I’ll make an official statement that we are aware the SDMB can be slow at times. Normally this is at high usage but I won’t say that is the only time. Some members have pointed out that the SDMB is slow for them at what one would assume are low usage periods, such as very late at night. Why any particular set of pieces (your computer, our server, the internet connection between them) performs well or performs poorly is not that easily understand. I’m not going to try to speculate why that is the case but will make changes I think might improve the performance of our servers. As for your computer and the internet connection between us that is mostly out of our control.
Can we attempt to improve the performance of our server and message board software? Yes. We will make some MINIMAL and relatively INEXPENSIVE attempts to do so. Perhaps purchasing a 2nd processor or doubling the RAM for the hardware disk cache. EVENTUAL installations of newer versions of vBulletin are also possible. That MIGHT result in improved performance. This will happen when technical staff has some time to focus on what is a small part of our larger business.
In most cases we are focusing on publishing a paper each and every week or supporting the computing systems that generate substantial revenue for the company. We understand you enjoy the SDMB and wish a speedy and pleasant experience. We also understand this is essentially a free service and so there is not a large economic incentive on our part to invest a lot of resources in it at the current time.
<tongue_in_cheek>
If you wish to hold a SDMB telethon and send in a $50,000 to $100,000 check I’m sure that would get our attention! grin Of course, you’re welcome to continue to use this as the free service that it is and thus we hope you understand you’re getting what you pay for.
</tongue_in_cheek>
Jerry Davis
Information Systems Manager
Chicago Reader Inc.
11 E. Illinois St.
Chicago, IL 60611
I think the most frustrating part of it is just not knowing WHY the boards suddenly slow down to a crawl. Extreme paranoia sets in and you sit there biting your nails–“is it just me? Is it the ISP? Is it a virus? Should I reinstall IE5 or Win95?”
Thanks for at least trying to explain.
I am looking forward to telling my grandchildren about the Olden Days, when the Internet had to be hand-cranked…
OTOH, I don’t remember ever begging my dad to “tell us about the olden days when telephones had party lines…” Maybe we’ll all just be so grateful that it finally works properly that we won’t be nostalgic one little bit.
Thank you very much J davies for wading into the deep waters and offering up an honest appraisal of the position of the management of the board concerning likelihood of any improvement.
You have done a wonderful service to all of us who were in the dark.
I greatly appreciate that you have been frank and honest with us when you clearly could have chosen another path. I, for one, applaud your effort and I thank you.
Couldn’t you just face it that the old system was better.
Promise to return to it please!
Did you keep a backup? Just toss the intermediate stuff. And anything older than 30 days on the pit and MPSIMS.
The best way to get software fixed is to make the programmers use it.
If you’re reading on the host computer via lan, you’re cheating. Dial in for a week, and you’ll stop blaming the web and home user’s hardware.
Have you considered that there might be some denial of
service attack going on? Response was pretty decent until the past week or so when it went straight to hell.
It’s been Hell all day today. Pages loading half way and then nothing. Time out errors. Any given thread is taking 15 minutes to load, if it ever does.
I’m not one to bitch and moan, and I appreciate all that the tech staff is doing. I just thought I’d post my experience this morning in case anyone else is having the same problem.
There’s definitely something bad going on - I’ve rarely had trouble with the board, either the old or the new. The last few days I’ve been having trouble getting the forums and/or messages to load, and then today became a nightmare! Six hours I tried, off and on, from about 5:00 p.m. CST to 11:15 p.m., managing to read three or four short threads and make one post. It cleared up for a few minutes between midnight and 2:00 a.m. or so, but then started the same thing - I’ll be surprised if I don’t have problems sending this post. And today is the first day I *ever got ‘timed-out’ notices.
This sure ain’t normal, and I find it hard to believe that the board software is suddenly crashing so badly.
I hope there is some way of dealing with this and getting it stopped at the source. It’s sure making the board experience frustrating! And if I’m frustrated, the admins and mods must be going through absolute hell.
But you know, I pity the poor losers whose lives are so pathetic that messing up the board is what they do for fun. Maybe this weird obsession with the SDMB is their only reason for existence. How sad!
Coosa, FWIW, it’s been going in spurts for me. I’ll log on, do the boards for a while, say 30 minutes, then suddenly, between one minute and the next, it hangs up loading at about 38% and just stays there, and doesn’t fix itself. They say you can get used to anything. I guess I’m getting used to it.
Sometimes it helps to tell it “stop” and then “refresh”. Sometimes if you tell it “refresh” 3 or 4 times, when loading a thread, you get a few more posts every time, until you finally get the entire thread, but it takes beyond forever.
I don’t think it’s anything at this end, because everything else on the Web has been loading fine lately. I have Win95, IE5, and Juno 4, too. When Juno inaugurated their new banner ad a few weeks back, I did have a lot of trouble with the whole Web, but now I’ve figured out how to manage the ad, so now it’s just the SDMB that is problematic.
I don’t think it’s connected to the Chicago routers anymore, because during the rare normal periods, either one or both of the routers is still red. Although maybe it’s not “cause” but “effect”? There’s something else going on, in a wider sense, and the SDMB is just caught in the middle?
Or maybe Cecil’s running some kind of loyalty test?
Well, I spent 6 hours trying to access the board - how much more loyal can I get? (Or is the proper term ‘obsessed’?)
I have Win95, IE5,& OE. Yeah, I tried the refresh thing as it has also worked for me before, as well as leaving the board and coming back, logging off and trying to read it that way, etc. (Did I mention the word ‘obsessed’?)
I’m not very educated on how the internet works, but I don’t see how it could have been a server problem last night, as the main page and the columns, archives, etc. loaded just fine - it was only the message board that I had a problem with.
I’ve hit the board a few times when I simply couldn’t get through, but waiting about an hour usually solved the problem - it was just too darn busy on my first try. I can live with that, as I figure it’s the price we have to pay for popularity!
But I just couldn’t believe that enough people were posting here last night that I couldn’t get to the board for 6 hours (I gave up and went to sleep after that - it may have been longer.)
Whatever it was, I hope it’s fixed - I was getting pretty desperate without my SD fix! My heart was pounding, my blood pressure started yo-yoing, my stomach was cramping, and strange thoughts of violence and torture began to crop up in my thoughts . . .
