Before I roll up my sleeves ...

    You'll no doubt have read Lynne's recent posts about slow loading time at Dovegreyreader and the changes she's made to solve the problem. Speaking to Lynne about it over the weekend I blithely said that I thought all was well with the Cornflower sites as no one had told me otherwise and I had no problems at all with them myself, but it seems I spoke too soon! I got an email from a reader reporting her frustrating attempts to get on to the sites, and that's despite having a high speed internet connection and helping things along with cache-clearing and the like, so of course while I'm puzzled as to how it can be fast for one person and slow for another (with no obvious differences in equipment or technology to account for that), I must do what I can to improve matters.

    Before I roll up my sleeves to tackle this, would you all be so kind as to tell me what your experience of accessing the site is - there's an indentical post to this one on Cornflower, and if you typically visit both sites, I'd be much obliged if you'd leave a quick comment on each one as this will help me to know what, if anything, I have to change. Roughly how long does the site take to load? Do you find that images delay it? Are you ever timed-out? Which browser do you use? If things are slow, do you find similar slowness with other sites, or is it just here? Anything else that may be relevant?

    Many thanks in advance for your help.  

Comments

[Ros]

I've always found your sites relatively slow to load, and have assumed it was because of the large numbers of images. I did have an odd thing a couple of years ago when I was living in my parents' house for a while and I just couldn't access your site at all. I don't know why and I'd almost forgotten about it until I read this post.

[Katie]

I have only visited this site (but I'll be checking out the other one know that I know about it!) but it is a bit slow. The left hand column loads immediately but then it takes a few seconds for the rest to appear. Never long enough for my server to time-out but slower than most of the other blogs I visit. Not a big deal but seeing as you asked :-). I'm using Internet Explorer if that makes any difference.

Katie

[Susan Campbell]

Cornflower site pages still take about 30 secs to load, now that have upgraded to approx 1MB internet speed, using Firefox browser.

I assume the time taken is due to to so many graphics on the pages, but I do enjoy seeing the thumbnail pics of book covers.

It might be a large job, but might you archive some graphics from previous years to leave them acccessible but save viewers having to load them all each time the site is accessed?

[adele geras]

I've never noticed any problem at all....sometimes it takes a second or two but hey! There are all the images and I just wait quite happily. Most of the time,though it all goes through in the twinkling of a mouse.

[michel]

Both sites load instantly for me and always have. I use IE and have high speed internet. I wish you good luck in figuring out all of this!

[LizF]

Like Katie, I use Internet Explorer and like her the left column appears immediately with a couple of seconds for the rest of it, but I wouldn't say it has been a problem at all - the blog is worth waiting for anyway!
It has only ever timed out if I have had to pause in the middle of leaving a comment (because I access this on a work computer and sometimes things have to be dealt with urgently) but I have never seen that as a real problem.
I sign in with Typepad if that is any help.

[Sandy]

For me left hand coloumn is instant, then about 5-10 seconds for the rest. It has been 2-3 seconds slower since you introduced 'You might also like...'

I do access it on my Blackberry in bookshops sometimes (when I forget the names of books) and it is very slow then but then all sites are the same!

I dont find it a big issue.

[B R Wombat]

Yes, Sandy's right in that it takes longer since the introduction of "You might also like . . ." and the left hand column always appears quite quickly. I came here straight from Cornflower and it took about 5 seconds. It's always worth waiting for, though!

[Deirdre]

Cornflower Books sometimes takes a while when I click through from the main Cornflower site (it just did in fact!), I don't know why. Safari is the browser I use.

[Susan in TX]

I haven't had any trouble. I use both Safari and Chrome as browsers (depending on which machine I'm on), and all of my computers are Macs. 98% of the time, I click and you are there. I might have experienced a slow load once or twice, but my dh has told me that it was related to either the server or "heavy user" time of day. (None of which means anything to me.)

[Danielle]

I also have Typepad and have had problems with my site loading slowly, and I was told that it has to do with what's on your sidebars. The left sidebar loads first so anything that has to be connected to outside is dependent on whether those sites are loading or having problems. Then the middle loads and then the right side. It's probably best to have links and things--sitemeter, amazon, LT on the right bottom so that most of the page is already loaded before it has to connect with those outside sites. I didn't have a problem loading your page, but I have had problems loading Lynne's--it was so slow that I mostly just take a peek at it from google reader. I do like seeing the thumbnails of books, so I hope you don't do away with them!

[Audrey]

Same for me!

[Julie Fredericksen]

I have no problem at all. I use IE and have-high speed Internet. I usually click on the link from my blog but today decided to do a test by typing your address directly into the Google browser box. It was instantaneous. The only problem I have is that I can't use my back browswer to leave your site when I am done here.

[Liz]

No problems here (unless my internet is down).

