Not sure where to post about recent changes to the site

[Barleduq]

I have a huge pile of addons, and so I like to think I wander through here pretty frequently. But I don't read the forums, so I probably missed things.

Recently (like, since 6.1 went live and my 'addons to be updated' exploded) I've noticed that the download process now brings me to another page, with "Download starting..." and (if I scroll down) a list of recent/hot/popular addons. Unfortunately, this page never finishes loading. It sits there, with my "i'm loading!" spinner spinning, forever - long past the finish of the download. Hitting my back button to get off it - to get back to the main addon page - does nothing. The name of the addon at the top of the section that says Downloading now... (with the ... constantly redrawing) does not link me anywhere. I have to find the (very small) text showing the path to get back there. (I've asked, before, if that line could be made larger to make it easier to see, but as that was years ago and nothing happened, I assume that's not happening at all.)

This is pretty much *EXACTLY* the behavior that drove me AWAY from Curse, and to here. It's happening all over the site. I just posted a thread in the "Search/Identify Addons" board, and that page is *still* spinning, trying to finish loading, long after I have the visual result of posting it. This page, right now where I'm typing, also has the spinner going, indicating downloading still happening with no visible result.

It wedges my browser, plugs up resources - I'm using 30% of the cpu and all I have open is this browser window with 5 tabs, 3 to pages on here that I've killed the loading on, and the two I've mentioned.

is there some setting I can use *for this site* (as it's pretty much the only one doing this) to make this stop? Is there something that you, the site operaters, can change, or fix? Is it supposed to do this? I'm not complaining about ads - the ads are loading fine, thank you, especially the (at least) three that are for scam work at home websites, but that's another discussion. But I can't afford a Zam membership at the moment, and so I cope with the ads.

I wonder if it has to do with the Minion updater. Which I can't use, cause it's not supported for Linux. Which is why I'm here, and not at Curse - because *this* site was thankfully lacking the dancing bears and animation that brings my older but still completely capable computer to its knees.

[bsmorgan]

Originally Posted by Barleduq I've noticed that the download process now brings me to another page, with "Download starting..." Unfortunately, this page never finishes loading. It sits there, with my "i'm loading!" spinner spinning, forever - long past the finish of the download.

You are not the only one that is having this problem and it is very annoying.

[Seerah]

I've moved your thread to the site forums.

This new downloading page loads right away for me. Where are you located? Do you have any browser plugins enabled? Is there something specific that it seems to get hung up on? The ellipsis (...) is animated on that page and does not change - is that why you are thinking it's not finished loading, or is there another reason?

[Dolby]

You are getting the download but the download page it self never finishes loading? Does it look like anything is missing? Does your browser say wait its waiting to download? What browser are you using?

Using chrome, firefox and safari I personally havent encountered this issue. So I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide.

The reason for the download page is so we can better collect download stats for a feature we are working on for addon authors. Part of that is we will be showing much more robust download statistics and starting something else I really can't talk much about yet. We still have a lot of work to do but that is the main reason for the download landing page.

In response to your Minion comment... Minion should work on Linux, I haven't tried it my self yet (need to setup a linux VM that has a UI) its just requires java8 and if you have that installed on your linux flavor it "should" run. You can download a java only version here: http://cdn.mmoui.com/minion/Minion2.1.3pl1-beta.zip just extract and run the Minion-jfx.jar

java -jar Minion-jfx.jar

Edit: Just tried it on Elementray OS (had that installed on my VM, its a Ubuntu fork made to look like OSX). I had to install JRE8 from Oracle but it works just fine for me. I didn't have wow installed in the VM but I was able to add the game addon directory manually by pressing the "add game" button. If I get some free time soon I'll setup a Ubuntu dev environment and create a .deb package, then Java wouldn't be required to be installed as it will be included inside the JVM inside the deb.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Barleduq Recently (like, since 6.1 went live and my 'addons to be updated' exploded) I've noticed that the download process now brings me to another page, with "Download starting..." and (if I scroll down) a list of recent/hot/popular addons.

