First I would like to say that I also experience very bad speed issues. Today has been very very slow, but then again last night it was moving at a pretty good speed.

Second - I don't think anyone has said the site speed issues are a fault of a persons computer. I think some have suggested looking at settings, browser, and "cleaning" to help speed things up - but I believe everyone knows that the speed issues are somewhere else.

The problem: The speed issue is somewhere between the user & BrainKing. To expect Fencer to be able to solve the issue is the same as expecting us the user to fix the problem.

The internet works by going from point to point (hops) to get to the final destination. This is basicly random. From my town in Illinois, if I try to connect to the local school, some days I can get there in 3 "hops" - other days, it will take 10 "hops" going over to Indy & up to Chicago before making it back into my town. Thing is most all of the hops are pretty fast, so I don't even notice the speed difference. The problem is not all "hops" are fast. And your connection speed will only be as fast as the slowest connection. So take this example. (using Miles Per Hour just to show the example)

Hop 1 - 100Mph
Hop 2 - 100Mph
Hop 3 - 100Mph
Hop 4 - 2 Mph
Hop 5 - 100Mph
Hop 6 - 100Mph

The first hop is you, the last is BrainKing. Both are fast, but with a slow "hop" in the middle - your connection speed will be 2 Mph because the data slows down there.

Unfortunately there is not much that can be done. Someone suggested multiple servers in different locations, but that would be a very big task - probable a lot more then what a simple game site like BK would be able to do.

The one thing I would love Fencer to do is work on a "minimal" version of BK - a version that strips all but the important information so when users are in the "slow" mode, they can switch to it to still play games. So for example, a 500KB page may take 20 seconds to load. Well if you strip all the extra and make it a 100KB page, then the user will have to wait for less data and in turn should load pages faster. I thought I read someplace once that he was interested in this, but I'm unsure if he is working on it or not.

Doing some of the things I mention here: Computers (coan.net, 2007-03-12 20:16:01) - will help out..... along with changing the message per page on the discussion boards to a lower number.... like turning off the Javascript extras.... roll over smileys.... since having those off means that the extra data on the webpage no longer has to be transmitted to you - and in turn there is less data for you to wait for and can help speed things up.

** edited to add: before some tech corrects my example above, I know that is not "exactly" how it works - but should be a pretty good example for others who don't know how it works to understand it... so please don't pick about the details of my example ***

Andersp: yes, that's something to consider...but I want to be hopeful and think that problems will get solved..and think that we will do more to sway him by polite posts..I'm not saying we should totally 'suck up' , but just think that negative posts aren't going to do alot to influenece him to want to help us.

Have to say that I'm happy to see people I don't normally see post here, like antje, beach, anastasia, Abigail, or2ak.com, gammonator and others speaking up as well...so he can be aware that there really ARE alot of us having problems...and that's it's not limited to just a select few....

baddessi: I wish you are right but i have to say that i doubt. I have been as polite as Rose and Antje but without success.

Do you think this business has grown too big for him to handle and now he has no solutions.
So instead of trying to solve the BIG problems he is trying to "make points" by creating "cosmetics"

just a thought

baddessi: i totally agree....just my opinion...i also agree on the comments regarding rose and antje's posts...

Andersp: I'll give you that...you have spoken up for a long time and have legitimate frustruations.

I can't speak for Fencer, but I would guess the reason he doesn't respond is exactly because people ARE screming with frustruation.
He has said that he doesn't have answers to the problems at this point. Ok, he's working on cosmetics and some of us might think that site access is a priority, but the fact of the matter is that he IS working on the site. I would venture to guess that he is investigating access problems as well, but has no new answers at this point, and that is why he is not saying anything about it.

I am hopeful that the access problems will be taken care of in time as well, but he doesn't have answers to that right now and doesn't wish to spend his time saying that over and over again. I imagine he is just as frustruated with the situation as we all are.

But I think that polite and meant to help posts, for example the ones from Antje and Rose in the past day or so, may encourage him to read and participate in this board more than the ones where people are focusing on his rude behavior and arguements about what's on topic and such.
Just my opinion....

baddessi: If we could have a constructive discussion here WITH Fencer then i think the mods job shouldnt be so difficult.
But when he escapes from the reality and either ignore people or is rude then this situation occurs.
Look at his blog. He spends his time creating "cosmetic" while people are screaming of frustration because his site doesnt work.

baddessi: well said you! Thank you for that. I think the mods are handling this situation very well indeed & some of the users do need to learn some manners! Its childish behaviour & will not get anyone anywhere as we are currently seeing.

