I’m happy to support these boards staying up and all…
But the boards seem to be unresponsive a lot. Lots of timeouts and lag and general slowness of the servers. I don’t know how or how is hosting, but it isn’t quite sufficient, or there’s something wrong and someone needs to contact their IT people.
One of the things used to promote the changeover to paid service was improved server reliability. So, are the servers any better off?
That’s funny. I’ve noticed the exact opposite since the turnover - faster response and load times. Are you sure it isn’t at your end?
Not that it always meets my standards, but I think the boards have gotten a lot better and more consistent usewise than when it was free.
I’ve also noticed a lot less unbridled nonsense.
The downside is the nature of the threads aren’t quite as interesting with such frequency as before. A certain amount fresh faces and fresh or not so fresh questions added something.
I’ve found the board more consistant to be honest. I remember some of the bad old days with lost posts (or double posts) being the norm.
Ah…capitalism comes to the SDMB. That I lived to see it. 
I agree somewhat with the ‘fresh faces’ thing though…it was kind of fun to have more folks around. We all get to know each other so much that, at least for the ‘big guys’ you kind of know what they are going to say even before they say it sometimes. However, the up side is there SEEMS to be less nutballs on the board these days.
-XT
The boards seem to have been slower and more unresponsive than normal for the last 3-5 days, but overall, I think they’re a lot faster and more reliable. Whether this is from better servers or less traffic I have no clue. I’m happy with the change though. I wish we had more members but overall I’d say it’s worked out better than I thought it would.
They definitely got better after going pay. I can remember perusing them all afternoon at work 
and every day at around 5pm ET they would slow to a crawl!
Perhaps, Zagadka, you weren’t around when they were really bad. I remember the days of opening about 15 or 20 threads in Opera and being happy if 2 or 3 of them loaded before timing out. The boards also used to go down every night for about an hour or two, which they don’t seem to do anymore.
And let us not forget:
Ahh, they’re 1920s style “Death Rays”
Ahh, they’re 1920s style “Death Rays”
Ahh, they’re 1920s style “Death Rays”
Ahh, they’re 1920s style “Death Rays”
Double, triple, and quadruple posts used to be a lot more common, due to slow server response times.
Since the primary alternative to going to a paid mode was to shut down the Boards altogether, I guess you can say that Board performance now – no matter how awful – is better than what Board performance would have been if we hadn’t gone to the Membership Mode.
The boards are MUCH faster now.
My main worry is that we won’t get the influx of newbies that bring new perspectives and knowledge to this place. I think that was most felt in General Questions. Before, you could ask a question about damned near anything and get very good answers, because so many specialists in various fields lurked on this board. I think we lost some of that.
But of course, if the alternative was nothing at all, this is much better.
I don’t know this software, but is it possible to limit guest accounts to a certain number of posts, rather than a certain number of days? I wonder if that wouldn’t achieve the same result (getting people to pay), while retaining a larger user base?
Me, too.
Yup - defininitely faster for me now.
Not just faster, but far more consistent speed since the change over. It is now a rare event for a post to fail to get through the hamster wheels.
I find the boards faster, more responsive, with a pleasing crunchy consistency and an airy, lemony scent that makes me think, “springtime!”
After the change to paid mode last March, the boards were quite slow for me. But with the recent move to another server, they’re moving much faster.
Alrighty, I guess I misremembered the performance of the boards pre-payment.
:smack:
Another vote for faster now than then.
I am concerned that I can only recall one occasion where I’ve seen a member who wasn’t a charter member. One by one the old timers will trickle away, so if we don’t get some fresh meat the board will die off. Does anyone have the numbers on new non-charter members since the switch?
I kind of like this exclusivity. The SDMB “good old boys” country club.
Hell, the Supreme Court hasn’t had fresh meat in 10 years, they’re still doing ok.
I think Cecil’s still giving the title “Charter Member” to new arrivals.
Yeah, everybody’s a charter member who registers. We get about 40 new paid members/month now.
I didn’t visit the boards before the membership dues were required. But the board is faster now than when I joined.