I’ve been on STW for years, ever since the first magazine was published and the first version of the forum. But the slowness and the jerky uploads are really getting up my nose, the messages flashing up in the bottom left of my screen tell me the computer is constantly “Waiting for ….” something, which I assume to be the ads. Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing. From the slowdown in posts I guess I’m not the only one who comes on here less and less.

Cycle Chat is good on pure cycling but I always used to come to STW for a laugh and some experienced advice on just about any subject under the sun. So where is everybody going now for bloke banter?

So where is everybody going now for bloke banter?

The Locker Room

Buy a subscription ?

Too many slow loading and intrusive ads on newspaper websites caused me to purchase a certain type of cheap application and view those primarily on my phone/tablet

Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing.

is that down to stw – surely it’s all local until you hit post?

Been a subscriber for many years – but repeated injuries have made me less adventurous and the Mags just made me feel sad and still sit unopened – so now I am a “freeloader” again. I might have paid the smaller amount for a digital sub, but I am not feeling like the top brass (not the mods – heroes the lot of them) think of us more than sheep-to-be-shorn. And the user experience without a P or a blocker is just awful.

If those in ST towers don’t want us to use the software/extensions which must not be named, and do want us to visit their site more, they really need to look at this and find a compromise position. Their very own ads down the sides of the page are some of the worst offenders.

Much better on the iPAd where I can zoom in and crop the sides 😉

Alternative forums? There are other forums?

is that down to stw – surely it’s all local until you hit post?

If the ads or faults with ads are processor intensive then the whole computer slows down. STW is the most processor intensive application my laptop is used for seemingly

I ended up going P just because its cheaper than a new laptop 🙂

AIBU?

general bollox – pistonheads
leftie bollox – dunno, guardian or socialist worker forum?
bike stuff – pinkbike

or use advert blocker ?

leftie bollox – try here.

Typing is difficult thanks to the couple of seconds of delay between the keystroke and the letter actually appearing.

Just updated chrome to v54 which is now automatically blocking flash player. It seems to have made a vast improvement to the above.

So where is everybody going now for bloke banter?

How would we know? we’re all here.. With a non-glitchy, non-advert ridden, perfectly useable forum, I might add.

Takes about a minute minimum to load a page here.

People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die. Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there, hardly any is the answer.

Sadly it seems that over the last year or tow STW seem to be taking their user base for granted and unwilling to put time and money into a forum update.

I also use 606v2 forums for rugby talk. Some very knowledgeable folk on there but the level of trolling / numpties is much higher than here as a % and I did get banned for arguing 😉

Having said that I have no issues with usability on here and have never seen another forum with such depth of knowledge and good moderation

People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die.

I think you’ll find it’s the non-Ps doing the moaning…

Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there

That’s the secret P forum, yeah? lolz

Jeez- £1.49 a month for no ads – worth it for me.

Other forums – no other one I have found has a such diversity and depth of knowledge/ignorance. It is useful and entertaining.

BikeRadar.. Nope
Pink Bike.. Nope
Mumsnet.. maybe…

Look at the front page where only P folk can post, how many posts are there, hardly any is the answer.

There never was. People rarely post on the news stories if they’re critical/want a discussion – they start a thread in the forums.

I’m not going to get into a discussion on the subject that musn’t be discussed but if you don’t get £1.50’s worth of value out of stw a month you’re doing it wrong.

The adds managed to blow enough data on my phone a couple of months back to make me end up with a huge bill. P looks very cheap after that!

I don’t know how anybody can use the internet these days with an adblocker, the advertising game have killed there own revenue stream.

That said with that realisation I am quite willing to pay a reasonable subscription to sites I find interesting, STW’s monthly subscription really is very good value.

I am open to suggestions for other good outdoor activity sites.

I’ve never paid to use a forum as it is the people who post there that make it worthwhile and that keeps the traffic count up along with advertising revenues. Charging people to use the forum advert free whilst relying on them to generate the content that brings in the people and advertising revenues is just plain greedy.
I’ve tried the Premier membership but wasn’t interested in anything else other than the forum so it was wasted. If the adverts get too intrusive I just leave the forum alone for a few weeks which no doubt many others do too. In the end these periods will get longer as the forum owners allow more adverts to recoup their lost revenue and it becomes a viscous circle until the forum dies. No doubt it is in these stages already as MTB isn’t as popular as it used to be and other forums have sprung and the interesting content is appearing on them now.

