For a New Zealand website Geekzone is rather slow...

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#135930 6-Jun-2008 11:02

It is all working well so far...

Randomahoa

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#136253 7-Jun-2008 17:12

I have managed to speed it up significantly by turning off AVG 8.0 Safe Search in Mozilla>Tools>Add-ons. Serveral people have been having similar problems with AVG 8.0. Why this only affects Geekzone and the google ads is beyond me.

BrentR

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#136255 7-Jun-2008 17:34

Adblock blocking Google Ad Services has dramatically sped things up for me.

While I appreciate you need advertisers to help pay for the site to run, since I've blocked all ads/ ad frames the site is a damn site nicer and faster.

cokemaster

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#136259 7-Jun-2008 17:45

Alternatively if you subscribe to geekzone, you can turn off ads, get a few unique features, and support the site.

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Ragnor

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#136289 7-Jun-2008 19:40

freitasm: Seriously, 2 GB wouldn't even start our day...
Do you have any Firefox ad blocker? Those ad blocker software cause more trouble than help, really. They slow things down - a lot.

While it's true that poorly coded addon's or plugins like the AVG virus scanning firefox one can cause problems I think you will find using Firefox 3 RC + Adblock Plus + NoScript actually speeds things up by an order of magnitude.

Being able to whitelist the scripts needed to run the sites functionality and not run the 10 advertising/tracking related scripts on most sites and not load any ads is huge.

Techno savy computer users are not going to take the internet being turned into an inline advertising vehicle lying down. I personally would much rather pay a few bucks a year for a geekzone subscription than have inline ads and advertising/tracking going on.

However geekzone sub is $5 USD a year vs $0 for using Ad Block Plus doesn't seem worth it currently as none of the subscriber bonuses are compelling for the average IT geek who probably already has their own hosting.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#136316 7-Jun-2008 22:27

Ragnor: Techno savy computer users are not going to take the internet being turned into an inline advertising vehicle lying down. I personally would much rather pay a few bucks a year for a geekzone subscription than have inline ads and advertising/tracking going on.

However geekzone sub is $5 USD a year vs $0 for using Ad Block Plus doesn't seem worth it currently as none of the subscriber bonuses are compelling for the average IT geek who probably already has their own hosting.

It's US$ 50 a year (US$ 5 a month). And obviously your last statement negates your previous statement as in "I would pay, but I don't want to pay".

Well, unfortunatelly it's a reality that hosting, traffic, content, sending out prizes for giveways, talking to people in the industry to bring more information - all this actually costs money. And Geekzone is my full time job so I have to live from it.

But some people think that they deserve everything for free.

I tell you what. Try living for free. It doesn't work, right?

tonyhughes

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#136326 7-Jun-2008 22:53

Ragnor: Techno savy computer users are not going to take the internet being turned into an inline advertising vehicle lying down. I personally would much rather pay a few bucks a year for a geekzone subscription than have inline ads and advertising/tracking going on.

However geekzone sub is $5 USD a year vs $0 for using Ad Block Plus doesn't seem worth it currently as none of the subscriber bonuses are compelling for the average IT geek who probably already has their own hosting.

Which is it?

A: You would rather pay a few bucks a year than have ads.

or

B: You don't see the value in paying a few bucks a year to not see ads.

I am a Techno savy [sic] computer user, and I know full well that if no-one pays the piper, the piper won't play.

Case in point - geekzone.co.nz. Mauricio runs this site full time - it is his job. If the ad revenue did not cover costs, then costs would have to fall. The only way for costs to fall (reasonably), is to cut down on what the site provides.

Less Geekzone? Feed me the ads thanks.

This applies to any "free" website.

Gotta pay that piper somewhere.

The really technologically savvy computer users will have a basic understanding of the costs of delivering "free" content, and realise that internet advertising keeps a LOT of valuable sites running. 100% subscription-only models have worked in very few cases, and overall have proven to be an un-viable method of capturing revenue and generating growth for a 'content' type website.

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#136387 8-Jun-2008 11:19

Today I have reconfigured some options and switches in our server - this should make things a bit faster too. Can anyone confirm?

During the week I will work in removing one other javascript tracking from our pages. We currently have Google Analytics (the best one), Nielsen/NetRatings (we need this for the advertisers) and Statcounter. I am planning to remove the Statcounter from the mix, reducing the number of scripts to load.

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#136388 8-Jun-2008 11:22

Today I have not noticed it go over 5,000ms it has been a lot faster than the last few weeks

The true test will be what difference I notice at home, as it tended to be worse for me there.

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#136415 8-Jun-2008 12:46

rscole86: Today I have not noticed it go over 5,000ms it has been a lot faster than the last few weeks

The true test will be what difference I notice at home, as it tended to be worse for me there.

It won't change much in terms of network response until I remove the scripts. But the server time should be reduced now. I have worked to change all the redirects required for the RSS feeds and this should reduce the load on the server - a lot.

Forester1

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#136428 8-Jun-2008 14:04

Wouldn't it be ironic.... It's pretty snappy here in the states! Maybe that's because I get the ads and images quicker? Who'da thunk? :O)

richgamer

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#136441 8-Jun-2008 15:39

how much GB of bandwidth does geekzone use per day? usa based dedicated servers cost about nz$250 a month for a 250GB hard drive and 2500GB of bandwidth. i doubt any nz web hosts can beat that.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#136442 8-Jun-2008 15:52

In general this kind of price is not for a high spec machine, and doesn't include OS and database licensing. Actually for this price you are talking about shared servers.

You can't compare, since we are running our own hardware on an unlimited data plan with full access and local support 24/7.

TechnoGuy001

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#136452 8-Jun-2008 16:40

If your on a "unlimited data plan" then it shouldn't matter if you host the picture here in NZ, should it? Or will it slow down the server...

I also have a small site, but I get free local traffic and 2GB of International traffic, I have loaded a forum on it (pun-bb and phpBB) both run lightningly fast, eg. I click on a link and im there, but this is of course a small forum, and a small host so a site like this wouldn't last long there. (this NZ host cost me $15 a month and only give me 15MB of space, think ill stop with them soon)

I also have a US host which give me 500GB of disc storage and 5TB of bandwidth (monthly) which only costs US$11 a month. Indeed US hosting is WAY cheaper then NZ, thats why I host all my big files in the US and small file in NZ.

I can see why you host your picture in the US.

Just wondering, are those little picture hosted in the US too, like the smiles..? as they seem to load rather slow at times.

And one last comment, in my eyes this site can do with a major rework of it's layout and make it more web 2.0.

Is there any plans on this in the near future?

Basekid

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#136462 8-Jun-2008 17:10

Really people, stop complaining!
Ads are an unfortunate necessity for a website like this. There is no way something of this size can run for free, therefore you can either support the website by taking an subscription or live with the ads that help keep this website alive.

Ofcourse, you can just not go to Geekzone and take your problems with hardware/phones/internet to an shop where you pay $40 just so they look at your problem, or wait on the phone for 10+ minutes to talk to an helpdesk in India.

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