NEW posts notification icons? Problems?

[Greenbare Woods]

I've been having a lot of problems lately with the Icons that tell us we have NEW posts.   Often I get the alternate words "new" instead of the icon.   Sometimes I don't even get that? 

Anyone else having similar problems with this site?   Is that a known bug? 

[Karla]

It's probably the server or your connection being a bit slow to load the icon.

[nuduke]

I haven't had any problems lately, Bob, and by coincidence I've just logged in on a different PC than usual and no problems getting to the unread posts.
If I might excuse myself for a bit of 'brass neck', as we call it on the N. of England (cheekiness), I would assume that you are running a PC that is as old as PCs can be and that you do this because it's an achievement to do so (which it certainly is!).  Do excuse my impish assumption if it's not true.  However, if it is, there may be a raft of issues that could account for your issue.
Karla's probably right however!
John

[Greenbare Woods]

I would assume that you are running a PC that is as old as PCs can be and that you do this because it's an achievement to do so (which it certainly is!).  John

Well, John, I haven't replaced my PC this year, but its not all that old.   It's got Windows 10, some kind of Intel processor, 2 TB of data storage, and a 40 inch screen plus a 2nd screen.

I live out of town so we have to use a Hughesnet satellite direct connection.   Hughesnet is a lot slower than having the kind of high speed Internet people have in town, and sometimes it gets overloaded and slowed even more.   Our politicians keep promising to extend high speed Internet out to the rural areas, but its mostly just empty political promises.

I also have a fairly recent cell phone, but our cell phone reception out here is not good either.  Usually our cell phones decide to use our wifi system, which suffers from the Hughesnet slow problem mentioned above.     

The good part of living out of town is that I can taken an hour walk every day, mow the lawn, grill the burgers, get the mail naked, and nobody cares.

But MOST sites manage to transmit their data including "click buttons" even if the feed is slow.  This is the only web site I have that problem with. 

[jbeegoode]

Had Hughs in Tortolita for a while. It sucks. It is limiting, profiteering from the users needs like pirates. They slowed me down when I used it just a little, so no streaming. But, what can you do, but be abused.

Internet service should be like a utility service. Just like Johnson made sure that everybody got telephones, broadband should be available similarly. They all cherry pick and overcharge for huge profits.
Jbee

[Peter S]

Visiting California a couple of years back we had an internet outage at our motel and we’re told the whole town was out, a provider problem and not unusual. We hadn’t realised that, in some parts of the US at least, internet provision is a provider monopoly. Here we have a profusion of providers. Admittedly they all use the wired network provided by British Telecom and a physical cable disruption can cause problems, but that’s unheard of, and if one provider proves difficult we just switch to another one. The idea a whole town could be cut off is unthinkable.

[Greenbare Woods]

Visiting California a couple of years back

It's California.  Their utilities are crazy. 

In many parts of the US we do have choice of "providers" but they all use the same wires or whatever.   Except out of town there are no wires. 

[nuduke]

The good part of living out of town is that I can taken an hour walk every day, mow the lawn, grill the burgers, get the mail naked, and nobody cares.

Your magnificent property is enviable, Bob.  You have carved out a niche of modern living in a patch of countryside that is naked orientated and so the rurality has elements of both compromise as well as benefit - I wouldn't suppose you would find a plot like that in or very near a city.  Long may you have the health and strength to enjoy it.


Broadband internet should be a utility like electricity - available everywhere all the time.  I guess we are living in an era akin to the years after electricity became a utility - it took time to roll out completely.  Even in relatively tiny UK we have patches of rural areas with really awful or no internet and/or mobile signal.  Nowadays I can't imagine life without being plugged in to the net.  The ability to shop online has saved many lives during the pandemic I reckon for people who would otherwise be completely isolated!


John