Admin Forum:Does the installation of DPL slow down the site?

I feel my wiki (I used my for convenience, even though I don't own it) relatively slower than other ones. Though it contains only around 600 pages, not much javascript(neither Common.js nor personal js), and I'm using Chrome and FF13 etc.

I assume the general settings for each Wikia wiki is the same. Then why their page load time differs? The only one thing I did and most of people didn't, is the installation of DPL. If you have ever been involved with DPL, please tell me how you found it. Did it kill the site's performance?

Or please tell me if I'm the only one to find the site especially slow. 13:47, October 2, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yup. The staff say that DPL slows down the wiki.... though it didn't slow down my wiki at all. 12:42, October 2, 2012 (UTC)
 * Weird. Do you mean DPL makes the site slow even if I don't call it within page? I did ask to install it but so far it's not in use.
 * Dont think so... 13:35, October 2, 2012 (UTC)
 * Here is what staff say:
 * "Hello, Thanks for contacting Wikia. DPL is a very powerful extension. It can let you do some great things on a wiki, but that power comes at a cost. DPL queries can make wikis slow, which can be frustrating for visitors. Often, there are less costly extensions or built-in methods to achieve the same effects as DPL. Please be sure to read our guide on DPL on Wikia Help, and consider your request for DPL further. The guide can be found at http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Using_DynamicPageList_effectively Even if you do know you need DPL for a specific task, we still strongly urge you to take a minute to read the guide. It offers tips and suggestions on how to make sure your DPL usage does not affect the Wikia experience for everyone else."


 * Thanks for the citation, but what I'd like to know is whether the installation itself affects the site latency. The help page shows how to use DPL allowing data cache, but actually I'm not using DPL for any page. (Maybe I'm gonna ask to remove it)


 * I don't think that just enabling it will cause performance changes. At least I haven't noticed any change after that. It does however noticeably decrease page loading speed if used heavily. — Sovq 14:37, October 2, 2012 (UTC)


 * Sovq is correct. The installation itself doesn't decrease performance, but rather how it's used does. Several DPL calls on one page to a few large categories can cause a page to not load and time out. That's why we warn users with what Ultimate pasted above. For comparison, Nekai's merchant list on Aion has a DPL call for each item she sells, but since these calls are title match calls, you'd not even see a performance degradation when loading her page. Compare that to the list of group quests. This DPL call references two categories and pulls quite a bit of information from each page. You can see the dramatic difference in page load. These DPL calls also put a strain on the server itself since it has to manually connect to each of the pages behind-the-scenes (54 in this case - much worse if dealing with, say a 200 page category) and grab info from each of them.


 * So, in a nutshell, it's basically how you use the tool. Just like any powerful tool, if you misuse it - or use it improperly, it can end up counter-acting any good it can bring to your site. Rappy 14:58, October 2, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the clarification, Rappy. But then, all the more hard to understand the high latency. If DPL is not, what else could be slowing down the site? Is there anything you would suggest me?