Why do some casino game wikis lag more than others – is it the design?

I am a poker enthusiast, and I agree that wikis that use lots of animations, video, Flash, etc tend to lag. It has to do with what kind of wiki you are using and if it is coded correctly. Wikis that are hosted on slower servers also tend to be sluggish. The size of the images should be compressed, as should the style sheet (CSS). Images that are used over and over again should not be embedded in CSS. The more elements (text or graphics) you have on a single page, the longer it takes to download. You also need to ensure that you have enough bandwidth. You should use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), especially if you have users around the world. Avoid cluttering up your front-end interface with a lot of bells and whistles.

Wiki performance sucks. Sure, graphics, video, and unnecessary code are major culprits. But so is an inexpensive host that can’t scale with spikes in demand, or a sluggish server that makes every page unbearably slow. Untuned JavaScript and large images also contribute. Check your wiki’s performance problems using a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights, then clean up the code, optimize your images, ditch the cheap hosting, and implement robust caching. Your readers will thank you (by sticking around).

Wiki too slow? Oh, most likely it’s the fancy stuff: animations, fat plugins, large pics. Sloppy programming slows things down, too. If they are on a low-cost server with limited bandwidth, that’s the killer. For your site, make sure you have optimized pics, are doing caching, and aren’t loading in a bunch of unnecessary scripts. Try using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Don’t give them an excuse to complain.

Why are wikis so slow? Flash or rich media elements may be to blame (particularly if your visitors connect via dialup or slow broadband); inefficient coding could also be causing delays; inadequate hosting or bandwidth might explain it (if your web host can’t cope with your traffic, you’re in trouble); perhaps you’ve got too many plugins running or haven’t compressed images. Review your site’s sourcecode, optimize where you can, and check your hosting plan. You’ll keep people from leaving your site before you’ve had a chance to convert them.