HB wrote:*Shrug*

I use PNG format to avoid JPEG lossy issues; the second screenshot looks fine to me. In any case, I've removed "Trebuchet MS" from the input area. It should default to Verdana.

Looks great!
I thank you. My optometrist, OTOH...

Hi Dan,

I have a little more information: the problem doesn't occur with Safari 3.1 on my Windows machine at work, nor with the same browser on my wife's MacBook Pro at home. It only happens, again with the same browser and OS version as my wife has, on my five-year-old 667 MHz PowerBook. This suggests that perhaps something is timing out a bit early on your end, maybe?

Best,
David

DavidMLewis wrote:This suggests that perhaps something is timing out a bit early on your end, maybe?

Doubtful, especially if you have "Log me on automatically each visit" checked. Sessions are deleted after 30 minutes of inactivity, but if you have cookies set and the automatic login checked, a new session is created on the next page access. The more likely possibility is a problem with cookie handling. For example, cookies are inadvertently blocked or purged by adware or spyware on your older laptop. Does Firefox have this same problem on this computer?

HB wrote:Doubtful, especially if you have "Log me on automatically each visit" checked. Sessions are deleted after 30 minutes of inactivity, but if you have cookies set and the automatic login checked, a new session is created on the next page access. The more likely possibility is a problem with cookie handling. For example, cookies are inadvertently blocked or purged by adware or spyware on your older laptop. Does Firefox have this same problem on this computer?

It doesn't, but I can see the forum session cookie in Safari on the older machine. I'm a bit stumped, but I'll continue looking around. Is there a way that a cookie can be present and blocked?

David

Hi Dan,

Well, I gotta tell you, it looks increasingly like a timing problem. I quit all the other programs on the older machine, and now the problem has disappeared. No other changes, so it's a little hard to posit anything else.

Best,
David

I do not know what you mean by "timing." On this end, server response times are frequently less than 0.5 second and lately they rarely go above 1.5 seconds. Since closing all your applications avoids the problem, that suggests the issue is on your end. I did download Safari for Windows and it worked without issue.

HB wrote:I do not know what you mean by "timing." On this end, server response times are frequently less than 0.5 second and lately they rarely go above 1.5 seconds. Since closing all your applications avoids the problem, that suggests the issue is on your end. I did download Safari for Windows and it worked without issue.

Hi Dan,

My hypothesis is that Safari is a bit slower on my machine with the other applications running, and that something in your forum software is timing out waiting for it, and that this timeout is set too short. If I'd ever seen the behavior with another forum, I'd guess it to be more generic, but I haven't. For my use, it's a minor annoyance, and if it's just happening for me, we could surely leave it at that. The issue comes if other people are coming to the forum, getting this behavior, and leaving without letting you know. If you have another explanation, or a test you'd like to see me run on my end, I'd be happy to do whatever you want.

Best,
David

DavidMLewis wrote:My hypothesis is that Safari is a bit slower on my machine with the other applications running, and that something in your forum software is timing out waiting for it, and that this timeout is set too short.

In the multi-threaded design of today's software, there's always the possibility of a timing/race condition, but given your description, it's hard to imagine how 0.1 second response time versus 0.5 second response time from HB's server could matter. FYI, the bottom of each page shows the page generation time:

Overall speed: OK, current page: 0.3s, avg: 1.0s, max: 6.7s

It is partially dependent on your browser's ability to consume the output, since the clock doesn't stop until your browser has accepted the output.

The issue comes if other people are coming to the forum, getting this behavior, and leaving without letting you know.

That's always possible. Safari represents about 10% of the visitors, with Firefox and Internet Explorer dividing the remainder. I appreciate your report, but at this point I don't know how to diagnose it further since I cannot reproduce it (and you can only reproduce it on your wife's underpowered computer). Sorry...

EPILOGUE:

It's been over a month since the switch and the data is clear: The new version of phpBB is much faster, thanks to less demands on the database and especially the reduced bandwidth. Below is a chart of the last 90 days showing the kilobytes transferred per day. The switch was on March 1st and the drop is unmistakable:



Seeing direct proof how bandwidth reductions can improve the user experience, I've written a few of my own optimizations (err, that's why the site went down yesterday evening around 10pm... a little too optimized ). The difference they'll bring is small when the server is lightly loaded, but I think it will help on the heavy traffic days (traditionally Monday and Tuesday). I'm quite pleased with the improved performance because it means the server upgrade can be put off. The new look has grown on me too; looking at the old one, it seems a bit dated. Here's hoping the newer look will be good for a few years.

HB wrote:The new look has grown on me too; looking at the old one, it seems a bit dated. Here's hoping the newer look will be good for a few years.

I'll fully agree. As one of the early "complainers" of the new look I must say I've grown to love it a lot. It seems so slick and the improved site performance is a nice bonus. Great work!

I just adore 8 point gray on tan typefaces. It's in, it's chic, and it's unreadable. We can all pretend to have read everything, since nobody can contradict us. I wonder which edgy web designer will create the first fog bank and nothing else site

DavidMLewis wrote:Hi Dan,

I have a little more information: the problem doesn't occur with Safari 3.1 on my Windows machine at work, nor with the same browser on my wife's MacBook Pro at home. It only happens, again with the same browser and OS version as my wife has, on my five-year-old 667 MHz PowerBook. This suggests that perhaps something is timing out a bit early on your end, maybe?

Best,
David

For the record, and for anybody else having this problem (which affects all phpBB-based sites, not just H-B), I finally couldn't sleep and chased it down. It's an interaction with an application called HistoryHound that indexes the pages of sites you've visited. The developer was kind enough to nail what was happening: HistoryHound uses WebKit, the framework also used by Safari, and also uses the same cookie store. When it tries to index one of the forum pages, phpBB detects that a different "browser" is trying to access the site, and invalidates the session ID cookie. The solution is to go into the Filters tab of HistoryHound's preferences and add "/forum", "/BB/", "forums.", and "forum." to the list of filters that when matched will keep it from indexing a URL.

Best,
David