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Has something recently changed on AK?

Really bad lag the last few days when typing into AK, and have lost multiple typed messages due to system reloads. Very frustrating. Not experiencing this on any other sites, just AK...
 
pustelniakr said:
For some folks with higher CPU utilization, network activity, sluggish browser response, and/or slow/repeated page loading...

The new ads get updated each time a certain number of seconds passes. This causes periodic bursts of incoming network traffic to occur, followed by periodic increases in CPU utilization, while the new ad contents get processed and rendered. Apparently, this is set up to be a fairly high priority operation for the AK site. If your available memory is below what is needed, then interactions with memory swap files may be significant, slowing various responses, such as text entry, and other such.

The only reason I know this is because I have on-screen performance monitoring running, on a continuous basis. I do this so I know what is going on (CPU utilization (per core), network traffic (up and down), hard drive activity (read and write), and memory utilization (actual and virtual). I build all of my own PCs, so I generally have quite a bit of performance headroom. Hence I do not otherwise notice some of the performance issues noted by others.

View attachment 1951651

In the above screenshot, my performance monitoring is displayed as a part of my background, on the right edge of the screen. There are 4 (violet) graphs representing CPU utilization for my 4 cores. Note the humps, which represent "user" consumption variations, due to ad updates, the humps indicating well over 90% CPU utilization at times. Note that "kernel" utilization stays relatively uniform (lower of 2 lines per CPU core graph). If you look closely, you can see network activity (graphs with red lines) in sync with humps in CPU utilization. The network traffic humps are hard to see, as I have a significantly high speed connection. You can see them if you look close. In any case, these humps in CPU utilization and network activity disappear immediately upon blocking ad presentation.

Notice the difference in network traffic and CPU utilization with ad presentation blocked:

View attachment 1951652

Considering the demands being placed on my rather well capable PC, by the new dynamic ads, there is no wonder that some folks with less capable devices are having issues to varying degrees.

Some folks have graphics built into their CPUs, rather than on dedicated cards, so some CPU bandwidth is consumed by that, leaving less for other activities. Some, like me, have TV tuners connected via USB, consuming more CPU bandwidth. Some have dedicated amounts of memory being used while running, for various background activities, leaving less available for browsers and such. Some have relatively low bandwidth internet connections, and some are metered/throttled after some monthly threshold is reached. There are other potentially contributing factors.

Personally, I would like to see the cessation of the characterization of folks who voice complaints on this issue as the "regular whiners" on the subject. It is NOT the same small number posting complaints in various threads. I have watched carefully, for many weeks. There are more than a few experiencing performance issues to the degree that they are driven to post about them. Know that there are countless others who are simply putting up with the performance reductions, because they have enough headroom in their devices to be able to tolerate the performance reductions. Many are quietly driven to use ad blockers, so you won't necessarily hear from them. Know that the greatest presentation of ads is for non-member visitors to AK, which are literally legion, throughout the day.

Essentially, there are a lot of variables affecting device and forum performance. Most folks tend to put up with reductions in performance, up to a point, without complaints. If the new ads are being displayed on your device, you ARE experiencing the effects of them. The difference from device to device is in the performance headroom you may have at any particular time. Yes, there could be some operator-related contributions, as well as potential bloat in what folks have running. Just know that, for the most part, issues folks may be noticing are likely due to increased demand being placed on your device resources, due to the new, dynamic ads. This is just the new normal for AK.

The mod staff has no involvement, input, or system access, with this aspect of the forum. This post is for potentially helpful information purposes only. This post is not official information, representing staff or management of AK. It is simply my input, as a fellow member, seeking to provide information that may be of some value...

Rich P
Click to expand...

Hey - Just so you know we're working on this. I actually think that one of the things happening here is that the members who complain are the extremely active ones, and are probably on the site far longer than we usually anticipate.

Our technical team is looking into solutions, and hopefully we can get the balance set more in-line.
 
I signed up a few days ago and noticed 100% CPU utilization when on this site, using Safari on my MacBook (no issues on Windows).
Then yesterday updated my MacBook to Catalina from Sierra and then issues went away. Using a browser other than Safari (with the Sierra) also made a huge difference.
 
I'll have to look at that. Mine is a Late 2011 Macbook Pro with the RAM maxed out and an SSD.

I'm considering switching to Linux(Mint is looking interesting) on MacBook

Just so you know, I have not done any changes on my iPad, and it is no longer chewing up my resources. I am now exclusively using FireFox to access AK. No problems at all with Firefox. I think there have been improvements with my iPad.
 
Changes were made to how the advertising platform works about 2-3 weeks ago. As a result, the problems with locking up, slow response when typing, overheating processors, high processor utilization, etc have been eliminated...at least for now.

It is unfortunate that it took site management so long to address the problem. Many members had made complaints in the thread established to report problems with advertising, with no response. After 4-6 weeks, the person responsible for monitoring that thread (member "advally") finally jumped in. After initially characterizing the issue as complaints by those who dislike the use of advertising, within a few days he seemed to realize that there was a real problem. Within a few days after that, the problem had been resolved.

From what I could tell, member and moderator Rich P (pustelniakr) became aware of the issue, diagnosed it, made recommendations to correct it and forced advally to take it seriously. So, many thanks to him.
 
Last edited:
EDITING

I am not able to edit text in my Profile.

I am not able to edit my posts when I want to make a correction when the posts are not new but a day or a few days old.

This was fixed a couple of years ago. Can the fix be restored?
 
Freds.Bands said:
EDITING

I am not able to edit text in my Profile.

I am not able to edit my posts when I want to make a correction when the posts are not new but a day or a few days old.

This was fixed a couple of years ago. Can the fix be restored?
Click to expand...

I don't know about the profile thing, but the ability to edit posts does go away after some fairly short period of time. Subscribers have a longer period, possibly indefinite.
 
Things at AK started messing up for me a long time ago, maybe as much as a year, but it wasn't constant.

It became constant and overwhelming several months ago when the big ads at the bottom of the page appeared.

That all stopped a few weeks ago, and I appreciate it. I'm so glad that it is a case of "better late than never" instead of "too little, too late".
 
I put Catalina on my older MacBook Pro. The practical effect is that my aftermarket charger no longer works, and the AdBlockerPlus functionality has gone away.

Has anyone reverted to Yosemite?
 
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