Will a subscription improve my STW experience?

“I’ve also been having issues with browser locking up, fans spinning like crazy, general poor behaviour making it a real PITA to use the forum. Happens on MacBook, iPad, and iPhone with Chrome and Safari. I’ve put an email in to the tech team and hopefully we can figure it out.”

Good luck with that.

Didn’t seem to make any difference to me when I stopped subscribing (stopped due to attitude of STW). I didn’t see any benefit, not interested in seeing the magazines online really so wasn’t much point for me. I stopped a lot of other subs to save money and it made a big difference monthly.

I recently took up a paid membership. I quite like the paper magazine and access to the digital archive of old issues, to me the subscription is worth it for that and I’m content to pay.

However I can’t say the forum experience is noticeably different. I still get logged out, I still get the cookie pop up, it still takes three times as long as as any other website to load and the forum still lacks the basic functionality of every other internet forum I’ve ever used.

ISTR there’s a workaround somewhere where if you clear your cache whilst balancing on one leg and licking your phone screen or some such, the pop ups stop for a while. But they inevitably come back. I used to diligently report stuff like that but it never gets fixed so now I CBA and just accept it as the STW way.

The only genuine improvement is the lack of adverts but I confess that I had resorted to (whisper it) an ad-blocker before I paid as the site was all but unusable without it. Worse than a local newspaper site. I did feel guilty about that as I know it affects revenue which is another reason I paid.

The content of the forum, the help and advice available and the contributors are mostly great, the interface is mostly not. Whether or not you pay for it.

Does it solve the constant refresh issue on iphone? As no one appears interested in this issue, I am certainly not interested in subscribing.

Besides I loved the magazine in the early days. However as the gap in what STW’s idea of ‘budget’ and mine grew over the years, having subscription to a quite clearly stuck up magazine made me think why bother.

….in case anyone is interested it was light reviews claiming that £250 was a budget option that made me think it wasnt for me (that was after many prior examples too)

I still get logged out, I still get the cookie pop up

I’ve said this many times before but,

I don’t. So it cannot be a problem with the site in isolation, it has to be a problem between the site and something that you (and others affected) are either doing or using that I (and others unaffected) are not.

I have been unable to replicate this behaviour (and believe me, I’ve tried) and to the best of my knowledge the same is true of STW’s devs. It’s near-impossible to fix a reported problem that you can’t reproduce.

I’ve offered in the past to work with affected users to try and get to the bottom of what’s different but have never had any takers. I understand the attitude of “we shouldn’t have to” and I totally agree but in the absence of that, well, here we are still.

Does it solve the constant refresh issue on iphone?

First I’ve heard of that one. Have you reported it?

Bazz- do you feel virtuous and has anyone commented on the halo.
Always good to support something you use!

I’ve offered in the past to work with affected users to try and get to the bottom of what’s different but have never had any takers.

That is a genuinely kind offer, thank you. The thing is, when there was a long running thread about this, there was loads of advice on there from IT savvy people on how to resolve it, including your good self and I tried it all.  I did manage to stop it for a while, can’t remember how now, I know I used the cookie killer thingy, cleared caches and a few other things. But it’s crept back. To be fair, it’s not as bad as it was, I get the cookie acceptance thing maybe once or twice a day when at one stage it was every page refresh. It does it on my phone, tablet, desktop PC and Chromebook. I’m not sure it would be good use of your valuable time or mine trying to fix all that remotely.  Because even if we did, experience tells me in a few weeks it will randomly start again. It’s an irritation I’ve learned to live with.

First I’ve heard of that one. Have you reported it?
I’m pretty sure there have been a couple of threads talking about this issue. It is almost impossible to look at this site on an iPhone or iPad.

It does it on my phone, tablet, desktop PC and Chromebook

This is the genuine mystery because ruling out the platforms suggests it’s something to do with your account or in one of the layers between your platform and the servers. I wonder what would happen if you set up a new account on a “clean” device.

PS – It doesn’t happen to me at all.

