It’s 3:47 in the morning (when I started typing this) and the SDMB still takes 5-10 minutes to load a freakin thread. During the day, forget it, it’s not going to happen. It’s always “timed out” for me.
What is up with that?
It is my thought that a good majority of people are asleep or are not posting but, but, but, it’s becoming increasing painful to come here to enjoy the board. I know this is a frequent topic of conversation but at 3:00+ in the morning, it should not be that horrible to access the SDMB…it’s been backed up, rebooted and other possible “maintainence.”
What is our solution? What makes it so people, even us vampires, can’t hardly access the SDMB without major delays?
So? What do we do? Create more spin off boards? An email list that gives us tidbits of things that are not exactly rocket science? What? What will relieve this slowness that has crept into traditionally off hours…something is very wrong and I as a network consult I would like to see someone help us understand because at this time of night it should load, smooth as silk…if not then many of the great minds of the SDMB could easily offer some advice to get this board back up and running in smooth order…
I hate to complain but this is getting really ridiculous, at 3:00 something in the freaking morning and it runs like it did, during the day about 6-8 months ago? I think not…it has to change for the longevity of this board.
I guess, what it comes down to is…I wish the SDMB would get off their volunteering butts (and those that pay for this site…) and make some decisions about where and how this site will be maintained. No offense, please, it’s never easy to make changes.
As it is, I love the SDMB, my world doesn’t revolve around it but I enjoy the hell out of it. Even if I don’t respond to a thread, I do enjoy reading threads. My problem is, I guess, that it is a pain to read threads even in off hours. I wish the SD would make some solid decisions on where and how to take the board to another level. Quit leaving your loyal fans in limbo…if it goes subscription, then let us know…if it goes to a non-profit org, then let us know but know that we love you but HATE having to wait.
I hope that makes sense, I am without sleep and need to consider some but let’s stop talking about it (as been happening for months and months) and let’s decide on some remedy for the SD to become better than it has been, and far better than it is today. Quit dabbling on the subject and let’s work together to get this site working in the best fashion…Yahoo (okay example) does it, the SD can do it in an innovative way…where we might bring in income that is not traditional or holding a raffle…or setting up an auction site… The corporate crap isn’t flying with me anymore. Set up the SDMB as a separate entity, any losses by the ChiReader are then tax free and any money raised is for the SDMB and free and clear for the most part.
Just look into it, stop the insanity…sorry, had a Susan Powter moment there…
3:47 in the morning for you is… what… 10:47 in the morning for me? Judging from when you posted that OP, that is. There’s a fair number of EuroDopers, not to mention OzDopers, AsiaDopers and so on. I can imagine that we’re causing a certain amount of jam even during your nighttime.
Still, the vast majority of users are American. So I wouldn’t expect it to be as slow for you as you’re saying. Maybe you just got unlucky.
Actually, I find that between 8am (earliest I ever get on) and about 1pm BritTime (+6hrs vs Chicago Reader time), it all runs smooth as the proverbial. Very fast indeed.
The board runs really fast for me at night…not sure exactly when it speeds up, I know it’s still slow at 10PM Central because that’s when I get to work, but it’s usually pretty fast by midnight. I don’t think it’s a problem with the board servers, at least not at this time of the night.
Just for informational purposes: I’ve never, I do mean ‘never’, had a problem at 10.00am London time (4.00am Central). Always loads quickly. Gets slower as the US East Coast wakes up and I usually give up for several hours once California stirs (which is also lunchtime on the East Coast) but we know that.
Unusually, I wasn’t online at that time this morning but there was board maintenance around 12.30pm which is unusually late (normally 9.30am London, 3.30am Central).
There might have been a particular problem as that timing is unique.
Don’t see any changes to the normal problems from over here.
Ditto. I’ve been reading from 9-1PM and 3-5PM EDT now for a few weeks fairly quickly, but it slows down randomly at 11PM for 3 or 4 threads, then it’s fast as hell again. I don’t get it.
