Remove adverts on XDA / speed up pages - About xda-developers.com

I find using XDA forums really frustrating with CPU consumption, page load times and so on - often videos (adverts) start playing which I think is the main culprit.
Is there a sort of subscription payment I can make to remove ads? If not, has this feature request been submitted / considered? (Should I suggest it?)

Related

XDA App causes too much traffic

Hi, I'm using xda android app on my desire - premium version, because i think it's worthy supporting this community in the one or other way.
But now i found the app to create huge amounts of traffic. Usually i read within 4 or 5 topics in the desire developer forum on my way to work. The data downloaded by the app sums then up to 5-8 MB, which i find a lot considering that it is mainly text being transferred. Even surfing on websites with many images is less consuming. With my t-mobile contract, allowing only 300MB a month at full speed I could exceed this limit easily on my ways to work and back. Is there a way to reduce the amount of transferred data - is there such a huge overhead? -, somebody else has this problem?
If i can only read XDA close to a WLAN, i could also use my notebook instead, making the app nearly useless ..

Endless Page Loads

Hey guys
I've been noticing this over the last few weeks, and thought I'd throw it out there.
Whenever I visit a forum/thread on xda-developers.com, the page never loads completely. It just sits there reading data from somewhere (Not static, changes.)
Some of the sites I've seen it reading from are:
media.xda-developers.com
ping.crowdscience.com
cdn.eyewonder.com
Looks like it's something to do with ads. Not much of a problem, but thought you might like to be made aware.
The stop button on the browser isn't there for nothing
Herpderp Galaxy Ace.
Never had this problem
Try with an adblock?
Max. (From my Galaxy 2)
EmoBoiix3: This is what I'm doing. It's obviously something that is incorrect on the site though, and thought the admins would like to be advised so they can address it.
Jinsuke32: Which Browser do you use? I get it with Firefox both at home and work, so it can't be just my PC.
MacaronyMax: I have it installed but xda is on the list of exclusions. Support those who support you and what not
Can't say I have seen this either running FF on windows 7 ultimate.
There's nothing they can do about the ad content. If it takes forever to load then it takes forever to load, and that's it I'm afraid.
I recently added some social media links to a bunch of commercial websites and they all started doing the same thing. As soon as I removed the social media links the sites worked fine, so I've stopped using 3rd party stuff as much as possible.
Other than blocking the ads there's no answer to this, unless XDA removes the advertising
No ad blocking for me, running chrome, and I do not have this 'feature'/'issue'.

[Q] Is XDA a memory hog?