It is almost impossible to look at this site on an iPhone or iPad.

I spend most of my time on the site on an iPhone – I tend to post stories on my Mac but browse on my iPhone, so I’m not sure what the issue is. I’m doing some work with the tech side of things to help focus on the customer experience, because there’s no point me writing nice words if you get too frustrated to read them. So, please do submit your feedback, either via the questionnaires in the Member newsletters, or specific issues to tech-support@singletrackworld.com. Screen recordings or screenshots are especially useful to tech when trying to understand an issue.

there was loads of advice on there from IT savvy people on how to resolve it, including your good self and I tried it all.

I was really keen to get to the why rather than just help an individual. As scotroutes says, it makes absolutely no bloody sense. Even if it’s something that can’t / won’t be fixed serverside, at least if I could go “remove this plugin / change this setting / install this patch” it’d be something.

The one common denominator – the post above aside, it doesn’t seem to be solely that – seems to be Safari and I don’t have any fruit-based devices so I’m screwed out-of-the-gate unless someone will work can me.

there was loads of advice on there from IT savvy people on how to resolve it,

Why should be need advice from a STW IT person on how to access the forum? I have never ever been on any forum (and I’ve frequented a lot over the years, some of which to several thousands of post) and never had a single issue with any of them.
They just work. STW doesn’t. And it’s not the users fault.

It is almost impossible to look at this site on an iPhone or iPad.

Same here, sometimes. I’d say 20% of the time these days I just give up and go elsewhere.

As others have said, it’s only STW that has these issues as far as I can tell. I have them across all Apple devices (all I use) and on both Chrome and Safari browsers.

I have a somewhat technical background and am happy to offer assistance in troubleshooting the issues I am seeing. Tech team should be contacting me this week so let’s see.

I just run browser plug ins which block all the 3rd party scripts which seem to break the forum – runs very well like this, also much cleaner UI. NB I run them on all websites – they load faster, are much cleaner and generally behave better.

Why should be need advice from a STW IT person on how to access the forum?

Because a community is trying to pull together to help its peers.

I have never ever been on any forum (and I’ve frequented a lot over the years, some of which to several thousands of post) and never had a single issue with any of them.

Bullshit.

They just work. STW doesn’t. And it’s not the users fault.

No-one is saying it’s the users’ fault.

I have them across all Apple devices (all I use) and on both Chrome and Safari browsers.

Point of note here is that mobile Apple devices use the same rendering engine irrespective of what browser you choose, because Apple. If you’ve got a symptomatic Mac, that’s different.

I have a somewhat technical background and am happy to offer assistance in troubleshooting the issues I am seeing.

As above, I’m happy to work together but my iKnowledge is limited.

Tech team should be contacting me this week so let’s see.

Yeah, I hope you’re right but I rather suspect that that’s unlikely. The tech team is two people across this entire site, both forums and magazines. I’d suggest that a personal response would be exceptional.

As others have said, it’s only STW that has these issues as far as I can tell. I have them across all Apple devices (all I use) and on both Chrome and Safari browsers.

it’s 100% ads causing this. I’m a subscriber and have zero problems on OSX or iOS. Even the logging-in problem is significantly better than it was! (But I do still have to sign in occasionally, for whatever reason)

Be careful not to conflate issues. There’s at least two discrete gripes here, site performance and privacy popups.

I do still have to sign in occasionally, for whatever reason

The short answer is that the ‘keep me logged in’ persistent cookie is set at the WordPress default of two weeks.

The long answer is a lot longer.

Agree it is to do with the ads. This site hangs my browser nearly every time I use it. Even after closing the browser you can see it still trying to load an ad and I can’t even reopen the browser until its finished. Windows 10, chrome.

When it happens I just quit and go somewhere else as it’s futile trying to fight it.

It’s been happening for the last month or two. I keep hoping it will be fixed but it hasn’t been yet.

I’ve tried clearing cookies, signing in/out etc but nothing fixes it for me.

