[Pete C]

I installed this and it displayed ok. Problems started as soon as the content was added - Google adsense, the mini calendar mod, a donate button etc. Load times on the forumhome went from a couple of seconds to literally minutes!

Tried removing the content bit by bit, but until EVERYTHING was removed the load time was seriously affected.

Disabled the sidecolumn and normal speeds were regained. Re-enabled and the slowdown recurred. I now have absolutely no doubt this hack seriously affects page loading time. I find this counterproductive since frustrated members simply log out rather than suffer the delays, so the benefit of any added content is thus lost.

It looked good, but it pretty well brought my site to a standstill!

A great shame, mainly due to the amount of time I wasted generating the Google ads, and matching the content to the style colours. *shakes head sadly*


*Update: It looks like I may have found a workaround for this - at least where my own site is concerned. Despite removing it, I was loathe to waste the time I'd spent getting it to look "just how I wanted", so I had another try. Strangely enough, installing it on just one of the 5 styles we have available seems to permit a reasonable load time. I really can't understand why this should be, the content is identical on all the styles, and although it was slowing things down, the display was correct.

I guess this means I can use that one style as default, thus giving a decent airing to the Google ads (??s) , and also giving the members chance to opt for another (slightly faster loading) style, with less advertising.

Hmm, maybe clouds do have silver linings after all . . . re-installed for now - I'll see how it goes.