– The Backcountry Ski Touring Blog
  • Avalanches
  • Gear Reviews
    • Ski Reviews
    • Boot Reviews
    • Binding Reviews
    • Snowboard Splitboard
    • Book Reviews
    • Avalanche Beacon Reviews
    • Airbag Backpacks
    • Backcountry Electronics
    • Misc Gear Reviews
  • Podcast
  • Tips & Tricks
    • Ski Touring Basics
    • Boot Fitting
    • Fitness & Health
    • Gear Mods
  • Trip Reports
    • Fourteeners
    • Huts – Cabins – Lodges
    • Denali McKinley
    • 8,000 Meter Skiing
  • Stories
    • History
    • Humor
    • Land Use Issues
    • Evergreen Ski Touring
    • Poetry
  • Resources
    • All Posts Listed
    • 100 Recent Comments
    • Backcountry Skiing & Ski Touring Webcams
    • Ski Weights Comparison
    • Archives of WildSnow.com
    • Authors Page
    • Ski Touring Bindings
      • Trab TR2 Index and FAQ
      • Salomon Guardian & Tracker
      • Naxo Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Silvretta Pure Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Marker F10-12 Duke Baron
      • G3 Onyx Ski Binding FAQ
      • G3 ION Ski Touring Binding
      • Fritschi Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Fritschi Diamir Frame Bindings Mount DIY
      • Fritschi Diamir Bindings FAQ
      • Fritschi Tecton FAQ
      • Atomic Salomon Backland MTN
      • Dynafit Tri-Step Binding 2001-2003
      • Naxo randonnee alpine touring AT ski binding FAQ
      • Dynafit Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Dynafit Binding Frequently Asked Questions FAQ
      • Dynafit Beast 16 FAQ Review 1
      • Dynafit Beast 16 FAQ Page Two
    • History
      • Ski Touring Binding Museum
      • Trooper Traverse Intro & Index
      • Randonnee Ski Touring “AT” ski gear — What is Hip?
      • Chronology
    • Backcountry Skiing Core Glossary
    • Gear Review Policy & Disclosures

– The Backcountry Ski Touring Blog

Banner
  • Avalanches
  • Gear Reviews
    • Ski Reviews
    • Boot Reviews
    • Binding Reviews
    • Snowboard Splitboard
    • Book Reviews
    • Avalanche Beacon Reviews
    • Airbag Backpacks
    • Backcountry Electronics
    • Misc Gear Reviews
  • Podcast
  • Tips & Tricks
    • Ski Touring Basics
    • Boot Fitting
    • Fitness & Health
    • Gear Mods
  • Trip Reports
    • Fourteeners
    • Huts – Cabins – Lodges
    • Denali McKinley
    • 8,000 Meter Skiing
  • Stories
    • History
    • Humor
    • Land Use Issues
    • Evergreen Ski Touring
    • Poetry
  • Resources
    • All Posts Listed
    • 100 Recent Comments
    • Backcountry Skiing & Ski Touring Webcams
    • Ski Weights Comparison
    • Archives of WildSnow.com
    • Authors Page
    • Ski Touring Bindings
      • Trab TR2 Index and FAQ
      • Salomon Guardian & Tracker
      • Naxo Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Silvretta Pure Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Marker F10-12 Duke Baron
      • G3 Onyx Ski Binding FAQ
      • G3 ION Ski Touring Binding
      • Fritschi Backcountry Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Fritschi Diamir Frame Bindings Mount DIY
      • Fritschi Diamir Bindings FAQ
      • Fritschi Tecton FAQ
      • Atomic Salomon Backland MTN
      • Dynafit Tri-Step Binding 2001-2003
      • Naxo randonnee alpine touring AT ski binding FAQ
      • Dynafit Skiing Bindings – Info Index
      • Dynafit Binding Frequently Asked Questions FAQ
      • Dynafit Beast 16 FAQ Review 1
      • Dynafit Beast 16 FAQ Page Two
    • History
      • Ski Touring Binding Museum
      • Trooper Traverse Intro & Index
      • Randonnee Ski Touring “AT” ski gear — What is Hip?
      • Chronology
    • Backcountry Skiing Core Glossary
    • Gear Review Policy & Disclosures
   

WildSnow Summer Website Remodels

by Lou Dawson July 11, 2016
written by Lou Dawson July 11, 2016
Our latest speed test, excellent scores.

One of our latest speed tests at gtmetrix.com, excellent scores.

Been working hard on presenting a better reader experience for you guys. Our design philosophy is along the lines of New York Times, black and grey on white, simple, let the content images and text decorate the site. Loading and response times are in my view just as important as how the site looks, so I’ve worked hard on that as well.

