Askwoody.com Slowing to a Crawl

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Hey Woody,

You know, I’ve been coming over to your page (and Infoworld) for information for some time now… you know what I’ve noticed?

Every time I load up one or more of your pages (and/or Inforwold) my computer slows down to a crawl… I mean a snails pace!

What’s up with this?

Too many bit robbing ads? What gives?

Do I need to start relying on someone else for information?

I really do appreciate your articles, and your expertise, but if I have to sacrifice my sanity and patience (attitude would be more plainly put here) then I’m out of here buddy.

I absolutely HATE a website that sucks my processor, memory and ability to work at normal speed.

Vic

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Hey Woody,

I’ve been “researching” this issue with my machine slowing to a crawl when on your page and this is what I’ve found:
1. Your “Ask Woody” page isn’t slowing down my machine and other web pages, at least not by itself.

2. Inforworld definitely IS tying it up, at least when it’s open at the same time as your “Ask Woody” page is open, separate tabs of course.

So what’s up with this ?
You’re affiliated with “Infoworld”, right ?

I’ve been depending on these two sites for the bulk of my information regarding keeping my Win7 and avoiding WinX at all costs. I can’t take sitting at my computer for hours and hours though doing what should be able to be done in minutes.

Respectfully,
Vic

Windows 7 Premium SP1
Custom built machine (by me)

 
Edited: please remember the Lounge rules

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I had this issue on InfoWorld a while ago and was actually working with them on a support case.
The issue has been resolved since then, but this may be due to keeping my version of Firefox up to date at any time, the day after release.
If you use Firefox and experience this issue, it may be worth upgrading if not running the latest version.
You have 2 options: Firefox for end-users and Firefox ESR, which I use.

Woody has limited options in relation to the performance of InfoWorld where he is a Senior contributing editor and not the owner of the site.

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@ ch100

I have just tested the Infoworld.com website with the non-up-to-date Firefox 51 on a Linux machine. There is no lag or slowdown to a crawl. Hype and FUD ?
. . Of course, the Firefox Preference Privacy custom setting is to “clear cookies and history when I close Firefox” = minimal cache web content.

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No hype or FUD at all.
InfoWorld is overloaded with content related to their business model and while I don’t know why the slowdowns occur, it is very possible to happen in certain circumstances and combinations of browsers and OS.
I experienced this slowdown and if I don’t experience it any longer, this is not because I found the root cause of the problem.

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woody

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I suspect the problem is with you, not the websites. My machine is a very basic model bought more than 5 years ago and I have no problems with either website or both together.

BTW, I think you will find that this site is provided free of charge to help people. Consequently Woody owes you nothing and I don’t think it is appropriate to post aggressive phrases like:

“What’s up with this? / Too many bit robbing ads? What gives? / Do I need to start relying on someone else for information?”

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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Alice

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I’m using Firefox and Chrome (sometimes IE11, but too seldom to draw any conclusions) for AskWoody and haven’t noted any slowdowns.

Fractal Design Pop Air * Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 750W * ASUS TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS * Intel Core i9-11900K * 4 x 8 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 3600 MHz CL16 * ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC * XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB * SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB * Samsung EVO 840 250GB * DVD RW Lite-ON iHAS 124 * Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit Insider * Windows 11 Pro Beta Insider

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I’m not seeing any slowdowns on AskWoody. As for the InfoWorld site, it works fine for me on Chrome, Firefox, IE and Edge – all latest versions – but it does have an infuriating 20-second screen grabbing ad, and a LOT of ancillary ads.

This site has a handful of ads, but they’re static and minimal. There’s an ad under the first entry on most pages and an ad under the heading “Doubts about the following ad?”. Both of those come from an ad broker who’s been very, very good at keeping cr*p ads off this site.

Under “Highly recommend” I stick Amazon affiliate links to things that I think are worthwhile. In most cases, I’ve already bought and paid for the items, and recommend them.

The “Shop related products” ad is generated by Amazon based on the items showing on the current page.

Then there’s an affiliate ad for my book, pointing to Amazon (where I get a tiny affiliate credit) or Powell’s (where I don’t).

That’s it, other than the static nagging in the upper right corner.

I believe AskWoody is the LEAST ad-burdened site covering Microsoft that you’re likely to find. The ads are barely enough to keep the site going. Doubt that I’ll ever get to the point where I’m making minimum wage on my time here.

BTW, @samak, if you think that’s aggressive, you should see some of my expletive-laden email. It’s amazing to me how some people feel entitled to free help, not from the multi-billion-dollar company that sold them a product, but from volunteers.

6 users thanked author for this post.

Alice, Elly, JohnW, Kirsty, Capella, HiFlyer

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woody wrote:

BTW, @samak, if you think that’s aggressive, you should see some of my expletive-laden email. It’s amazing to me how some people feel entitled to free help, not from the multi-billion-dollar company that sold them a product, but from volunteers.

That is very shocking and depressing. No good deed goes unpunished…

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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anonymous wrote:

Hey Woody, You know, I’ve been coming over to your page (and Infoworld) for information for some time now… you know what I’ve noticed? Every time I load up one or more of your pages (and/or Inforwold) my computer slows down to a crawl… I mean a snails pace! What’s up with this? Too many bit robbing ads? What gives? Do I need to start relying on someone else for information? I really do appreciate your articles, and your expertise, but if I have to sacrifice my sanity and patience (attitude would be more plainly put here) then I’m out of here buddy. I absolutely HATE a website that sucks my processor, memory and ability to work at normal speed. Vic

You really need to check your computer setup.  I was running a fast single single core 32-bit system until a few years ago, but the current web technology assumes every user now has a modern multi-core CPU.  I started noticing problems particularly with Flash or media heavy heavy sites.  Javascript has also gotten much more aggressive with page viewing.

Ever since I upgraded to a dual core 64-bit processor, any delays I experienced were usually due to real-time security software introducing scan delays.  I have since tuned that to a minimum, using browser plugins with blocklists such as uBlock Origin, as well as disabling unnecessary startup programs using Sysinternals Autoruns.

Now my web browsing is generally smooth and uninterrupted, no matter the browser or site visited…  Life is good again! 

 

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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There must be something else wrong with the setup of your computer.I am running a 2009 HP Pavilion series 6000 Desktop, 6 GB Ram, 1 TB HHD; with the original Oct 2009 Windows 7 SP 1 x 64, and I have never had any slow downs running AskWoody.com and Info World together or separately. I still haven’t figured out what might be causing your problem.

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The only problem I’m having tonight is that I’ve just replied to the latest blog on Windows 10 usage and although it shows I replied a few minutes ago and won’t allow me to submit the reply again as it’s a repeat of an existing one, the original reply is nowhere to be seen. Whether that is entirely down to a delay in showing it (I’m not anonymous and even if I was it would show it as subject to moderation) or there’s some other gremlin at work I don’t know.

EDIT: The original reply has finally appeared some 22 minutes after it was listed. Strange, never had that happen before. I’m using Chrome if that’s of any significance.

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Looks like your reply got caught in the sp*m filter. I restored it. It has to do something with the speed of reply/submit we think. Slow down in between and see if that works.

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Seff

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Thanks, maybe it was the one word edit that caused the hiccup. Thinking about it, the original reply appeared ok, but I immediately saw a need for the one word edit which would have led me to hit the “submit” button pretty quickly after the initial “submit”. Why the unedited original reply wasn’t showing up if the edit was filtered I don’t know, I suppose the system sees the whole thing as spam. Thanks anyway for sorting it.

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Woody, when you visit/use your own site do you block any ads and/or use noscript on any of the ad content?

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