I hadn't noticed this yet since 99% of my addons are updated through the Curse Client, but I just went and downloaded an addon to see what you're talking about. While the "downloading" page works fine for me, it's still quite annoying. I don't understand how wasting my time (both to load the page and click "back" an additional time) to make me download the file from a separate page gives you "better" download stats than just letting me download the file from the page I'm already on.

I also avoid downloading addons from Curse.com (I'd rather go to the addon's "development" page on CurseForge or WowAce if it's not on WoWInterface) because of the annoying interstitial page -- which, by the way, isn't even displayed if I'm logged into Curse.com, though that fact doesn't reduce its annoyingness much since Curse.com almost never actually remembers my login session.

TLDR: New download interstitial page: 0/10 would not recommend.

[Dolby]

Originally Posted by Phanx I hadn't noticed this yet since 99% of my addons are updated through the Curse Client, but I just went and downloaded an addon to see what you're talking about. While the "downloading" page works fine for me, it's still quite annoying. I don't understand how wasting my time (both to load the page and click "back" an additional time) to make me download the file from a separate page gives you "better" download stats than just letting me download the file from the page I'm already on.

It allows us to use google analytic events to capture download statistics. Now sure there are some people that block GA or JS altogether but they are a less that 1% minority on our site. I am now working on pulling that data via GAPI and using chartjs to display it in a nice format. Utilizing this instead of building our own system and needing a beefy & expensive mysql server(s) or a mongodb shard(s). Now true we could use the onclick stuff but that gets a little messy as you already know with the minion.gg download button.

This also allows us to serve the CDN link directly with out using a redirect to record the download hit. Before the download was redirected to the CDN url. With the old system we couldn't serve the CDN link directly with out using some redirect because there would be no way to record the download hit since you're downloading a cached file from a server close to you. Now our CDN has those stats but their data isn't all that great or fast, its only provided for billing purposes really.

Now these stats probably aren't all that important to authors right now other than the novelty/curiosity but we are working on something where you'll want to see this data for other reasons.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Dolby It allows us to use google analytics and events to capture download statistics. Now sure there are some people that block GA or JS altogether but they are a less that 1% minority on our site. I am now working on pulling that data via GAPI and using chartjs to display it in a nice format. Utilizing this instead of building our own system and needing a beefy & expensive mysql server(s) or a mongodb shard(s). Now true we could use the onclick stuff but that gets a little messy as you already know with the minion.gg download button.

But how does using a separate page capture different/better statistics than using the same page? That's the part I don't get. What stats are you tracking other than "how many people downloaded the file"? (Also, as an addon author, I can't even imagine any other stats I could possibly care about.) Why can't you use the techniques used by the large majority of other websites that don't require me to go sit on a useless extra page to download a file? Presumably at least some number of them are capturing "download statistics". And the Minion download button works fine now that you check that the thing you want to ping actually exists before blocking the normal click event.

[Dolby]

Originally Posted by Phanx But how does using a separate page capture different/better statistics than using the same page? That's the part I don't get. What stats are you tracking other than "how many people downloaded the file"? (Also, as an addon author, I can't even imagine any other stats I could possibly care about.) Why can't you use the techniques used by the large majority of other websites that don't require me to go sit on a useless extra page to download a file? Presumably at least some number of them are capturing "download statistics". And the Minion download button works fine now that you check that the thing you want to ping actually exists before blocking the normal click event.

Most other large websites have a download landing page...

Its for recording downloads stats on a daily basis. Right now you just have a total, to get something broken out into daily stats / uniques cheaply we went with GA.

[Phanx]

Well, regardless of the rationale, it's extremely annoying, to the point where I probably won't bother the addons I use that are only on WoWInterface unless they actually break. Hopefully you can figure out a less annoying way to keep track of "how many people downloaded this file" in the future.

[Dolby]

Thanks for your feedback and it is noted. Sorry to annoy you so much that you wont download AddOns from us now. I didn't see it as that annoying but I guess I was wrong.

I only download AddOns from our site and do so on a regular basis and didnt see it as any trouble.

