Skeletonizing Sites

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Drew I know you closed the previous post concerning the sites that are skeletonizing (for lack of a better word) when they first open, but I believe it needs to stay active to keep everyone aware and for you to be able to pass along to the developers. Yesterday after giving you the run down on my sites when I said 1 was doing it and 2 weren't, those two started coming up in skeleton mode as well.

What had I done differently? Absolutely nothing on one site - haven't touched it since it was launched. On the other one I added galleries and a To Top button in the footer. I pulled that and it made no difference.

Someone brought up the question of whether eliminating all the elements to have a blank page might be leaving behind some code that could be the cause. I started a new site, stripped it, published and viewed the source code. There is still some on there, but I believe it's just standard code that carries the necessities. So, to carry on the experiment I added a very simple navigation and guess what? It skeletonized.

I hesitate to say this for fear of jinxing it, but so far, knock on wood, grab the rabbit's foot, it is only doing it in Fire Fox not Chrome or Internet Explorer. But David's site experiences it in all except Safari.

Some webmasters aren't going to realize what it's doing, but I'm hoping more will check and report back because it's the squeaking wheel that gets fixed! For anyone who doesn't know what skeletonizing is here's an image of David's site and what the visitor sees immediately upon the site opening vs what they should be seeing which is a regular looking website.
Image: https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/1568742/RackMultipart20170318-43880-d3irza-csth_inline.jpg?1489875682

Image: https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/1568742/RackMultipart20170318-43880-d3irza-csth_inline.jpg?1489875682

Image: https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/1568744/RackMultipart20170318-93335-6glb3v-csth2_inline.jpg?1489875808

It's time to put your foot on the neck of the developers!

susan2829, Champion

42,858 Points

Posted 1 year ago

1 year ago

Ken9868

560 Points

I’ve been following along on the forum concerning the issue with the “skeletonizing” of a site when it first opens; particularly in “David’s” case and his site. As he stated, this has been ongoing for months with no resolution in sight.

I bring up the question again about “starting with a blank page.” Desktop Sitebuilder had that option, but obviously, the New Websitebuilder does not offer that. We have been told to pick any template and delete all of the elements off until you are left with a “blank page.” This is how you start off with a blank page in the New Builder.

This is what I have done. I few months back, I chose a template. It was titled, “Patricia Davidson Enterprises” or something to that effect; something totally irrelevant to my cause. I said, “what the heck.” I picked that one; deleted everything off; and started to build my home page from scratch, using this newly created “blank page.” As of last count, I have now built about 80 pages in the editor, with about another 100 – 200 to go. Nothing is published yet.

I started to think about “David’s” issue and his site and said, “what if this happens to me?”

Is the “blank page” that was supposedly created to start off with REALLY A BLANK PAGE? What if some remnants of code are left behind that are not visible? This could possibly be the issue with David’s case.

Yes, to “start with a blank page,” you are told to delete everything off of the template that is visible to you. It seems as though you now have a “clean slate.” It appears to be empty (“Blank”). BUT IS IT REALLY?

For example, David mentioned an RSS FEED code in his source that he never applied or installed. Where’s that from? There’s possibly all other kinds of codes, tags, and who knows what else, that is left behind and IS NOT DELETED from the template that you have chosen!

Perhaps, in David’s case, AND IN EVERY CASE, this needs to be looked into! People want to start from a true blank page, AND THEY ARE NOT.

Personally, this is what I fear going ahead. I have not published my site yet because it is not ready. I am still bringing things over from the Desktop Sitebuilder and have a way to go.

But when I do publish it, what’s going to happen?

Ken

3 people like this

2017-03-19T18:25:47+00:00

Brian4612, Champion

32,244 Points

Ken, I have no idea if your hypothesis is correct and will be keen to see what the answer turns out to be. BUT, it is a very very good point, one I hadn't even considered but, as a blank page builder, one I will be looking into on my own website so you have my thanks for asking this question.

PS, before you get too far into your website check how it appears in mobile view. General opinion is to check the view as you go as it doesn't seem to be that responsive

(Edited)

2017-03-19T21:18:48+00:00

Ken9868

560 Points

Thanks Brian. You are correct. With the mobile view, that is what I do. As each page is completed, I go to the mobile view and make the adjustments. Aside from the Home Page, (which is huge and was a total mess in the mobile view, spending quite a while making the adjustments) the others pages seem to adjust themselves very nicely in the mobile view.

I was very surprised (and pleased) with how it looks in the mobile. Just 3 or 4 minor adjustments is needed for all of the other pages in the mobile view and everything looks and adjusts beautifully. But, like I intimated in my previous post, when it is finally published, let’s just hope that it stays that way!

2017-03-20T12:05:07+00:00

Brian4612, Champion

32,244 Points

With all the "ongoing" teething problems maybe Homestead should rename the new builder. buildandhope.homestead.com. Time will tell I guess. The one shining light in all this is that the tech guys, Drew and Todd, are fighting our corner.

1 year ago

susan2829, Champion

42,858 Points

David did some Googling and it seems that a site coming up in plain HTML has something to do with how the stylesheet (CSS) loads. So if this were just happening in one browser then we could blame it on the browser, but given it's happening across all of them then it seems to point to how the sites are coded. Hopefully someone in here who knows code can jump in and shed more light on this for us.

1 person likes this

1 year ago

david2953

6,370 Points

The search Susan is speaking of found a post on a similar topic to a technology board. To view, the exchange please follow the link below.

https://superuser.com/questions/368041/why-do-webpages-sometimes-appear-as-plain-html-before-a-refresh

The symptoms are very similar to those we are experiencing with the new builder.

1 person likes this

1 year ago

Drew N, Community Manager

251,726 Points

That topic was archived accidentally. I have reopened it as I am in full agreement that it needs to stay open. Sorry about that. I am very sorry it is taking the time. Anyone who sees this on their site should post the site name in the original topic. https://community.homestead.com/homes....

1 year ago

susan2829, Champion

42,858 Points

Any way to move these posts over to it?

2017-03-20T18:17:41+00:00

Drew N, Community Manager

251,584 Points

Sadly, no. I can merge the topic, but that will only display the original post. I suppose we can copy/paste the posts, but they would not have the poster's name attached, unless each person copy/paste their own over there. I will keep thinking if there is another way, but that is the only one I can think of right now.