BBC site is like crawling through treacle

[cannonmc]

Using Win7 and latest PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Something has happened since Friday using PM.

It takes an age to load any page on the BBC site. You actually have time to read all the things in the bar at the bottom of PM. It used to be instantaneous.

Also on Friday I couldn't sign in to BBC Sounds or iPlayer. That has come back.

Also the download buttons on the programme pages e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ry48 doesn't work. When you click on it, it should drop down a choice of high or low quality from which you can download an .mp3.

The same thing is happening using Waterfowl. It all works as it should using Opera.

None of the other sites I use via Pale Moon have been affected.

I would write to the BBC but they are virtually impossible to contact and get an answer.

I was wondering if anyone else has found the same problem.

Thanks

[MGB1971]

No problems here with Win7/latest PM. Tried your download page and obtained the options.

[Night Wing]

No problems for me using the BBC in your link.

At this time I am using 64 bit linux Pale Moon 32.4.1 running in 64 bit linux Mint 21.2 (Victoria) Xfce with uBlock Origin 1.16.4.30 enabled for the BBC.

[Trippynet]

For what it's worth, I'm also noticing very slow performance on BBC in the past couple of days. It seems sporadic though, sometimes pages will load OK, othertimes I'll open a story and it'll take a few seconds to load the page, then ages for the images to slowly appear.

[cannonmc]

Thanks for those replies.

Just adding that Ive been using PM 27.9.4 (don't ask but I can access some UK newspaper web sites) and on a whim I tried BBC sites and they worked like a charm. Was able to get a download and the page responses were fast.

I am now flummoxed !

[wicknix]

After some messing around, i found giving bbc.co.uk a user agent override of Mozilla/5.0 (Android 13; Mobile; rv:109.0) Gecko/114.0 Firefox/114.0 works flawlessly. Page loads fast, audio works, downloads work, etc etc.

Cheers

[cannonmc]

wicknix, thank you for taking the trouble. I reset the useragent and it doesn't seem to have made any difference at my end.

From a standing start from my home page using my Radio4 bookmark, https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl7j it took 104 seconds to fully load one page. And although I get the download button on programme pages it doesn't do anything.

Switching to PM27 it took 12 seconds to load the same page and the download buttons work.

I really don't understand what has changed.

[athenian200]

Well, Pale Moon 27 was based on an entirely different codebase than what we use now... a very old one that wasn't actually suitable to continue development on, unfortunately. Does every version of Pale Moon after 28 up to now display these issues or did these issues only appear recently with the last few versions of Pale Moon?

For what it's worth though, the pages you linked me did lag in Pale Moon, though it only took about 40 seconds to load, not two full minutes, and that's even on my old i7-3770. Honestly, it lagged noticeably even in Edge, taking about 20 seconds.

Also, since others can't reproduce your issue consistently, it's possible that this could be related to the add-ons you have installed... did you check to see if this happens in a fresh profile? It could be that something was changed that messed up an extension you rely on.

[wicknix]

wicknix, thank you for taking the trouble. I reset the useragent and it doesn't seem to have made any difference at my end.

Strange. I just tested it again. Literally 2 seconds to load that link.

Here's the about:config entry:

UA-Override.png

Here's the loaded page:

UXP-BBC.png

Granted i'm using SeaLion, but it's still using the same UXP backend as Pale Moon so it really shouldn't make a difference.

Cheers

[cannonmc]

Well, Pale Moon 27 was based on an entirely different codebase than what we use now... a very old one

I only kept that because it allowed access to sites that PM28 didn't. I updated to PM28 with a separate install in a separate folder and updated that as they came along. No problems on the BBC site as I went.

did these issues only appear recently with the last few versions of Pale Moon?

The issues only started last Friday, not with any change in PM. I have changed nothing since the v32.4.1 (2023-10-03) update and have done nothing with my add-ons which all work fine. And the slowness is throughout the BBC site when clicking on fresh links, not just the initial contact
.
All my other regular sites (bank, online shop, Nitter, TV Guide, chat rooms, you name it) are unchanged and load as expected.

did you check to see if this happens in a fresh profile?

I'm not really sure how to set up a new profile.

I feel something changed at the BBC end but it is so difficult to contact them. You have to plough through 12 pages of questions before they ask for a full postal address and telephone number before you can send a question, complaint or comment. And to think I pay them.

And thanks for your reply

[cannonmc]

Strange. I just tested it again. Literally 2 seconds to load that link.

Here's the about:config entry:

Yup, that's what mine says, exactly. Still having same problem.

I am just wondering if I have a system restore that I might try.

Thanks again.