too many people on server

[aprillinda]

hi tonight i tried to log in and got a blank grey screen saying too many people were on the server and telling me to try in 30 secs after a few more attempts i got through when i did i looked at the bottom of the index page which said 5 people were online so why would it not let me through this has happened to me several times

[Val]

Yes, and me!!

Val

[Arno]

I think it's for the server in general(proboards) and not only this forum.

[Moracai]

I get that every now and then, I think proboards gets a bit bogged down every now and then.

[Paul]

It's because they run literally hundreds of boards per server, so even though there may only be 5 people on here, there are probably 1000s or even 10000s of people at certain peak times.

It is annoying. This forum gets about 7000 impressions a day at the moment, perhaps more and that's a lot of bandwidth. But, the guy who I've worked for for ages now and who very kindly donates many of the resources, has said it wouldn't be a problem so I'm really, really tempted. We'd get a better contention ratio plus other things.

I think the way to do it, would be for me to lock the forum, spider and copy the content, auto-generate the user accounts with passwords and email everyone. And then deal with any issues people have.

We'd get so much more features and I can, given time, make a user of the forum an automatic user on the board and vice-versa without 2 signups. With it being open-source and with me having access to the db and code I can write loads of stuff. The benefits don't seem that obvious at the moment but as things progress it will be. I've held back developments in this area because I've not had the option before. But you should see the list. When things calm down work-wise, there will be developments again.

I've also been completely rejigging the website backstage, making it simpler in some areas and setting up some other things, it's just the changes aren't that apparent.

The forum's clunky and difficult to organise, particularly search-wise. Hopefully the site and forum can be tied together better so articles can be cross-referenced, and I'll archive much of the threads to keep the board current but with the option of searching all the past content much better.

I've kinda already decided in my head that's the way we need to go, but I want it to be a matter of a single night to swap over with everyone knowing their new login details beforehand or at least sat there waiting for them. That way everyone's happy.

The google ads would have to stay to pay for some of the bandwidth, at least until I see how much we're actually talking but at least I will have the option of picking things relevant to the users of the forum, instead of slug pellets.

[teresa]

its happened to me a few times to

[aprillinda]

thanks everyone thanks paul
now i understand it has actually happened 2 tonight it is quite frustrating

i think you will be very busy paul thank goodness you are so technically minded