# This Forum Is Getting Harder to Use



## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

I've been here a long time and have always enjoyed the forum, but since your implementation of advertising the site has become harder and harder for to put up with. As a good soldier I've had ad blocking disabled on this site all along, but your the current structure of the advertising just makes it tough for us:

Page transitions can be VERY slow. Page reloads can take literally MINUTES to complete.

Right now, it is very difficult to type in this thread. Typing is slow and the appearance of the text as I'm typing is even slower.
"Mark Forums Read" (all forums) often takes at least two tries to complete successfully

Database errors occur more frequently.
I can click on "Home" and go to a different tab in Firefox, and when I return to the TCF minutes later (or longer) the page is still reloading.

I understand you want to make money here, but please - take your loyal, long time user base into consideration.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If you join the TC club it removes the ads.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

I'm well aware. But $40 / year is ridiculous. And I'm not complaining about the ads, simply how this forum implements those ads and the way that effects the use of the forum.


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## DVR_Dave (Apr 19, 2017)

You need to ditch dial up and move to broadband. 

I have no issues unless I am on a very slow connection.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

I have a 200Mbs Ethernet connection via OOL.


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## DVR_Dave (Apr 19, 2017)

What are you using to browse?

My laptop with A4 CPU / 4GB RAM hangs up once in a while but my i7 laptop / 16GB RAM are fine. Chromebook w/ Celeron runs smoothly also.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

I have four systems all with the same issues on this forum. All high end systems. My primary browser is Firefox.


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## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

ADG said:


> I have four systems all with the same issues on this forum. All high end systems. My primary browser is Firefox.


Does your ad blocker allow you to see what's being block when you enable it for this site? Maybe you can figure out if there's just one big offender and keep blocking it, and let the others through via a whitelist, and report the offender(s) to Mike and/or David. It really does truly suck when a website's ad experience ruins the site, though. I know Mike and David have reported issues before to their ad network.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

Good thought Brett. Also, I can see in Firefox what "site" (ad host) is having trouble loading. I'll make a note next time. Thanks.


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## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

ADG said:


> Good thought Brett. Also, I can see in Firefox what "site" (ad host) is having trouble loading. I'll make a note next time. Thanks.


Whatever you do to get it fixed, do it - you post valuable info that I depend on!


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

LOL - very nice of you - thanks


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

ADG said:


> Page transitions can be VERY slow. Page reloads can take literally MINUTES to complete.
> 
> Right now, it is very difficult to type in this thread. Typing is slow and the appearance of the text as I'm typing is even slower.
> ...
> ...


I have none of these issues. Firefox 64-bit for Win 10 is the primary browser I use to visit TCF from home. I don't use any ad blockers. I'm typing on a fairly fast machine though, an i7-8700 based PC (Coffee Lake - Wikipedia) w/16 gigs of RAM (which is PLENTY) and a Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD as my boot, programs and page file drive.

Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test tells me I'm clocking past 130 megabits/sec downstream on Comcrap in the SF Bay Area. 1st time I ran it tonight, ping time was 12 ms. 2nd time it was 22 ms.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

Not for the first time in recent days, the TCF tab in Firefox froze and had to be closed "forcefully". I noted that at the time the freeze occurred TCF was trying to load dt.adsafeprotected.com


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

A number of years ago, TCF was crazy slow on my work PC, but was fine at home. Enabling an ad blocker at work made it fast like at home. Maybe something with my work's firewall made ads slow things down? I've been in TC Club for a number of years now. So, I don't need to worry about it.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

And you know what? At a reasonable figure ($15/year) I'd be more than happy to help support the forum. But IMO $40/year is simply outrageous (with no disrespect intended to those who can and do afford the fee).


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## David Bott (Jan 1, 1999)

Hi....

Interesting. I have now tested on AT&T, Verizon, and Spectrum even using a VPN to try from different parts of the country and I have not seen any speed issues at all. My only guess could the the route from where you are that is making for the issue. (You can have fast speeds, but a poor route is a poor route.) 

We have not made any change to our ad serving platform in over two years as PubGalaxy, our agency, has been very responsive to reported issues and the ads are higher in quality than other providers. We even run a special txt file with them of approved 3rd party providers that they can pull from. 

dt.adsafeprotected.com is a fraud protection system to be sure ads are called by real people and we are not being harvested for ad calls by some other bad guy looking to make $ off the content here. We try to protect the site and it's users. They also provide a measurement system to see how ads preform etc.

We take ads on the site very seriously as we want to keep the site alive but at the same time balance that with the members/visitors. Thank you for the feedback on the pricing. I will look to see what I can come up with.

