Is there a pattern of peak usage on this board? I realize that it’s an international board, but I was curious if it’s busier, say, between 8PM-11PM EST, than at any other time. I haven’t had any problems, I was just feeding curiosity. Thanks
Yeah, peak is mostly U. S. daytime hours. I don’t know what the best time is, but 8 PM ET should be pretty good.
This gives me an idea…
Would the board admins be willing to make available a chart or graph showing the board activity over a certain time period?
If Dopers had something to go by, we could try to alter our posting times somewhat to even out the usage and make it faster for everyone.
What do yall think?
That’s really not at all a bad idea, Joey. The only problem I see is many posters probably have a set pattern, and only have time to post at certain times of day.
I agree, it’s not a cure-all by any means. But I think we could improve the performance for everyone by a little consideration of when we access the board.
For instance, I get home from work/school, and I have several things I do. I do my homework, watch a little TV, study, whatever. Sometimes I decide to do my homework before I get online, sometimes I do it after. It doesn’t really matter to me.
But, if I knew that a decrease in activity was going to be later in the day, I may just do my homework first instead, so I will place my posting in a lull rather than just adding to the congestion.
The effect of a few people willing to do this may help out a lot. It certainly couldn’t hurt, by any means.
Absolutely. As I said I think it’s a good idea. Count me among the posters who are definitely for this suggestion.
I’ll ask Jerry. But I suspect it’s always peak time for somebody somewhere.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Understood. Please let us know what he thinks. 
I would suspect the peak usage times would either be during regular daytime working hours for the United States, or in the early evening. This would correspond to those surfing/posting from work, and with those checking after they get home. I would suspect the U.S. and Canada to constitute peak usage, because it is a U.S. site, and because the U.S. is so big, and because computers and internet are so ubiquitous here. While there is a sizable European contingent, and a number of Aussie regulars, I still think the U.S. is the main contingent, and Canada has the same time zones so they boost the numbers.
This is all without any number crunching. However, consider the regular board maintenance time is 3:30 to 4ish a.m. Central time. I would think that Jerry has done the numbers to figure the best time for the board to be down. 3:30 Central is 1:30 Pacific and 4:30 am Central is 5:30 am Eastern, which is before the pre-work crowd checks in (beginning around 6 am).
Before the board upgrade about a year ago, on the front page of the message board it told you how many members were currently online. I’d use this to gauge whether or not I should even bother trying to browse the boards; 250 or so, forget it, you were gonna get timed out. After the board upgrade this feature was disabled. I asked a question as to why they did this and a plea they reinstitute it and I never got an official response.
Note that the 250 number was before they upgraded the server, so that number has probably gone up.
- Heh. I’ve not seen less than 250 at any time since the upgrade. In fact, right now there are 207 members and 101 guests browsing the boards. My guess at what period the boards would be least used would be around midnight GMT - after Europe has gone to bed and the U.S. slackers have left their places of employment and gone home to do more productive things.
What exactly are you saying here?
I think I’m offended.
I’m not a slacker…I’m management. I have people to do my stuff for me.