Renderosity has always been slow for me, but now on this site only, for the last 2 or 3 weeks my putter seems to have to download every image from the top menu every time I change the page. Now not only do the gallery images take a while to load AND the market place images, but nothing loads untill that darn top menu loads in, bit by painfully slow bit. It is so bad now that it has actually stopped me from browsing both the market place and the galleries at all. I miss being able to browse ;-(, mind my credit card appreciates the time lag, not tempted to impulse buy LOL. A friend of mine mentioned the same problem, Is it just us?

Hi Laurie, Great to see you by the way :) Have you tried cleaning out your cache and deleting and relogging in?? Not sure if that will help :[ I know the site has been slow the last couple weeks due to upgrades to the site, however, knock on wood, it seems to be doing pretty good today. Ye Gads - No Impulse buying ... that is horrible news ;] I know I LOVE to impulse buy - my favorite way to shop. Due to the long holiday, the programmers may not be in until Tuesday - but I am sure they will look into this matter as soon as they get back :) In the meantime - put your MP items on your wishlist :] Have a great holiday weekend - Dee-Marie

It's not just you. I made the same comment when I took the survey. The navigation bar at the top was recently converted from text to images to keep the font size from shifting (due to people having different browser settings, I think). But for some reason the nav pics don't automatically load from the computer's cache on each subsequent page but often have to be re-downloaded from the servers. If that problem could be fixed, I think it would help with the page-load time alot.

I'm not an HTML expert, but I think there is also a way to code the text so that its size stays constant regardless of the browser settings, in which case we could go back to text on the nav bar to speed things up even more. At least I know I've seen other website which have the font size controlled to make the size unaffected by browser settings.

Maybe an HTML guru can chime in on that?

just a few thoughts...jen

Thanks Jen, I will be sure to let the progammers know that members are having a problem with the navigation bar. Again - due to the holidays ... yadda yadda yadda :) Wishing you a most wonderful holiday weekend. Dee-Marie

hi Dee-Marie, thank you so much...and same wishes back to you! jen

Thank you for the response Dee-Marie and Jen. g .. well the items are in my Whish list , but oi it takes so long to just find every thing.. anyway thank you for peeking in and hope you both have a great holiday weekend as well!

You 2 Laurie I promise to pass this matter along to the programmers - I know how frustrating it can be when the site is slow, let alone when you can't shop :[ Take care and thanks for your input and helpful suggestions to make the site run smoother! Dee-Marie

They already know there are problems with the graphical menu. It's been discussed here in this forum for weeks and in multiple threads. Their only response has been to tell people to change their browser settings and basically tell us we're doing something wrong. bonni

Hi Khai and Bonni

Thanks for your input - I am truly sorry if you feel that no one is listening, because your comments and concerns regarding the site really are important to us! The Rosity community is our heartbeat ;]

The programmers really have been looking into this. One of the problems, as I am sure you can understand, with designing a site [and for fixing any hic-ups] with as large a community as Renderosity, is that there are so many members and each member has a different browser, a different monitor, a different monitor setting, and a different operating system :(

It takes time to work through each of the above to see where best to modify code :)

Thank you so much for your patience in this matter, I know how frustrating it can be.

We are working on this matter as well as other upgrades - so again, thanks for your patience and understanding. As with all things computer related - nothing is ever simple :)

Sincerely,
Dee-Marie
Rosity Admin

Dee-Marie, your response is good customer service. Other comments we got were... Well, let's just say I know a lot of programmers, and they're not known for their great communication skills. I mentioned several times that NS4.x (which is the browser cited as being the problem) does understand CSS. It doesn't understand the full range of CSS, but there is absolutely no reason that 4.x browsers can't read CSS that sets font size, right down to the pixel. I've got sites that work perfectly in NS4.x and which use CSS to do precisely that, so I guarantee it's not impossible... ;-) bonni

Hi Bonnie, Thanks again for your input - I am sure in this world of constantly changing code and upgrading of site construction that anything is possible :) However, I am not sure if it is just one thing or several combined that is causing the problem that some members are having with the header. I suspect that it is a combination of things, and sometimes that can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. As a programmer I am sure you understand how very frustrating that can be :[ Again, thanks for your input and please know your comments do make a difference and we are looking into this matter. Dee-Marie

We were told that the reason they went to graphical links was that NS4.x couldn't properly read the menu the way it was set up before.

My statement regarding CSS is that it's infinitely possible to go back to the previous text links and make sure that they can be readable in NS4.x.

Possibly the site is set up in some odd way that I haven't investigated (it does run on a database, so that may be a concern), but "we had to use very slow-loading graphics because NS4.x couldn't read the text links" is a pretty weird reason, and unless there's a lot more to it, it doesn't hold water.