Odd. I have no trouble with the boards at all (aside from this morning’s weird offline time) between, oh, 12:00 and 7:00 a.m. Pacific. After that, it gets hairy, but once that starts I depart. I come back in the afternoon sometimes, and it’s slow, but not painfully so.
I just find it really weird that you’d be having problems, as SOP, in the middle of the American night. Or at least, I find it very contrary to my own experience.
I’m in Ireland and I never have any problems with load time until around 4pm(which would be 10am in Chicago). It then slows to the virtual stop that we all know and love but comes back to life @ 10pm-11pm (4-5pm in Chigago).
Well, here in Korea I get slow-downs at weird times… I have no idea what causes them! (Want to blame my LAN, but I can get through to other sites with no problem…)
I’m on the same schedule as Flymaster and Medea it seems and I’ve been getting pretty darn fast loads. For me, though, any time between 12:30 (PM) and ~3:00 and then again from ~4:00 to ~5:45 or so bogs down a bit.
Mornings, 8-11:30 (EST) or so just jumps, though.
To the OP, I’ve noticed, and it’s been brought up in #sd that the board seems to bog around 10:30 to 11:00-:15 or so, though that might be a back-up for all I know. After that, it usually loads pretty smoothly, for me, anyway.
First off, might not just be us. There’s a lot of stuff between your computer and the Reader server and bottlenecks and slowdowns are not uncommon. We have no control over this.
I note you have an AOL email address. Anybody that uses AOL as their connection to this board should be aware that the AOL software has a nasty resource leak that sucks up computing power and does not let it go. The longer you’re online, the worse it gets. I often have to reboot as much as once an hour to get full functionality. This is especially true if you use the AOL browser; many a slowdown or a failure to connect is the fault of the browser and not the SDMB.
AOL is also bad about collecting “tmp” and “chk” files; check your settings, clear your caches. (This is good advice for anyone, not just AOL users.)
You’re not the only person using the board. It might be odd hours for you, but it’s prime time for others.
In today’s little world, the problems could come at any time in the 24/7.
**
I should also mention that the debugging process on vB is still ongoing and we’re always finding things that need correcting. This week there was a glitch in the search engine that messed things up for quite a few people. Took us a couple of days to find it.
These bugs pop up over time and usage . . . as the board grows in size and complexity, things emerge. We’re working on 'em best as we can.
I’m sorry your experience has not been a perfect one.
This seems like an appropriate place to say that in my experience the boards have sped up immensely for me in the last couple of weeks, and I would like to thank everyone involved with making that happen. Good job, guys! (Oops, sorry for showing gratitude in the Pit - I’ll try not to let it happen again :D)
Perhaps it isn’t the board that is at fault. Perhaps it’s your suck-ass connect speeds.
As for the rest of your OP, I think the Mods and Admin have done a fine job of explaining the situation. They have been trying different approaches to speeding things up. But sadly this board is a vicitm of it’s own popularity.
For a person who is quick with the “Quit your whining” comments, you sure seem to whine a lot. particlewill, cruising at 50666 bps and laughing all the way.
Seconding observation and adding qualification ingrate, see certain banning threads and comments by OP in re the people who volunteer their time to make this work.
I wonder if she tried the three-commas-after-the-dialup-number trick that I mentioned in my thread…
I know that Techchick Moderates on other boards. One would think that she would be a tad more sympathetic. Instead, she drops the sym and just goes with pathetic.
AMEN. It’s one thing to heave metaphorical sighs at the slowness of the board, asking others to commiserate, it’s totally another to complain that the unpaid powers that be aren’t fixing it fast enough to suit, even when you say ‘no offense’.
I can pretty much tell time in the a.m. by the board slowdown. It’s pretty fast until 10 a.m. Eastern time for me. I’ll notice a drag, I look up, and voila, it’s 9:57 or 10:01 or right around there. Whether that’s the board or other stuff going on on my network here or somewhere between the server and moi, I dunno.
I pretty much give up and try later. I figure persisting is only going to add the problem–then again, I have the luxury of trying at various times. If my posting time was restricted, I’d probably barge on through despite lag.