[Dark Puss]

It has become slower, particularly now that you have so many small graphics. The "You might also like" feature I really don't appreciate for two reasons: firstly because I do not in any way understand the algorithm it uses, sometimes it links to posts where I can see the connection, at other times it appears random. Either approach is fine, but not a mixture! Secondly, becuase it tends to load after the comment box has appeared I find myself clicking on "comment" just as the little thumbnail appears and i'm taken off to another post rather than my edit box. I often have access to very high speed connections and I must say your site is one of the slowest of those I vist regularly to load in its entirety. As others have said, the contents is worth the wait and since I make no use of your LH sidebar please don't make changes to that just on my account.

[Anji]

I have not found it to be any slower than anything else I click on. I put down the slowness to my machine, some days it is instant and other day's it's very slow. My husband thinks that we will have to replace the mother board- whatever that means. Sounds nasty!!

I do like all of your graphic and it was what attracted me to your site initially

[Kate/Massachusetts]

Both sites load quickly for me, and I have never had a problem here. My browser is Internet Explorer. Also, leaving a comment is quite easy unlike many other blogs.

[Karen]

High speed cable modem. Browser is Safari (Mac). Both sites load instantly -- no waiting.

[Jill]

I use Internet Explorer and generally don't have much delay with either Cornflower site which I look at every day. It has always been easy to leave a comment.

[Rhys]

And it is all fine her thank you.

[Shelley]

(1) I had no trouble getting on and I have a lousy computer, (2) As a writer, I appreciated your posting about the new Woolf bio, and (3) Congratulations on getting on the Wikio Top Ten list!

[Ruthiella]

I use Explorer. There is only a slight lag when I access the web-site. I assumed it was because of the large amount of images and links.

[Claire]

On both sites around 10 seconds using Firefox. Comments take around the same amount of time. I don't feel too stressed having to wait 10 seconds for anything!

[catharina]

Since the "You might also like" icons appeared I am unable to read the comments or comment myself on the Cornflower website. I was planning to email you about that, as the same thing happened with DovegreyreaderScribbles and is solved now. Cornflower Books can have the same problem but not always. I've tried reinstalling the blog in my favourites but that didn't solve the problem.

[Linda C.]

Well, I seem to be clearly in the minority, but here goes:
When site loads at all, takes maybe 20 seconds (quite acceptable), but this is for the text only. If it loads pictures as well (which it very rarely does), much longer (at least an hour, usually more) Most of the time (maybe 95%), it times out before loading all of the text or any of the pictures. Why does it some times time out after 30 seconds or so, and sometimes keep trying for over an hour (till I give up)? I don’t know.

I use Firefox - latest version(6.0.2 for Macs), but I also have Safari(5.1) and try it frequently with the same lack of results.

Cornflowerbooks and Cornflower are the only sites where I have a problem now that Dovegreyreader has made some changes in her site.

I use a two year old Mac and I am in the U.S. Don't know if either matters. I have high speed internet connection.

I have done all the things that Typepad suggested to Dovegrey as well as a number of things friends have suggested; none has seemed to make a difference. I do read a few other book blogs that use Typepad (all based in U.S.) and don’t have a problem logging onto them. Cornflowerbooks seems to “stick” or “hang” at various points: "connecting to Cornflowerbooks," "transferring data from www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk," various points having the word, “Typepad” in the address. In other words, it does not hang at the same point each time, but rather at various points.

Given that I am in the small minority, perhaps I'll just have to keep trying. I echo comments of DarkPuss with regard to "You might also like" feature. Could past years books could be archived without the thumbnail images so as to make the entire site load faster (as Susan Campbell suggests)?

In any case, thanks for your attention to all this. I appreciate your taking time to try to sort it out. Thanks for your blogs.

[Barbara MacLeod]

I'm exactly the same as this. If things were slow I reckon it was the time of day or I had a lot open on my computer.

[Erika]

This may sound impolite but I hope not--I find the book site difficult to find without a runaround to locate it. I often don't bother now. Too many access points and can't always turn up the straightforward books being read plus readers comments which I am looking for.

No problem with speed in loading. The "You might care for" is just a distraction.

[padma]

Both your sites load relatively fast though slightly slower than a few weeks ago. I think it takes them 6-7 seconds to load which is slower than most other blogs, but not too slow, really.

[Barbara]

Both sites load normally!

[Simon T]

Usually it's fine, but the past week or so it has been slow. But it's worth the wait!

[Joan in NY]

I also use IE and before I can count to two everything is loaded, images and script.

[Stephanie]

30 seconds is a typical loading time for this site and I find this the slowest blog to load of all that I view. After opening it, I return to other things whilst leaving it to load. On a couple of occasions it has timed out. I have high speed internet connection.

[GeraniumCat]

I have to contend with rural broadband (which has at least gone from agonisingly slow to irritatingly slow in the last few months) but your sites are much the slowest I visit, and if I'm travelling and relying on my 3G modem I'm afraid I don't even attempt it, because it so often times out. I use Firefox beta (which is supposedly to be significantly faster than its predeccessors) or Chrome. I've just loaded and timed Cornflower: 15 seconds of blank screen, 20 seconds until I could start reading, 50 until "You might also like..." loaded (so no comments accessible) and 2 minutes 50 seconds until the site was fully loaded. I'd say that was typical. But, as others have said, it's worth the wait!