# Only ten timeouts today, Straight Dope! Well done! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 15, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840 "2007-07-15T08:06:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/101 "2007-07-16T23:16:47Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac] I have to agree that the SDMB is pretty terrible in this respect. I sign on most days, do a lot of reading and a little posting. It’s noticeably laggy as often as not, and maybe 10% of the time a thread will time out completely. I’ve accessed the Dope from multiple computers and internet connections and it’s always the same story. Every website lags or times out once in a while, but I’ve never used another site where the problems were as severe or as constant as they are here. But you know what, I like the people here and I want to read what they have to say, and I haven’t yet found another board that was as consistently enlightening and entertaining. Part of me hates paying anything for a product that is so shoddy in this one respect, but $15/year isn’t very much and the pros outweight the cons. I guess I just wanted to get that off my chest in the hopes that somebody in charge is listening, and actually cares about providing excellent service, rather than just the minimum of service that will prevent me from not renewing next year. And wouldn’t you know it, as I tried to preview this post, the page took five minutes to load. ☹ [/QUOTE] A measured, fair, and accurate take. I don’t know whether they care or not. I don’t recall anything other than the boilerplate “we’re sorry for the inconvenience” type stuff. There’s a rather large contingent of sycophants — from mod wannabes to brown-nosers — who pad threads like these with declarations of excellent response. That gives the admins an out. They can include those ridiculous posts right along with posts like yours to formulate a claim that the problem isn’t widespread. It would be a refreshing turn of events indeed if one of them would just come out and (1) admit that the service is inadequate and (2) express some genuine humble regrets about it. If they did that, only the jerkiest members would continue to give them a hard time, and I would support banning them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/102 "2007-07-16T23:22:49Z")
**Lib** , I don’t think people are being particularly sycophantic in this thread - as far as I can see, they’re just responding to **JH** ’s ridiculously out of proportion furious screeching. There are times when the board doesn’t work properly, it certainly feels like it’s not really getting much attention from TPTB, but sheesh, inciting lawsuits and comparing it to situations of life-and-death failure? Too much drama. Everybody - point and laugh! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/103 "2007-07-16T23:31:21Z")
Yes, I really must agree. There’s much less of it here, and you’re probably right that it’s because the OP hung himself out to dry. But I’m sure that you’ll agree that when reasonable claims are made about it, the butt suckers come out of the woodwork. If you look in ATMB, you’ll find a fairly recent claim by someone that they’re on the board all day long and never experience any slowness. Utter bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/104 "2007-07-16T23:40:55Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Me neither. Back before it went paid, I remember when it timed out. But that was quite a while ago. I’ve been lurking in the last couple of years and recently decided to pay for membership, and it seems faster than ever. [/QUOTE] Count me in with the ‘me toos.’ We’ve had outages, but in general the past year or two had been darn stable. I certainly don’t notice daily or even weekly timeouts and think we’ve come a long way since we added pay - I don’t know if we paid for better servers or less members, but whatever, its helped. Now, back 'round 2000-2001, when we had to walk uphill in the snow both ways, I used to get lots of slow loading and timeouts. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/105 "2007-07-16T23:50:06Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Yes, I really must agree. There’s much less of it here, and you’re probably right that it’s because the OP hung himself out to dry. But I’m sure that you’ll agree that when reasonable claims are made about it, the butt suckers come out of the woodwork. If you look in ATMB, you’ll find a fairly recent claim by someone that they’re on the board all day long and never experience any slowness. Utter bullshit. [/QUOTE] Well, I’m on the board for a long time and I honestly don’t experience much trouble - maybe a couple of times a day, it will take 30+ seconds for a post to go through and maybe two or three times a week, an error page will come back instead of what I’m expecting. But if people are complaining about the problems, maybe there are those who experience it worse than me, for some reason - I’m perfectly happy to believe that there’s a problem, I just don’t seem severely affected by it. Buyt yes - that **JH** has shat in his own nest doesn’t mean it’s always right to say “like it or leave” - there is a place for criticism and expectations. Threats or actual manifestations of lawsuits though, I’m pretty sure would just get the board closed down for good quite quickly, so from the point of view of the OP, it wouldn’t make things better, it would make the board go away. And he can achieve the same effect to himself at less cost and less inconvenience to others, by simply leaving. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/106 "2007-07-16T23:57:46Z")
