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I have cut down the forums to their bare bones. No avatars, no calendar, no birthday announcements, no searches, no member lists etc.
Hopefully this will make them run a bit better. If it works, I will start introducing the features again gradually, one at a time. Some of the features are more intensive than others, and right now I'm not sure which ones are slowing the server down and which are not having any real effect on it. So they're all off until further notice.
Indeed. Every time the page has to check with the database the more power it need. Consider disabling ratings as well.
If there are things you know, you won't turn back on for quite some time, I would also recommend editing them out of the templates as it uses power too just to check if they are on or not.
For instance the little symbol telling you whether a user is online or not in each of their posts is hardly necessary unless you plan to send private messages to them.
Last edited by Left-handed Hummingbird; 4th February 2002 at 08:49 PM..
I hope your actions help out. The board have been unusually sluggish, and I have had to try to repeatedly post my responses. (In the case of the IR thread, it seemed very sluggish yesterday. I kept on having the connection to the thread fail and had to try for a long time to get my post up.)
Also, on the IR thread topic, I asked Edena of Neith to talk to you and some of the other moderators. It seems that he is having his own technical problems.
Overall, I think the boards are going well. Since I have an IT background, I understand more than most the headaches of keeping everything running. Keep up the good work and thanks for the efforts to keep everything going smoothly.
Thanks for taking this step, Morrus. To be honest, I'd rather have a bare-bones board -- even if there's enough processing power at a given point for more features, eventually the board will grow to the point where it's a problem.
FYI -- at about 3:40 PM EST I got a "server too busy" message when trying to connect.
The one feature I'd like to have immediately back is the jump-to menu at the lower left. I can't function without it!
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FYI -- at about 3:40 PM EST I got a "server too busy" message when trying to connect.
For the moment, I've told it to only allow 200 people at once to use the boards. That will be the first thing I switch back to normal, before any of the features.
I can live with out any of those features if it means I can get on the boards easily! Limiting to 200 people might be a bit tough, but I don't know what the typical traffic patterns are.
What I do know is that noon is the busiest time; I noticed this way back when I first started my Story Hour last August. If I posted an update by 10am, I frequently had responses by 1pm. If I posted at 2pm, I didn't see a response till the next day.
Anything that keeps the board running smoothly during those 3-4 hours is a good thing.
__________________ "I hurt Firewing." is not something a huge number of people can say. "He dropped a parking garage on me," on the other hand, a lot of people can say. -Kazan, my Champions GM.
I can live without these features,,, but there are some I really want back .
Once you feel ready to start re-implementing features, please re-implement the drop-down list of forums in the low left that lets you jump to any forum you want, and please re-implement Who's Online. I have found it extremely useful to see if the other participant in Fight Club threads is still online.
Do what you have to to keep the boards running, Morrus. Persoanlly, I'd love to have searching back, at least on the Rules forum (the only place where it's really important to search).
Originally posted by graydoom I can live without these features,,, but there are some I really want back .
Once you feel ready to start re-implementing features, please re-implement the drop-down list of forums in the low left that lets you jump to any forum you want, and please re-implement Who's Online. I have found it extremely useful to see if the other participant in Fight Club threads is still online.
Who's Online and search are two very big processes - if any don't get turned back on, those are the two most likely candidates.
I don't know how the message boards are set up or how customizable you can make them, but the only way I can think that the 'jump to forum' drop-down would be at all processor-intensive is if it's made on the fly each time.
One idea might be to replace it with a hard-coded dropdown. You would have to change it manually every time you added a new forum, but I think that's a rare enough occurence that it wouldn't be too bad.
In case you can't tell, I'd really like that back myself. 8)
Originally posted by Morrus Who's Online and search are two very big processes - if any don't get turned back on, those are the two most likely candidates.
I don't mind about search (I've used it all of twice, ever , but how will I live without my beautiful Who's Online!?!?
Oh well, I underswtand. But if the boards ever do quiet down, and if there ever is a bit of extra processing power... remember Who's Online .
It's not the board software right.?. The boards a AMDMB.COM seem to handle far more traffic than we get here. They use vBulletin version 2.0.3 we have 2.2.1!
Is the latest version buggy?
We have a new dedicated server; right?
Do they have a more powerful server?
It seems to me that either the latest version of vBulletin is buggy or we did not get a powerful enough server.
We should be able to operate with all the features and with 600 people logged in!
It's like buying a Ferrari and having to drive it at 35 mph all the time!
I know we have people working on the problem but this is a forum so I feel encouraged to speak my mind.
I wonder, Morrus, do you have GZip compression turned on? If you have, you are minimizing your bandwith needs, but it puts more stress on the server CPU.
That said, there are still other ways of minimizing bandwith by tinkering with the templates. On my vBulletin boards a thread list in a forum is less than 7KB. Here it's about 65KB!
As with everone one else I'm greatful for what we've got, but if it becomes pausible again I'd like to throw in support for returning the Who's online feature.
Thanks for providing such a great way for gamers to get together,
YOU DA MAN, MORRUS!
However, the irony of how these boards have suddenly reverted back to the look and level of features of the old UBB boards is slapping me in the face. Hopefully, these boards are more stable and easier to manage for you, Morrus, than the old UBB boards.
__________________ Member of B.A.D.D. -- Bothered About Disposable Dragons
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, but how will I live without my beautiful Who's Online!?!?
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