Forums are Very Slow
Senior Member
SL Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 978
From: Indianapolis, IN
I love it when it takes 3 minutes to load a page, hit post reply, hit submit, and be able to see my post versus 5 or 6! 
I don't doubt that there are a LOT of old threads (ie months old) that are not used anymore and have absolutely no reason to look back on them because there's not any useful information in said posts.. so I would say those need to be removed.. and when people quote a previous post.. if it has an image, remove the image from the quote if it isn't needed.. if you're laughing at a picture or saying nice or something, just refer to the person that posted it and say what you gotta say.. that will help save bandwidth if everybody does that.
There are a lot of things that WE could do as users to help out with this problem.. just be smart about it.
Hope everything gets running nice and smooth soon.
I don't doubt that there are a LOT of old threads (ie months old) that are not used anymore and have absolutely no reason to look back on them because there's not any useful information in said posts.. so I would say those need to be removed.. and when people quote a previous post.. if it has an image, remove the image from the quote if it isn't needed.. if you're laughing at a picture or saying nice or something, just refer to the person that posted it and say what you gotta say.. that will help save bandwidth if everybody does that.
There are a lot of things that WE could do as users to help out with this problem.. just be smart about it.
Hope everything gets running nice and smooth soon.
Admin Emeritus
SL Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 14,570
From: University Place, WA
Images linked from other sites (90% or better of those in posts) do not use ANY bandwidth from ScionLife.com, other than the single line of text providing a link to your browser. Your browser uses that single line of text to go to that other server to get the image.
Stored "old posts" don't take bandwidth if they are not looked at, and also take no processor time other than those instances where a search is done in the database.
Threads that are thousands of posts long and contain little if any content of any value, and are posted to tens or hundreds of times a day DO take large amounts of resources, and tend to bog things down when they get excessively large, but the folks purposely doing that see nothing wrong with it, and object strenuously when it is even mentioned.
From where I sit, the problems don't seem to be bandwidth or storage, but in the database and the complex searches the software has to do to create a page to display.
Forum pages aren't just static pages - each and every one is constructed on-the-fly by the servers from data recovered from the database. Actually, when I think about that, it is amazing to me that it works at all.
"The amazing thing is not how well the bear dances, it is that he dances at all." -Robert Heinlein
Tom
Stored "old posts" don't take bandwidth if they are not looked at, and also take no processor time other than those instances where a search is done in the database.
Threads that are thousands of posts long and contain little if any content of any value, and are posted to tens or hundreds of times a day DO take large amounts of resources, and tend to bog things down when they get excessively large, but the folks purposely doing that see nothing wrong with it, and object strenuously when it is even mentioned.
From where I sit, the problems don't seem to be bandwidth or storage, but in the database and the complex searches the software has to do to create a page to display.
Forum pages aren't just static pages - each and every one is constructed on-the-fly by the servers from data recovered from the database. Actually, when I think about that, it is amazing to me that it works at all.
"The amazing thing is not how well the bear dances, it is that he dances at all." -Robert Heinlein
Tom
Senior Member
SL Member
Scion Evolution
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 4,402
From: Cucamonga, CA RT66
Originally Posted by Tomas
Images linked from other sites (90% or better of those in posts) do not use ANY bandwidth from ScionLife.com, other than the single line of text providing a link to your browser. Your browser uses that single line of text to go to that other server to get the image.
Stored "old posts" don't take bandwidth if they are not looked at, and also take no processor time other than those instances where a search is done in the database.
Threads that are thousands of posts long and contain little if any content of any value, and are posted to tens or hundreds of times a day DO take large amounts of resources, and tend to bog things down when they get excessively large, but the folks purposely doing that see nothing wrong with it, and object strenuously when it is even mentioned.
From where I sit, the problems don't seem to be bandwidth or storage, but in the database and the complex searches the software has to do to create a page to display.
Forum pages aren't just static pages - each and every one is constructed on-the-fly by the servers from data recovered from the database. Actually, when I think about that, it is amazing to me that it works at all.
"The amazing thing is not how well the bear dances, it is that he dances at all." -Robert Heinlein
Tom
Stored "old posts" don't take bandwidth if they are not looked at, and also take no processor time other than those instances where a search is done in the database.
Threads that are thousands of posts long and contain little if any content of any value, and are posted to tens or hundreds of times a day DO take large amounts of resources, and tend to bog things down when they get excessively large, but the folks purposely doing that see nothing wrong with it, and object strenuously when it is even mentioned.
From where I sit, the problems don't seem to be bandwidth or storage, but in the database and the complex searches the software has to do to create a page to display.
Forum pages aren't just static pages - each and every one is constructed on-the-fly by the servers from data recovered from the database. Actually, when I think about that, it is amazing to me that it works at all.
"The amazing thing is not how well the bear dances, it is that he dances at all." -Robert Heinlein
Tom
Admin Emeritus
SL Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 14,570
From: University Place, WA
Yeller, there was one I was going to try to clean up a little today - it's over 8200 mostly contentless posts long, and I was going to remove the first 4100 posts (about two month's worth) from it. Sadly, it is already larger than the size that the software can handle to split.
I had two choices as a mere SuperMod: Let the runaway topic continue, or lock and delete the whole thing. I chose to let it continue and refer it to the boss.