I read this board to see the info that is intended to be on here but instead its like reading one of the 'flame room f/s' that some people love to fight in. I gave those up a long time ago when I realised some people are just here to cause trouble & not alot more.

I would like to see people give our mods a break. I think they have gone above and beyond here in being fair and objective. I have done this job, and it is time consuming and sometimes frustruating. They are doing a great job and I thank them for their time, their objectivity and consideration.
I also understand the frustruation of people having trouble, but I agree that by stepping back and trying to work together peacefully, instead of fighting back and forth, we can accomplish a whole lot more.
Sure, Fencer has gone off a few times. Many of us have "Gone off a few times". Can't we put it behind us and move forward together?

Give the mods a break. They are not causing the troubles here. They are only trying to help.
Thanks

redfrog: I treat people with respect, but i expect them to do the same. If pay money to a company to become a member and the owner either ignores me or name me "ceratin user", "annoying" or "Troll" on a public discussionboard, should i pad his shoulder (almost said something else) then.
Send your post to him instead.

baddessi: well put - thanks for posting...

Andersp: all im asking is that the posts we make are polite - we can only control ourselves and our own behavior - others poor behavior is not an excuse for the same - by all means express your frustrations and concerns... politely - not for my sake - but maybe for the sake of other users or even children who are always learning and listening to the adults in their life - its just a good habit wouldnt you say? politeness? can we agree on that? Im sure you can see from the pattern of my posts - that thats really my only concern.... how we say what we need to say....

because I too am having trouble. I have been on this site since 2004 and have never complained on any board. I speak up now because, in my opinion, there are many people NOT speaking up. It isn't just a few people having trouble. I play many people from this side of the pond, and most of them are frustruated and experiencing the same thing. Slow loading pages, blank pages, not being able to access the site. Altho I'm on the same side of the pond as Rose and Anders, I'm 2500 miles south of where Rose lives, so it is affecting a vast area, not a local problem, and there are as many differnt ISP providers as there are players, so it can't just be certain providers.
It has become much worse in the last few months.
I'm not familiar with much computer lingo, but my husband is. He earns his living with computers. He is paid very well to know everything about them. We have 3 top of line computers in this house and 3 Dell laptops. It reacts the same on all of these computers, as well as at his office, where they have to have the fastest computers that money can buy. So it isn't a computer problem(ex:slow computers, overloaded caches) I have problems where I live sometimes with access, but not in the town where he works, and not where my daughter lives, 25 miles north of us. But the problems with BK are the same at all locations.
From what I've heard from people in my games, most of them are having the same problem over here in the US and Canada. It is the majority of them, and from what I have experienced, the minority is the few NOT having problems.
I hope my post here will be viewed not as a complaint, but as helpful information to the site owner that I honestly feel that accessing brainking over here IS a real problem. I don't have this problem with any other site on the net.
And yes, the majority is silent, and I'm afraid that if it continues, they will just silently stop supporting the site and leave. I am not leaving because I have great friends here and love this site, and if I have to play slow to play here, I will continue to do so. But I worry about the ones that do leave, becuase it is alot of revenues for the site and I hate for it to suffer because of lack of support from the US and Canada. It's my hope that something can be done to correct these problems and we can all continue to enjoy this site.

I think a survery would be a great idea to trouble shoot just where the problems are, and who is being affecting the most, in hopes that something can be done to correct the problems.
Thanks.

redfrog: Come on, you know better!
Noone has made Fencer rude, but when he never answer a question and if he happens to post something he call people 'certain users" "Troll" and "complainers".
I asked in Feature requests if we could have a 'dot" or something to show if a player is using autopass. No answer yet, but if "not you" asks he will have an answer at once..or at least "ill look at it".
So the creator of bad mood on this board is the owner himself!!...make a poll or whatever you want but dont blame us who only ask for service.

srnity: dont worry about being banned too fast .. especially not for your own opinion

but please try to be on topic and use another board if you want to discuss something else ;)

