# SDMB responsiveness getting progressively worse lately. Any plan to upgrade hardware? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 31, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961 "2006-08-31T18:38:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/1 "2006-08-31T18:38:46Z")
Seriously. I appreciate that you guys run the SDMB as economically s possible & pass the savings onto us. but if you need a few bucks to improve service let us know. It’s better than settling for the the relatively poor, herky-jerky, on and off responsiveness the board is currently providing. I mean seriously, don’t drag out the tired “By the grace of the Chicago Reader” argument. Do a calculation and tell us what’s necessary cost wise for decent service, at least then we’ll have a target to shoot for. We like the board or we wouldn’t be here, just tell us what the bill is. 19.95 per year. 24.95 per year ?- 9.95 or 12.50 every 6 months, it’s still super cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/2 "2006-08-31T20:43:33Z")
Out of curiousity, could the searches that happen constantly here be having a large effect on bandwidth? The [New Posts] function could be a huge source of lag if used often. I know I use it every 30 seconds when I’m bored and looking for something to read. ---
**Author:** ![Madame\_Defarge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@Madame\_Defarge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madame_Defarge)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/3 "2006-08-31T23:40:11Z")
[QUOTE=astro] Seriously. I appreciate that you guys run the SDMB as economically s possible & pass the savings onto us. but if you need a few bucks to improve service let us know. It’s better than settling for the the relatively poor, herky-jerky, on and off responsiveness the board is currently providing. [/QUOTE] How are they “passing the savings onto you” if you also feel that the board is providing “relatively poor, herky-jerky, on and off responsiveness?” Or did it actually used to be worse than this? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/4 "2006-09-01T00:34:59Z")
[QUOTE=Madame Defarge] Or did it actually used to be worse than this? [/QUOTE] Oh! I see you’re new. MUCH worse. Not that it isn’t pretty bad the last few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/5 "2006-09-01T02:13:16Z")
[QUOTE=astro] Do a calculation and tell us what’s necessary cost wise for decent service, at least then we’ll have a target to shoot for. We like the board or we wouldn’t be here, just tell us what the bill is. 19.95 per year. 24.95 per year ?- 9.95 or 12.50 every 6 months, it’s still super cheap. [/QUOTE] FWIW, I was thinking the exact same thing last night. I’m not a rich man, but it wouldn’t kill me if I missed a meal or 100 at Burger King 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/6 "2006-09-01T04:40:22Z")
Yeah, we’ve done the weeding out of those that aren’t willing to pay anything (More than some of whom I do miss, but I digress) and so here we are a decent time past Payday Holocaust. What’s next? I’m also willing to pay a bit more to not see the dreaded “Pause…Page Not Found” screen anymore. C’mon Reader, milk us! We’re good for it. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/7 "2006-09-01T05:04:12Z")
Come on you guys…it’s probably just our computers. All however-many-hundred of us who have complained. Or net congestion. Yeah, that’s it. Net congestion. That explains why it took a couple tries and several minutes to open this page at…um…midnight. ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/8 "2006-09-01T14:25:46Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Come on you guys…it’s probably just our computers. All however-many-hundred of us who have complained. Or net congestion. Yeah, that’s it. Net congestion. That explains why it took a couple tries and several minutes to open this page at…um…midnight. [/QUOTE] That’s when all of China is browsing the Dope. No wonder you couldn’t connect. You have to play the timezones. Wait until Figi is online and post like mad. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/9 "2006-09-01T17:04:52Z")
I don’t know what y’all put in the Purina Hamster Chow this morning but for the first time all week the board is zippy, responsive, pages open immediately, no time outs, etc… 1:04 PM EST (is it because it’s the Friday just before an American 3-day holiday for most folks?) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/10 "2006-09-01T17:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Greenback] Out of curiousity, could the searches that happen constantly here be having a large effect on bandwidth? The [New Posts] function could be a huge source of lag if used often. I know I use it every 30 seconds when I’m bored and looking for something to read. [/QUOTE] Pick up a newspaper, why dontcha? Searches just slam the poor servers to death, which is why we’re limited to one a minute. I’m not recommending anyone try this, but a series of searches launched by several members might be an effective DOS attack - thankfully, you need to be a registered member to search, so we ought to be safe from a botnet. And if a group of members did attempt this, well, we know who you are! > [@Garfield226](#): > > Or net congestion. Yeah, that’s it. Net congestion. That explains why it took a couple tries and several minutes to open this page at…um…midnight. Midnight in which time zone? Any chance it might wind up being the same time in the wee hours of Chicago time that the servers do their daily housekeeping? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/11 "2006-09-01T17:52:54Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] Midnight in which time zone? Any chance it might wind up being the same time in the wee hours of Chicago time that the servers do their daily housekeeping? [/QUOTE] First I’ve heard of any “daily housekeeping” around here…(except for way back when when the boards used to be down for a while in the wee hours of the morning). ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-responsiveness-getting-progressively-worse-lately-any-plan-to-upgrade-hardware/370961/12 "2006-09-01T17:59:31Z")
[QUOTE=Greenback] That’s when all of China is browsing the Dope. No wonder you couldn’t connect. You have to play the timezones. Wait until **Figi** is online and post like mad. [/QUOTE] Is that where they make the pudding? 😃