After a spirited browsing session here at XDA -- peaking at about 15 tabs and 50 pages -- I find that my browser will permanently increase its memory footprint by 100-300 MB. Even once I close all the XDA tabs, that memory is not freed up until I restart the browser.
I have observed this behavior for years, and always with various versions of my main browser: Opera. This site has many great features, and loads fast, but it would still be nice if this wasn't happening.
Have you guys observed the same heavy RAM usage and/or leak?
My system:
Win 7
i7 920
6 GB DDR3
Actually yes I just did with firefox. In the past I never had this problem actually but lately I only use chrome for xda because firefox always gets stuck.
Firefox is not as bad as ie. But when I load up any page from xda in ie, it is so intensive on my processor that it makes the cpu fan ramp up. Then when I scroll, it is scroll and wait for the page to actually scroll and stop before I can click on anything. It is that intensive on system resources.
well an i7 920 and 6gb of ram is a pretty beastly pc, you don't need a 8-core cpu and 16 gigs (like i have) to surf a forum
It is very normal. Because web is powerful today.
For example, Firefox use a lot of memory: 10 tabs = 250MB memory
Firefox 11 improved memory usage, but still high.
All browsers has the same issue.
Maybe it the time to upgrade your memory. Memory is very cheap today
I am NOT upgrading my pc because one website is not acting right
Obvious, but have you tried clearing cache & temp internet files? There must be a reason because I've got a 2.4 AMD (dual core) with 4GB RAM and I never have the problem. I use Chrome 100% of the time though, so can't vouch for any of the other browsers.
I'm afraid I can't help you with opera but you can try firefox with memoryfox addon. It actively frees memory blocks. Visit www browsermemory.com
One or two times I noticed the problem too but for me it wasn't such a problem to deal with it. I had a quick look on the source of the site and it looks okay, the only active contents are ajax and javascripts, rest is just text, static images & css. The hog might be one of the ajax/javascripts.
I also use Opera (still prefer Firefox though ) and according to the task manager: Memory usage = 16k (average) & Virtual memory = 151k (average) when browsing XDA alone (1 tab).
85gallon said:
I am NOT upgrading my pc because one website is not acting right
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a mighty presumptuous statement. Regardless of if I'm browsing XDA or not, at any of the forums I frequent and if I have many tabs open eventually my Browser begins to Hog my memory, Such is the way the web is.
Do any of the people with the issue use ad-blockers? Ads are generally the culprit with things like this as the site has no (or little) control over what content they load. Also, having 50 flash files playing on separate tabs will definitely have an impact. As tigermess said, the site is mostly just text and images so it's next to nothing.
That would explain why I don't have the issue as I don't have ads turned on.
JimmyMcGee said:
That's a mighty presumptuous statement. Regardless of if I'm browsing XDA or not, at any of the forums I frequent and if I have many tabs open eventually my Browser begins to Hog my memory, Such is the way the web is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are the one making the presumptuous statement. I don't use tabs. I usually have one site open at a time. In the rare instance I have more than one site open, it is in a separate browser session. And that is rare. I have deleted cache and temp . I don't run an ad blocker on my pc.
I am actually running on a fresh (but updated) restore of my hard drive from factory condition. I restored last week. It was doing it before and it's still acting the same way. Both in ie and ff. The only common thread is Eset smart security. I have not disabled to test that. I am leary of doing that here with all of the trash that loads with the ads here.
But when you are browsing fine, and you browse to this web site and your computer slows to a crawl, and the only thing open is this site, then that, sir, is not presumptuous!
Archer said:
Do any of the people with the issue use ad-blockers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't, but I also don't have Flash installed\enabled in Opera.
85gallon said:
You are the one making the presumptuous statement. I don't use tabs. I usually have one site open at a time. In the rare instance I have more than one site open, it is in a separate browser session. And that is rare. I have deleted cache and temp . I don't run an ad blocker on my pc.
I am actually running on a fresh (but updated) restore of my hard drive from factory condition. I restored last week. It was doing it before and it's still acting the same way. Both in ie and ff. The only common thread is Eset smart security. I have not disabled to test that. I am leary of doing that here with all of the trash that loads with the ads here.
But when you are browsing fine, and you browse to this web site and your computer slows to a crawl, and the only thing open is this site, then that, sir, is not presumptuous!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough.
And not to sound like a jerk, but here are your options.
1) Deal with it
B) Don't come to XDA.
In all honesty I could see that you are experiencing problems, but XDA is built on vbulletin. Which while vbulletin scales pretty good to work with XDA, its still a crappy program. Then again the sheer amount of activity on XDA precludes us from using other Forum software, and makes our site run slow on some peoples set ups.
XDA is the site that uses less memory on my PC and i don't have a super machine.. unlike is a pc of the stone age..
I use chrome with adblock plus, my pc is a celeron D 360 with 768 mb of RAM..
What & where's the problem?? I recommend you use an ad blocker and/or another browser..
Flash isn't friendly with any cpu and ram..
JimmyMcGee said:
1) Deal with it
B) Don't come to XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iii) Discuss it. Maybe someone with some insight on the back-end of XDA will chime in with advice. Maybe they don't even know some people have a problem and they will be able to make a change on their side. Poor performance and/or ad blocking aren't in anyone's best interest.
Other vbulletin forums don't gobble memory for me. I think that XDA is unlike the average vbulletin forum.
My computer is a single core hyperthreading 3.21GHz <--- (basically a wannabe duo core) with 1gb ram. I use chrome, with adblocker and my browser NEVER lags or anything, even with MANY XDA pages open...
mhhd said:
..snip.. I think that XDA is unlike the average vbulletin forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There in is the rub. XDA is a very large forum, we have a full time person, optimizing and maintaining our servers, as I'm sure you can imagine. SO I will hit him up and see if he says anything. But we have discussed this before, in the year or more have upgraded many of our servers to improve the speed.
So while I may have seemed like a jerk, its not because I don't care, its because we are constantly trying to improve the performance of XDA. However, with the numerous different computer setups and internet connections, not everyone is going to have a blazing fast experience, some of that it outwith our control.
Thank you. All we ask is to have your person look into it.
I will do what I can from my end. I don't think it is a vbulletin problem. That and server issues would only account for slow page loads. They wouldn't account for bringing a computer to its knees. When the page loads fully and I scroll my mouse, there is a 5-10 second lag before the page actually scrolls.
I like xda and I don't want to use ad blockers if that is the culprit as that it's how you survive and pay the bills. But there is some bad code somewhere.
I saw a few add blockers that will let you select what adds to disable. Maybe I can narrow it down some.
All we are asking is to look into and not a canned like it or leave it option.
JimmyMcGee said:
...we are constantly trying to improve the performance of XDA....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It shows. For me, the XDA experience is great in all the most important ways: speed, features, and community. I guess complaining about memory usage is a bit of a nit pick =P

Video ads - please remove them!

