- Joined
- Jun 18, 2002
- Messages
- 28,386
<p>As a lot of people are noticing, the Codex is going slower than it used to, crashing, white-screening, internal server erroring and all sorts. People are also getting logged out and have to log back in two or three times a day. You may be wondering why this is happening...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The short answer is that the Codex is getting busier. A lot busier. And pretty fast too. We're rapidly approaching 2 Million hits per day after passing the 1 Million hit mark about this time last year. Visits (depending on which logging software you prefer) have either jumped to 26,000 unique visits per day, up from 15,000 back in April 2010 [Webalizer] or is passing 15,000 up from 12,000 just a month ago [Google Analytics].</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="postbody"><a class="postlink" href="../../gallery.php?image=3970" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none;" src="../../gallery/3970.png" alt="" width="765" height="441" /></a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="postbody"><a class="postlink" href="../../gallery.php?image=3971" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none;" src="../../gallery/3971.png" alt="" width="621" height="383" /></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">As we rely solely on <a href="../../main.php?id=donations">donations</a> and advertising </span><span class="postbody">(Do you play RPGs? <a href="http://www.pokerjunkie.com/">Perhaps you'd like to consider Poker</a>)</span><span class="postbody">, this is obviously putting a fair bit of pressure on our server resources. It currently costs around $400 USD per month to keep the place going¹.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">We are currently looking into a number of options as to how exactly we're going to address this. That covers the whole gamut of options from server-side things such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HipHop_for_PHP">HipHop</a>, to going the <a href="https://secure.somethingawful.com/products/register.php">Something Awful way</a> and making people pay money in order to cover running costs. Our preference is to keep the Codex free and open as much as possible - however there is a reality that it costs money to keep the place running... but I also don't want to be doing a Wikipedia-esque "message from Jimbo" annual fundraiser every year.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">We are currently making some decisions and trying some things out to pinpoint what precisely is causing the load problem and how we can address that. One of the major issues identified is the <a href="../../phpBB/search.php">forum search function</a>, which according to some of the stats we've looked at could more appropriately be named the RAPE function. As a result, it no longer exists and has been replaced with a google search. We know this sucks.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">The other query that's slowing the place down is the one that views a thread. Long threads (>1,000 posts) can cause performance issues. I personally don't like locking threads and starting new ones just because they get long but it is something we may have to try. (</span><span class="postbody">Threads in the Playground will always be exempt from this). We may even have to disable public viewing of threads and thus force people to register if they want to read the forums (Again, not a fan so it depends on what other options we can successfully implement).
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">Anyway, the point is we are aware of the problem and we are looking at multiple solutions, including a litany I haven't mentioned. This is personally, my highest priority issue - all other things are off the table until this is resolved. So if you find things don't work occassionally or search suddenly disappears or re-appears or you're suddenly being asked to login to read something, this is why.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody"><span style="font-size: x-small;">¹Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can google and find a dedicated server out there that promises UNLIMITED bandwidth and SUPER-DUPER resources for as little as $9.99 a month. Unfortunately, we live in the real world and those offers are most certainly not real.</span>
</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The short answer is that the Codex is getting busier. A lot busier. And pretty fast too. We're rapidly approaching 2 Million hits per day after passing the 1 Million hit mark about this time last year. Visits (depending on which logging software you prefer) have either jumped to 26,000 unique visits per day, up from 15,000 back in April 2010 [Webalizer] or is passing 15,000 up from 12,000 just a month ago [Google Analytics].</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="postbody"><a class="postlink" href="../../gallery.php?image=3970" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none;" src="../../gallery/3970.png" alt="" width="765" height="441" /></a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="postbody"><a class="postlink" href="../../gallery.php?image=3971" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none;" src="../../gallery/3971.png" alt="" width="621" height="383" /></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">As we rely solely on <a href="../../main.php?id=donations">donations</a> and advertising </span><span class="postbody">(Do you play RPGs? <a href="http://www.pokerjunkie.com/">Perhaps you'd like to consider Poker</a>)</span><span class="postbody">, this is obviously putting a fair bit of pressure on our server resources. It currently costs around $400 USD per month to keep the place going¹.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">We are currently looking into a number of options as to how exactly we're going to address this. That covers the whole gamut of options from server-side things such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HipHop_for_PHP">HipHop</a>, to going the <a href="https://secure.somethingawful.com/products/register.php">Something Awful way</a> and making people pay money in order to cover running costs. Our preference is to keep the Codex free and open as much as possible - however there is a reality that it costs money to keep the place running... but I also don't want to be doing a Wikipedia-esque "message from Jimbo" annual fundraiser every year.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">We are currently making some decisions and trying some things out to pinpoint what precisely is causing the load problem and how we can address that. One of the major issues identified is the <a href="../../phpBB/search.php">forum search function</a>, which according to some of the stats we've looked at could more appropriately be named the RAPE function. As a result, it no longer exists and has been replaced with a google search. We know this sucks.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">The other query that's slowing the place down is the one that views a thread. Long threads (>1,000 posts) can cause performance issues. I personally don't like locking threads and starting new ones just because they get long but it is something we may have to try. (</span><span class="postbody">Threads in the Playground will always be exempt from this). We may even have to disable public viewing of threads and thus force people to register if they want to read the forums (Again, not a fan so it depends on what other options we can successfully implement).
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody">Anyway, the point is we are aware of the problem and we are looking at multiple solutions, including a litany I haven't mentioned. This is personally, my highest priority issue - all other things are off the table until this is resolved. So if you find things don't work occassionally or search suddenly disappears or re-appears or you're suddenly being asked to login to read something, this is why.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="postbody"><span style="font-size: x-small;">¹Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can google and find a dedicated server out there that promises UNLIMITED bandwidth and SUPER-DUPER resources for as little as $9.99 a month. Unfortunately, we live in the real world and those offers are most certainly not real.</span>
</span></p>