Badmovies.org Forum

Trouble Tickets => Trouble Tickets => Topic started by: Andrew on February 03, 2007, 11:31:55 PM



Title: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Andrew on February 03, 2007, 11:31:55 PM
I got to working on the review template and, after a few hours, think I have something that I am mostly happy with.  It eliminates a bunch of graphics.  While they are small, having a lot of little files can slow things down.  I changed them out and am doing the same thing with pure CSS now.


Please let me know what you think or if anything looks bad under your browser.  I have checked it with Firefox 2.0 and IE 6.0 under both XP and Win2000.  The only things I want to find a solution for is the "Comments" graphic and the "Buy It" graphic (the IMDB graphic too).  If I replace those three, I get rid of another 14k and the CSS to replace them would probably be only 1k.

In general, if I finish making all the changes - the average review will go from being 150k (34 files to download) to 100k (20 files).  That will result in a big jump in speed.

EDIT: 
All reviews are now using the CSS template
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/ymir/index.html


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: dean on February 04, 2007, 12:21:47 AM

I must be idiotic, but I didn't notice a difference except for, of course, not having graphics but text for the headers of the sections.

So all in all, if there are any problems, I can't see it.  Althought one thing I did notice was that the new format took a little longer to load up, but I'm pretty sure that's because the original was still in my history-thingy [very technical jargon there] rather than any problem with it as such.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Ash on February 04, 2007, 12:42:14 AM
They're pretty much identical with just a few minor changes.
I personally like this text over the regular yellow text.
(http://www.badmovies.org/common/yextras.gif)
It adds a spot of flavor.
Like seasoning on a steak...or a burger.

I've never had any problems with slow loading pages.
Except for the couple of times this site experienced problems, the pages have always loaded quickly for me.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Jordan on February 04, 2007, 01:46:23 AM
Just my two cents Andrew, but I think your reviews look just fine with the graphics you currently have. Changing them to just plain ole text just doesn't do it for me. It ain't broke, so don't fix it.  :wink:


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: LilCerberus on February 04, 2007, 02:24:23 AM
I kinda preferred the line "Things I Learned from This Movie" over "Lessons I Learned from This Movie".

I dunno, I guess "Lessons" lacks that casual flair that "Things" has.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Andrew on February 04, 2007, 07:41:55 AM
These were the graphics replaced:

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/characters.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/plot.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/learned.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/stuff.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/bar.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/bar-block.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/ysounds.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/yimages.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/yvideos.gif)

(http://www.badmovies.org/common/yextras.gif)

Under Firefox and my home computer's IE, the last four look fine.  Under this computer's IE, they do not.  Dust and ashes Microsoft.  I will definitely agree that the graphic files look better on either system.  The whole thing is that I am trying to seriously cut down on the graphics (like titles) that download to speed up the page load time.  That also makes the website easier on the server, because a whole lot of little file accesses to affect performance.

Hmm, I've meant to change it to "Lessons Learned" for a long time - just never got around to it.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: dean on February 04, 2007, 08:28:59 AM

From what I understand, it's now a red border around text for the section headers, rather than a graphic?  Am I right?

In that case it didn't seem any different at all, unless I just stupidly viewed the same page twice...  but I did think that instead of being an image, I could actually select the text [so in my mind at least it was phyiscally different, but didn't look any different.]

As for the rest, I didn't really notice a big change, so I figure it mustn't be a big enough change to worry about, and if it saves a bit of speed, then all the better.  Like you said, it may amount to 30k but that builds up when you multiply it by however many reviews you have done.

I use Firefox btw.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: CheezeFlixz on February 04, 2007, 11:45:59 AM
Frankly, I had to open 2 tabs and keep flipping between them to tell the difference. I doubt the small graphics would greatly increase the download time of the page. Seems most people have high speed now anyway. Even in my rural remote backwater area we have high spped. Sure they are some that still have dial up but the files are small and I doubt it would slow it down that much. After all the images only have to load once, then they are in the temp directory.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Andrew on February 04, 2007, 12:13:24 PM
Dean,
That is correct for the sections with the red lines.  I am removing the graphics and using css to get the same effect.

CheezeFlixz,
Part of my reason to try and cut down on the graphics files is to reduce the load on the server.  Every day, about 10,000 movie reviews are viewed, by about 6,000 visitors.  That means that the average visitor reads one review.  The server has to access and serve each separate file (though I do performance caching and that helps a lot).  If I can reduce the number of files needed for a review and the size, it is a very good thing.


Here is something funny:  I thought that the theme currently in use for the forum (Helios) would be more intensive (graphics, overall download size) than the default SMF.  After doing some testing with a default SMF theme, I think that the Helios theme might be less intensive.  It certainly is close between the two.


Title: Re: Feedback Request: Updated Review Template
Post by: Jordan on February 07, 2007, 01:13:36 PM
The reviews hardly look different Andrew so this is a win/win situation. Less to download but the reviews still have that great Badmovies.Org look.  :wink: