[Talk-GB] Freemap speed improvement ideas - feedback?

[Nick Whitelegg]

Hello everyone,

Have made a number of improvements to Freemap recently but downloading the 
Geograph photos (on by default) does slow it down rather. Do people feel 
it would be better for them to be off by default  (that's what I'm doing 
on the New Forest Free Map; see blog post) or would it cause too much 
difficulty for users to try and find them to turn them on?

Also, do people feel it would be better for Freemap to have a smaller 
database covering only those reasonably well mapped countryside areas of 
the UK, again for speed reasons? People could then request their own area 
be added. I feel I'm getting to the stage now where Freemap is a useful 
resource but speed is the main stumbling block; it's not as snappy as the 
main OSM renderers.

Thanks,
Nick