Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

[icm63]

TIME to speed up your site..

Please review this service: www.aptimize.com

Speeds up the http requests from client pc to and from your server.

30% plus increase in performance for users.

Take the 40,000 visitors to 100,000

Site is getting slow !

cheers

[jiimbergin]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

I have not noticed it slowing down much

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

TIME to speed up your site..

Please review this service: www.aptimize.com

I doubt that iTulip could benefit much from aptimize. iTulip depends on vBulletin for most of its web page coding.

[chr5648]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

Oh my I might be able to save 50 milliseconds on a one link mega thread. I want this installed now!!!!! s/

[Scot]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

I switched to Google's Chrome browser. It improved my experience significantly.

[srivatsan]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

Thats because they do more "parallelism". Check your Process Explorer, there are multiple chrome.
Irrespective of Chrome (I use it too), website speed up is necessary... I agree with icm63.
Srivatsan.

I switched to Google's Chrome browser. It improved my experience significantly.

[nedtheguy]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

redacted

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

I think icm63 is in New Zealand, so I will say that for me here in Australia, ..

Perhaps this a geographically sensitive problem.

I see almost no timeouts (maybe zero, maybe two per month, below my conscious level of awareness in any case) here in North Texas.

[metalman]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

Perhaps this a geographically sensitive problem.

I see almost no timeouts (maybe zero, maybe two per month, below my conscious level of awareness in any case) here in North Texas.

i timeout more than itulip does.

[Adeptus]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

Works fine in Western Canada in terms of speed, although the sheer number of links on the front page is rather excessive and it takes longer to load than just about any other financial website I go to.

Now since we're asking, here's my wishlist:
1) Clean up the front page: It takes too long to load, because there's excessive content. It's way too long vertically. Anything you can't see automatically on the first screen should be chopped off. If you can manage to do that, it would reduce the front page by 80% of its size. I would be happy with a 50%+ reduction. Is there really a need to keep posting the same old articles over and over and over again? At the very least, if you wish to keep them on there, just provide a 1 liner link.

2) Direct access to forums: Where it says "Today's News" and "Today's Select($) News", both of those should be links that take you to the forums. Otherwise, if one wants to start a new post, you have to open an existing thread, then at the top click on going back a folder.

3) Videos: KISS: Why is it so complicated to access a list of all the latest posted videos? Note that neither the "More..." nor the "Videos" link takes us to the last 10-20 posted videos in the same way that the News Section shows us a list of the latest posts.

4) Follow a user feature: There have been numerous times when I've missed out on Fred or EJ posts in the threads because I am not aware of a feature to track a particular user's posts. In the same way we can get emails when a new post is added to a specific thread, likewise, I'd like to be able to receive an email each time user X posts something in any thread.

5) Better Email alerts: It seems 2+ days after a new article is posted, that's when I get an automated email saying there's a new article to read (after I've already read it). Can you make it so that it happens within an hour or less of the article being posted? Also, can we subscribe to getting email updates when there's a guest post, or when you (EJ) speak/write in public/publications/radio,etc (i.e. right most column).

6) Recent articles: I've noticed a bit of a trend in the past few articles, the first free 1/2 of the article seems to include a lot of re-hash of previous posts, and not a lot of useful content in general. Also ongoing bragging about how you were right about gold - enough of that, I think we get the point, heh. If you want to attract additional subscribers, then give them a little more to chew on in terms of *future* market insight. Your 2nd half of your articles are as good as ever, with very insightful information from which I continue to learn - that's why I'm still subscribing. Also, please don't understimate the usefulness of a "Conclusion" in each of your articles. Not everyone has an economics background, and I've appreciated the conclusions you provide in most of your articles in the past year. Also some weeks I just don't have the time to read the entire article on the day it comes out, so I usually like to skim through it very quickly and then just read the conclusion, and read the full article on the weekend, when I have more free time.

7) Faster Analysis: Please consider having a section where you (EJ or some associate) post much smaller and far more frequent posts (once a week maybe?). IF there's one thing I've noticed is that as the global crisis increases in severity, it also appears to be increasing in speed. There may be a point where iTulip becomes less relevant, because the speed at which severe events occur, is likely to outpace the once a month elaborate articles and this may detract some of the value. I'm not asking for a zerohedge version of itulip, but some focus/analysis of major events as they happen would be very cool (i.e. North Korea war threat - relevant or not? What impact will the oil spill have? How should we interpret the Spanish banks consolidations? What are your thoughts on the May 6th Flash Crash & HFT? etc.

8) International Investment Insight: I'm curious as to what percentage of your subscribers are Candian or European, etc. Is there enough to justify a once-in-a-while analysis of another country's/continent's finacial situation in depth? Or is that far too complex and out of focus for iTulip's staff capabilities (I realize you don't have Roubini's multi-team-staff behind you). I for one would pay more for a Canadian section/site. Sometimes what's bulish or bearish for the USA is the reverse for Canada, other times they move in the same direction. Half the time I am left scratching my head as to how XYZ that is occuring in the USA will impact Canada and to what degree. Also if I read correctly in your last article, and you're thinking of starting up an investment section to iTulip, I'd only sign up if there was a Canadian investment option wherein very few investment options are in US stocks.

Thanks, and please don't take this as negative criticism... after all, I'm a 2 year paying subscriber and am still happy with the value I'm getting for my money.


Adeptus

[flintlock]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

I agree with Adeptus, especially #1. The front page is so busy, new viewers get discouraged and leave.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

2) Direct access to forums: Where it says "Today's News" and "Today's Select($) News", both of those should be links that take you to the forums. Otherwise, if one wants to start a new post, you have to open an existing thread, then at the top click on going back a folder.

I probably agree on the Front Page criticisms, but that doesn't bother me much because I almost never visit the iTulip.com front page. My iTulip link goes directly into a search for whatever posts I have not read yet:

http://www.itulip.com/forums/search.php?do=getnew&contenttype=vBForum_Post

Or for a more generic entry into the forums, go to www.itulip.com/forums.

[shiny!]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

May I humbly request that the breadcrumb trail at the top of the forum pages be made BOLD or highlighted in a bar, otherwise easier to see? Underlining the links would help. It was easy to see before the upgrade, now it gets lost in a lot of clutter.

Thanks!

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

May I humbly request that the breadcrumb trail at the top of the forum pages ...

What's a "breadcrumb trail"?

[shiny!]

Re: Dear Fred, EJ, Webmasters

What's a "breadcrumb trail"?

A breadcrumb trail is the "trail" of links at the top of a webpage that goes from the Home page to the page you're on. It helps you easily navigate back to where you started from, or to a point in between. In this case it goes:

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