Issues here on iPhone using safari. Pages randomly crashing and refreshing. Takes an age for threads to load, often hanging and not loading at all. Using the back button to return to the forum home page is also a recipe for disaster.

Tried to reply to this thread three times, and keep losing it because of refreshing browser

Seriously this is the ONLY site that I use that is this bad. I basically have given up posting anything as it’s so shit and only now occasionally browse or attempt to reply.

Content is king and mostly provided for stw, for free by the user base, user experience is bloody awful and is killing it

This has been going on for way too long now. It’s a shame I haven’t found a more interesting forum yet, I’m trying….

Because a community is trying to pull together to help its peers.

It’s a product of a company that is faulty, not some blooming hippy commune.

Bullshit

Sorry you don’t like the truth. Bit of a childish response though don’t you think?

No-one is saying it’s the users’ fault.

That’s ALWAYS what is said!! Either something about cookies or some browser issue which magically can’t be reproduced. Or it’s the little jibes about not being a full member or something.

In the short time I’ve been on here there appears to have been several updates but they don’t appear to make any difference.

When the forum starts to work at least nearly as well as all the other forums I’m on them I’ll resubscribe, I promise, but it sounds like it’s been like this for a while from what others say.

Tried to reply to this thread three times, and keep losing it because of refreshing browser

Seriously this is the ONLY site that I use that is this bad. I basically have given up posting anything as it’s so shit and only now occasionally browse or attempt to reply.

On my work laptop (i7 with 16gb ram and 50mb connection) it’s a dog of a site to load but it does work but takes several seconds to load each time however it does ask for confirmation of something on every page I load so I rarely use it on that. No other website forum has an issue.

On my monster gaming PC with a dedicated internet connection, it’s just as slow as my work laptop, I just don’t get the “recommended settings” pop up all the time. That PC is Win10 and a lovely clean install and is only used for games and basic web browsing.

I’ll probably get banned now for criticising. 😂😂😂😉😉😉

but takes several seconds to load each time

Something else you need to be getting on with?

I get logged out of Pinkbike waaay more often than I do from here, FWIW.

Sorry you don’t like the truth. Bit of a childish response though don’t you think?

No, I just have zero tolerance for bollocks.

Is this site perfect? No, of course not. But to assert that this is the only site anyone ever has issues with ever is a nonsense. I’ve had issues with a dozen sites just today.

If anything, what makes STW unique is that is affords a platform for its users to whine about issues without censorship.

That’s ALWAYS what is said!!

It may be what you’ve interpreted but it’s never what’s been said, even if you hit caps lock. Read back on this thread.

I’ll probably get banned now for criticising

At the risk of repeating myself,

Bullshit.

On my work laptop (i7 with 16gb ram and 50mb connection) it’s a dog of a site to load

The fastest PC I have in the house is my media server which I’m typing on right now. It has 10GB of RAM and a decade-old AM3 CPU, STW site response is near-instant unless something is broken.

I like the way this forum is presented, and I don’t mind it’s quirks every so often, but I remember it pre ad. We were clearly told ads were brought in as a revenue stream for the company that runs the forum. So to me having to put up with the ads is my payment for using the forum.

I won’t become a member of the club, because I don’t agree with all the content that is pushed out from the mag.

If things arnt working properly it’s in the interest of the company to get them working to protect their revenue, not have a go at the customer or ask them to report it.

The points have been made many times before!

I still think this is the best forum on the web, but I don’t come as often, and don’t recommend it as much to people anymore because of all the ads and the fact you can’t manage to see or post on the dam thing half the time.

Been on here several years it is the worst of any forum I use, bar none. One that I use alot is run by tradesmen not IT bods, it’s full of video ads , posters using phones out on site, etc etc and yet it runs clean and fast. In desperation at the bad experience and against my principles I’ve subscribed and as if by magic the issues have gone!! What’s that all about, not community that’s for sure, shame as I enjoy the banter and advice plus the comedy threads but naively I thought the ads were paying for it all, ah well live and learn…..

Does it solve the constant refresh issue on iphone?

