Please note that these solutions are not very elegant. However, in limited trials, I experienced an average reduction in load time of over 50%. I would appreciate hearing of your individual results.
Blocking Images
Most internet browsers provide the capability to block all (or most) images on a visited website. Negating images can dramatically increase the speed at which a webpage loads, and displays (although a lack of images can also diminish the user experience). Each browser handles image blocking in different ways.
> Internet Explorer (IE) - Image blocking options can be accessed from the Tools menu. Under this menu, select Internet Options... This will open a smaller window divided into tabs. Choose the Advanced tab, then scroll down to the Multimedia options, and turn off options for displaying video, animations, pictures, etc. Then click OK.
NOTE: This will affect ALL websites you access, not just Gather.
When blocking images in Internet Explorer, you will see a small icon representing the location for an image. Right-clicking on the individual icon will present menu options, allowing you to view the image, if desired.
> Firefox (preferred) - Image blocking options in Firefox are superior to IE, in that you have the inherent ability to block images only from specified websites, leaving others unaffected.
To block images in Firefox, you must start at the Tools menu. From this menu, select Options. A smaller window will then be displayed with a row of icons along the top. Locate and select the icon labeled Content. Mid-way down the displayed list of options, will be a check-box for 'Load Images' on the left, and an associated 'Exceptions' button on the right. Click the Exceptions button, and, where required, enter the fully qualified web address for Gather: http://www.gather.com. Then, click the 'Block' button, followed by Close and OK.
> Safari users, enter Cmd-Shift-K
Displaying Articles and Comments as Text Only
Gather provides the ability to view all articles, inclusive of comments, as text-only. This eliminates all images and other graphics within a selected article (orange balloons, icons, etc.). However, images inserted into a member's comment will still appear.
This option is useful, as it may allow for slightly faster load times than image blocking alone, or when blocking all images is not desirable.
(This part aint pretty, but it works!)
Articles on Gather load, or display, in two steps. The article loads first, followed by the comments section. To display a text version of a particular article, you must allow for the article to display, but prevent the comments from loading. This can be easily accomplished using the Escape Key (CMD-. for Mac), or the Stop button on your browser. Specifically:
- Click once on the desired article.
- As soon as the article displays, hit the Escape key, or the Stop button on your browser. This prevents the comments from loading.
- Click on the 'Print this Article' link, located under the Tags section for the article.
This will display a full text version of the article in a separate window, inclusive of all comments up to that moment. Please note however, that this window will not allow you to comment, and you cannot refresh this window to see updated comments. To refresh the window, you must close this new window, and click 'Print this Article' again.
Adding Comments
The technique outlined above provides for one-way, display only, interaction with an article and associated comments. There are occasions when you may wish to add 'your two cents' to a discussion, but cannot endure the long wait required to load a multitude of comments. There is a solution to this as well, but it is also less than elegant...
- Select the article, and prevent the loading of comments as instructed in the steps above.
- If desired, view the current comments for the article through the 'Print this Article' link. Close the window when finished.
- Enter your comment as you would normally into the 'Join the Discussion' comment input box.
- Click the 'Post' button, and wait for 10 or 15 seconds (dependent upon the length of the comment), or until the article comments begin to display, whichever comes first. Then, click the Stop button on your browser.
- Check that your comment has been added via the 'Print this Article' option.
Hopefully the above techniques help you to save a little time on Gather, and pave the way to becoming a more active participant in the community.
Please let me know of your experience, and results!!
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Comments: 14
I should add that I could get cable internet, but the local cable company (Adelphia) sucks. We have Dish Network for tv, not cable.
Kevin, thanks for the tips.
TY Again Kevin
Never knew all this :)
I really appreciate that you are a software engineer; many of my relatives are - software engineers simply know things about computers and software that others do not.
These are good suggestions, I skimmed through it last night, but not some things I want to do like block images...
Thanks
Shah
Thank you very, very much!
Awesome!