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wroot's avatar
wroot
Silver Contributor
Sep 18, 2025

Long wait for initial load of this site

There are numerous topics about slowness of this site going back for years (before recent update, which was already so long ago). But what i am experiencing for the past few months is something different. Every time i come to this site first time and say click a link in RSS feed for one of the blog articles i have to wait up to a minute for it to start loading anything (it shows an empty page and loading animation in the browser). After that it would be loading pages quick (well, normal speed for this site, which is still sluggish). But if i do not browse here for 30 min or longer then again first load will be annoyingly long. It is like there is some load balancer/throttling for each new visitor and you have to stand in line.

community

1 Reply

  • Surya_Narayana's avatar
    Surya_Narayana
    MCT
    Sep 21, 2025

    hi wroot​ are you referring tech community ms site ? if yes ? The behavior you describe (slow “first load” followed by normal browsing speed, then repeating after being idle for a while) often points to one of the following:

    Possible causes

    Server-side caching / load balancer warm-up: The site may take extra time to fetch content for a “cold” visitor session before caching improves responsiveness.

    Browser cache/session: After being idle, your session may expire, forcing a new handshake with the servers.

    DNS or network routing: Delays can also occur if DNS lookups or routing are inconsistent depending on your location.

    What you can try

    Clear browser cache/cookies and check again.

    Try a different browser or incognito session to see if the behavior repeats.

    Test on another network (home vs mobile hotspot) to rule out local network/DNS slowness.

    If possible, capture a trace (F12 Developer Tools → Network tab) during the slow load to see where the delay occurs.

    Next steps

    If this continues, I recommend reporting it via the Feedback link at the bottom of the Tech Community page, and include details such as:

    Approximate time when the delay happens

    Browser version and OS

    Screenshots or network trace if available

    This will help the platform team investigate further, especially if it relates to load balancing or session caching.

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