First I’ve heard of that one. Have you reported it?

I have, on more than one occasion. I’ve raised it in the forum and get told not to highlight problems here, and I’ve sent reports to the “correct” mechanism. I don’t recall any ever being acknowledged.

Weird thing is – this must be hurting their business – because it stops people from being able to reply. Unless they benefit from the page reloads.

The fastest PC I have in the house is my media server which I’m typing on right now. It has 10GB of RAM and a decade-old AM3 CPU, STW site response is near-instant unless something is broken.

Ah, the “it doesn’t happen on my machine” response…

So as way of example Chrome on 4 yr old MacBook Air on a roughly 10 Mb/s connection, not logged in opened in incognito mode:

STW main forum page: Opens a total of 749 requests in 54 seconds! (If you leave it other stuff keeps loading the longer you leave it). Clicking a thread it opens 873 requests in 32 seconds.

For comparison:
BBC news opens 99 requests in 4.4 seconds and doesn’t open more unless you scroll etc.
The guardian, including clicking their cookies message takes 11.6s for 246 requests.
A commercially operated vBulletin based forum in the US – 89 requests in 7.3 secs
Pistonheads – 14s (including me clicking the cookie message) for 118 requests…
My company’s website (which has various dodgy trackers etc – but no ads etc) – 5.4s to load 91 requests.
The Herald newspaper (which I find pretty irritating) 271 requests in 28.2 seconds.

Now obviously it may be better if you are logged in, have ad blockers or a subscriber and not getting all those ads, but clearly theres a lot going on there whenever the page opens.

As for the “we can’t replicate the cookie issue” – in my experience its not consistent, I can go weeks without seeing it or see it several times a day. I don’t get the same phenomenon on other sites, enough people complain about it that if the devs really wanted to replicate it they could – I work with devs every day and “I can’t replicate that” means “we tried and it didn’t happen, it sounds like a total ball ache to fix so I’d rather not hunt too hard anyway”. I can’t offer to hold their hands to do their job for them because I’ve no idea if it will happen to me today or not – but I’m pretty certain if they actually use the product they’ve build then someone a STW will see it eventually and can presumably call them and say “right its happening right now”. If they really aren’t seeing it they are missing a key part of the user journey (e.g. closing a browser completely, or logging out (or being logged out after logging in on another device?) etc.

I have persisted through 7 refreshes and 2 problem repeatedly happened to post this.

Ffs see you next week.

From an iPad

Be careful not to conflate issues. There’s at least two discrete gripes here, site performance and privacy popups.

maybe, seems like everyone with problems though is a free member, everyone with a paid sub is fine. Solution is obvious… 🤔

I have, on more than one occasion. I’ve raised it in the forum and get told not to highlight problems here, and I’ve sent reports to the “correct” mechanism. I don’t recall any ever being acknowledged.

If it’s been reported then it will be in the update tracker. Where it is priority wise is another matter when there’s just two developers with a raft of work.

“Reporting” it in the forum is pointless unless what you’re looking for is confirmation that it’s not just you experiencing an issue or you’re seeking help from other users. The devs don’t generally read the forum.

You’re unlikely to get a response because, well, see the first paragraph. They don’t have time to craft individual replies to everyone.

maybe, seems like everyone with problems though is a free member, everyone with a paid sub is fine. Solution is obvious… 🤔

Err…. not quite!

I recently took up a paid membership. I quite like the paper magazine and access to the digital archive of old issues, to me the subscription is worth it for that and I’m content to pay.

However I can’t say the forum experience is noticeably different. I still get logged out, I still get the cookie pop up, it still takes three times as long as as any other website to load and the forum still lacks the basic functionality of every other internet forum I’ve ever used.

If you want the magazine, buy it, this website is part of that, you get a subscription, you lose the ads and so on, it works really well like that for me, but i tend to have the magazine as it’s a nice glossy you can stick in the rack or toilet for a read, some of the articles can help with constipation as well ;o)

As for the website, it’s been like this for years, can’t say i have an issue with it, it’s a basic forum, it’s got no bells and whistles, but it does the job for what i want, sure a functioning search with filter would be nice, being able to upload photos would save hassle and so on, but you compromise, just like Phil Leotardo did!