All these video ads on the forum are really annoying me (and I'm sure a lot of other people). Yes, I know the site needs to make some money to keep it online, but isn't there a less annoying alternative? they kind of make browsing the forum more of a chore, than a passtime - constantly having to mute the ad at the top of the page, scroll down as fast as possible and then mute the one at the bottom.
Please, someone!
KILL ZE ADS!
If running IE9, enable tracking protection (and add fanboys lists).
If running Chrome/FF, install AdBlock, and enable fanboys lists.
Advert problem solved.
I agree, adverts should be removed, its really annoying when your browsing through then suddenly this tic tac toe sh!t comes up. What's worse,the audio adverts.
sent from my x8
Yes, at least a way to disable the Audio on the video adverts would be appreciated!
Annoying watching TV on the pc and having another advert startup with sound over the top of what I'm trying to watch!
EDIT: Like as soon as I posted this FFS!
jeremyshaw said:
If running IE9, enable tracking protection (and add fanboys lists).
If running Chrome/FF, install AdBlock, and enable fanboys lists.
Advert problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this thanks. I suppose I can just Google fan boy?
FoxHound PsychoMantis V2 on GT-i9100 via Tapatalk
+1 for Chrome and Adblock Plus, i don't have any problem with them
I don't know about the fanboy filter...
I don't see ads on any sites I visit.
Firefox 12.0 / Abblock Plus 2.0.3 with Element Hiding Helper 1.2.2.
Under Firefox click the menu tab > Add-ons > Get Add-ons > use the search bar to find adblock plus...
I am always amazed to read that people are annoyed by adverts on a site I visit. My first reaction is "They have ads here?" Then I chuckle to myself as I have never had a hint of my browser fighting them off. Out of sight, out of mind.
Peaceful browsing all.
I also use FireFox with AdBlock Plus to kill ads. The problem I have is that there are various sites (almost exclusively forums like linuxminut, /. and XDA) where I actually want to allow the adverts as I know they make money from it to support themselves, and thereby keep the sites I truly value running.
Unfortunately, due to the spread of video/audio ads I am finding I am less able to do that - they are such a waste of bandwidth and the audio ones just do my head in something chronic.
Maybe XDA should consider taking a stand by not using video/audio ads - thereby allowing those of us who actually choose to support the site the ability to do so.
Reason I use the fanboy list instead of the default easylist, is, iirc, that list sold out before; fanboys was created to counter it.
Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2

XDA and bad practice advertising..

XDA and bad practice advertising...
Hi XDA, I've been a member here for quite a while. Recently something has started happening more and more which is beyond annoying.
Auto playing video adverts with SOUND ..
I am not sure what ad provider you are using, but you need to change this. I will right click on a few links to read and have them open up in a new browser tab. All of a sudden one of them starts playing a bloody ad with sound. I then jave to spend the next few minutes scrolling up and down the entire length of each tab page to try and locate and stop the frikking ad that is blasting out of my speakers and competing with the music I have playing.
It used to be once in a while, its now 50% of the tabs I open on this site.
XDA is one of those sites that is the hight of hackery and intellegence. Can you use that intellegence you have to force all adverts to be muted??
I can load an ad blocker and make the problem go away, but that means no revenue for you guys. I would rather not do that.
Having ads that just sh!t people to tears by annoying them to the maximum of your ability is NOT a good or long term way to raise revenue.
Come on guys, I expect better. Either change your ad supplier, make the default silent or remove video ad's from your page.
Warmly, Marty
artymarty said:
XDA and bad practice advertising...
Hi XDA, I've been a member here for quite a while. Recently something has started happening more and more which is beyond annoying.
Auto playing video adverts with SOUND ..
I am not sure what ad provider you are using, but you need to change this. I will right click on a few links to read and have them open up in a new browser tab. All of a sudden one of them starts playing a bloody ad with sound. I then jave to spend the next few minutes scrolling up and down the entire length of each tab page to try and locate and stop the frikking ad that is blasting out of my speakers and competing with the music I have playing.
It used to be once in a while, its now 50% of the tabs I open on this site.
XDA is one of those sites that is the hight of hackery and intellegence. Can you use that intellegence you have to force all adverts to be muted??
I can load an ad blocker and make the problem go away, but that means no revenue for you guys. I would rather not do that.
Having ads that just sh!t people to tears by annoying them to the maximum of your ability is NOT a good or long term way to raise revenue.
Come on guys, I expect better. Either change your ad supplier, make the default silent or remove video ad's from your page.
Warmly, Marty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ad company gets yelled at if they let through audio ads.
If there are specific ones, please let us know, and they will be yelled at by someone even more angry than usual.
Audio ads are not acceptable to us either!
Intrusive ads? Post here
awesome. Thanks for the fast feedback guys... I'll start taking notes... :good:
and right after this an audio ad for the milk drink "Milo" started playing.
I had 6 tabs open, all xda.
How is this for sneaky. The ad went for around 60 seconds. NONE of the ad screens had any visuals about Milo. so you have to listen and cant see where it is playing from.
I will say that ALL the audio ad's have been for Australian based stuff, products, stores and TV shows... at least the geo location is working...
Grrrrr

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