Page Flicker on Refresh

[SmilingLez]

When I refresh any page on the main site, the entire interface briefly disappears for a fraction of a second before reloading.

This behavior is unique to my experience on Literotica.com; it does not occur on any other website or app using the same device, browser, or connection.

The effect is consistent and reproducible: a refresh clears the page to a blank state before the new content renders.

I’m documenting it here in case it’s related to the other intermittent backend behaviors myself and other users have reported.

 

[SmilingLez]

When I refresh any page on the main site, the entire interface briefly disappears for a fraction of a second before reloading.

This behavior is unique to my experience on Literotica.com; it does not occur on any other website or app using the same device, browser, or connection.

The effect is consistent and reproducible: a refresh clears the page to a blank state before the new content renders.

I’m documenting it here in case it’s related to the other intermittent backend behaviors myself and other users have reported.

When moving between the main page and my control panel on literotica.com, the same flicker occurs even without a manual refresh. The page briefly clears to a blank state before the new screen loads, and this happens consistently when navigating back and forth between those two areas.

A simple explanation for why this might be happening is that the site seems to wipe the old screen before the new one is ready. That tiny moment where nothing is displayed is just the browser waiting for literotica.com to finish sending the next page. If the server hesitates even a little, the blank gap becomes visible, which makes the flicker easy to notice when moving between the main page and the control panel.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I can't reproduce this clearly now, but I have seen this: there is a brief flicker on some pages while it changes one font to the correct one for some headings.

 

[Manu]

When I refresh any page on the main site, the entire interface briefly disappears for a fraction of a second before reloading.

This behavior is unique to my experience on Literotica.com; it does not occur on any other website or app using the same device, browser, or connection.

The effect is consistent and reproducible: a refresh clears the page to a blank state before the new content renders.

I’m documenting it here in case it’s related to the other intermittent backend behaviors myself and other users have reported.

What is the browser that you are using when this happens? Thank you.

 

[SmilingLez]

What is the browser that you are using when this happens? Thank you.

Silk (amazon tablet), chrome (android phone and laptop), safari (desktop). All latest versions

 

[liliput1]

So the first couple times I did a reload I was paged down to a couple paragraphs into a story, and I noticed the ads from the top of the page flicker into the top of the viewport before disappearing, which makes me wonder if there's some sort of layout shift going on related to the ads being loaded in. After a couple reloads it stopped.

It feels like... when a website keeps the top banner on the page even when you scroll? But Literotica doesn't do that. Or at least, hasn't in the past. Any new things you're playing with?

 

[Manu]

So the first couple times I did a reload I was paged down to a couple paragraphs into a story, and I noticed the ads from the top of the page flicker into the top of the viewport before disappearing, which makes me wonder if there's some sort of layout shift going on related to the ads being loaded in. After a couple reloads it stopped.

It feels like... when a website keeps the top banner on the page even when you scroll? But Literotica doesn't do that. Or at least, hasn't in the past. Any new things you're playing with?

Thanks for the extra information. We have had some requests for a "sticky header" where the menu is always at the top of the page, but we haven't done any work on that. Whatever is happening is probably a CSS or other rending issue. I was testing in Chrome and I didn't see it, but I wasn't reloading far down the page. I'll do more testing on the Story Page today and see if I can find anything in Chrome.

 

[liliput1]

Sometimes such things depend on your network speed and how bogged down your computer is. Mine isn't that long in the tooth but it's overdue for a restart by quite a lot.

 

[Manu]

Silk (amazon tablet), chrome (android phone and laptop), safari (desktop). All latest versions

Is this an issue at the top of a page or when you are scrolled far down the page? If it's far down the page, what is the reason for reloading the page from the bottom of the page? Is it to look at new comments or some other reason? Thank you again.

 

[liliput1]

Anywhere down the page I can see a little flick of the header paint for milliseconds and then just the text of the body afterward. If all the way at the bottom, the footer populates in stages as the footer ad shows up.

Oh that's weird. The report link starts on the left and pushes the by-line down, then it shifts right, the byline comes up and the ad loads. Like something big is in front of the CSS file.

 

[SmilingLez]

Anywhere down the page I can see a little flick of the header paint for milliseconds and then just the text of the body afterward. If all the way at the bottom, the footer populates in stages as the footer ad shows up.

Oh that's weird. The report link starts on the left and pushes the by-line down, then it shifts right, the byline comes up and the ad loads. Like something big is in front of the CSS file.

Ditto

Is this an issue at the top of a page or when you are scrolled far down the page? If it's far down the page, what is the reason for reloading the page from the bottom of the page? Is it to look at new comments or some other reason? Thank you again.

 

[Capt_Roger]

Probably a FOUC issue. Needs a small addition to header code to optimize loading.

 

[SmilingLez]

Still occurring @Manu

 

[SmilingLez]

Bump - Still happening. Frequency slightly increased

 

[liliput1]

Hey @SmilingLez I didn't notice this until right about the time that you mentioned it (and now can't recall if I noticed it because you mentioned it).

Are you saying this is a new issue since an update, or just one you noticed recently?

 

[SmilingLez]

Hey @SmilingLez I didn't notice this until right about the time that you mentioned it (and now can't recall if I noticed it because you mentioned it).

Are you saying this is a new issue since an update, or just one you noticed recently?

I noticed it on the 28th of May and the maintenance was on the 30th of May, I believe, so it was right before the maintenance.

The only reason I noticed it is I bought a new $phone$ and I thought my display was bad, so I went on the site using my old tablet, a laptop, and a desktop and saw the flicker on all devices