Yeah, I hope you’re right but I rather suspect that that’s unlikely. The tech team is two people across this entire site, both forums and magazines. I’d suggest that a personal response would be exceptional.

After the third email reporting the issues I’m experiencing (because that’s what we’re told to do rather than whining on here) I got a personal response to say we’ll be in touch later in the week. Guess I’m lucky, but not holding my breath 🙂

I know how hard it is to troubleshoot and diagnose technical issues so I feel for the tech team, especially with just two of them. Seems to me that the STW business needs to decide whether to invest more in the platform (people!) and bring some stability. If they don’t and these issues persist then surely the site will die a slow death – I’m not going to subscribe in case it makes a shitty experience a little bit better, and the longer this goes on the more likely I am to flounce off to somewhere else (reality is I’ll probably still be here in 5 years time, just with higher blood pressure).

To be clear – I’m not angry with the tech team, they obviously have a difficult job to do and are suffering from lack of investment. I am a bit miffed with the business though for not recognising an issue that could impact the success of the site – to Hannah’s earlier point, what’s the point in writing good material if nobody can read it.

I like it here, it would be a shame if it went away, but again – I’m not chucking money at it on the promise that things will get better. I will subscribe if/when I get a half decent user experience. I admire the loyalty of those that want to support it through subscription, but I’m not a charidee mate.

Edit to add: I’m so glad that posted. When I clicked submit my laptop fans went bonkers and the browser locked up. I made a cup of coffee and came back 5 minutes later and it appears OK.

I’ll probably get banned now for criticising

At the risk of repeating myself,

Bullshit.

I’m pretty sure that happened to me a few years ago.

maybe, seems like everyone with problems though is a free member, everyone with a paid sub is fine. Solution is obvious…

Is that trying to justify why you paid to join the club?

I very much doubt the revenue from paid member’s exceeds the revenue from ads from non members and passing traffic. To keep a business going you have to encourage new customers – having your doorstep piss off many of your potential customers, and then ask those potential customers to help resolve it (reporting to a tech) is a tad short sighted IMO.

Without free members and passing traffic I cant see how the private members club bit would be able to keep going…but maybe the strategy of the company is only to be around for one generation?

I think this forum offers something very unique and it is a shame to see its slowly deteriorating over the years because the management and mods dont see customers as customers.

maybe, seems like everyone with problems though is a free member, everyone with a paid sub is fine. Solution is obvious… 🤔

I can see a number of solutions:
– the free members stop posting content (or go elsewhere) where its valued.
– the magazine decides to make it a closed members only forum (which would achieve a similar effect, but save them the supposed inconvenience of having to deal with the ad providers, free up technical resource to do stuff the paying members want)
– the magazine does nothing, more and more people use ad blockers and the magazine revenue falls
– the magazine fixes the issues for the free tier users, encouraging them not to use ad blockers and so makes more money

You’re unlikely to get a response because, well, see the first paragraph. They don’t have time to craft individual replies to everyone.

But it hardly encourages people to report issues if they get zero response and nothing ever seems to get fixed. If they are getting so many issues that even a few canned replies of “thanks for the report, we know about this issue, it only seem to affect XXX, we will get to it XXX” would be better than ignored. Now I don’t bother because I don’t think they care.

The devs don’t generally read the forum.

There is a beautiful irony that the only IT guys in the UK with an interest in MTBs (presumably they are – if they were just really interested in great IT they’d not be at STW working on a shonky WordPress site) are the only people not using their work time to read the forum when then they are the 2 people who could actually justify it from time to time! [Frankly I’ve no idea how its keeping 2 people busy given there is very little evolution – if the tech debt is that high they should just move to something that works; its not like they even manage to keep it running seamlessly – I see 502 errors pretty much every week]