I am not a "techie" so I cant really answer any of these technical questions. However, to my knowledge when we changed servers we went with something Ken and John called a Virtual Server and it is supposed to be very fast. We looked at many options but thought this would be the way to go because we needed download speed due the graphics we all use. May have what I am saying here a little wrong but it is a large server, lots of disc space and lots of bandwidth (for graphics to load) and dedicated to our boards. We did not chose a less expensive server. We went with something we thought was "far more than required" to operate the board efficiently.

As much as we love the graphic Voyager background and all the graphics we post these also take longer to load. I honestly think this is the issue here, too many graphics particularly the background. Ken is ALWAYS telling me this but I LOVE the graphics and I dont think any of us want to give those up. It is what makes the board so interesting. From my "non technical brain" when we load pictures to a link like we do that does not interfere at all with the download speed of this site. It is the icons and background and actual graphics directly on our site that take the time. So dont worry about posting links to pictures that works great.

So if for any reason the internet is slow you will find this type of slow loading taking place. When things speed up you wont have the same problems. I know Ken did not do anything and I dont think John has either so it is just the "computer" gremlins at work sometimes.

A board like this runs quite differently from a normal web site. Lots of things are complicated and more difficult than a standard web site. Adding that "button" for live chat was a major issue and we could not do it. Ken spent almost a whole day trying to get this worked out. Karen and I dont quite understand why but Ken and John both said it would interfere with the "code" of the board and could mess everything up if we tried to add a button.

On this last trip the group said the name Luxury Cruise TALK is a problem. Office computers wont allow it to load as it has TALK in the title. I asked Ken if we could change the name. I guess it is not simple like a regular web site. We cant just buy a new domain name and start again. We would be down for days again just like we were when we changed to the new name. Each time you do this you risk losing information and encountering other problems. Hence a lot of the problems Cruise Critic has had. Now I understand all that a little more.

Life is so much easier on a standard web site. All the technical "stuff" drives me nuts sometimes.

As to Amanda posting. Ken wont post either. He will when we are on a ship and egging him on but here at home he does not post. Some of us are posters and some arent I guess.