Dang... go to bed and see what happens.... lol
Since I'm going to answer several statements made by everyone ( just for info )... this will be a bit long... so sorry for that up front.
@rolygate
Pardon me for reversing your phrasing here which takes it slightly out of context but only to help prove a point.
You are correct that different ISP's can make a difference in page load times but your statement fails to address the issue that these same users mentioning the lag and 504 errors are for the most part only experiencing it when visiting ECF and not when they visit other websites or forums... Your statement would only apply if they had issues on most or all websites and forums which they are not.
Your choice of method to integrate social media is what is the cause of these issues... your servers are a gateway for these and that is what is causing the delays and 504 errors... this is not caused by the ISP connection at the user end.
Changing to different DNS servers will not change the fact that your servers are having gateway issues with the social media integration that ECF has chosen to use... Your suggestion to use script blocking ( No-Scripts as an example) actually proves the point that it is the implementation of scripts at ECF at fault... in short, ECF has chosen poorly in my opinion.
@whiskey
This is more of just added info and not an answer
I suspect the social media integration was an add-on option that they did choose to include... Unfortunately a lot of forum web design is probably centered around it, not just the buttons, which would then require that they redesign the layout in order to change to another integration method... or do as rolygate has mentioned and move where the scripts load to the end which may or may not be possible...
So there are both layout design issues as well as issues involving the scripts. In short, it is no small feat for them to fix their poor choice of modules they have added and this is why I believe I believe they are so reluctant to properly address the issue.
@Liscab
I believe you are talking about the system tray and not a toolbar ( based off of your screen capture later ). Again, this isn't the issue here, other websites and forums would be affected as well if it was a PC performance issue which is what you are infering ( if I'm guessing correctly )
If you were refering to toolbars in the user's browser, some of them do affect the load time of the browser initially but only a few can affect the load time of a website or forum ( protection software like antivirus software can affect website load times as one example ). Since your screen cap didn't show a browser, I suspect these were not what you are talking about, I just wanted to quickly cover that while on the subject.
BTW... off topic... I don't see any active protection running on your computer... This is not a configuration I'd recommend to anyone. The most common reason I'm given as a computer tech is that "common sense" will keep the user from being infected and that is simply not the case any longer. Innocent websites are now often infected directly or indirectly through the ad servers they are using and there is no amount of "common sense" that can tell a person which one is infected before it is too late.
@Underwhelmed..
No need to quote you... but you are correct, it's the social media integration modules ( scripts ) that are at fault... or at least how they are implemented.
I prefer to stay out of the "browser wars"... Each browser has their own merits and website and forum designers are responsible to make it work properly in each one ( which is a royal pain in the rear btw ).
@Liscab..
You do understand that the majority of users just got that "deer in the headlights look" on their face don't you... the rest got it after they looked at the list of startup items once they figured out how too look...
If a user understands what items are required so their PC can operate properly, then they've already taken those steps... If they don't understand, they shouldn't be messing with it too much.
@The Wiz...
The number of icons on a persons desktop and/or system tray has no bearing on how many programs they actually have installed. Many will clear off the desktop and only access them from the Start Menu which is how Windows was designed to be used. Of course, many more don't understand they can remove extra icons from their desktop.. or even that they have a Start Menu in many cases.
@Adrena
Using a util such as No-Script will help... the social media integration uses scripts like certain types of ad servers use... but it won't block all ads only certain ones, it wasn't designed for that specifically.
Here I'll defend rolygate a little, he only suggested No-Script as a possible work-around and not a solution. He seems aware that it is not an elegant solution either since it would also affect other websites as well and therefore require that the user configure it for each website.
