Secure.gravatar.com

I use Firefox on Linux Mint over a 8Mb/s broadband link.
When I access ELR I spend more time waiting for secure.gravatar.com than anything else. (OK - bit of an exaggeration there, but say 20 - 50% of total page load time.)
I’ve blacklisted secure.gravatar.com in /etc/hosts but, surprisingly, Firefox still seems to wait for it sometimes (if there are uncached avatars I assume) although typing s.g.c directly in Ffox instantly returns with “unable to connect”.

Should I:

  1. Stop whingeing and get mixing.
  2. Setup a local proxy + blacklist.
  3. Blacklist s.g.c on my router. Edit: Done - no discernible difference.
  4. Book up a patience group therapy session.
  5. Get some more valium.
  6. None of the above.
1 Like

Hey MixedUp2 :slight_smile:

Seems kind of odd that it is hanging on it, even if you’ve pointed s.g.c to localhost in /etc/hosts - it shouldn’t…

You could maybe set up an apache on your machine and rewrite it so any request just serves you a static image? :slight_smile:

I’ve contemplated using gravatar to fetch an avatar and storing it locally - then let people refresh it in preferences…

:slight_smile: Lars

2 Likes

Are you talking about the Recipe side or the forum because I cant see that loading on either…

I think it’s on the main ELR site - not sure if the forum uses Gravatar… :slight_smile:

1 Like

Checked both I don’t see it… :confused:

Hi people, thanks for the responses.

@daath I’ve had a vague suspicion for years that FF does secret things to resolve certain unavailable / blacklisted names but have never proved it. I also suspect it’s slow to update its status messages when retrieving pages so when it says it’s waiting for s.g.c it might be playing me false and have already moved on.:neutral_face:
Apache: Oh the maintenance, the humanity… (that was experience talking) :slight_smile:
Cached avatars: good plan - the only time I miss avatars is on the main recipes page where the word Gravatar gets overwritten with the author’s name, so I can’t, say, order by chef and see everything Alisa’s made - but I can do that in other ways as you undoubtedly know!

@Grubby I’ve only noticed the problem on the main site - forum is fine. If you’ve got a fast link (mine is not) :sob: and the DNS servers are working you won’t notice anything untoward.

Now I see it…

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bf/4e/6e/bf4e6efe8fe79bf62cd97ffcb7dfae92.gif :confused: :grinning:

6 Likes

Made me spit my drink! :laughing:

3 Likes