Meds, lib, meds. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/107 "2007-07-17T02:00:11Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] Whatever shall we do if **Johnny Dildo** were to go? [/QUOTE] Well, the servers would probably run faster. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/108 "2007-07-17T02:26:29Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] **kunilou** , what part of “secret” in “secret orgies” are you not understanding? See if YOU get pie at the next one. :mad: [/QUOTE] Ummm, **featherlou** I hate to break it to you, but do you think you were invited to ALL of them? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/109 "2007-07-17T02:45:22Z")
I’m sure that in this long, rambling thread, many people have already brought up/observed that _where_ you’re posting from, globally, makes a big difference. I work in the US/Eastern Daylight time zone from 8AM-6PM most days. When I get home at 6-7 at night, and start reading, until 12-1 at night, the board runs pretty well. Yep, some time outs, but generally not bad(with the exception of this past weekend, when something must have happened board-wise). I’m off on Friday, and sometimes the board hangs up during the day, when 500-700 people are on here, searching, reading, posting, etc. The vB software seems to have some glitches. And, we, unfortunately, seem to be a board which brings them out. Australian posters have the advantage of reading/posting between the hours of(using US Eastern Daylight Time) 6PM-8AM. Again, they’re reading and posting, many of them, when perhaps 150-250 poster are on the board. They will have less problems, in general. European posters, because of their 5-6 hour headstart on the US, will be reading/posting from 2AM _US TIME_. Those first six hours in their day, from 2-8AM(US time) must be heaven. I hope some of this makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/110 "2007-07-17T06:31:13Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] I’m sure that in this long, rambling thread, many people have already brought up/observed that _where_ you’re posting from, globally, makes a big difference. [snip] I hope some of this makes sense. [/QUOTE] Yeah, whatever, Nazi. Make it work, dammit! Yeah, just kidding. ISTM, throughout this thread you’ve basically done what **Liberal** [post=8786003]is asking for[/post]. **Ed** seemed to do the same thing in the other thread I linked. It seems to be a matter of the available manpower ever getting the time to put the fixes in, regardless of how sorry everyone is about it. I hope they are eventually able to implement it. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/111 "2007-07-17T08:44:14Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] … but this is purely an infrastructure issue that should be improved. … [/QUOTE] This is the part that I just don’t get. Every time there’s a thread complaining about the boards speed and timing outs, there’s always a bunch of folks who (like me) say that they aren’t having those problems. If it’s board generated then how can some folks just not have any problems during the same time periods that you all are? CMC fnord! [QUOTE=Liberal] … There’s a rather large contingent of sycophants — from mod wannabes to brown-nosers — who pad threads like these with declarations of excellent response. … [/QUOTE] Oh, well that explains it. [del]Thanks Mods![/del] (Of course it’s also possible that we aren’t liars and really don’t have connection problems and that **Lib** is full of shit.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/112 "2007-07-17T09:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > **Johnny** , I’m sorry that the “years” you’ve been a member of the board (I suppose 1/4 of a year could be called “years” in your universe) have been unsatisfactory. > > Yes, SDMB has timeouts. It happens on every computer I use, from every location I’ve used. Live with it. Go elsewhere for five minutes. Take a bathroom break. Grab a drink out of the fridge. Feed the capybaras. Practice your kitten juggling. Look up an urban legend. Surf pictures of naked Disney cartoons. Send in your donation to the League of Litigious Whiners. Bench press a gavial. Then come back and continue with the SDMB. Or better yet, don’t. No, cunt snot. When I pay for a fuckin service, I expect a fuckin service. All of you quisling fucktards seem to think that ten timeouts a day is ok. When this website finally gets fuckin sued as they should, my dick will sprout a massive erection. They don’t fuckin give a shit about any goddamn thing other than their subscription numbers. Make me cum, lawyers. Sue this piece of shit website. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/113 "2007-07-17T12:07:09Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] All of you quisling fucktards… [/QUOTE] Hey, don’t knock quisling until you’ve quisled. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/114 "2007-07-17T12:21:02Z")