This is the third incarnation of that thread, and twice before we have had to kill the entire thread when it got too big to handle gracefully.
If we have to kill it again, I will make it a point to keep the topic pruned down to a reasonable size, since it appears it won't self limit.
Tom
I had two choices as a mere SuperMod: Let the runaway topic continue, or lock and delete the whole thing. I chose to let it continue and refer it to the boss.
This is the third incarnation of that thread, and twice before we have had to kill the entire thread when it got too big to handle gracefully.
If we have to kill it again, I will make it a point to keep the topic pruned down to a reasonable size, since it appears it won't self limit.
Tom
Senior Member
SL Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 978
From: Indianapolis, IN
And how about the word association thread.. that's 789 pages, accessed every day and older. >:{ And all those gals/guys and their insertcarhere threads.. those are just as pointless as the TJ thread(s).. so why not get rid of and eliminate those as well? *shrugs* Just my opinion! I'm only saying that you gotta be consistant, and I don't mean consistantly blaming it all on the TJ thread and saying we're here to break SL.. there are other pointless threads.. break more rules than we do (family friendly girls spreading legs wide open cleavage practically making love to the car??? I think not).
Don't get me wrong, I'll admit when a girl looks good or whatever.. but jeeze.. those pictures get pathetic and way beyond family friendly.. and they don't come down. Why not? /:
Annnnyway.. hopefully we won't have another recurrance of the end of TJ'ing.
Don't get me wrong, I'll admit when a girl looks good or whatever.. but jeeze.. those pictures get pathetic and way beyond family friendly.. and they don't come down. Why not? /:
Annnnyway.. hopefully we won't have another recurrance of the end of TJ'ing.
Admin Emeritus
SL Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 14,570
From: University Place, WA
I'll only comment on a portion of that, Ariane:
I don't run things here, and I don't set the rules. A lot of discussion goes on behind the curtains that you folks never see. As to some of the things you brought up, I've already had those arguments and lost.
For example, I purposely stay completely out of the "girl picture" topics, because my moderating of them would be much tougher than the current "official word" allows. I also lost the arguments on the word association and another 'game' like topic with way too many posts and little if any purpose.
As you should be able to see from the post I made above, I tried to do a most gentle pruning of the posts made more than 4000 posts ago in the current "TJ III" thread (I don't believe that even you folks go back and reference all those "good morning" posts made that far back). Those posts wouldn't be missed even by the few who made 'em.
Since that thread is beyond what the software could handle in that way, I simply asked the boss what alternatives there were.
Bottom line, the forums being slow affects everyone on the forums. Trying to do what little I can to help alleviate that problem, while having as little negative affect as possible, on the fewest number of people, probably shouldn't be met with complaints.
(IIRC, the "TJ" threads have far exceeded ANY other threads on ScionLife for the sheer number of posts and pages - one had around 1000 pages in just a few months before we finally had to dynamite it. The current one has reached about 8300 posts in less than four months, mostly for the purpose of just seeing how high the numbers can be pushed.)
Have a good day. I'm going to bed.
Tom
I don't run things here, and I don't set the rules. A lot of discussion goes on behind the curtains that you folks never see. As to some of the things you brought up, I've already had those arguments and lost.
For example, I purposely stay completely out of the "girl picture" topics, because my moderating of them would be much tougher than the current "official word" allows. I also lost the arguments on the word association and another 'game' like topic with way too many posts and little if any purpose.
As you should be able to see from the post I made above, I tried to do a most gentle pruning of the posts made more than 4000 posts ago in the current "TJ III" thread (I don't believe that even you folks go back and reference all those "good morning" posts made that far back). Those posts wouldn't be missed even by the few who made 'em.
Since that thread is beyond what the software could handle in that way, I simply asked the boss what alternatives there were.
Bottom line, the forums being slow affects everyone on the forums. Trying to do what little I can to help alleviate that problem, while having as little negative affect as possible, on the fewest number of people, probably shouldn't be met with complaints.
(IIRC, the "TJ" threads have far exceeded ANY other threads on ScionLife for the sheer number of posts and pages - one had around 1000 pages in just a few months before we finally had to dynamite it. The current one has reached about 8300 posts in less than four months, mostly for the purpose of just seeing how high the numbers can be pushed.)
Have a good day. I'm going to bed.
Tom
Senior Member
SL Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 978
From: Indianapolis, IN
I completely agree that the TJ threads are absolutely pointless and that we don't indeed go back and look at the Good Morning thread from 4 months ago.. I mean, we make jokes about stuff that's happened and we continue on with that.. but I do agree with you.
I don't throw a hissy fit when our thread is removed and we start over again.. I just wish it was more consistant when it came to some other threads that are just as useless as the TJ thread.
I'm curious to hear what the arguments are against not doing anything about those other threads I mentioned.. but alas it is not my business.
Thanks for being so awesome Tomas. You have a good night (and day, since that's probably when you'll read it).
I don't throw a hissy fit when our thread is removed and we start over again.. I just wish it was more consistant when it came to some other threads that are just as useless as the TJ thread.
I'm curious to hear what the arguments are against not doing anything about those other threads I mentioned.. but alas it is not my business.
Thanks for being so awesome Tomas. You have a good night (and day, since that's probably when you'll read it).
