Thanks for your feedback, June. There wasn't meant to be an appreciable change in downloading time for non-members with the new site, but certainly with over 250,000 users all over the world, it is possible that some users in some areas will experience slower download times if they are not Ann's Club members.
Please keep in mind that hosting this many free designs for so many users is a very expensive proposition. Our bandwidth requirements are more than 10 times industry averages because of the fact that the majority of visitors to our site come to download large files. We have been advised on a number of occasions that we should be charging every user for this bandwidth use, but Ann has always insisted that we keep the service free for many users so that we can maintain the original spirit of the site, which was and still is as a community of embroiderers sharing their work and creativity.
Greg (Web Site Manager)