I hope we can get back on topic to discuss OP's original issue of the page never finishing loading. I'm open to more feedback on the download page but it should probably be done in a new thread.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Dolby I hope we can get back on topic to discuss OP's original issue of the page never finishing loading.

It works fine for me in the following browsers:

* Opera 12 with Ghostery+NoScript, both with JavaScript and with it disabled
* Firefox with Ghostery+NoScript, with JavaScript (didn't try disabling)
* IE with JavaScript (didn't try disabling, settings are Cthulu)

So it seems likely the OP's problem stems from a browser plugin or browser settings blocking "automatic" file downloads.

However, I also noticed that the annoying interstitial page doesn't happen when not logged in, so for those who hate it and don't post on the forums or on addons regularly, you can avoid it by just logging out. If you need to log in once in a while for something, just make sure the "remember me" box is unchecked.

[bsmorgan]

It is annoying to me because my habit was to open the addon page, download the new version, and then look at the change log and comments. The page does load completely but the animated "...." makes me believe the download is still in progress.

I believe changing the "Downloading now...." to "Download Complete" when its done will make the page less confusing. While you are at it, adding a line after the "Problems with the download? Click here." of "Return to the addon page? Click here" or something similar would also help.

[Sekrin]

Originally Posted by bsmorgan It is annoying to me because my habit was to open the addon page, download the new version, and then look at the change log and comments. The page does load completely but the animated "...." makes me believe the download is still in progress. I believe changing the "Downloading now...." to "Download Complete" when its done will make the page less confusing. While you are at it, adding a line after the "Problems with the download? Click here." of "Return to the addon page? Click here" or something similar would also help.

I also use(d) WoWI this way...perhaps a compromise would be to add the changelog to the download screen?

[Tonyleila]

Well now I have to middelklick to download something and then close the tab. Realy annoying.

I hope we can get back on topic to discuss OP's original issue of the page never finishing loading.

I think when he is said "it never finishing loading" he was refering to the animated points on the download page <div id="wait">...</div>

However my idea what they are realy tracking is how many klick on the "Download" Button VS how many then realy download it.

[Dolby]

Ok made some quick changes. The download button will work similar to it did previously for Logged in addon authors and premium users. I'm using the onclick method to record downloads in GA for those groups.

Working on adding the changelog to the download page, I like that idea.

As for the ... animation maybe I should put a short timer on that?

Thanks for your feedback.

[bsmorgan]

Originally Posted by Dolby As for the ... animation maybe I should put a short timer on that? Thanks for your feedback.

Shorter timer definitely, changing the whole text string from "Downloading Now..." to Download Complete when the timer expires would be even better, IMO.

You're welcome on the feedback! Thanks for listening and responding so quickly!

[Barleduq]

I'm using Opera on Fedora Core (not sure what version, I *think* 17.)
Here is the info from the About Opera screen:
About Opera
Version information
Version
12.16
Build
1860
Platform
Linux
System
i686, 3.9.10-100.fc17.i686
Browser identification

Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux i686) Presto/2.12.388 Version/12.16

I have no browser addons, plug-ins, blockers, or other extras added to the browser.

To quote myself, adding bolding:

It sits there, with my "i'm loading!" spinner spinning, forever - long past the finish of the download. Hitting my back button to get off it - to get back to the main addon page - does nothing. The name of the addon at the top of the section that says Downloading now... (with the ... constantly redrawing) does not link me anywhere. I have to find the (very small) text showing the path to get back there. (I've asked, before, if that line could be made larger to make it easier to see, but as that was years ago and nothing happened, I assume that's not happening at all.)

Apparently that wasn't clear. What I meant by 'never finishes loading' is that the graphic elements that spin in a circle - the mouse sprite, the element in the tab - and the graphic element on the bar that includes the address, which is a round circle when the page is loaded, and an X to stop the page loading when it isn't, stays as an X. Also, when I finally ran top (as opposed to estimating from the graphic element I have on my task bar that shows cpu usage), Opera was taking 50%+ of the cpu. I found a minimized Opera window that had some static jpgs on it and one blog tab that I had been looking at last week for snow in boston (I had 'opened from last session') - when I killed that window, the cpu usage went down to 40%+. When I exited all the tabs that came to WoW Interface, the cpu usage dropped to under 10%. It did not go over 10% when I brought up a WoWhead tab, with all *its* scripts.

