Dial up test please for our site

[Paul Carmel]

Thread close

Not yet it ain't!

In reply to your original question, on dial up your site is as slow as a snail, It could be that black border thingy, I am sure if you hang around long enough and drop the bull in a china shop approach some of the more tec folk on this forum would be more than willing to lend a hand.

[Alan Knighting]

Thread closed.

No! The thread will close when the members decide to close it, with or without your further contributions.

Don't know why I bothered.

Nor do I. This Forum is a fantastic place for getting opinions, advice and responses but there is no reason why any of its members should be bothered with people who only bring aggression to the Forum.

Blimey, have I caught a few of you on a bad day?

Not at all, you have come to a place where people don’t have “bad days�. We don’t always agree with each other but we don’t have communal “bad days�. You asked a question of people who have a great depth of knowledge and experience. You are obviously sufficiently naïve to anticipate an approving response to your questions but you had not prepared yourself for the reality of honest answers.

The honest answer is that your Website simply does not come up to scratch. If you were prepared to listen you would find many people here who are more than willing and able to help you in your endeavour. Your rejection of them is your loss.

Alan

[Mountain Goat]

Not at all, you have come to a place where people don’t have “bad days�.



MG

[Garri]

I sort of like the site, or at least the ambition of it but it is poorly executed and the dynamic AJAX style tabbing doesn't work the way you've rendered it - it's trying to be too clever but ending up looking stupid.

That said, the typography looks better than most and pink is always welcome in my view.

Did you take the photos with a 1970's Kodak instamatic and then scan them without wiping the glass? Just wondered

Susan's site may be run o' the mill (and that's not a bad thing by the way) but it has the distinction of being well crafted with good photos and easy to use navigation - that's pretty much what people want.

Sure, you're trying to do something different but unless you're Yugo Nakamura don't even bother

Try entering a word on the Amaztype site - it's fun, interesting and very different

[Lee]

Excuse me but I'm being slated here for replying off hand to things like...........

I can switch to dial-up instead of broadband any time I like but in your case I am not going to.

I cant say what your website is like because I dont intend to look at it.

What is the point of replying like this and then again replying because I have responded to it?

Garri
I appreciate your constructive comments but I feel I have asked in the wrong place as it appears everyone is a pro.
The pics admittedly are not so good, taken with a 2meg camera phone and over done them making the file size small for quicker loading, which many websites don't do at all
hense my posting for advice on dial up speed, oh thanks for the one reply on that (Paul Carmel).

I wasn't slagging LVs site, although very clean, faultless etc etc
I wanted something a little different, ok i'm no know all, i'm learning all the time and just asking for some advice.

bye

[Garri]

Lee, I can at least give input to the AJAX style tabs you've employed because right now I have tried to implement this technique on my own site with disastrous consequences.

So, I had to scrap over 10 hours of work just because I chose the wrong script to start with. Dived in head first without really properly evaluating it. It's called getting wedded to an idea regardless of whether it's the right one or not

I know what you're trying to achieve with this but not sure it's appropriate in the way you've presented it (the tab idea).

[Lee]

Yeah, I like the Tab idea, as long as content is not overdone
i'm aiming at yer average Jo so although I do take in any comments and alter accordingly (see my first posts on this thread) i'm going to try and stick with tabs.
The site will change, probably weekly as i'm not just counting on the site for the bookings (advertised), its a hobby, which I like (and need), just a sh!tter when someone kicks you in the knackers
back to the drawing board

[Garri]

Trouble with the tab script you have is it uses cookies, which can be a good thing, but in your case whenever I leave your site and return it remembers the last tab I clicked and displays that upon my revisit. It doesn't reset your site to its default state, assuming you have one.

That is confusing to the user and should be avoided for that reason alone.

In my aborted attempt to use tabbing I was employing it to display a list of countries as a straight list, or as a tag cloud. Whichever the user selected would stick throughout their session BUT revert back to the default (list view) when they revisited.

It worked a treat but that wasn't the problem I had with it. The problem I had was the delay in rendering the initial box on the screen - it was too long for such a prominent part of my site i.e. the header!

