Lag on Acrostics

[jeanne2072]

I am having problems with a lag in typing on Acrostics. Anything we can do about it?

[Vladimir]

I am so glad to see this. I thought it was just me. I'm getting the lag in Google Chrome (although I've never had a lag in Chrome before). If I switch to Edge, I don't get a lag.

[admin]

Nothing has changed recently on our end - I'm wondering, do you perhaps notice that a specific ad is playing whenever this slow-down occurs? There may be a bad ad somewhere in the rotation that I'm just not seeing.

[Vladimir]

I'll try to look for patterns. As it is, I link to the site and everything appears instantaneously. Then I click for a puzzle, and a puzzle comes up immediately. But when I click to open the puzzle, nothing happens for about four seconds; then the puzzle loads but when I type, the letters I'm typing lag before showing up.

[DogMa]

Admin: Vladimir has this problem on one browser but not on another. Does that help you try to suss out the cause and maybe the solution?

[tucsonjimmy1]

Same lag for me with Chrome. The puzzle initially takes 4 or 5 seconds to load, it used to load almost immediately. Keyboard lag - I can type a string of 8 or 10 letters in the puzzle grid, nothing for 5 seconds at least. Then they all populate. This just started a couple of days ago.

[admin]

I've tested the site in Chrome on multiple machines and still have yet to successfully reproduce this issue. My best guess right now is that there is a bad ad somewhere in the rotation that is affecting certain Chrome users - if it is coded poorly, a bad ad could potentially cause the site to "hang" temporarily until the ad itself is fully loaded. If you notice this happening only when a certain ad is displaying, it would be helpful to get a screenshot of that advertisement so that I can track it down and have it removed. If a bad ad is the culprit, it would likely be the skinny/tall one on the right, because that ad size is rarely used on any other type of page on the Acrostics site.

The only server change that's happened in the past week has been that we've updated our SSL certificate to a new provider. My best advice at this point would be to try emptying your Chrome browser's cache and restating the browser to see if that helps "flush" any old versions of our previous SSL certificates out of your system. I know Chrome has a different method of storing/caching SSL certificates, and it could potentially be this that is causing the issue for some people. But why it would cause only the gameplay page to hang... that wouldn't make any sense. If that were truly the cause I'd expect every page load to be problematic.

So right now my best guess is that there's an ad to blame - but until I can replicate it myself, or get a screenshot from someone who is having this issue, it is going to be difficult to narrow it down.

[duhmel]

I suggest that users with the problem clear their cache and the puzzlebaron cookies. I've never had the problem and it doesn't seem to be widespread.

[Vladimir]

I suggest that users with the problem clear their cache and the puzzlebaron cookies. I've never had the problem and it doesn't seem to be widespread.

I cleared everything I could clear and still got the lag. So I said, what the heck, now I'm baffled, and I uninstalled/reinstalled chrome. And I still get the lag. Only in chrome. And only in Acrostics; I can play crosswords, etc., without a lag. I'll just play in another browser for now.

update: fired up my old laptop and played in chrome. No lag. I've scanned for viruses on this desktop and came up with nothing though I doubted a virus was the problem because I'm not having trouble on other sites. Plus, the original poster and tucsonjimmy1 report the same exact issue. I'm stumped.

ADMIN: Regarding the vertical ad on the right, I started play with a Shutterstock ad and got the lag. I started a new puzzle, this time with a Discover ad, and still got the lag.

[admin]

Thanks Vladimir - I've upgraded your account to ad-free for one week, can you let me know if things are still lagging for you on Chrome with no advertisements?

[Vladimir]

Thanks Vladimir - I've upgraded your account to ad-free for one week, can you let me know if things are still lagging for you on Chrome with no advertisements?

Thank you, Admin, but there's still a lag.

HOWEVER, I've discovered another lag occurring in Chrome but not in Edge, in a different context. It's in Canvas, a learning management system used by the college I work for. At present, only these two sites are lagging for me on Chrome. I'll bring this up with the school's tech department tomorrow and see if they have any insight. If they do, I'll pass what they tell me along to you.

[admin]

Thanks Vladimir - can you send me the exact version of Chrome you're using? This can be found via the "3 dots" button at the top far right, then Help, then About Chrome. I want to make sure we're using the exact same version.

[Vladimir]

Thanks Vladimir - can you send me the exact version of Chrome you're using? This can be found via the "3 dots" button at the top far right, then Help, then About Chrome. I want to make sure we're using the exact same version.

Version 94.0.4606.81 (Official Build) (64-bit)

I checked the Chrome version on my laptop, which isn't lagging in Acrostics, and it gives me the same thing: Version 94.0.4606.81 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[admin]

Hmmm, same exact version I'm running.

Is it possible you have a Chrome plugin/extension installed that might be causing a memory leak or compatibility issue? If you go to this url: chrome://extensions/

... you can temporarily turn off Chrome extensions one-by-one using the blue toggle icon at the bottom right of each extension. If you're willing to try, I'd be interested to know if turning any (or all) of them off helps in any way.

[Vladimir]

That's the problem. The problematic application is McAfee WebAdvisor. I'll confess my thick-headedness: I had tried turning off apps earlier after finding the suggestion online, but it didn't work. Now I realize the reason it didn't work was that I was turning the apps off then going back to an old window to test it instead of opening a new window.

Thing is: on my laptop, which gets no lag, McAfee WebAdvisor is turned on. Why would this just start happening on my desktop but not my laptop?
And why is it happening only on a few sites on my desktop?

Is it possible to explain that to a thick-headed layman? I'll believe you if you say it's not.