I also click the download and then click the Changelog on addons I am comfortable with downloading without checking. That extra step is annoying - and having it be a small text element, rather than what is, to me, the obvious one (the title of the addon large and nearby) that I have to click makes it more so, but perhaps that's idiosyncratic with my vision. But my major annoyance was the massive uptick in CPU usage and drag on the system. I already have problems trying to have a browser up while I have WoW running, which is one reason I'm using Opera rather than e.g. Firefox.

Downloading today, I see that the text does change to 'Download Complete' and the page gets the round arrow and the other evidences of a completely loaded page. Thank you for that. I do like the list of addons underneath, despite that it's listing things as 'hot' that haven't been updated in multiple years.

I've downloaded that minion zip and will try to see if it works. I am, however, a 'power user' and not a sys admin; I'm not sure what version of Java we have running, nor what might break if I update it (via Yum or whatever it is on here). I tried using it months ago when I first saw the header about Minion, and couldn't get it to work then.

[Barleduq]

Originally Posted by Dolby In response to your Minion comment... Minion should work on Linux, I haven't tried it my self yet (need to setup a linux VM that has a UI) its just requires java8 and if you have that installed on your linux flavor it "should" run. You can download a java only version here: http://cdn.mmoui.com/minion/Minion2.1.3pl1-beta.zip just extract and run the Minion-jfx.jar java -jar Minion-jfx.jar .

Is the Minion-jfx.jar file supposed to be executable? Copy-pasting your command from your post, I got "Error: Unable to access jarfile Minion-jfx.jar"

I had extracted it into my home directory, no sub directory, and tried to run the command from a terminal window while in my top level home directory. The permissions show -rw-r--r--.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Barleduq Opera 12.16 ... What I meant by 'never finishes loading' is that ... the graphic element on the bar that includes the address, which is a round circle when the page is loaded, and an X to stop the page loading when it isn't, stays as an X. ... When I exited all the tabs that came to WoW Interface, the cpu usage dropped to under 10%. It did not go over 10% when I brought up a WoWhead tab, with all *its* scripts.

I'm using the same browser, and sometimes have what sounds like the same problem, though it's not a new problem to me, nor specific to the new download page. Something in one of the scripts used on WoWInterface sometimes just starts gobbling up CPU cycles. The browser is suddenly sluggish, the opera:cpu tool reports a WoWInterface page as being the culprit, and after closing that tab the browser is once again fast. I've never bothered reporting it, though, because at this point Opera 12 is not supported by anyone, and nobody is going to bother debugging their JavaScript to fix an occasional bug that only happens in an obscure old browser with no real market share.

[Barleduq]

I'm on a different machine in my house, tho of similar vintage, and the same OS. This machine I use Firefox, because I'm rarely on WoW on this machine. In the last 45 minutes, I've had the browser completely interrupt what I was doing (perusing the NYT site for articles about Leonard Nimoy, who died this morning), to bring me back to one of the two WoW Interface pages I have open, and complain about a script running too long, do I want to stop it?

This is the first bit of the incredibly long line identifying the script in the pop-up that asks:
Script: http://nym1.ib.adnxs.com/if?e=wqT_3Q...cFEN7Sw62MwrS-

I just told it to stop bothering me with it.

It's not just Opera.

ETA: Despite my telling it not to bother me again, and my manually clicking the little stop sign to stop loading, these pages are *continually* restarting a load of something. ANd asking me again. I presume because the script name is different. I also presume it's the ads changing over. I really don't like ad-blockers - if I'm on a site as much as I'm on wow interface and wowhead, and I'm not paying, I *want* them to get *some* money. I can't afford a membership right now. I'd gotten one originally because of the problems with the ads on the browsers. :/ My apologies, this is a bit of a personal rant, but I do feel it's relevant - you need your money, I *want* to do what I can, but at the level where it interferes with normal functionality it becomes something that needs to be reported, even if the answer is 'not my circus, not my monkey, not my problem.'