We have just implemented a couple of relatively small, but quite significant changes to the site. Both changes aim to improve the overall page rendering speeds. In short - pages should hopefully load and display faster than before. The changes focus on the way advertisements are displayed on our pages, and on the way certain images are loaded. After the change most of the advertisements are loaded after the page has completed, which allows you to start viewing and reading faster than before.
Another change that we've implemented has to do with loading images on some of the "image heavy" pages at AfterDawn. A good example of this is the Desktop pics forum thread. Slow loading pictures in posts or signatures can cause some forum pages to load very sluggishly. Now, after the recent change, all the images in the all posts are loaded "lazily", i.e. when they are scrolled to view. You'll see placeholder images such as this
when you view posts. Those placeholders will be replaced by the actual images once your browser has loaded them.
If you encounter any problems with either advertisements or the lazily loaded pictures, please do let us know. When reporting any problems, please make sure to mention your browser and its version, the operating system you're using, and your ISP.
Looking forward to hearing your comments on the changes!