Rose: i certainly can image your frustration
i also know some people who have a slow connection with brainking are on fast computers and high speed providers

so it isnt their computer

i also know some people who dont have problems .. so it doesnt seem to be the brainking server

it must be somewhere in between ... the point is though .. we dont know where .. if we would know some common characteristics of the people who have a slow connection to brainking and another set of common characteristics of people who dont have problems .. then we might be able to sort it out

my knowledge of the routing tables is too little to know if everyone from the usa follows the same route towards brainking (some people from the usa have problems, others dont)

i hope we can sometime find the problem .. but i am not sure wether fencer can do something about it other than relocate or use another line

redfrog: May I say for someone who professes to be so "highly qualified" you come off as exceptionally rude and self-serving I, as most of the people "expressing" their opinions here, am an adult, Thank You And now I expect to be "banned" for having an opinion of my own

jryden: i ignored the sarcasm and hoped my point was clear as well ;)

jryden: LMBO - the chicken handstand

jryden: i think sarcasm is the last thing we need for now - there is a time and place for humor that breaks the tension - but sarcasm is just another way to be rude about your opinion - i think just saying to move your post to gen chat was being polite....

Bk Users: i would rather encourage all people to find polite ways to make their view known - as several people have mentioned, fencer has lost his composure a few times in response to the rude and sarcastic posts on this board. Unfortunately - this has caused a view that he is uncaring and rude as a person. I would never assume anyone is a rude and uncaring person as a result of a handful of posts.

I have some pretty extensive exposure to behavior modification techniques and id like to recommend that rude statements, sarcastic jabs, and outright abusive language are more likely to cause more problems than to solve any of our concerns.

While i personally feel the topic has been exhausted, this is the place to post concerns about the site and its functionality. Id like to see those posts, as most have been for the past few days at least, continue to be presented thoughtfully, with some suggesting solutions, others voicing concerns for the first time, but all doing so in a polite manner. There is an abusive tone to a great deal of the posts here - and i would be hard pressed long term to ignore the badgering and continue to respond with customer service being a priority - eventually you have to decide which customers are causing more problems than they are worth - its an unfortunate reality in business. I dont want to be on the receiving end of customer disservice, and i would never act in a way deserving of such treatment anyway.

However, the online environment tends to relax the normal control we have over our mouths and our desire to maintain decent relations. We feel free to be as rude as we like because of the safety of anonymity of a user name and a lack of face to face interaction.

If you were to go to my front door - or fencers front door and voice complaints in a rude or abusive manner - would you be surprised to have the door slammed in your face? You really shouldnt be.....

However, i can say from experience that the occasional frustrated customer, or rude interaction is not enough to make me start slamming doors, its the persistent, just for the fun of stirring the pot attitude that is what prompts the door slam -

why provoke such a response? the only answer could be - because i can - and because i dont care about trying to be polite -

those type of posts are unwelcome - it shouldnt be a surprise when you are ignored.

ok - im done - continue on as you will - i hope some of you might be encouraged to take a constructive point of view in future posts - but im sure there will be some that just dont care to be decent - or feel that well - now that fencer has been rude a handful of times - theres no going back - im sorry for you - for i predict a lack of customer service for you in the future - and i fear that your actions are ruining any chance of action on fencers part for the rest of us....

and now since ive read this board yesterday ive done alittle data collection and comparison. i had 69 games to move on at pocketmonkey, and i completed that in 10 minutes. ive made 123 moves here since 1800 EST last evening. having logged on for an hour or so last night, and over an hour today. its significantly slower, and i sure wish there was some way i could change that.

i have a question, as i wait for my pages to load, on the bottom of the browser, where it lists transferring data, reading data, etc... i notice that it seems to stall more on "transferring data from brainking.com" and "reading data from i.brainking.com" seems to go quicker. and transferring from i.brainking.com seems to go quicker. being unschooled in computers and just learning by trail and error, could having the incoming info coming from 2 sources be of any significance?

Rose: I nominate Rose spokesperson for the silent majority.

Hrqls: I think the sarcastic nature of the post would be entirely lost if I actually posted it in the correct location. No?

or2ak.com: I do a lot of things on Internet, if BK was the only Internet site i shouldnt pay for any Internet connection, believe me :)
We have 5 desktops and 2 laptops in the house, same BKspeed on each. So now someone will say that the network is slowing down BK. Then shouldnt it slow down other sites too?
4 or 5 "certain users" who are complaining? No sir..there are many many more but as someone said, they dont want to be "snapped of" by Fencer.

