What's up with this place's hosting?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It seems to randomly time out at least 4-5 times a day for me. I know it’s not my connection either, all other sites work fine. Does this place really have that many hits a day and if so, who do they use for hosting?

Also, with the money in memberships, I find it hard to believe they can’t find reliable hosting for the boards. I have a forum with 1500 active users and it never times out or crashes, hell, it doesn’t even slow down and I only have a VPS. Granted, that’s no where near the million or so they probably get here a day.

This isn’t a slam on this place at all, I’m just asking because this place seems to have terrible hosting.

2

See the thread in ATMB.

3

I believe the webhost is “Tony’s Back Alley Dontcha Ask No Stupid Questions Biker Bar and Tattoo Emporium”.

4

I got a tat there. Great work. Their computer services? Well, it leaves something to be desired. At least you get a beer while you’re waiting.

5

But the server looks really cool!!!

Seriously, though diggleblop questions about the server are a long and cherished StraightDope tradition. I’ve been on the Boards since 1999 and complaining about the server was a long-established practice then.

Believe it or not, it’s better than it used to be.

Somewhere deep in the back of my heart, I believe the server is deoptimized on purpose. I believe The Powers That Be have decided that one of the benefits of membership should be the right to bitch about the service. By giving us the occasional problems with the Board, they are providing us more value for our $14.95.

For rational responses, check ATMB.

6

From this thread: (bolding added)

I guess the membership money goes toward upgrading the board so it only times out 5 times a day instead of 10.

7

I was going to post a longer responce, but it timed out and I lost my browser window. Ironic, huh? lol

8

If you’d been here five years ago, you’d think the server was fabulous.

9

After some clandestine, private dick type work, I got a pic of “Tony’s Back Alley” servers here.

10

Amen to that.

I remember taking it for granted that if you attempted to read the boards during peak hours you’d wait several minutes for each page to load and as often as not have no luck at all. “Oh, I’ll just try to squeeze in during that sweet spot when most people go to bed and the servers go down for the scheduled daily maintenence that lasts an eternity.”

One of the main reasons that I switched to Opera was that I didn’t lose my form data (read: posts) every time the server timed out when I tried to submit – so I could dispense with the precaution of copying my post the clipboard which I was in the habit of doing every single time I was ready to submit my post. (It was really only strictly necessary about a quarter of the time.) And still the content was so good that I kept coming back in spite of the feeling that the board’s traffic was being routed through the center of the sun and back again using a 20W tight-band microwave transceiver.

It’s fecking fantastic now.

11

She ain’t lyin’.

Otherwise, you might want to look in ATMB.

12

This thread is in the wrong forum, so I’m closing it. There’s already a sticky thread in ATMB about this topic.

Lynn
For the Straight Dope