More, we load our content first for you, ad banners after, and our “polite” advertising is designed to not obscure your reading. No pop-ups; no site takeovers; no jiggly animation — and all ads are relevant to ski touring. Our server is slow due to a big database (nearly 3,000 blog posts and 70,000 comments!) and lots of back end security layers (and our budget), so I spent quite a bit of time doing “micro optimization” to compensate. Results are good, a score of around 97% in GTmetrix Page Speed despite the slow server.

We’ve also worked hard this past few months on making sure WildSnow works in most browsers, and we’re bucking the trend by running a specific and ultra-optimized site version for your mobile devices. A note on our mobile design: It’s supposed to be practical, with easy tap targets that’ll work with big fingers on fairly small screens. That’s an ongoing project for certain.

We’ll probably do a total site redesign at some point, but for now it’s been fun to simply see how minimal we can get. Hey, going lightweight is key, right?

Please let us know how the snappy “new” website performs for you. We’ll keep improving it all summer long. By getting all this work done, come September I can back off substantially from the admin and focus much more on front-end content. Last winter I was challenged by that balance, the future looks bright.

Thanks everyone for continuing to visit.

Lou

23 comments
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
previous post
Monarch Adventure Food – Jetboils & Coozies
next post
All-access Tickets to the Suffer Festival – Climbing in Washington’s Gunsight Range

23 comments

biggb July 11, 2016 - 12:48 pm

Good work on the “alpine style” website Lou!

Lou Dawson 2 July 11, 2016 - 1:09 pm

Fast and light!

Travis July 11, 2016 - 4:01 pm

Not a deal breaker, but I miss the email comment notifications that had the responders full comment included in the email. Made it easier to follow a thread throughout the day. All in all, I love the improvements! This site is a crucial resource for our sport.

Lou Dawson 2 July 11, 2016 - 5:34 pm

Travis, it’s there. I was using an out-of-date plugin (typical) and had to redo. Just look below, make a comment and before you submit click the checkbox. It’s a little kludgy but last time I tested it worked. Let me know.

Agree it’s a very good feature. I went to a lot of effort to keep it going.

Thanks, Lou

Travis July 11, 2016 - 6:19 pm

Hey Lou! Sorry for the confusion, but I was referring to the content of the comment notification email. The older ones had the full text of any follow up comment. In today’s format there is an abbreviated “snippet” of a follow up comment. I liked not having to leave my email to read the comment.

Lou Dawson 2 July 11, 2016 - 6:25 pm

Oh, ok, I think it’s gotta stay that way, but I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks, Lou

Bobby July 12, 2016 - 6:18 am

Good work, Lou. You are one of my regular go-to’s, I really enjoy the fruits of your efforts. Thank you for everything.

Lou Dawson 2 July 12, 2016 - 7:36 am

Thanks Bobby, we really worked hard on this since I returned from Europe last winter. Site is so much faster, more stable, and with a cleaned up design that tests out well on various browsers. I’ll keep working on it this summer, then hopefully enjoy the freedom to do more content work starting in September.

Wookie July 12, 2016 - 2:13 pm

Mobile looks good, works well.

Lou Dawson 2 July 12, 2016 - 2:40 pm

Thanks Wookie!

Frame August 9, 2016 - 6:11 am

Hi Lou, on our desktop site, i’m finding when you click into articles (or click on a comment on the right hand side), the coments list on the right hand side is losing a few of the more recent comments. When you come back to the home page, they re-appear.

Lou Dawson 2 August 9, 2016 - 7:34 am

Hi Frame, thanks for pointing that out, yeah, sounds like that’s a glitch in the server-side page caching system. What happens is the cache is trying to be static, which it should or else it’s not very effective,I can probably fix it today. If not today, then it for sure needs to be fixed within the next few weeks before site traffic increases for fall-winter. Lou

Lou Dawson 2 August 9, 2016 - 9:29 am

Hi Frame, I changed a few things with the server-side caching, let me know what you see over coming days. I’ll not touch for a while and see what happens. Problem is I can’t replicate the comment display behavior on this end very easily, though I can probably figure out a way to test if necessary.

BTW, the shortest duration I have for browser caching (user side) is about 11 minutes. That shouldn’t affect the display of comments but you never know for sure. So if this behavior keeps happening please try and get a sense if it occurs outside of about a 12 minute window.

Whipping this thing into shape for winter!!

Thanks, Lou

Frame August 11, 2016 - 6:47 am

HI Lou, sorry to report, I’m still having the same issue. I’ve spent more than 15 minutes on the site. When I click into an older article, I seem to lose a few of the most recent comments. When I go to home or the most recent article they newest comments come back. I’ll try at home, incase it’s a pc specific issue.