Again, programmers and codemonkeys aren't exactly known for their great communication skills, so who knows what the problem might actually be, but that's what we were told and it seems a pretty simple thing to do away with the graphics and revert to text and make sure everyone (including people using 1998 technology) are happy. ;-)

By the way, I'm not arguing with you. I just wanted to let you know why so many people were dissatisfied with the responses so far. We weren't told "We're looking into it, it's a little more complex than that," or anything of the sort. We were told, "Netscape 4.x couldn't read the text links," and that was pretty much the end of it, other than a lot of rather weird suggestions about changing our browser settings. No other information was forthcoming, no other discussion of the actual problem, nothing other than comments that came across as fairly condescending. ;-)

bonni

Message edited on: 07/05/2004 05:12

Thanks again Bonni I truly understand your frustration, and that of other members who have encountered this problem, and we appeciate your constructive feedback and suggestions :) Dee-Marie

A few days ago (whenever it was I posted the 'thank you') the top nav was loading instantly for me. I've made no changes whatsoever. Today it's back to loading slowly, image by image, again. If programers were doing something different that day maybe that was it? I don't know. I do know that even a little web designer/programer wouldn't do such a thing to a client website with multiple complaints of slowness so I don't understand whomever is hanging on to their convictions for this blunder.

Hi rdonovan First off - To flushing a cache is a known fix for many problems - thus the reason I mentioned it as a "see if it would work for this one member" it was not to be a perm fix for ALL members who are having problems - but only as a possible solution - and by NO Means was it posted as being disrespectful to Any Member - It was only my way of trying to help ;] As to the 27 separte bitmaps - this is normal when slicing an image for viewing - the theory behind that is to make the uploading quicker by uploading several smaller images instead of one large image. As to the programmers not being around over the weekend - The programmers generally work a 7 day week - I personally am very glad that some of them were able to take a couple days off for the holiday to spend with their families - Just for the record - None of the programmers took the full 3 days off! As I stated above, this issue is being addressed by the programmers and they are looking into the best possible solutions that will work for all members. Thanks for your input. Sincerely, Dee-Marie

HI Kendra - thanks so much for letting us know the day that everything was working correctly for you. Constructive information like that is just what is needed to help the programmers narrow down problems and help with solutions. Dee-Marie

Although I do create web sites, I am not the Renderosity Site Designer - nor do I play one on TV ;]

I was just explaining the "why of slicing" not the specific reasons for it being used in this specific situation - However, I have complete confidence in the programmers and know that they do a fantastic job with the creation of the Rosity Site - I also know that they are always interested in the community feed-back and take everyone's input into consideration. So a special thanks to everyone for their constructive comments.

Wish I could continue our conversation - but I have been online since 4am, and my 8 hour "tour of duty" is over for today :)

Sorry I could not solve the problem nor satisfactory answer all the quesions - but - tomorrow is another day ;]

Hope everyone can get outside and enjoy some fresh air and that everyone experience some wonderful magical moments today!

Wishing you all the very best week
Sincerely,
Dee-Marie

Well, please do not give up the faith :] As I stated above, sometimes things are more complicated than they appear to be on the surface! Dee-Marie

""Slicing" is applicable in the case of large images - what benefit does it have for an image that should be less then 50kb? " :| ??? How are you going to get individual links if you use a single graphic? (Apart from using hotspots - ahem...)

27 individual segments is a little excessive. Based on what's there, 18 segments would suffice, or 19 if "blank" segments are required in the main body of the graphic. If the links were text, you'd still need a minimum of 8 graphics. The point is you cannot have "one big graphic", either background or foreground or any-damn-ground. HTML does not work like that. The fact that corners, etc. are defined separately is a basic concept in web design. There is no other sensible way of doing it. (If text was being used then a background graphic could indeed be implemented. However, this would be extremely bad design because the border graphics would not expand to accommodate changes in text size, and anyone doing this should be shot immediately and their body disposed of in secrecy.)

Attached Link: R's Menu as ONE image.

Hi Dee Marie!

You should really submit ggdesigner's suggestion to Tommy. Replacing this table of 27 small images by ONE image map is a good idea.

Using sliced image doesn't increase the browsing speed, it's actually the opposite. Downloading a single 10 KB image from a server takes less time than 27 small ones.

Cheers,

:) Eric

Didn't I just say "hotspots" back in post 24? They don't well work with all browser versions, which is why I discounted them (- tafkat)

Message edited on: 07/06/2004 07:17

But why have those AAAHRTSY rounded corners in the first place? Use a simple TABLE with a coloured background if it needs to be in another colour and loose the round corners and shadows?

Does ANYONE have a problem clicking on the one image with hotspots??? (try it... it's a live example) With hundreds of thousands of sites using them, I doubt anyone really has a problem that can't be easily fixed.