# Load meter on the SD **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 29, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285 "2002-05-29T02:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/1 "2002-05-29T02:12:21Z")
Have they ever thought about putting in a “Load Meter” (for lack of a better term. I’ve seen it implemented on other sites. It’s simply small gif that looks like a counter. It displays how many people are on the site at any given time. With how much this board slows down at times it seems to me it would be helpful. If I learned that once there was X amount of people on the site it started to get slow, then when there are X amount of people, I would just come back later. After a while, it may even out the load a little. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/2 "2002-05-29T06:17:19Z")
Since this is a question about this messge board, I’ll move this thread to ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/3 "2002-05-29T10:33:42Z")
There is a load meter. You multiply the number of times you have to hit submit for any question, multiply by the number of seconds the message page takes to load, and add the number of swear words you utter before hitting the screen ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/4 "2002-05-29T14:06:15Z")
Upon taking a closer look at the website with the load counter I was talking about, here’s more specifically what it does. The server load indicator is created from monitoring pages shown per second. It is calculated dynamically from the last few minutes of activity on the servers. Each block that is lit indicates 1/6th of what we consider to be maximum efficient load. With all blocks lit up, you may notice some complex pages on the site take a while to load. The figure in brackets indicates how many pages per minute we are currently printing. If the 6 lit blocks are replaced by the word overload, our server may not produce all pages correctly, or maybe in some difficulty. In that case, please visit later when the problem has been corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/5 "2002-05-29T14:20:07Z")
The old software used to tell you how many members and guests were on the board. I don’t know why this version doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/6 "2002-05-29T14:23:36Z")
AW mentioned recently that this feature was disabled intentionally. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/load-meter-on-the-sd/111285/7 "2002-05-29T15:20:09Z")
Seems to me we have a built-in meter, though perhaps you don’t consider it as such. If you get timed out, that’s usually a sign that demand is again getting the better of supply and that you might do better to try again a little later. your humble TubaDiva Administrator