# Why is Straight Dope working so well now? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 14, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-straight-dope-working-so-well-now/330931 "2005-11-14T02:54:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-straight-dope-working-so-well-now/330931/1 "2005-11-14T02:54:46Z")
I like Straight Dope. Only problem I have had in the past was -------it was so annoyingly erratic compared to other large discussion forums. After about five minutes I always got this “this page is innaccessible” crap. Hesitant to join it and pay $14 a year for something that only half worked. And that is being generous. I would say it never worked for any length of time over 5 or 10 minutes. So now I join as a freebie guest for a month and everything is hunky dory. Just as reliable as any reliable forum I have been on. Is there some kind of conspiracy involved here? You have to become a member for things to work right. Could be just a coincidence of course that right when I became a guest member this forum immediately became 100 % super reliable. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-straight-dope-working-so-well-now/330931/2 "2005-11-14T03:01:20Z")
The board still freezes up at certain times of the day, but mostly it recovers within a minute or two. I notice many slowdowns around 12pm to 2 pm EST, I am assuming this is tied to heavy lunch time use. Jim ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-straight-dope-working-so-well-now/330931/3 "2005-11-14T03:52:25Z")
I’m not the one to discuss this, since I’m the most computer-ignorant of the mods, but my understanding is that when we get peak usage, things slow down. If you’re on at odd times (weekends, late night, US-time) there’s rarely a problem. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-straight-dope-working-so-well-now/330931/4 "2005-11-15T00:46:50Z")
Of course, in a weird version of Gaudere’s Law, I click on this topic all excited and it takes forever to load. 😛