I am sorry for the issue you are seeing and wish I could help more. Oh...If you have a VPN that connects elsewhere, try that just to see if the speed changes as then you would be taking a different route. (Not that you need a VPN for here...I am kind of just wondering if it is the route.) NOTE...All the ads are served from Google called servers, thus they are spread out. They should be fast in other words but I am just kind of wondering. 

I do thank you for looking to run the ads to help the site vs just using a blocker.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

David - thanks for the follow up and response. I don't use a VPN. My connection is a 200Mbs cable via OOL and other than this site, I have no issues at all. I don't think it's a bad route - whenever there's an issue I can see your ad servers trying to load. But look - if I'm the only one complaining then obviously it's my end and not yours.

If you do decide to do something on pricing I'll be more than happy to contribute (as I'm guessing others would as well). Thanks again.

EDIT: site just froze when I was trying to respond in another thread - cdn3.doubleverify.com was trying to load..


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

ADG: Would be interesting to see what happens if you do a traceroute (tracert on Windows) to the hosts in question (e.g. dt.adsafeprotected.com and cdn3.doubleverify.com). They all seem to make it to their destinations for me.

Examples:
Tracing route to anycast.dt.adsafeprotected.com [69.172.216.111]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 13 ms 8 ms 10 ms 96.120.88.65
3 19 ms 10 ms 37 ms be-10019-rur01.sanjose.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.85.190.53]
4 9 ms 10 ms 15 ms 162.151.78.249
5 19 ms 17 ms 12 ms be-3651-cr02.sunnyvale.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.73]
6 13 ms 14 ms 12 ms be-11025-cr01.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.158]
7 12 ms 11 ms 10 ms be-12544-pe01.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.150]
8 19 ms 16 ms 11 ms 96-87-8-66-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [96.87.8.66]
9 11 ms 15 ms 12 ms 66.151.144.85
10 15 ms 11 ms 10 ms adsafe-20.border3.sje011.pnap.net [23.92.186.18]
11 32 ms 12 ms 10 ms 23.92.184.226
12 32 ms 10 ms 11 ms 69.172.216.111

Trace complete.

Tracing route to e990.g.akamaiedge.net [184.27.108.149]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 96.120.88.65
3 10 ms 10 ms 11 ms be-10019-rur01.sanjose.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.85.190.53]
4 18 ms 10 ms 9 ms 162.151.78.249
5 10 ms 13 ms 16 ms be-3651-cr02.sunnyvale.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.73]
6 21 ms 11 ms 21 ms be-11025-cr01.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.158]
7 12 ms 15 ms 18 ms ae-79-ar01.sacramento.ca.ccal.comcast.net [68.86.93.26]
8 14 ms 18 ms 14 ms a184-27-108-149.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com [184.27.108.149]

Trace complete.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

Tracing route to anycast.dt.adsafeprotected.com [69.172.216.111]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms openrg.home [192.168.1.1]
2 19 ms 11 ms 9 ms 10.240.179.41
3 14 ms 12 ms 11 ms 67.59.231.248
4 12 ms 12 ms 13 ms ool-4353f914.dyn.optonline.net [67.83.249.20]
5 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 64.15.7.67
6 15 ms 14 ms 13 ms 451be0ea.cst.lightpath.net [65.19.120.234]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 16 ms 14 ms 13 ms be3363.ccr42.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.125]
9 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms be3295.ccr31.jfk05.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.80.2]
10 15 ms 22 ms 13 ms 38.104.74.130
11 15 ms 15 ms 13 ms border1-po1-bbnet1.nyj004.pnap.net [216.52.95.46]
12 15 ms 15 ms 13 ms edge1.ae-0-edgenet.nyj004.pnap.net [74.201.136.18]
13 15 ms 15 ms 25 ms adsafe-49-lacp.border1.nyj004.pnap.net [74.201.245.6]
14 20 ms 16 ms 17 ms 64.94.162.238
15 15 ms 19 ms 13 ms 69.172.216.111

Trace complete.

C:\Users\(deleted)>tracert cdn3.doubleverify.com

Tracing route to e990.g.akamaiedge.net [192.96.160.51]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms openrg.home [192.168.1.1]
2 10 ms 10 ms 12 ms 10.240.179.41
3 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 67.59.231.248
4 17 ms 17 ms 14 ms ool-4353f914.dyn.optonline.net [67.83.249.20]
5 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 67.59.251.76
6 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms 64.15.3.136
7 17 ms 17 ms 15 ms 192.96.160.51

Trace complete.


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