Later found out the so-called AJAX script I chose wasn't in actual fact AJAX

[Alan Knighting]

Lee,

What I actually said is “I can switch to dial-up instead of broadband any time I like but in your case I am not going to. Sorry but your site is sufficiently slow on broadband to tell me that it would be unacceptably slow in dial-up mode and I’m not inclined to pay the dial-up telephone bill to confirm my suspicions.� Paul Carmel confirmed my suspicions by saying “on dial up your site is as slow as a snail.�

I also said “I think you are right in aiming to be a little different but for me you have missed your target – no offence because the basics are there.� Unfortunately you have decided to take offence.

You responded by saying “What’s all that about? Blimey, have I caught a few of you on a bad day?�

You originally wanted to know what your Website is like on dial-up. The answer is that it is too slow on dial-up and it is slow on broadband. Observations have also been made about the quality of your pictures and on your use of a particular style of tags.

It seems to me you have been given a number of things you need to work on. It’s all constructive criticism, freely given in a spirit of friendship towards a new member.

Assuming it’s not just praise you are looking for, let’s start again shall we?

Alan

[e-richard]

Now that things have calmed down, I'm happy to add some constructive comments.

I actually also liked the idea of tabbed navigation. OK, one has to take a (very small) hit when first downloading the page, but thereafter moving from tab to tab is lightening fast. I'm on a 1mb broadband, and found the initial download quite acceptable.

My problem with this website is that its obvious that you're playing around with it a lot as a hobby (is that a compliment or a criticism ?). As a usable website, I found it just too cutsy with just a few too many gizmos. They don't really all fit together coherently, mainly cos they all look so different. In particular the weather/calendar/input form/googlemap area. But this is exacerbated by the division into "sections" vertically, only some of which have tabs and some don't.

OK, those are only little things, but they sum up to make it feel odd.

I think, more importantly, you may want to relook at the way you've laid out the tabbed sections. As a first time visitor, it took a while to see the second row of tabs. It may take some iteration, but part of the problem may be having the fuzzy style graphic sub division as well as the more boxed style tabs. I feel you may want to subdivide the vertical plane more obviously and consistently. (By the way, I think this has improved since you first posted - can't remember ???).

BUT (and this was my real issue with the multiple tabs down the page):

When it comes to navigation, users expect to find this very easily, consistently and clearly. As one changes the top level of tabs, the second row of tabs jumps up and down the page. Now you see them, now you don't.

I appreciate that you have tried to get round this by putting a higher level navigation at the very top in your banner, but first couple of times at the site, I completely missed these, and anyway, two levels of navigation is one of the hardest things to do. I know because I've tried and failed many times myself.

I guess, in summary, what I was looking for was some consistent and static place for all the tabs/navigation, and then one can start to discuss the many more contentious little things which are all much more easily fixable.

Finally, I would strongly reccommend installing and ALWAYS testing with Firefox as well. You do still have a few little issues there with layout, and the "back to top" links don't work.

Good luck.

[Lee]

Thanks for that, took 2 people to say it but will change the tab layout.

Had the servers altered so hopefully speed won't be a problem now, every time I FTP the site slowed down, probably what happened yesterday.
Speed test came up with

14.4K 111.84 seconds
28.8K 58.82 seconds
33.6K 51.25 seconds
56K 33.07 seconds
ISDN 128K 14.15 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps 6.52 seconds

Which looks ok but site size is 136k, too much I think for one page.

Thanks again.

[Giddy Goat]

I like its overall look Lee - the backdrop is pretty even though we're told clouds are a no-no!

There's a problem with Safari - did you know? On Firefox it's fine but the page is quite skewed on Safari and half the calendar is out of view.

If I were you, I'd stick around, and offer your comments to some other people seeking website reviews. LMH is such a useful resource and your own experiences will invariably help other members as well. There's always someone a few paces behind you and looking for a leg up!

Then, after you've refined your website to a point when you're more or less happy with it, ask for a full review of your own. I can see that it's too soon for us to be giving general feedback and that wasn't what you were asking for at this stage.

BTW, have you removed some images as I only found this thread just now and there are none on the accommodation page?

[Lee]

Thanks for those comments Gascony Goat

I have just this morning replaced the whole site so i'm sorry you missed the one I asked for info on but by the sound of it you didn't miss anything.

Lee

[Giddy Goat]

Is the new one live yet Lee? Can't find it on Firefox or Safari yet. I disagree about the former one and could see the potential, so I hope you haven't made radical changes to its general 'look'/flavour, at least.

[e-richard]

Wow, thats quite a change Lee.
And looking very good I must say.