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Why is this site's database SO CRAPPY?
- Thread starter TheBiles
- Start date
i VTAK
Android Expert
I'm thinking it may have to do with the number of people registering. Maybe when they started the site, they didn't expect so much traffic. Android is blowing up and more people are coming here daily to get answers on how to use thier phones. At least I hope that's the problem because it is getting irritating.
See this thread for some background to work that is ongoing, and also the latest post here. Current registrations stand at almost 128k, with an active membership of over 41k. Yesterday mid-evening there were over 5.5k users active on the forums simultaneously.... 
Any downtime is frustrating both for users and for Rob as owner, as he's the guy forking out the big bucks to put Phandroid/Android Forums online.
Any downtime is frustrating both for users and for Rob as owner, as he's the guy forking out the big bucks to put Phandroid/Android Forums online.
It might be worth tweaking the vBulletin load settings that can lock out certain users (by group level, so perhaps guests would be blocked before registered members) when it gets too busy.
When it gets too busy, the forum crawls and you can risk database corruption. I know this as I run a vBulletin forum too!
Now, such blocking is not ideal but it would help until the server capacity can be increased to cope with what is clearly a very popular and successful forum.
Database errors are worse than a request to come back later, as one can refresh the page a few times and get on - the other could just push people away completely.
When it gets too busy, the forum crawls and you can risk database corruption. I know this as I run a vBulletin forum too!
Now, such blocking is not ideal but it would help until the server capacity can be increased to cope with what is clearly a very popular and successful forum.
Database errors are worse than a request to come back later, as one can refresh the page a few times and get on - the other could just push people away completely.
Thefoodman52
Android Expert
Problem. Guests and users would just stay logged on and have a bot or something polling for them so they always have a spot; leaving only a normal select number always on. Seen this happen before, it's a bad idea.
vandyblackandgold
Well-Known Member
people, please dont take things for granted.
this is a free forum, meaning you dont have to pay to use the place. that also means that someone else (or group of people) are having to spend money out of their pockets to keep this place open for you. and this is a fairly large and extensive forum so i would imagine this place aint the cheapest in the world.
i spent years on another free forum. if you go there today, the leadership of that forum (myself included) are all gone and have passed the torch on to a new a generation. it was a car based forum. i still keep in touch with some of the admins for those days. we all still have our cars today. it was the whining, complaining, "suggestions", and other posts that drove us away after countless dollars were spent to keep the place open for upwards of 20k users. in the end no one wanted to donate any money to the cause, just their expertise.
thank you to the guys who keep this place up and running. my life will not come to an end because one day i cannot login to androidforums.com
do what you guys have to do, and thank you for your dedication and passion!
this is a free forum, meaning you dont have to pay to use the place. that also means that someone else (or group of people) are having to spend money out of their pockets to keep this place open for you. and this is a fairly large and extensive forum so i would imagine this place aint the cheapest in the world.
i spent years on another free forum. if you go there today, the leadership of that forum (myself included) are all gone and have passed the torch on to a new a generation. it was a car based forum. i still keep in touch with some of the admins for those days. we all still have our cars today. it was the whining, complaining, "suggestions", and other posts that drove us away after countless dollars were spent to keep the place open for upwards of 20k users. in the end no one wanted to donate any money to the cause, just their expertise.
thank you to the guys who keep this place up and running. my life will not come to an end because one day i cannot login to androidforums.com
do what you guys have to do, and thank you for your dedication and passion!
I didn't know some people would try so hard to get on the forum, even if it meant constantly re-loading.
I am not sure what other things could be adjusted, to speed things up before the more costly move to a server with more capacity/bandwidth.
I don't know what the default settings are, but don't recall setting up by default the email notification of new posts in a thread I've contributed to, or started. If there are thousands of emails being sent all the time, this will have a drain on resources. Maybe that should be turned off or disabled as a default setting?
In the long run, money will have to be spent, which will require donations or advertising that goes beyond simple banners on PPC. The problem with any forum is that it's often the same group of users, so they won't click on the ads they keep seeing over and over. Getting a sponsor or two might be the way forward? Sadly asking members to pay is rarely successful.
I am not sure what other things could be adjusted, to speed things up before the more costly move to a server with more capacity/bandwidth.
I don't know what the default settings are, but don't recall setting up by default the email notification of new posts in a thread I've contributed to, or started. If there are thousands of emails being sent all the time, this will have a drain on resources. Maybe that should be turned off or disabled as a default setting?
In the long run, money will have to be spent, which will require donations or advertising that goes beyond simple banners on PPC. The problem with any forum is that it's often the same group of users, so they won't click on the ads they keep seeing over and over. Getting a sponsor or two might be the way forward? Sadly asking members to pay is rarely successful.
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
That's a common, long-history problem in the world of online forums. We used to see hundreds of connection attempts from the same IP addresses individually over very short spans of time during peak hours which would exasperate any problems the servers were already heating up over.
Each user seems to feel that what they have to say becomes more and more important each time they run into what seems to them like a locked door at the forum site, so instead of walking away for at least an hour or two, they just keep banging on that door.
Thousands of them, all banging on that door at the same time, over and over and over....
Frisco
=Luceat Lux Vestra=
Yeah I noticed that too.
But it was mentioned in another thread that the actual new server switch is not until this weekend.
Maybe traffic has eased off a bit.
Thefoodman52
Android Expert
It's usually a good hundred or so normal users, then whenever new updates or breaking news hit, I notice the site bogging down and crashing... just the peaking of users getting the better of it I think.