DK4-tagged diaries, and we welcome his comments on the specific issues brought up below.
From CroneWit:
On Mon Feb 28 2001, I wrote comments in Belinda's Cranky User post re: slow loading on XP/dialup. This led to research on ping.chartbeat.net, which I also posted as a comment.
Research said that 'hanging' may result from improper coding of chartbeat entry (which should be final command), leading to 'hanging' caused by scripts earlier in the queue. QUERY: were earlier scripts being 'hung' by improper chartbeat coding?
Today, (Mar 1 2001), after the Diaries page had loaded completely, I pulled up NoScript and got a list of running scripts (including one greyed-out script for 'about:neterror'). Then I disabled chartbeat in NoScript and reloaded the Diaries page. After I disabled chartbeat in NoScript, both the Diaries page and the Front Page loaded much more quickly, in a very reasonable time relative to other sites.
After disabling chartbeat, additional scripts shown by NoScript were:
fbcdn.net
facebook.com
The fact that two scripts showed up after chartbeat was disabled suggests that the chartbeat code is not in its proper place, causing the two previously-invisible scripts to make dKos 'hang'. A link to the proper placement of chartbeat code was included in my previous comment, linked above.
No info yet on fbcdn.net.
Three dKos scripts represent 'media research' trackers. In today's climate, I am extremely uneasy about any kind of tracking, particularly those trackers that leave long-term tracking cookies in my hard drive. Long-term tracking cookies 'phone home' the instant I go online, and report on every site I visit. I object to this on two grounds: (1) ain't nobody's business but my own, and (2) the burgeoning HBGary scandal demonstrates clearly that Government and Business are in cahoots regarding tracking internet use. (See barrettbrown's diary of Mar 1. These bad guys have also co-produced an extremely nasty piece of malware that they’re just crazy enough to use. I work hard to keep my computer secure, and I really don't appreciate having dKos facilitate the insertion of intrusive, and possibly malevolent, cookies into my hard drive.
My online research on chartbeat didn't find any info about tracking cookies, but I did find their cookies in my Firefox/Options box yesterday.
My research today told me that both Quantserve and Scorecardresearch insert long-term tracking cookies into user's hard drives.
Why does dKos need THREE tracking services (chartbeat, scorecardresearch, quantserve, and possibly fbcdn)? Why this replication? And why is dKos, in effect, giving these companies permission to insert long-term tracking cookies in my hard drive without my knowledge or consent?
Non-subscribing dKos users are required to allow ads, and dKos polices these users’ AdBlock settings by putting up a gray-screen instructing users to re-allow dKos when an AdBlock update blocks dKos's ads. Now, believe it or not, I'm not objecting to the ads -- I understand their necessity. But here are the questions:
1. Are dKos users -- subscribers and non-subscribers -- REQUIRED by dKos' terms of service to allow dKos to insert long-term tracking cookies from at least three companies into their hard drives to report on every site they visit?
2. And even if the insertion of long-term tracking cookies is not required, will the site work for users who take steps to protect their online privacy by blocking these, and similar, sites?
And a related question: If those of us who don't use Facebook, Twitter, or other sharing/social media sites disable these scripts for their own browsers, will other users who (for example) want to tweet about a non-Twitter-users comment still be able to do so?
And here’s a question that goes outside the bounds of dKos: Do services exist that (1) allow the kind of statistical tracking you need for site management (2) WITHOUT invading users’ Internet privacy and creating the possibility of tracking and/or malware insertion by malefactors? If not -- this could be a business opportunity for Anonymous. I’d trust them to build it right.
The thread I mentioned in the intro is here. Below is the portion including kos's remarks.
java and java script and older computers (7+ / 0-)
In comparison to how dk3 worked well with older computers and slow service, dk4 seems to not allow active participation on dkos.
(with java and javascript turned off to avoid it's resource hogging behavior)
Kos has said they have relied more on images instead of whatever they did before.
It seems Java and java script are NOW required:
* to expand comments, and thus, to post cogent replies to either comments or the diarist
* to rec comments
* to open comment streams only, without the diary
* to recommend diaries
and probably other important aspects I will remember later ...
You'll agree it's worthless to try to participate here without this capability.
If I want to be told things, I'll read magazines and newspapers...that's not my main reason to be here.
I turned off java and java script and blocked images, and lo and behold, dkos loaded sooo much quicker.
So my question is:
Is this a permanet change or will resources and 'user interface improvements be made' to correct this. In other words, do I have to get a new computer and spend the time and money to be able to actively participate?
Things have improved slightly, but things are still really slow to load and slow to expand...so maybe it's being fixed.
But I think it's baked into this cake.
Do I eat it?
Thanks for your patient efforts elfling.
"Responsible people leave neither loaded guns nor paranoid, eliminationist ideologies laying around for the mentally ill to play with".....Driftglass
by KenBee on Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 03:13:41 AM EST
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This site requires javascript, yes (12+ / 0-)
Now what we have still can be significantly optimized, and that will be a continuous process in perpetuity.
But if your question is whether there will be a non-JS version of the site, then the answer is no.
The mobile site will eventually allow commenting and recommending, and will be the backup for those whose computers are too old to handle new web technologies.
by kos on Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 03:29:47 AM EST
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Thanks, like I said, it has been improving (9+ / 0-)
I can sometimes expand and comment, sometimes it's too slow..I steal Mrs Bee's sometimes if I can sneak on...
Look forward to the mobile version:>
"Responsible people leave neither loaded guns nor paranoid, eliminationist ideologies laying around for the mentally ill to play with".....Driftglass
by KenBee on Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 03:44:48 AM EST
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The (16+ / 0-)
"sometimes too slow" thing is part of the BIG CACHE BUG. It's the source of, I'd guesstimate, 70% of site complaints. It's that big. And it's requiring a complete rewrite of a significant chunk of the site.
I'm not kidding, we're all desperate to see that one fixed for good.
by kos on Wed Mar 02, 2011 at 03:55:51 AM EST
Thanks for reading, Cranky Users! Please use the comment thread to talk about all your DK4 issues, not just ones related to dialup slowness.