I try to open threads … sometimes two at the same time … one will load, the other tells me that straightdope.com could not be contacted. Getting REALLY sporadic service here. Is something choking off the server’s bandwidth?
I am finding exactly the same thing.
Takes forever for the pages to load. So slow.
Sucks all the fun out of coming here.
I come, I slog for a bit, I leave.
I wish someone would at least offer us an explanation.
I’m truly neither here nor there about the ads, but this board slowdown will do me in over the long run.
I think it’s the ads that are causing it (the board slowdown). ISTM the same time the Google ads showed up, the board took a shit. YMMV
My guess: We got Farked.
The latest SD column has been listed on Fark, and given the topic, is no doubt causing a lot of hits. While the SDMB is on a different server, the load on the local network might be causing a lot of problems.
I too am having problems. Hopefully they’ll be put right sooon.
Problems here as well, although my yahoo email and other selected sites are also wacky. 
Armageddon?
I noticed it too and emailed Jerry to see if there’s anything he can do.
Yep. Bad problems. Lost 3 posts and 1/2 are PCBD errors. It sucks.
:Copies post JIC:
You’re lucky you get that much… All I’ve been getting lately is the main forum-description page. It takes forever for the forums to open, and even longer for the threads to open, and that’s only when they decide to open at all. And I’m on DSL cable.
shrug I’m not trying to cause trouble, and I love this place… but when you go from a free message board to having paying “customers”, as it were, I think it’s reasonable to expect certain things from the “product”.
I hope it’s a temporary thing due to Fark as well.
Could it have something to do with this?
This is the first time I’ve gotten anything to come up (even the main forum page) in 24 hours.
I don’t think it’s the Tier 1 dispute, and I don’t think it’s Fark, because those both occured this week. I have been having trouble for quite some time. Ever since…ever since the ads showed up!
Yesterday’s slowness was most likely due to high usage of www.straightdope.com. The October 7th column on www.straightdope.com had 4 times the usage of a typical new column on a Friday. www.straightdope.com had 60% higher usage than it typically does on a Friday. Increased demand on one of the straightdope.com domain hosts does have a negative effect on the performance of the other straightdope.com host. New posts were down about 25% yesterday on the SDMB.
I’m not saying all performance issues are related to the high usage of www.straightdope.com but most of what was experienced yesterday I am going to attribute to www.straightdope.com. That is what an analysis of yesterday’s web server logs is telling me. Something out of the ordinary happened.
Yes, I know, performance of the SDMB is a continuing issue. With recent changes new options are opening up as well. Am I promising that something will be done soon about the performance of the SDMB? No, not soon as in say the next 2 months. I’m not going to promise you something that I know for a fact I can’t deliver because of my other commitments. What I am saying is that there is an awareness of the performance issues but at the same time due to recent changes at the SDMB the range of options to address the performance issues are increasing as well.
Jerry
Actually as soon as I posted the first time, it started working much better, and now today I think it’s quicker than it even was before!
Thanks for the info, Jerry!
With all due respect, there has been an awareness of the performance issues here for better than 3 years. They haven’t done too much addressing of the issues yet. It seems like what they have done so far amounts to about the same thing as putting a band-aid on a gaping crack in Hoover Dam. If what is required to fix the problems is a big new server, a large increase in RAM, a bigger hard drive or whatever it is, then go out on a limb and get it done.
I guess all I am trying to say is, if we have to PAY for the privilege of posting on this board, we should be able to do it in a reasonable amount of time. We shouldn’t have to push the “submit” button and wait for 5 minutes to read it.
They’ve been going out and getting it done for over six years now. We’ve gotten new servers, increases in RAM, and bigger hard drives. Invariably, performance is great for about four months after such an upgrade, by which time demand catches up.
Thinking out loud here, but here’s a scenario that just makes problems worse I would think: I’m doing a search on a topic that I think I want to OP, to see if it’s been done already. I’m new enough that I don’t want to be annoying. It’s taken 15 minutes to do 2 searches on thread titles only, post threads options using two words in the search field. The first time I timed out 5 times before I got results after a long wait. The second time I used slightly different words and gave up after repeated tries.
My question is: assuming most people won’t be that patient, and will instead just start up a new (possibly duplicate) OP, won’t it just result in a bloated database and longer searches? I realize that other solutions to long lag are in the works, but maybe one thing that would help would be addressing faster searches, to avoid snowballing lags.
I have no real reason to doubt what you say. My simple suggestion would be that next time they buy a Cadillac instead of a Yugo. 