Catch “performance theater” in the wild (Fake-Fast Lite)

#1
by Vibeaxis - opened

You know the site: homepage flies, everything else drags. That’s edge-cache cosplay—a CDN HIT plastered over a slow origin and a script buffet.

Fake-Fast Lite gives you fast receipts you can quote:

TTFB (approx.) via streamed first byte

Edge/CDN tells like cf-cache-status, via, x-cache, server-timing

DOM weight hints: script counts (inline vs external), stylesheet count

A plain-English verdict: Looks Clean / Borderline / Likely Fake-Fast

It’s a heuristic, not a lab. Perfect for triage, call-outs, and “show me” moments before you spin up WebPageTest.

Try it: https://huggingface.co/spaces/vibeaxis/fake-fast-lite

Notes & receipts: https://vibeaxis.com/fake-fast-detector/

Drop URLs that “feel fast” on the homepage but stall one click later. Bonus points if Lighthouse passes yet your users rage-click.

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