Site... grinding to... halt...

[Joshua Randall]

No one is saying that Russ should spend all $20,000 on a server. Please. That's a straw-man argument.

However, I think that for those who have paid $35/year to become community supporters of EN World, it is legitimate to complain about the ongoing site sluggishness. Why is there no fix in the works? Why is there no public timetable for getting a fix?

I pay an average of $10-$15 a year to belong to a fantasy football website, and it's plenty fast. Ditto for two fantasy baseball sites I belong to: $10-$20 membership fees and no connectivity problems. (And no, these are not the ESPNs of the world -- these are mom'n'pop sites.)

So I'm paying twice or three-and-a-half times that to belong to EN World -- and every month we go through the same thing: Site takes forever to load. Replies time out when being posted. Site grinds to a halt near noon Eastern time. Site goes down for days at a time. Etc. etc. It's getting old.

One other thing. There are 20,635 people on the members list. If even 5% of them are community supporters, that means EN World is bringing in $36,085 a year just from community supporters -- not counting advertising or sales through RPGShop. Surely some of that money could go to upgrading the servers?

 

[MerakSpielman]

It's been slow for a while now. Just too many darn members.

If people don't like the slowness of the site, I highly encourage them to go elsewhere (and thus speed it up for the rest of us!)

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Second, the ENnies are expensive, especially if you factor in that we had to pay for shipping submitted products to the judges.

Did money from the donation drive go to this at the expense of getting a new/improving the server? I'm not going to complain too much about this, but, if true it will certainly affect whether or not I donate again. The point of donating was, of course, to keep EN World alive and pay the outstanding connection fee, but I was under the impression that there was a new server or improvements in the pipeline for the website. So I guess the question is: are there any improvements planned for the server?

I know that I donated the money and don't expect an accounting or anything ridiculous like that, but if the money is going to go to support an EN World booth and not improving the site I can't see myself donating again in the future. An update on this would be nice if any admins (or Morrus) get an opportunity.

Disclaimer: Please don't take this as complaining or me telling you what to do, or anything like that. I'm just curious about what's going on.

 

[DaveMage]

When I donated last year it was to keep the site going. At some point, it was announced that with the money raised, a new server would be forthcoming.

That sounded great to me. I hope it's true.

However, as I have said before, Morrus can choose to spend the money I donated however he wants to keep the site up and running. I didn't donate with strings attached.

Previously I have said that I will not donate again unless a new server is in place, but, heck, even with things as slow as they are, it's still my favorite place on the net to visit. I'll probably re-up when it's time.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Morrus - I know you read these threads with dread and annoyance, having addressed the gripes being brought up many times in the past. As a bit of advice, it couldn't hurt (could it?) to sticky a thread in Meta with your responses to the "Where's the New Server" and "What Happened to my Donations" questions.

If nothing else, it might keep the complainers quiet. er.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Morrus - I know you read these threads with dread and annoyance, having addressed the gripes being brought up many times in the past. As a bit of advice, it couldn't hurt (could it?) to sticky a thread in Meta with your responses to the "Where's the New Server" and "What Happened to my Donations" questions.

If nothing else, it might keep the complainers quiet. er.

I have to second this idea. For evey person who asks or complains, there are probably dozens more wondering the same thing. Every time you answer with how much the monthly fees are and the laundry list of other expenses and the lists of things that must be worked out before the server can be bought and put online, I think to myself "that makes sense and sounds perfectly reasonable." But without the occasional update, the answers are forgotten and the questions resurface.

-Dave

 

[Grazzt]

No one is saying that Russ should spend all $20,000 on a server. Please. That's a straw-man argument.

Dont know if this was directed at me or Wickett, but I for one don't expect a $20,000 server (which is why I posted what I did).

Whether its a new server or more bandwith that is needed (or both)...something for sure is needed. The site is just too damn slow more often than not.

 

[Grazzt]

I use to think that it was always the web site that was the problem. Now that I work for the local cable/internet/telephone company I know that it isn't the case. I have only had issues ONCE with this site that dealt with it not being up. I am glad that EN World is up and I I love this site. Russ does a bang up job with this site and I salute him for his efforts.
Aries

Yep Russ does a great job with the site, no one's doubting that. Its just slow quite a bit (I run DSL at home and a dedicated T1 at work and this site is the only site that gives me "fits").

 

[Piratecat]

I think Morrus is already pulling together a page to show folks what got spent how, because Dave and Merak are right that it's been answered a few times but not seen by everyone. We'll announce it in this forum when it goes up.

And thanks for caring about this site, folks. Knowing that makes it a lot more fun to be here.

 

[Morrus]

Yep, there's a web page on the subject coming so that people can be pointed at it. As you suggest, it's much easier than having the same conversation every other week.