A lot of slowdowns recently

I'm noticing over the past week that for absolutely no reason at all the .Org will suddenly load up at such a speed it's like using dialup. There is a possibility of the problem being on my end, but i can find no reason for it. Either way, it's very annoying, especially when i make a long post, then find i can't post it because i keep timing out. Do you know how many posts i have to save in notepad and post at a later date?

Anyway, i was just wondering if the problem is happening to others, and if so what the cause is.

On my end it loads quite fast once it loads, but sometimes there is no server response at all and ten or twenty seconds later it loads at usual speed, like the server queues requests. I can live with it, though a faster response would always be a nice thing.:2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Husar

On my end it loads quite fast once it loads, but sometimes there is no server response at all and ten or twenty seconds later it loads at usual speed, like the server queues requests. I can live with it, though a faster response would always be a nice thing.:2thumbsup:

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I've noticed the same, but it is not a recent thing. I've been experiencing it for what feels like months. It is not depended on the number of user on the Org, as it also happens when there are relativily few people online.

Same here, seems it's only been since a few days though.

The ORG misses Tosa..

I've had it for months and months now.. and I have a superb connection.:dizzy2:

The org is slooow, I have learned to accept this :bow:

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

The org is slooow, I have learned to accept this :bow:

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It's always been a bit slooow, but for the last week or so now, it's been slower than usual, even when there aren't many people online, like Ludens said. It was bizzare coming here on Sunday afternoon, when it's usually at it's fastest, and being reduced to 20 second loading times and the occasional timeout.

I also noticed slow response of ORG server. On colledge we have ultra fast connection (it's optic fiber connection) and still slow. Not to mention in my town where I use wireless...

Some forums are faster than others, I've noticed. For example the Mead Hall taskes forever to get into and move about in, whereas the Arena is faster. Been this way for a few months too.

Yeah, I've noticed that too.

It's not so hard, though, more like a minor nuisance. Maybe a server problem?

Well I've noticed it started happening a lot more often once the arcade was brought online

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Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

Some forums are faster than others, I've noticed. For example the Mead Hall taskes forever to get into and move about in, whereas the Arena is faster. Been this way for a few months too.

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I have no problem with the speed of loading in the Mead Hall. For me, the problem is mostly in the Entrance Hall, but that may have something to do with the amount of tiem I spent there.

nah, the fora adept to it's moderators, the Main Hall loads fastest ofcourse


~;)

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Originally Posted by Mithrandir

nah, the fora adept to it's moderators, the Main Hall loads fastest ofcourse

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But, BUT...Camels are slow! :furious3:

~:)

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Originally Posted by Ludens

I have no problem with the speed of loading in the Mead Hall. For me, the problem is mostly in the Entrance Hall, but that may have something to do with the amount of tiem I spent there.

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Apparently I spoke too soon. I experienced the slowdowns in the Mead Hall this afternoon.

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Originally Posted by AntiochusIII

But, BUT...Camels are slow! :furious3:

~:)

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He does have a point Mithrandir... :yes:

:balloon2:

Forums will be even slower for the next hour, as I do backup and maintenance. Sorry.

Should be back up to a snail's pace by 2100 GMT today.

Any idea where these slowdowns come from?

Editing can take up to 2 minutes after clicking the edit button, but it seems to be small periods of time where it really lags, and longer periods where everything is fine...

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But, BUT...Camels are slow!

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Why would they need to be fast? They can beat any cavalry unit, so they don't need to outrun them & they're still faster than infantry :eyebrows:

THis one is killing me.. ANd it has been going on for around an hour!! HELP!

I've been experiencing these for a loong time.... :no: :shame:

Their has been one around 10 mins ago.. Man, it litterly killed me.

The Org is about as it's ever been today. The Joy, the joy :2thumbsup:

The last week has been abnormally slow, even for the Org. Today in particular is practically unusable.

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

The Org is about as it's ever been today. The Joy, the joy :2thumbsup:

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I shouldn't have said this, now the slowdown has come back with a vengance ~:mecry:

The answer is simple my friends.

We simply need to delete the backroom ~:)

Noooo! Delete the Tavern.

I don't know about deleting the backroom, but yes it is very slow. I got the hugest lag loading the backroom or getting to a different location from the backroom.

