It’s terribly unreliable.
Over 20 thousand members, over a MILLION posts…
That’s a lot of data to load, man.
Hey, I am member of busier boards that are not so annoying.
Hmm…
Just imagine the opening day of Disneyland. 500,000 kids all waiting eagerly at the gates. Then the gates open. What happens? 500,000 kids all rush at the gates at the same time. Do they all get through at once? No…
Bandwidth costs money. Straight Dope is free. That it even exists is amazing.
I’m delighted with Straight Dope.
but it is slow.
I, too, know busier [FREE] boards which are much speedier.
[using a fast computer and DSL]
wishing I could do something to help
Have you considered writing a check for $10 million to Cecil? 
I’m going to move this thread over to the “About This Message Board” forum where you’re more likely to get some specific answers. - Jill
A: The server for this board is unable to meet the demand at times of peak capacity.
I understand that this board is unable to keep up at certain times due to the number of people using it, but what I’d like explained is why, at various times, and when the board appears to be cruising with no problems, it will suddently grind to a halt and nothing will load. I’ve had times when I was opening multiple windows at odd hours, and most will load instantly, but then the next few will take two or three minutes before anything happens…and then they open instantly. What causes that?
When the database becomes busy (e.g. someone locking a table) everyone has to wait until the lock is released.
Actually, it’s just to annoy you.
Really. They discussed it at the last meeting along with…
what’s that sound?
At the bottom of this thread, TubaDiva explains that the sort of behavior you’re seeing (intermittent periods of molassesosity) results when all the little hamsters are frantically going through the index looking for somebody’s search terms instead of calling up threads.
BTW, what’s “locking a table?” How is it related to the search feature?
And why at time periods like 11:30 PM through 1:30 AM last Saturday night/Sunday morning? Or late last night around midnight, when, after 27 minutes of waiting, I finally gave up on it posting a reply and closed out? These don’t seem like times when the hamsters should be maxed out.
exactly.
I tried 9:25 AM - 10:31 AM
Most of the hamsters should be alert.
I couldn’t get into this post.
Please don’t tell me millions and millions were trying to do the same thing at those times.
Yersinia Pestis - Information in a database is stored in several objects called tables (e.g. one table for user names, one for user settings, one for post subjects, one for post contents, etc…) If someone does an action that requires exclusive access to the table, the table will be “locked” and everyone has to wait until the “lock” is released.
John Carter of Mars, käse
[list=A][li]if you are saying “it’s impossible for the server to be slow when there aren’t a lot of people are on”, I will have to answer “well obviously it is possible.”[/li][li]If you are asking “why would the server be slow even during the middle of the night”, I would answer “doing a large search can cause everyone to have to wait. So if you have only a few people, each doing a large search, that can slow down all the other users.”[/li][li]If you are asking “was something special happening last night, for example board maintenance” I will have to answer “Usually board maintenance is at the same time every night - from 03:30 to about 03:45 through 04:00 (Chicago, USA time) the database is locked down so that we can capture a consistent backup. Due to the current hardware configuration the old system of modifying the status of the SDMB to present a “down for maintenance” screen is no longer in place.”. Any special maintenance done by the Information Services (IS) team at the Chicago Reader office could happen unexpectedly and we might not always know about it.[/li][li]If you are asking “Why doesn’t the Chicago Reader do anything about this?” I will answer “This message board is not a big part of the Chicago Reader business, and they get very little revenue from it, so they don’t spend a lot of money on it.”[/li][li]If you then ask “Are there any plans to make revenue from it”, the answer is “People at the Chicago Reader are discussing which way to start getting revenue from the board.”[/li][li]If you then ask “Would you like suggestions on how to make money from the board” I will frankly answer "This has already been discussed multiple times, at great length, with many different types of suggestions, so forgive the staff if they don’t become actively involved in those discussions.[/list][/li]I’m going to add all this in the FAQ since it comes up so often.
Thank you ** Arnold Winkelried**
I guess you answered all the questions I might have had.
I’ll be good and shut up now.;j
I might add you can search this forum for ‘slow’ it should bring about all the old messages right along these lines.
Also, be sure to try the straightdope.com main page, to see if it load quickly.
Yeah, thats good advice…
Tell them to slow the board down even more.
Except for the graphics occasionally taking longer than normal to load, the main page is comparatively speedy. Since it uses a different server anyway, I doubt the speed of the Main Page has any bearing on the speed of the board pages.
You must have the patience of Job. I seem to remember the same time, and I gave up after 5 minutes. Looks like I made the right choice.
Arnold: Thanks for all the information.
emmy66: Not so patient; I got all involved in playing “pinball” while waiting for the hampsters…
handy: It’s as emmy66 said, the main page speed seems to have no relation to the message board’s speed.
Thanks all, and like kase , I’ll shut up now.