Site Topics - Part II

[j]

Part I was getting too big and choking server. Continued. Original thread is here. This is not a thread to call out members, to say "well if he got banned why didn't X,", etc. Concerns about members or threads should be expressed in private message to me or to another appropriate moderator (for the subforum in question). Thanks.

 

[j]

Part of the blame for the recent lag goes to humongous threads, some with over 10,000 replies, which also tend to be ones that draw a disproportionate share of traffic. Therefore, I have cut some of the larger threads off into Part II/III etc. and will continue to do so. Normally I would move the last few pages into the new one, but on this one I didn't see much point.

 

[CunningSmeagol]

Why do long threads choke the server draw disproportionate traffic, while the smaller bits of the same thread don't?

 

[j]

Originally Posted by CunningSmeagol

Why do long threads choke the server draw disproportionate traffic, while the smaller bits don't?
According to the guy I talked to who seemed to know his stuff, vBulletin and/or MySQL don't handle the huge threads very well, especially when there are concurrent requests for them (i.e. a ton of people trying to read/post on a thread with 10,000 replies). Some forums actually employ a hack that automatically splits a thread after X replies - after the coming upgrades/optimization, we will see if we need to do something like that. Edit: you changed your question in the middle of me answering. I don't think the short new threads will draw less traffic than the long ones did, but they are shorter, and hence the server is more capable of dealing with it. Think of it as if you had a huge book with 10000 pages and had 1000 people running up asking you to tear out page number X. If your book was 1000 pages instead, it would obviously take you less time to find their page and give it to them.

 

[BDC2823]

Sounds like a smart plan J. Hopefully it helps out with the timed out issues that occur.

 

[HORNS]

In on page #1!!!

Seriously, though, you guys are amazing. Thanks for all your work.

 

[Douglas]

As always, j, and all the mods, thanks for all your hard work. Now might be a good time to publish (again) the e-mail address we can Paypal to get special member statu - I mean, to help support the forum.

 

[CunningSmeagol]

Originally Posted by j

According to the guy I talked to who seemed to know his stuff, vBulletin and/or MySQL don't handle the huge threads very well, especially when there are concurrent requests for them (i.e. a ton of people trying to read/post on a thread with 10,000 replies). Some forums actually employ a hack that automatically splits a thread after X replies - after the coming upgrades/optimization, we will see if we need to do something like that.

Severe lag on a forum like this, and the gaggle of professionals and people who otherwise should be working calling itself membership, is probably a good thing.

 

[Xiaogou]

Originally Posted by BDC2823

Sounds like a smart plan J. Hopefully it helps out with the timed out issues that occur.

 

[oneeightyseven]

inb4pg2

 

[j]

Originally Posted by CunningSmeagol

Severe lag on a forum like this, and the gaggle of professionals and people who otherwise should be working calling itself membership, is probably a good thing.
The hard thing is that every time we 'fix' or upgrade the server so there is little lag for a few days in a row, we get a huge spike in traffic that doesn't go away, thus putting more load on it at all times thereafter, and increasing the chance of another problem or just overloading it. So this next upgrade, we are going to focus on way overdoing it to future-proof. I'll be very interested to see how our traffic numbers look when the server can put up with anything that can be thrown at it. Based on the current trend, it could get ridiculous, but I'm sure there will be an equilibrium point - we just haven't found it yet.

 

[j]

Originally Posted by Douglas

As always, j, and all the mods, thanks for all your hard work. Now might be a good time to publish (again) the e-mail address we can Paypal to get special member statu - I mean, to help support the forum.

As always, contributions to the cause (server upgrades, hosting fees, my eventual liver transplant) can be made to [email protected] (for normal paypal balances) or [email protected] for anything more complicated (it takes more fees, is all). Thanks for thinking of us.

 

[voxsartoria]

Originally Posted by j

Part of the blame for the recent lag goes to humongous threads, some with over 10,000 replies, which also tend to be ones that draw a disproportionate share of traffic. Therefore, I have cut some of the larger threads off into Part II/III etc. and will continue to do so. Normally I would move the last few pages into the new one, but on this one I didn't see much point.

I thought that such threads were too big to fail.


- B

 

[kwilkinson]

10 minutes in and this thread is already almost a full page. Probably won't be long until part 3 is needed.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by HORNS

In on page #1!!!

Seriously, though, you guys are amazing. Thanks for all your work.

Originally Posted by oneeightyseven

inb4pg2

You idiots, you forgot about 657 other pages here.