I have been using a website for a few months now without problems. Just recently I can barely load it up when using Safari but have no problems with Firefox which I'd rather not use.

I am wondering why this would be. I'm not using the latest version of Safari but so what? It worked before.

Any ideas? Thanks.

If it's only that single site, then its provider has obviously made changes which are inimical to Safari (but not Firefox — which has introduced many features with its Quantum version which dramatically affect loading speed inter alia).
Often a site will make changes which are not supported by one browser or another and they're unwilling to continue supporting such browsers.
You'd best contact the site's support team to find out what's going on.

Just because it worked before doesn't mean they have not changed something on the site that is slowing things down, maybe even a third party advertising banner or a change in the HTML coding. SInce this is unique to an individual website if you could give us the URL we could see if the problem is specific to the site or unique to your configuration.

If it is unique to your configuration, there are any number of possible reasons this could be happening, but one of the most obvious suspects would be some extension you are running in Safari — most likely an ad blocker. There are lots of options for testing that out but the easiest is only available in more recent versions of Safari. But in any version of Safari in the last few years you can go to Safari > Preferences > Extensions and individually turn off any and all extensions you have installed.

Additionally be sure you don't have any ad blocking apps running outside of Safari.

I will do that. Thanks. Though whenever I have a problem like a certain page never loading up, they say they have changed nothing and I am the only one complaining about it!

[b]What does that mean? I use an ad blocker but I don't know what you mean by "outside of Safari."[/b]

Lots of "twitches" of the finger = mistakes in using UBB bold, with square brackets and slashes, on both your and joemikeb's parts; your contributions need to be proofread and corrected as necessary.

EDIT: Actually, there seems to be something wrong with FTM's bold button or manually trying to do same. Right now I'm entering [, then b, then ] followed by the word bold followed by ], then /b, then ] — [b]bold. What you see is what happens.
The close on color should have occurred after the last sentence above but it didn't. So the problem is much more widespread.
Moderators take note.
I tried to italicize that last sentence, and that worked. Curiouser and curiouser.

That said, I too don't know what it means to have an ad blocker outside of a browser; an ad blocker only functions within such. Please clarify.

There's no problem with anything other than your and Rita's formatting.

Deleting your "Right now I'm entering [, then b, then ] followed by the word bold followed by ], then /b, then ] — " while simultaneously correcting Rita's "b" tag error results in correct presentation as shown above.

You've hit on an insanely frustrating aspect of UBB.threads's software, namely that one misplaced or extra [ affects every succeeding tag in a post. I've wasted more hair than I care to think about trying to figure out what was wrong with my formatting in similar instances.

I assume that joemike is asking about ad blockers that are apps, NOT extensions.

Merci. You're right. The UBB software should NOT react that way. I've never seen it happen like this before.

I must be missing something obvious, but I've never heard of or seen an ad show up outside of a browser. How would that even work?!

Have you tried emptying Safari caches? You can do that via the Develop menu.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL TOPIC

To answer Rita's question, there are ad blockers that are apps, not Safari extensions. Generally they are a low level form of VPN (Virtual Private Network) that work outside of the browser to block or re-direct known advertising IP addresses and are often more effective than ad-blocking extensions.

SITE TEST RESULTS

Using Safari 11.1.2 I went to Rita's troublesome web site telwut.com and responded to a few of the "surveys". The site initially loaded very rapidly and when I selected a "survey" to respond to, it too loaded very rapidly. When I responded to a survey the response was uneven. Some surveys responded and displayed the survey results very quickly but others took several seconds to respond. In a second trail maybe ten minutes later everything was uniformly fast and responsive.

The uneven results leads me to suspect Telwut may be having server hardware or database software issues or is sensitive to site load (the number of simultaneous users) but there is no indication that Safari 11.1.2 or anything else on my end was causing a problem.

CONCLUSION

If Rita continues to experience significant slowdown on the site using her current version of Safari then:

• There could be an issue with a Safari cache file.
• There may have been a change in the site coding that her version of Safari does not handle well. (Updating to a more recent Safari would easily prove or disprove that.)
• There is something else we are missing (Searching the console logs for Safari might turn up an indication there.)

which pretty well brings us back to where we started. 🤷‍♂️

Gelber: Thanks for acknowledging that it is an internal error. I did proofread but couldn't figure out how to fix what I saw. I figured you would be able to understand what I was saying aside from that.

I didn't know there were ad block apps. I do use an extension (Ad Block Plus)

Yes, thanks. I do that regularly.

Hi JoeMikeb:

Thanks for taking the time to do that. If you need a copy of Safari console logs, you will need to tell me how to find those. I do empty my cache files regularly, especially when I am having problems like this.

