... open automatically in 3 seconds

[chrisgreaves]

"This page will open the selected gallery automatically in 3 seconds. If not, you can visit that gallery by clicking here."

I see this so often, and I'm puzzled.

Why do web pages have a built-in 3-second delay?
In particular, since I can override (or at least shorten the delay), why not reduce it to one second, or just do away with it forever?

What is/was the purpose of this technique?

[Jezza]

The usual reason is the page is being redirected to another server or directory within the server due to maintenance. Other reasons maybe due to a domain change or it may also be identifying your browser type and redirecting your session (uncommon these days).

Three seconds is probably quite arbitrary, any longer people may get a bit bored and press the back button.

I sometimes have had to do it on one of my IIS servers but done it at Virtual Directory level...more efficient and seamless to the end user. I see the meta redirect as a bit of a web editor hack these days IMHO

[chrisgreaves]

Thanks, Pink-Ears.
I might have included an example url, here it is:
http://photography-on-the.net/gallerydatab...dex.php?u=1(48)

The delays are built into all the hyperlinks, AFAIK, whether one chooses r/c new tab, or open in new window.

I could understand "maintenance", or even "I've moved", but on this particular web site it is a permanent and popular feature.

I can't dream up a good reason for introducing a delay.

[Jezza]

As I thought, it is redirecting to another domain using:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.jasonkratzphotography.com">

It looks like they think 3 seconds is sufficient time to make the call and get a response

[chrisgreaves]

I apologise for calling you pink-ears. I see that they are really purple. Sort of.

>It looks like they think 3 seconds is sufficient time to make the call and get a response

I'm still puzzled (or just as dopey as I was earlier today).
Why bother asking for a delay?
Why not just effect the hyperlink and let the web/internet etc. work it out?

I know I'm running the risk of being branded as part of the "Me, NOW!" generation, but I can't see the point of purposely instituting a delay in a hyperlink.
CLICK!
What are we waiting FOR? If the page arrives in 0.5 seconds, good. If traffic is heavy and it takes 4.7 seconds, well, OK.
But why burden me with an extra 3 seconds delay, just on principle?

I'm not taking it personally. Yet.

I suppose I could ask the owners of the web site, but my guess is that they don't know, and it is their web de-sinner who put them up to it.

[jscher2000]

HTTP refresh is not universally loved. Some people think it is disorienting, and in some browsers it is easily disabled. The message addresses the first issue, the link, the second.

[gwhitfield]

I have used a short delay in my web pages- just long enough for the user to be made aware that my page has been shifted (notice the sigular, I don't get many hits). I've got one second, which may actually be too short.

I've shifted the website because my organisation does not like me using their name in a url. If a user is not aware that a website has been shifted they might not remember the change in future- andf at some time in the future, my organisation may shut down my old site completely, and I will not even have the luxury of a redirect.

[chrisgreaves]

>just long enough for the user to be made aware that my page has been shifted
That I can understand; it'd be like a short commercial break saying "www.ChrisGreaves.com will cease to exist Dec 31 2008; www.ChrisGreaves.CA is the new site. You are being transferred there now"

But these web sites (image galleries) aren't shifting.

FWIW I see the same effect when I click on some d/l buttons "If your download doesn't start in 30 seconds, click [here]", which I do, with no ill effects.

[chrisgreaves]

Jefferson, you've lost me. Not easy to do, with your lucid explanations.

I can see "REFRESH" in the link, and assume that is the programmed equivalent of tapping the F5 key.
Something to do with a different url?
But I still don't see how this explains an apparently useless 3-second delay.

If you have to have a 3-second delay, OK, then maybe you have to refresh, or so something, but why have a 3-second delay in the first place?

It's as if the sign on the west door at Brunos said "This door closed; please wait ten seconds, then use the eastern door"; we never stand there counting off ten seconds. We just snarl and make straight for the other door. Don't we?

[jscher2000]

The delay is not a technical requirement. It is to inform the user that he or she is being redirected to a new site. Presumably someone decided it would take 3 seconds to read and mentally process that information. Individual judgments on that certainly can vary.

[chrisgreaves]

> ... inform the user that he or she is being redirected to a new site ...
Agreed.
But.
I still don't get it.
When I/you/he/she/it clicks on a link, aren't we doing so with the express intent of traveling to a new site? (Which may take a few seconds).
Why tell me what I already know, and hence why spend any time at all reading about it.

If you click on the link in <post:=746,010>post 746,010</post:> (I feel stupid even telling you this), then you'll be taken to an image gallery; but you already guessed that.
If you click on one of the gallery buttons, where it says "address" in white lettering, you'll be told what you already know, but be forced to wait 3 seconds.

(Is anyone else reading this thread who feels they can better explain what I'm trying to say? I feel I'm being inarticulate, because the current responders are all bright, and I'm still at a loss to know why there should be imposed a 3-second delay when none is needed)

[handyandy]

I hear ya man, and it seems pointless to me too. When I saw a page redirect me like that for the first time, I though my browser was messed up with those redirecting spyware bugs. I am sorry to say like you I too don't get it on sites as you have described. Oh, by the way, if you should click on the "Add Reply" link below, you will be redirected to the "Add Reply" page where you can Add a Reply. Sorry, LOL.