Recent forum posts taking 25-30 seconds

Same problem with all my devices including two M silicone  Macs and lightning fast fiber optic cable.

How far we’ve come.  At Byte Shop #8 (Hayward CA), we set up our first BBS on the lightning-fast D C Hayes:

Which was such an improvement over the 110/300-Baud model.

Our current StarLink is 166,666 to 500,000 times faster.

I know you’re talking about search speed, not up/download rates, and yes, it’s long been an issue on BPL.  Still beats communicating by USPS mail.

This has always been true for me. Browsing the forums is MUCH faster if you are not logged in, which has become my normal state.  I only log in when I want to post.

I wonder how much valuable data I am depriving BPL of?  :)

Yeah, this website has been a dog for quite a while. It is easily the slowest loading site I visit with any frequency.

Thanks for the report. We’re have been discussing some backend issues and this speed of the site is on our radar. No specifics yet, but changes are coming and I’ll update when there’s something concrete.

And hard agree with David. I started my online life on BBSs on a CP/M machine with a 300 baud acoustic couple modem!

Always been that way for me. Forum is super clunky and probably killing engagement and I’ve noticed traffic is way down. My logins have approached 45 seconds. Loading anything is a chore, no real notifications or ability to reply in thread. In fact I don’t think the reply button within posts does anything different than going to the bottom of a thread and replying there. Not trying to be negative, but productive as I cherish this community.  Forum needs a scrape and redesign if it wants better engagement IMHO.

Actually BPL needs to be hosted on a modern system. It really has become dial-up speed. I was sure the unaccwptable slowness was killing site visits. First timers in particular. I’m glad Dirtnap checked the viwer data.

I remember complaints from members 3 years ago. So it’s not like Ryan hasn’t known.

The fact is, Gen Z viewers will not wait more than a few seconds. If new viewers and potential members die off, then BPL will continue to decline. Members will not renew.

Fact is, I was a very active member for a number of years. Now I come by about twice a month all because BPL is so painfully slow.

I’m sorry Matthew, but this issue needs a Critical, Timely Fix – not just a “we’re looking into it”.  Members deserve some transparency on this issue – promptly. No one wants to see BPL die a slow death!

That is very interesting that viewinh BPL as a guest loads much faster. So I gave it a try viaca link someone posted to BPL from Reddit. BPL loaded as fast as any site. Knowing should makecthe slow problem much easier to find if that is indeed the issue.

I saw this post and clicked to read it.  I wasn’t logged on.  I clicked to do my logon, got my empty coffee cup, went and put in sweetener, added my syrup as I filled the cup.  Talked with wife for a moment and as I returned, I saw the site had just then logged on.

We have active tickets with our hosting provider. We are aware of the issue and we are working on it. I am sorry that I cannot promise when it when it will be fixed but this is absolutely a priority.

We are still testing but I think everyone will see very fast speeds, whether logged in or logged out.

Please share if you are seeing faster load times.

Logged in and out several times.  2-3 seconds each time, a marked improvement.

Another sore spot was refreshing the recent forum topics page while logged in, sometimes taking so long that I simply gave up and left the site. This is also markedly improved to 2-3 seconds.

After all this time (and complaining) I’m curious as to what was the magic bullet?

This site is wonderful in that it is text based. No people dancing across the screen, 3 pop up videos, and tolerable adds. It is wonderfully nostalgic in that is reminds me of the good old days of DOS performance.

Mathew / Ryan,

I tested Recent Forum Post as I use that all the time.  Not only on this forum, but every forum I use.  Very fast.   I then tested log off and back on.  Also very fast.   Seems to be running very well,

Thanks for the work to resolve the issue.

Ray

Just clicked “recent forum topics” and the load was about 6 seconds vs 45. Much better than before but still not breaking any speed records.

Would love to see some progress on basic forum functionality.

– Notifications within the forum, not via email, would be great.

– Reply directly to a comment. Either by “quote reply” or via mini threads.

While we are grumbling this whole forum is stuck in the 90’s.  It’s going to be 100% empty in a few years, not just 90% empty.  How about for starters allowing people that are not paying to still post in the forums.  Then we’d get some new users, nobody these days is going to sign up when every other place is free to post.

I expect nothing is going to happen and this site is going to die.  Which is sad.  I’m mainly on  r/Ultralight on Reddit but there are too many annoying know-it-alls there, I’d really rather be posting here.

At least the loading is somewhat fixed.  Thanks for the patch to that.

Really good to hear everyone is noting the speed increase.

@JCH We have transitioned to a much more powerful server.

@Dirtnap We have another phase of development happening early-2026 implementing edge-caching and then mid-2026 we have some work to do related to optimizing database queries. I don’t know much about either of those topics but what I have gleaned is that there are future performance gains on the roadmap ahead. 🙂

Yes, there are other issues with the site. We are working on those. More news coming soon, perhaps later today. 

Matthew / BPL Thanks for taking the time to reply. Might be useful to start a thread for feature requests from users?

One other thing would be to fix the search function. Seems to be some sort of modified Google search. Being able to search within “this thread” or in an individual forum is pretty standard.

Take a look at the Classic Camp Stove forum and poke around. Super old school looked but it works well.

Godspeed on your journey.

…nobody these days is going to sign up when every other place is free to post.…I’m mainly on  r/Ultralight on Reddit but there are too many annoying know-it-alls there, I’d really rather be posting here.

Maybe that’s because any yahoo that happens by can post!  Have you considered that the reason you would rather post here might be that membership helps to weed out the “annoying know-it-alls”?  BTW, we still have those here, they just tend to be correct more often than not :)

The problem with Reddit is not that it’s free, it’s the gamification with the likes and most-liked posts rising to the top.  Users are motivated to lay in a sizzling put-down to harvest likes and to get their post to the top.   There are a huge number of free forums which don’t have this system and which have constructive dialog.  The only advantage to pay-to-post is it keeps spammers at bay.  But I run a forum larger than this one and there are systems which work well to shut out the spammers.

Anyway I doubt anything will change here.  I’m old and I know that old people get set in their ways.

Agree with others that these forums are dying. Pay to post is simply not a viable model these days.

There is significantly higher traffic on the UK forum TrekLite.com – despite the far smaller population reach.

So another vote for opening the forum to non-paying users – viewing it as free advertising for the paid features of the site.

This would be more demanding on moderators, but surely that’s what we want – a good volume of lively and informed debate?

Glad to see latency issues are being addressed, it has kept me from visiting for quite a while

Like saying goes, be the change that you want to see.  There are tons of experienced, articulate and thoughtful members already here that could choose to participate.  High effort posts get too often ignored.

Making posting free would probably significantly increase traffic but I can’t see how that increases incentive to make high effort submissions.  Seen this happen for 30 years across every single board from motorcycles to racing to audio design to fishing to backpacking, they all just die in a sea of low effort noise.

For example, reddit ultralight is dying as well.  Posts there increasingly don’t focus on ultralight and by the mods opening up the participation its been taken over by trad backpacking conversations.  Nothing wrong with trad, its just not what the subreddit is meant to be.

If BPL wants a place for people just to fraternize, I agree, open it up for free.  If they want a place aimed at high effort submissions, maybe look at a different tact such as better engaging with the clientele here.  I see they try (“tell us what you think” after an article is posted) but that doesn’t really work.  Real personal engagement is needed to make a positive change.

Another factor causing decreased participation is that its much easier to find the information now and less expensive to go ultralight so the novelty has worn off for most of those already here.

I appreciate how BPL is pivoting more towards skills articles, probably in response to this.