Its the site owner who is responsible for giving each customer the same service, even if they live in USA or Australia.

A "satellite server" in USA maybe is the soulution...
Volvo doesnt sell cars in USA from Sweden, Nokia doesnt sell USA-phones from Finland.

What a lot of people here are missing is those of us that are finding the site very slow ARENT ALL on old machines. Mine is brand new, top of the line with 2 GB of ram, 3.4GHz dual core processor. 256MB PCI Express vid card, plus on a 15megabit highspeed provider (highest available on cable)
I found this site great for the last 5  years.. Now in the last few months it is slow. SO those of you telling us to leave and it is all our fault just dont get our side of it. (If you bought a car and it didnt work right would you really just walk away from it and get a new one? I would think you would ask the manufacturer to make it work right - Also not fair of you to tell the lifetime supportes to just leave after they plunked down over $400)
I am on line 12 to 14 hours a day with my job and logged in to BK from 8am to 10pm at nite. This is the only site that lags and gives white pages, takes 30 seconds to load, red dots for game pieces for us to 30 seconds, cant play logik as there are too many moves an it takes 5 minutes to play one turn. etc etc.. And there are not a handful of us. There are lots of us who will not write on this board for fear of being lashed out at.
Those of you that do not know and are not experiences this issue, Please stop telling us it is our PC or our ISP. I have run a speed test with my ISP and it was flying so fast that the ISP tech was amazed at how fast it went.

Sure you few lot are frusterated reading these posts over an over. JUST IMAGINE how frusterated people who pay to use this site are feeling when they cant play their games properly day to day to day!!!!!

Jules: Yes anything we can think of along these lines

MadMonkey: .. It might also be common to certain internet providers.

Hrqls: That could also provide good information for Fencer
More like a survey, which country you are in, type of connection, font setting etc etc... in fact anything we can think of that may involve pc, connection or site performance issues.

Maybe we can find a common denominator

We have a poll system here (well we did lol), maybe Fencer could modify that

TarantinoFan: i also use the no fonts settings

maybe someone can setup a poll somewhere (i think you can do it at yahoo or maybe even at facebook?) to ask people wether bk is fast or not for them and wether they use external stylesheets or a standard one or the no fonts

btw yesterday bk slowed down a bit at the end of the evening, but not 'slow' yet ... just 'not fast' .. hotmail and hyves were slow though .. slower than bk .. so i guess it was my connection at that time :)

jryden: please post it on the general chat board

AbigailII: true relocating might solve something. but is it worth the cost and trouble ? the same as the other type of line which fencer mentioned in a previous post .. is it worth the money .. it would mean that the membership fees would have to increase even more

if you have an idea to solve things its always best to send a message directly to the person who can do something about it .. if you want a discussion about it (which has been going on for quite some time now and getting stalled) then you use a public board

or2ak.com: Thanks. Will have to see if I can find an Australian equivalent.

Bernice: Well it is actually running fairly well for me at the moment. We will see how long that lasts though.

PS. I didn't do it!!! It wasn't me!!! ROFL.

TarantinoFan:

I use system mechanic Here...
Its worth every penny... 

or2ak.com: Do I count as new
I have been having problems with brainking for weeks with various things on and off including videos taking forever to load and some settings not working right. The slowness of the site is not consistance but varies from one extreme to the other from slow slow quick quick slow to a tango to getting booted off for even attempting to move in a game. At the risk of boring everyone by repeating what certain users have said it is only happening on this site to me.
I do play some people from Checz and have noticed that one in particulier moves in a game with what seems like the speed of light so it is obviously not affecting everyone as you say but it does not mean it is not happening.
Anyway, no worries, as you say there are other things to do and I have my bike to get out on when I can,t get on here (yes I really do have a bike)
Anyway its no big deal to me and I,m done moaning so Good morning everyone and have a nice day.

TarantinoFan: it doesnt....mine times out at 24 as well.......but Fencer knows Im on a slow computer (connection)cause he told me.......ROFL

it is the fault of "certain users"

Eriisa: i just finished my games and the site seems to be much faster then it has been, i'm on a fairly new laptop. i wasn't having any problems with speed until a week ago. i'm hoping others are noticing that it's faster right now, and it's not just me. :)

TarantinoFan: Maybe that is why I don't have a problem with the site loading pages. i run the no fonts. i did tho, cause i had trouble reading the pages and wanted the fonts larger.

srnity: This site is slow...

http://www.subservientchicken.com

Man this board does some weird things with urls.