If the OT forums are impairing performance, then IMO they should be pruned. I can't really see a downside to this: the Backroom has been pruned before, mostly without ill effect. AFAICT, topics over 3-4 weeks old are rarely worth keeping online, and Kukri can keep a local copy should anyone need something from the offline posts.

Even if they aren't impairing performance, it might be worthwhile pruning the Tavern every couple of months or so anyway. We are up to almost a million online posts now, a quarter of them in the Tavern. "Million post" forums are considered pretty large, even for dedicated hardware, and can be quite troublesome. Especially with M2:TW coming out in the coming months, which will probably have an accompanying influx of new and returning Members adding to the strain.

I dont go to the off topic parts of the forum...except in this case to follow a link to here about the lag.

I have had slow downs like everyone else. I have been so unable to post on occasion that Ive given up and posted on one of the other forums I follow.

Ive posted many thumbnails onto this forum. PbM Carthage and Selucid campaigns for instance. If people are looking through those now very long threads, which contain lots of big bitmaps from other posters, would that slow down the service ?

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Originally Posted by therother

If the OT forums are impairing performance, then IMO they should be pruned.

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I agree. Some of the threads are rather useless if they have been inactive for more than 3 weeks.

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Originally Posted by Severous

which contain lots of big bitmaps from other posters

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I HATE BITMAPS!!! They are so annoying, please JPEGs rule so use them.

I think everyone calling for the closure of the tavern is evil :knight:

It's the reason half the people come here !

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

I think everyone calling for the closure of the tavern is evil :knight:

It's the reason half the people come here !

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Not deleted, but cleaned out. Like Spring Cleaning.

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

I think everyone calling for the closure of the tavern is evil :knight:

It's the reason half the people come here !

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It also has the least to do with TW gaming, causes the admins the most problems, generates the most bad feeling between members and occupies more of the Orgs storage and bandwidth than any other sub-forum.

And lets be honest, there's only about a dozen topics that people discuss anyway, and they all end up being an argument about whether its all America's fault or not ~;)

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Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi

It also has the least to do with TW gaming, causes the admins the most problems, generates the most bad feeling between members and occupies more of the Orgs storage and bandwidth than any other sub-forum.

And lets be honest, there's only about a dozen topics that people discuss anyway, and they all end up being an argument about whether its all America's fault or not ~;)

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Look, the tavern is great. Without the tavern, me and countless other old members would probably have left the .Org a loooooong time ago.

Don't delete it, just prune it. Delete all topics over 1 month old.

In every subforum.

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Originally Posted by currywurry

Look, the tavern is great. Without the tavern, me and countless other old members would probably have left the .Org a loooooong time ago.

Don't delete it, just prune it. Delete all topics over 1 month old.

In every subforum.

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yea i just made 100 posts in 3 days (i usually post 5, 4, 3, or even two a day) its very fun there espically the wonderful Babe Thread which is one very good reason you would stay there for a long time. im tellin you once you go tavern you always come back.

p.s i used to not like the tavern. used to.

First off I'd like to point out that i was never against cleaning out the tavern (well, it would be a little sad...) but certain people were really calling for its closure.

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Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi

It also has the least to do with TW gaming, causes the admins the most problems, generates the most bad feeling between members and occupies more of the Orgs storage and bandwidth than any other sub-forum.

And lets be honest, there's only about a dozen topics that people discuss anyway, and they all end up being an argument about whether its all America's fault or not ~;)

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How many people visit the entrance hall regularly ? I mean it's a good forum and it certainly has its purpose, but there are less than ten topics answered since yesterday. The guides, well, you could just post them on a site like gamefaqs, the awards, probably no one looked at them in a while, the colosseum ? Less than ten threads with answers since yesterday, two of them being forum games and i'm just going to stop here because otherwise people might be thinking I don't like this place :sweatdrop:

My point is, this is a forum dedicated to a couple of games (3 released, one coming and a barely used subforum about another) I like TW games, I might even dust off RTW once in a while, but talking about your favourite unit time and time again does get old quickly. The tavern offers something to do when you're tired of arguing why camels are better than horses for the nth time. Without the tavern a lot of us wouldn't frequent this forum anymore. I regularly check on the other forums, but would I still do this, still come here if it weren't for the tavern ? Probably after MTWII is released, yes, but not in the mean time.

