Posted on 24 Comments

There are no images in this post

I received some feedback this afternoon from a long-time reader. She wanted to let me know that my new blog design wasn’t working for her and that she was going to have to unsubscribe. That, of course, made me sad.

While I have been working to make the site more accessible for those on mobile devices, the last thing I want is to break it for those who are still using older technology!

I just got a new laptop, and I have a reasonably-fast internet connection, so for me the site loads quickly and smoothly. It just never occurred to me that the new design (with its larger images) could be much of a problem for anyone.

This afternoon I took some steps to improve the loading time of the site, and I’m currently researching a few other possibilities, but it’s all rather a stab in the dark right now.

So, can you help me narrow it down?

I would so appreciate your feedback, especially those of you who have been here for a while. Specifically, you could tell me:

  1. Is the site loading more slowly for you than it did before the redesign?
  2. Do you have a sense of what is taking so long? Is it the large images? Something else?
  3. How do you currently read Polka Dot Cottage? (Your operating system and browser would be helpful, and also whether you are getting the blog in email, through a feed reader [Feedly, Bloglovin, etc.] or if you are coming here directly.)
  4. If you are getting the blog in your email or through a feed reader, has anything changed there, or does everything still look like it used to?
  5. Do you have any other problems with the blog design that I should know about?

You can leave this info in the comments, or if you prefer, you can contact me privately.

I can’t stress enough how helpful your feedback would be, so please don’t be shy!

If “upgrading” the blog means losing a group of long-time readers, then that is not much of an upgrade at all, and I will do all I can to fix it. Thanks for reading this far, and for your valuable feedback!

P.S. If anyone who is currently having trouble with the blog would like to volunteer to be my guinea pig (someone I could email periodically and say “how about now? is it better now?” once in a while) I would be super grateful.

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Posted on 24 Comments

24 thoughts on “There are no images in this post

  1. It loads really fast for me. I can’t tell you if it is slower or faster than it was before, but it loaded very fast. I am on a Macbook Pro and use Google Chrome as my browser. I used Feedly as a reader & nothing seems to have changed there.

    1. Thanks for the feedback, Kat. I’m glad it’s running smoothly for you!

  2. I am on a second-hand Dell PC running on Chrome and using Bloglovin. I noticed no difference I can detect from previously. Sorry, Lisa 🙁

    1. Actually, that’s good if everything is working as it did before for you. Thank you for providing your details!

  3. I’m using windows on my IPad and no difference. Also I use Bloglovin.

    1. Excellent. Thanks for the feedback!

  4. Sometimes when we try to fix things that aren’t broken, it gets worse. Maybe you need to revert back to what it was all along. Technology doesn’t always work the way we think it will. I’ve never had a problem but I use a pc. I use my smart phone very little for browsing, so I can’t give an opinion about this problem. I wonder if it’s the devices people are using that can’t handle the new format????? Good luck sorting it out.

    1. Actually, the mobile stuff and new devices are working just fine. What I am concerned about is people who are accessing the site on old computers or with slow internet connections.I’m afraid the larger images are hard for those people to handle. Thanks for weighing in!

  5. Hi LIsa, I found your blog today (although I think have been here before) and I love it, especially the beautiful pictures. Anyway, it loaded fast and without errors for me so thumbs up. I will be subscribing for your polymer posts mostly. We also have housework avoidance in common 😛

    1. Hi, Cory 🙂 Thanks for letting me know that everything works nicely for you. Welcome (back)! Now I feel like I need to set up my clay table again soon so you have something to read 😉

  6. i read your blog with Feedly on my Laptop. dont’t read them on my phone. i occasionally experience slow photo uploading problems but not specific to your blog.

    1. using Google Chrome.

    2. And they’re not slow enough to keep you from coming back? That’s my big worry – that the images load so slowly it becomes too much trouble to read. Thanks for the feedback!

  7. I’m reading on Feedly on either one of two Macs, always in Chrome, with fast-enough connections, and have noticed no difference there since the changes. Images have always taken a little while to load, and still do; if it’s longer, I don’t notice it, and it’s not prohibitively long.

    1. Thanks, my friend 🙂

  8. Windows 7 is doing fine w new design
    I’m on a Dell with uverse connection

    1. Good to hear. Thanks!

  9. I use Firefox on my laptop (Windows 8, belch!) and on my netbook. I also read, very occasionally, on my Android phone. It’s a *little* slower to download for me than it was before, but not enough to stop coming over. I subscribe in Feedly, and click on your site about half the time. Can you tell when you’re being read in Feedly? Do you register the “hit”? I try to click over, just in case.

    1. Well, it’s less than two seconds longer to pull up the previous post than this post. I love the redesign, and two seconds won’t make me quit you 🙂

      1. Glad to hear that 🙂

    2. Thanks for the feedback! TO answer your question, no, I can’t tell when someone is reading via Feedly, but it’s really ok. I don’t pay too much attention to stats these days. In fact I just got rid of a plugin that was supposed to able to count the number of times my feed was being accessed (via Feedly, Bloglovin, etc.), but I never remembered to look at it!

  10. I love your blog!! And your weekly re-cap. I usually read in a reader, but when I clicked ove to your blog, it opened quickly and with no issues. Hi, by the way!

    1. Hi! And thanks for sharing your feedback 🙂

  11. I read from feedly on my iPhone and its the same. And actually your site is one of the few that has always had all the pics come up…

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