Lou Dawson 2 August 11, 2016 - 7:20 am

Hi Frame, thanks, yeah, that’s because when you click into the older article you’re getting the cached version of nearly everything. I’ll keep working on it. The older cached pages expire in about 5 hours, which is adjustable on my end. What’s apparently needed is for the comments section of the page to remain dynamic. The cache fights that. I might need to cut bait and use a simpler solution. Lou

Lou Dawson 2 August 11, 2016 - 10:25 am

Frame, are you not seeing the comment in the sidebar, or at the bottom of the article, or both? Having them not refresh in the sidebar is a known issue I’m trying to resolve, but you should see them at the bottom of the post. Let me know. Thanks for the help. Lou

Frame August 12, 2016 - 7:47 am

Lou, just in the side bar.

Lou Dawson 2 August 12, 2016 - 4:41 pm

Ok, thanks, I know exactly why that is happening, solution is the question (smile).

Most sites don’t have comments up-front like that so they don’t have deal with how the cache behaves with that dynamic content. Typical Wildsnow, always breaking the mold.

Lou

Frame September 12, 2016 - 10:36 am

Seems it’s all sorted Lou.

Lou Dawson 2 September 12, 2016 - 10:59 am

Yeah, I turned off some of the fancy stuff that was actually pretty lame. Amazing how much junkware there is out there in the wild, over promising and under delivering. Site isn’t as fast now, but it seems to do the job. Perhaps I can eventually figure out a way to get back to the super-fast load times I had before, but without the problems. Thanks, Lou

Lou Dawson 2 November 11, 2016 - 6:32 am

Everyone, please let me know if you’re getting any WildSnow website errors when you try to browse.

I’m seeing some minimal glitches in the server logs, nothing major, but am trying to get a sense of how that is working on a human level.

Thanks, Lou

Frame December 18, 2018 - 8:02 am

Hi Lou,
I don’t seem to be able to access the mobile site anymore from my android phone, using google chrome. No biggie, i’m looking at the normal version and turning my phone on it’s side, but thought i’d let you know.

Apologies if it’s just me…

Matus December 18, 2018 - 9:35 am

Same problem here.

Comments are closed.

Recent Comments

  • Bil Brandt on Versatile and Sustainable — WNDR Vital 100 Ski Review
  • Idaho Dawg on Giving Myself the Gift of Backcountry
  • Mike on Versatile and Sustainable — WNDR Vital 100 Ski Review
  • Alison r Birkenfeld on Giving Myself the Gift of Backcountry
  • Aidan on Versatile and Sustainable — WNDR Vital 100 Ski Review

Gear Reviews

  • Meidjo 3.0 Binding Review – Backcountry Telemark Evolves

    January 12, 2021
  • Tele Tech First Look — Voile Ultra Vector BC, 22 Designs Lynx, Scarpa TX Pro

    January 5, 2021
  • Petzl Irvis Hybrid Crampon Review

    January 4, 2021

Trip Reports

  • Finding Early Turns on Rainier’s Muir Snowfield

    November 14, 2020
  • Treading Lightly Through Close-to-Home Mountains

    October 6, 2020
  • Snoqualmie Classic — Chair Peak Circumnavigation

    May 26, 2020

Totally Deep Podcast

  • Risky Business — Zahan Billimoria on Solving for Z

    December 14, 2020
  • Totally Deep Podcast 81 — CAIC Director Ethan Greene

    December 9, 2020
  • Unraveling the Mysteries of Avalanche Education — Totally Deep Podcast 80

    November 16, 2020

Tips & Tricks

  • 10 Essential Mistakes for the Backcountry Ski Touring Beginner

    December 2, 2020
  • Buying Used Gear Guide Part II — Poles, Avy Gear, Packs

    November 25, 2020
  • Save Your Ski Day — Emergency Car Kit Essentials

    November 24, 2020

Ski Touring Stories

  • Six Who Dared — Elk Mountains Traverse & Richard Compton Tribute

    January 7, 2021
  • Risky Business — Zahan Billimoria on Solving for Z

    December 14, 2020
  • A Lifetime of Skiing the Heights — Natural Progression Book Review

    December 11, 2020

Newsletter Sign-Up

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • About Lou Dawson
  • Authors Page
  • About
  • Contact
  • Copyright & Legal
  • Website Security

@2020 - All Rights Reserved. Designed and Developed by WildSnow


Back To Top

Read alsox

Euro Puro Amoro — La Sportiva...

January 13, 2021

Griffin Post Stays Home — Totally...

January 10, 2021

Tele Tech First Look — Voile...

January 5, 2021