# this website is slow......how many people on average are on it at any given time **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 22, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224 "2003-07-22T20:17:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![idol\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/94ad74/32.png) [@idol\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/idol_mind)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/1 "2003-07-22T20:17:57Z")
ok, basukly i was wondering why this website is so slow…i figure its because of the amount of people on it, but how many people are actually here?..hundreds, thousands, millions? no its not just my connection, i’ve regularly read this message board on three different connections and all are slow ---
**Author:** ![idol\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/94ad74/32.png) [@idol\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/idol_mind)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/2 "2003-07-22T20:19:15Z")
p.s. didn’t mean all 3 connections were slow, but that this website is slow on all 3 connections ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/3 "2003-07-22T20:29:15Z")
This is a question About This Message Board and should have been posted in the [About This Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=2) forum. Please read forum descriptions (and titles) carefully before you post your next question. Thank you. I’ll move this for you. - **xash** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/4 "2003-07-22T22:15:52Z")
Looking at the “Who’s Online” list (which is accessible only to the staff), I see 315 registered users and 184 guests currently browsing the boards. ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/5 "2003-07-22T22:49:07Z")
Only 300~? When was the greatest amount people online at any time, and how many was it? Is 300 a low or high number? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/6 "2003-07-22T23:14:09Z")
**idol** and **asia**. I think I’m correct in that it’s not _how many people are on line_ at a given moment. Rather it’s a function of how many people are \*doing a search(and how extensive the search is) that bogs down the boards. This does NOT include searching the archive of Cecil’s and the Staff’s columns from the home page. If there were no search engine for the SDMB, then it could probably handle more people than ever use it at its peak. It’s the search engine. If Jerry Davis or Xash can verify what I said, I’d feel more comfortable having them tell youi.’ I’m just going on past threads about the subject and some other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/7 "2003-07-22T23:48:57Z")
**jdavis** probably has more info on this than anyone else… but, yes, as **samclem** says, the search function is a major resource hogger. Limit your searches to the minimum. Limit the search criteria to the minimum. 315+184 users online at a time is not the most there have been. I’ve seen a total of 700 plus in my short stay here. Also, there have been major upgrades in the past and, each time, the demand was met within a few months. So, just upgrading hardware or bandwidth is not a solution. I must tell you, though, that it’s a whole lot faster now than it has been in the past. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/8 "2003-07-23T16:30:34Z")
> [@](#): > > When was the greatest amount people online at any time, and how many was it? The Slashdot effect we experienced during the run of that Lord of the Rings thread. I remember an instance of more than 1200 users (guests and members) online. But what samclem is correct. Just being here viewing static content isn’t the real problem. It’s the number of simultaneous queries that is critical. > [@](#): > > Only 300~? No, that’s 500. Gotta count guests, too. Additionally, I have something in a recent staff e-mail that’s marginally on this topic that I’ll share. In the past 30 days, we’ve logged posts from about 7400 unique user names. That’s about 20% of the total registered. ---
**Author:** ![jdavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jdavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdavis)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/9 "2003-07-23T17:02:29Z")
During our /.'ing with the Tolkien thread we experienced 1626 users online simultaneously on 01-07-2003 at 11:35 AM. That’s the highest usage I have seen. Jerry ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/10 "2003-07-23T17:26:15Z")
What does the Slashdot effect (/.'ing) mean? Julie ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/11 "2003-07-23T18:44:42Z")
The thread was mentioned on the Slashdot site, [slashdot.org](http://slashdot.org). Although it’s not an LOTR site, many users are LOTR enthusiasts, and they spread it to other sites as well. That also made it the most-viewed thread on our site. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/12 "2003-07-23T19:57:02Z")
What thread is this? Could someone provide a link? I’d like to see why Slashdot found it so special. ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/13 "2003-07-23T20:15:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Trigonal Planar \* > \*\*What thread is this? Could someone provide a link? I’d like to see why Slashdot found it so special. \*\* [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138905&highlight=LOTR+written) one. Longest thread in all of CS, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-website-is-slow-how-many-people-on-average-are-on-it-at-any-given-time/190224/14 "2003-07-23T20:49:54Z")
> [@](#): > > What does the Slashdot effect (/.'ing) mean? The slashdot effect is generally known as a time when people come to a site _en masse_ from a link posted at a very popular website and overwhelm the server at the target site, often causing the poor thing to crash. Here’s the slashdot discussion of our LOTR thread - it itself has 350 posts. > **[Lord of the Rings, as Written By Everyone Else - Slashdot](https://news.slashdot.org/story/03/01/07/0251242/lord-of-the-rings-as-written-by-everyone-else)** > > sn0rt writes "A thread on Straight Dope asks what would happen if someone else had written the Lord of the Rings. Reader submissions include Ernest Hemingway, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, HP Lovecraft, ee cumings, Milton, Mickey Spillane, Danielle...