I have a premier subscription but find little benefit on the forum. I still have to log in every time I visit the forum as it never remembers me. The log in button is always the last piece of the page to load after all the ads. This is the same on every device, on every browser. It has been raised for years and never fixed.

I do not think seeing the forum ad free should be sold as a benefit of premier status as this is misleading. I still have to load all the ads before I am able to log in. In that respect the paid for functionality is worse then a (free) ad blocker.

People can moan bout non-P folk, but without us the forum would die.

I think you’ll find it’s the non-Ps doing the moaning…

See

too much K4 pron i reckon. Get malwarebytes and/or a virus scanner running.

SnowHeads is/was always entertaining. But it’s not a patch on here.

However, the £1.49 I spend to be a P on here is the best money I spend all month I reckon.

The log in button us always the last piece of the page to load after all the ads. This is the same on every device, on every browser. It has been raised for years and never fixed.

and for years, every time it’s raised someone posts this link and suggests the complainer bookmarks it so they get an ad free login page…

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-login.php

that is a workaround, not a solution.

I know it is not that big a deal, but STW is the only web content that I pay for, so it is reasonable to expect that it works.

No complaints here, its money well spent. For reference I am using a tediously slow offshore internet connection and STW is by far and away the most useable website going. It remembers my details, no ads. Its great! 8)

Maybe posts on the front page isn’t a great data set, so I just looked at the forum front page and a couple of threads and a quick analysis would have it at around 55-60% of posts by non-P folk. Obviously STW world would have better data, but based on those numbers without non-P folk the forum would wither pretty quickly.

I find it bizarre that STW USP is being run into the ground. The loss of vids and decent race reporting means I spend more time on PinkBike and else where and surely they don’t want to end up with forum dying and ending up like Grit.cx?

the only web content that I pay for

you pay for it all one way or another.

I won;t comment on the alternatives to P except to quote the rules;

In addition you agree not to promote the use of ad blocking on our site in either story comments or forum posts

I got a 3 day ban last time I mentioned them and Mark spotted it.

I didn’t ban you.

that is a workaround, not a solution.

It is, but any “solution” is beyond my pay grade.

and for years, every time it’s raised someone posts this link and suggests the complainer bookmarks it so they get an ad free login page…

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-login.php

As I’ve just posted on the sister thread to this one,

Bookmark http://singletrackworld.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=forum/ as your landing page. It’ll take you to the forum front page if logged in and to an ad-free login page if you’re not.

The price of a subscription always seems sickening when I drive past Singletrack Towers and see all their gold-plated helicopters outside. And I’m amazed they get anything done at all got those Arabian Polo Ponies delivered. You should see them all strutting around in their white jodhpurs waving their mallets about. Its like a bloody Jackie Collins novel over there, I tell you!

I didn’t ban you.

you’re right, I got a warning, apologies. The bans were for other stuff.

I still have to log in every time I visit the forum as it never remembers me.

It is bad at remembering logins but there is (also) something wrong at your end if you have to log in every time.
By comparison, I have to log in maybe once or twice a month and I’m on here pretty much every day.

Are you deleting cookies, using some horrible “Internet Protector” software, or using Incognito mode?

Top Tip: if you are deleting your browser history to hide your frot “suprise present buying” sessions then that deletes your STW login cookie too.

And for the sake of reference, I am a P user, but I have occassionally strayed here whilst not logged in and I agree the ad overkill makes it painful to the point of unusable, especially on mobile devices.

It is bad at remembering logins but there is (also) something wrong at your end if you have to log in every time.

I am on the forum most days.

This happens on windows PC at work using chrome and/or explorer, safari on iPad, chrome on android phone and firefox and/or chrome on home PC.I really don’t think the problem is at this end.

My android devices ‘forget’ me more regularly than my Windows ones.

Only time it’s a real issue is when there’s full page ad campaigns running and you can’t get to the login button very easily.

“leftie bollox – try here.”

Interesting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic, if actually analysed properly. You’d have to be really very right wing indeed, practically BNP/Britain First, to think the ‘chat’ forum is ‘leftie bollocks’…

nteresting viewpoint, because this forum has a fairly right-of-centre majority demographic

Is that a joke Clod? This is a renowned Leftie forum and has been for years!