I just turned off my external style and my hops which were over 30 last time have reduced to Time Out at #24. Fingers crossed that this might improve the speed a bit. 

or2ak.com: Thankyou. Another couple of helpful suggestions that we can try.

I have never heard of defragging RAM. Could you tell us computer dummies how to do it please?

Another thought I just had was to compare if the people who are running slow are using external styles. I am going to turn mine off to see if the tracert gets a more direct route without that.

And Fencer, a suggestion. Sticky posts on boards. So that when people come in the first thing they read is the helpful posts on clearing and speeding up the site. I know there are good ones from coan.net about stripping back your BK settings and Gordon Shumway posted about cache size and settings and this most recent one from or2ak is another good one. Other discussion boards have sticky posts. It may save you some grief.

TarantinoFan:

Although I do agree that Fencer has no tact in his responses  LOL  (I'm guilty of that also sometimes)  But what gets old is hearing about the slowness of the site.  I dont see it nor do I know very many users that do. So if its just a select few then maybe its not a BK issue?  Its the PC you use.  I know this for a fact as I have mentioned lots of times that my desktop is slower loading pages here but on my laptop its lightning fast.  I have also used the PCs at a library and some friends homes, all load BK pages slower and faster.  My wife just got back from China and said it was taking her 2-3 min per move.  Is that a BK issue since at the same time she was on I was on my laptop cruising fast as can be...

There are lots of things that can make a PC a little faster, not just clearing cookies and your cache but U can also defrag your RAM (not your hard drive, RAM)  I defrag my ram when PC gets a little slow and next time I load my browser I'm going so fast I cant keep up  LOL

Also, check your bandwidth when it seems slow  Bandwidth Test 

Antje: Yes,,,your internet provider can even help you. It can run internal tests as to the speed of uploading and downloading from sites you visit often. My wife is russian and I have a 3 year old girl . We down cartoons from russia. The site opens at 7;00PM every nite here in the midwest. When we download cartoons from this site,,we can only get a maximum of 17KB. That is the most that is allowed to overseas customers when the site is not paying for traffic outside its own country, I ran this test about a week ago. Would you believe I was not quite getting 17KB from this site??? Amazing isnt it. Other sites are coming in at 384KB. Be it here or abroad, I dont know what Fencer is doing . I am not a computer nut either. I do have a rather new computer. Dual core 5800 AMD with 2 gigs and an 8800GTX Geo Force card. Works marvelous except here, I just dont think that anyone posting here will get this to Fencer. Only messaging Fencer direct will help. If he sees enough of the peoples reaction,,,maybe he will look into this,,,but for me,,,I should never of renewed,,,and when my time is up,,I doubt I will unless this site makes some changes. IYT is fast but ,,,geez,,,,who wants to be a member there anymore,,,,,lol This is the place place to play,,,Seems the only fair thing to do is start your own site up and make a go of it..

Peace all

or2ak.com: You don't see any new people complaining because everyone else has seen how you get treated if you say something on this board about the slowness and they don't want to risk raising the ire of the site owner.

And we keep coming back here because this used to be our favourite game site and we keep hoping in vain for a return to the days when it was good and fast and the site owner seemed like a nice guy. I can't play Frog Finder anywhere else and I just want the site to work so I can enjoy my favourite game.

And PS. Most of my complaints recently have been about the way people have been treated on this board. Not about the connectivity. That only comes into it because the abuse dished out is to people who mention the connectivity.

jryden: I just love it LOLOL.....

jryden: ROFLMBO And "The Page Cannot Be Found" - got a second choice?

Andersp:

I disagree, using your bike is better than a car 
Excersize and environment 

I'd like to make an off topic post.  Is this the place to post an off topic post?  If this isn't the place for posting an off topic post then can someone who regularly posts off topic posts to the place where you can post off topic posts please let me know where I can post my off topic post?

And, please accept my apology for posting an off topic post about posting an off topic post.  I realize that it is off topic.

Now, since brainking is slow today...I'm off to

http://www.subservientchicken.com

You'll find me there.