This site sends us surveys from other survey sites as you know. One of them has the word "Vanguard" in it. I just don't know what site it is off hand. Anyway, whenever I am sent one of those surveys, I cannot load it up no matter which browser I use. I contacted them and they said I was the only one with the problem. just an FYI. If that happens again, I wonder if sending you the url would help you maybe diagnose that particular problem, also?

Thanks so much for your time.

If it happens again send the URL and I will see what I can do.

Okay, cool! Thanks.

Hi, Rita,

A tag mistake is affected by preceding and following tags. (For example, see how the text of grelber's quote of your post #49096 differs from the original in his post #49097 here)


The problem with your post is that you've got [/color] stuck in the middle of [/b] (extreme right in Code: [[/color]/b]), and that leading [ is confounding things.

Change it to [/color][/b], and it's straightened out: What does that mean? I use an ad blocker but I don't know what you mean by "outside of Safari."

REALLY confusing stuff that I couldn't begin to explain until I realized that using the "Code" tags enabled me to reproduce bad tags without affecting others.

I thought I understood but it came out weird anyway.

You were close.

Your problem was that this - [[/color]/b] - should have been this - [/color][/b].

Thinking back, you've made the exact same "nested tags" mistake any number of other times.

Any time you see [[ or ]] you're going to see something weird.

Like this?

By George, she's got it!

[quote=artie505]By George, she's got it!

Here you go! [url=Tellwut Vanguard Link]http://redirects.vanguard-research.com/g...jk2jj27-1839254[/url]

Clicking on your link got me this; it loaded slowly, but not extraordinarily so.

Hah?! Another inadvertent slip of the finger or fooling around? Assuming the former ...

In UBB U the URL (without the space following =, which I'm inserting for demonstration purposes) goes within the the first set of square brackets, followed by 'title', followed by closing/second set of square brackets, as in:
[url= http://redirects.vanguard-research.com/go/u/e93355e0852b68f2b6d860ca84f64caed88556bf385f3635385f313532363733303931385f54656c6c77757432/?sub=6dcnqz1igirf-eutjk2jj27-1839254]Tellwut Vanguard Link[/url].

Safari recognized the URL as a URL and I clicked on it. All I get is… Based on what Artie saw I would have to say that any problem you are having is local to you.

• What is your current MacOS version?
• What version of Safari are you running?
• What Safari extensions do you have installed and their version?

To add to jon's comment and perhaps make the principal clearer: Since MacOS and Safari automatically recognizes a URL such as https://www.finetunedmac.com and makes it clickable there is no need to use the UBB URL form unless you want to give the link a title such as FineTunedMac The UBB format for that would be:

Ditto for me.

I got that the second time I hit the link...after I posted my screenshot; I guess Rita hadn't clicked yet.

More: I guess it's a targeted link? Otherwise, why would you guys have gotten the "Already" screen after I clicked on it.

Darn it!

Alright, thanks.

Again, Darn it!

Artie: I DID click on the link. That is the only I knew it was the Vanguard thing by looking at the URL after I clicked. I'm not sure why it said YOU had already clicked on it since you have a different computer, IP address, etc. It's weird how it works, I guess. Regardless, whenever a Vanguard survey comes up, I cannot load it up no matter what browser I use or extensions I have on or off. It's a mystery.

I had actually written and deleted the equivalent of grelber's post before he posted; I figured that your intent was clear, and your link was clickable, so why bother the lady with details?

The only guess I can make is that the link is good for one use only, without regard to the machine or ISP address from which it's clicked, and that your click apparently didn't register, so I got in with my first click (as per my screenshot), and got the same "Already" screen as Jon and joemike thereafter.

Suggestion: Try from you husband's PC now and next time.

Okay! Earlier I thought you indicated you did not have the latest version of Safari — you do. Here is something to try that will save you having to use the Develop menu and unlike the Develop menu it will give you pinpoint control.

1. Look on the Safari Tool Bar for an icon that looks like a Gearwheel.
2. If it is not there, on the Safari menu bar click on View > Customize Tool bar and drag the icon labeled Website preferences to the tool bar then close the Customize Toolbar window
3. When you encounter a problem with a website click on the Gearwheel icon (Website Preferences) and UNcheck enable content blockers. That will…
   • Disable any content Safari Content blockers or Content blocking extensions — FOR THAT ONE SITE
   • Force the page to reload
   • Hopefully eliminate any problem using the site
4. Safari will remember not to allow any content blockers to be applied to that specific site until you change its setting
5. Safari > Preferences > Websites will show you what features can be set and what the settings are for each specific website.

Thanks. I had the gear but never used it. I put it up there awhile back. To me using the Develop Menu was just as easy but the Gear is easier, and the fact that Safari remembers makes it even better. Thanks for explaining the Preferences > Website feature. I've seen it but didn't really understand it nor took the time to. Now I get it!