Not planned Disable the AJAX loading .gif for most default actions

[Chris D]

The animated .gif loads for almost all AJAX actions even those that are usually nearly instant such as liking a post or launching an overlay.

My suggestion is to either disable that completely for some smaller actions or add some code that only shows the loading gif after X seconds have passed.

 

[Jeremy]

Personally, I think a delayed loading image is bad UI.

 

[Digital Doctor]

What are all the "AJAX actions" ?
I think I like lots of them.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Do you mean this thing ?



like when I tried to watch this thread.

(Took me 5 times to screencapture it).

On my slow Xenforo site ... I see that AJAX loading thing alot.
Here ... only for a brief second.

 

[Chris D]

Personally, I think a delayed loading image is bad UI.

I don't necessarily disagree with this.

My preference would be for the image not to show up at all on most AJAX actions unless it is something expected to take a long time, such as validating and submitting a form or indeed something as intensive as a cache rebuild.

 

[AndyB]

Hi Chris,

Could you explain why you don't like the gif image showing AJAX actions in progress?

 

[Chris D]

The animation seems superfluous on actions that take a very small amount of time to complete anyway.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I like it appearing even on things such as a like. If it's a site that loads slow, that may take a second. Having a link that doesn't immediately do anything would make me think the site is dysfunctional. I realize that without that appearing, when I click like and it's done loading it changes to 'unlike' and shows a new div (the likes summary) but still, on a delay it could seem like it's broken.

That said, it is pretty easy to disable, I think it's just a matter of including global: false in the arguments for the ajax request.

 

[AndyB]

The animation seems superfluous on actions that take a very small amount of time to complete anyway.

Unfortunately the time it takes to complete isn't a constant. Even very quick sites sometimes will be slow to do an action if something else is hogging the cpu.

 

[Chris D]

I am aware that isn't a constant.

 

[AndyB]

My preference would be for the image not to show up at all on most AJAX actions unless it is something expected to take a long time...

A very good idea.

 

[Eagle]

Well, in my opinion there is no need to disable the Ajax loading.gif at least, not so important that at some point.

 

[x_Stricken_x]

I personally like it showing up, even if for a split second. It makes it completely obvious that "Hey, this page is doing something via Ajax". It might just be me and the fact that 90% of the time when I'm on here I'm downloading something, so my Internet is slow and warnts the image being displayed.

 

[Liam W]

Don't remove it.

I complained to @digitalpoint for having it at the bottom of the page on his site...

He then said he was planning to remove it and I said no.

It is useful for people with slow internet connections - it may be quick for you, but maybe not for other's. Liking a post may take a few seconds for some people!

As well as that, seeing it tells people something is waiting to happen - if they click a button and nothing appears/happens, they may think it is broken.

Liam

 

[x_Stricken_x]

It is useful for people with slow internet connections - it may be quick for you, but maybe not for other's. Liking a post may take a few seconds for some people!

As well as that, seeing it tells people something is waiting to happen - if they click a button and nothing appears/happens, they may think it is broken.

Exactly my point. I'm not fortunate enough to have Fios, and my Internet is usually always tied up in updates - which means pages take about 2-6 seconds to load, the Ajax indicator lets me know my request is still processing.

Not to mention the amount of people who do still have dialup or satellite Internet.