Am I doing something wrong?

[Standdown]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve found the site almost unusable at times. Pages only half load, they freeze, or the links don’t work to click on.

It seems to come in waves. It’ll be fine for ten mins then awful and I have to give up. Am I doing something wrong or are there issues? I’m having no issues on any other sites.

I’ve had the same kind of issue. Page juddering at a snails pace when trying to scroll a thread, the website not loading at all when I try to do it and freezing galore. So frustrating.

Hi @Standdown, no, you’re not doing anything wrong. We know some users have been seeing freezing, half-loaded pages, links not responding or tabs refreshing unexpectedly, particularly during longer browsing sessions.

What seems to be happening is that, over time, browser memory usage can build up because of ads and other third-party tech running on the site. Safari appears to be particularly affected, as it has lower memory limits than some other browsers, but we know it’s frustrating whichever browser you’re using.
Justine and the team are actively working on this. We’re testing changes including lighter ad formats, different ad partners and reduced ad refresh rates, but it’s a technically fiddly issue rather than a quick switch we can flick.

In the meantime, using Chrome rather than Safari may help, as can clearing your cache, keeping your browser updated, closing older tabs and bookmarking longer threads so it’s easier to get back if a page refreshes.

Sorry - we know this is really irritating, especially if you’re trying to read or post properly. We’re on it, and we do appreciate everyone bearing with us while we work through it.