Continued threats of a lawsuit. What is this, suicide by mod? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/115 "2007-07-17T15:05:37Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] No, cunt snot. When I pay for a fuckin service, I expect a fuckin service. [/QUOTE] My taxes go to pay for roads. When I pay for roads I expect to use them. Why the hell do I have to sit in traffic? Somebody should sue the DoT!!! ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/116 "2007-07-17T15:11:19Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] Seriously though, you should look at [the thread I linked earlier](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8529930). [/QUOTE] Ok, thanks for the answers. Thanks for the info and the link. Thanks for keeping us informed, and thanks to Jerry for his persistence. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/117 "2007-07-17T15:21:43Z")
[QUOTE=crowmanyclouds] Of course it’s also possible that we aren’t liars and really don’t have connection problems and that **Lib** is full of shit. [/QUOTE] No one has connection problems, Fnord. We connect just fine. The problem is with the server. It is unresponsive. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/118 "2007-07-17T15:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] No, cunt snot. When I pay for a fuckin service, I expect a fuckin service. [/QUOTE] As simple poster of the SDMB, I have come to give myself up on account of I cannot fight no more against such genius. I hearby second Johnny’s request to be serviced from the SDMB. Ladies and Gentlemen, by all means: [Service](http://tsa.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/p727093reg.jpg) [him](http://www.khulsey.com/baseballbat.jpeg)! "I’m looking over, a three-leaf clover, that I over looked bethree… " [(While you are waiting, please allow yourself to be entertained a link that in no way affects the bandwidth of the SDMB)](http://www.loogon.com/video/operation-rabbit-banned-cartoon-175.html) ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/119 "2007-07-17T16:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] I’m not a fan of the abusive tone that many of these dead-horse threads take, but I must say I’m a bit bewildered that a website with what must be, what, an income in the six figures–plus advertising revenue–seems to be spending the money on coke and whores. They certainly don’t seem to be spending it on the infrastructure of the site. Surely this site generates enough revenue that the constant problems could be pretty easily dealt with?. . . [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I’ve been getting maybe one time-out a day. It could be worse, but it doesn’t seem to be any better since we went to pay-to-play. I know, just because we pay now doesn’t give us the right to violate rules, and if we don’t like them we can avoid letting the door hit us in the ass, etc., but this is purely an infrastructure issue that should be improved. I don’t suppose we’re entitled to a chart that shows where the subscription money goes, are we? [/QUOTE] Hear, hear! Sure, the OP’s gone off the deep end in terms of degree, but the issue of poor service is real and there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it to be that way. Yes, I’ve read the recent thread about the search time. [QUOTE=Ed Zotti, courtesy of CarnalK] Combination of read and write locks. […] Inherent problem with MySQL in a board our size. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Like I say, got the lads looking into it. Out-of-pocket expense isn’t really the problem. It’s more you have to install box A, then upgrade to version B, then hack in product C, and hope it all works while fending off numerous PO’d parties wanting to know whether mission-critical weeks-overdue projects D, E, F, and G are going to get done before the whole company goes down the pipe. No doubt you’ve been there. The Chicago Reader is a free weekly newspaper. This site probably brings in more revenue than ads and out-of-town subscriptions combined. I get the feeling we’re being treated like a neglected cash cow: throw it just enough feed to keep it alive and keep milking. While I’m sure that Jerry is a very hardworking, conscientious guy, it’s obvious his bosses aren’t making us a priority. While I enjoy this site, and don’t intend to walk away from it over a few technical issues, I don’t see why we can’t ask for accountability from the people who are providing the service for which we’re paying. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840/120 "2007-07-17T17:10:47Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] No, cunt snot. When I pay for a fuckin service, I expect a fuckin service. All of you quisling fucktards seem to think that ten timeouts a day is ok. When this website finally gets fuckin sued as they should, my dick will sprout a massive erection. They don’t fuckin give a shit about any goddamn thing other than their subscription numbers. Make me cum, lawyers. Sue this piece of shit website. [/QUOTE] Ah, yes. It’s always nice to hear reasoned, polite, erudite argument on a subject. It doesn’t appear that you’re capable of such, and I’m not sure you know what any of those words mean, since most of them have more than four letters. You’re not even worth the trouble. Let’s just call a troll and troll and cast this twit out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-ten-timeouts-today-straight-dope-well-done/411840.md?page=7)