And bad feelings between members ? I rarely noticed those, sure some people get on eachothers nerves, as people are bound to do, but for all the arguing going on, most people seem to at least have a basic respect for the 'opponent'. And let's be honest, the Org is by many considered a community of friends, a lot of people have posted stuff here they probably wouldn't put on the internet otherwise, personal stuff. Do you really think such a bound can come to be if we'd just be discussing games ?

EDIT: this rant isn't directed at anyone in particular, I'm not looking to pick a fight or anything, I just wanted to point out why I think the tavern is an essential part of the Org

I agree doc, I visit the Arena(few posts), the M2TW forum(mostly boring or superfluous requests and nitpicking) and the Tavern frequently and the Tavern is a lot of fun, I think it´s what makes me come back, apart from the chat.:2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by doc_bean

First off I'd like to point out that i was never against cleaning out the tavern (well, it would be a little sad...) but certain people were really calling for its closure.



How many people visit the entrance hall regularly ? I mean it's a good forum and it certainly has its purpose, but there are less than ten topics answered since yesterday. The guides, well, you could just post them on a site like gamefaqs, the awards, probably no one looked at them in a while, the colosseum ? Less than ten threads with answers since yesterday, two of them being forum games and i'm just going to stop here because otherwise people might be thinking I don't like this place :sweatdrop:

My point is, this is a forum dedicated to a couple of games (3 released, one coming and a barely used subforum about another) I like TW games, I might even dust off RTW once in a while, but talking about your favourite unit time and time again does get old quickly. The tavern offers something to do when you're tired of arguing why camels are better than horses for the nth time. Without the tavern a lot of us wouldn't frequent this forum anymore. I regularly check on the other forums, but would I still do this, still come here if it weren't for the tavern ? Probably after MTWII is released, yes, but not in the mean time.

And bad feelings between members ? I rarely noticed those, sure some people get on eachothers nerves, as people are bound to do, but for all the arguing going on, most people seem to at least have a basic respect for the 'opponent'. And let's be honest, the Org is by many considered a community of friends, a lot of people have posted stuff here they probably wouldn't put on the internet otherwise, personal stuff. Do you really think such a bound can come to be if we'd just be discussing games ?

EDIT: this rant isn't directed at anyone in particular, I'm not looking to pick a fight or anything, I just wanted to point out why I think the tavern is an essential part of the Org

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(just me talking, not as a staff representative)

Fact remains that this forum is here to accomodate those who like the TW series, the OT forums are merely an extra service, which granted get more traffic than the other fora, but that does not mean we should change our mission statement.

If pruning should occur, the Tavern is the most likely place since it contains the most threads, most threads have an "expire date" (meaning they won't be dug up since they're mostly based on recent events) and it is an extra service.

Ofcourse, the above definately does not go for the babethread ~;)

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Originally Posted by Mithrandir

If pruning should occur, the Tavern is the most likely place since it contains the most threads, most threads have an "expire date" (meaning they won't be dug up since they're mostly based on recent events) and it is an extra service.

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I'm not against pruning (as long as it isn't in the guides or no links to mods are deleted), the search feature is already disabled in the tavern isn't it ? Not a lot of use to keep the old threads then if you need the space imo.

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ofcourse, the above definately does not go for the babethread ~;)

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well, duh.

Really slow at the moment.

A question from an internet ignoramous.

Why does the number of threads in the forum make any difference to the speed of the site when responding to my request to post a reply to this particular thread ? Isnt it something more to do with bandwidth and sever responsiveness ?

Lsat evening slow downs were so great that I almost do nothing - 5 minutes after I hit reply, another 5 minutes to Submit Reply and then another 5 minutes "tnahnks for posting...".:furious3:

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Originally Posted by DukeofSerbia

Lsat evening slow downs were so great that I almost do nothing - 5 minutes after I hit reply, another 5 minutes to Submit Reply and then another 5 minutes "tnahnks for posting...".:furious3:

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Yeah, they could change it to: "Thanks for taking the time to post..."~;)

I don't think the slow downs are related to the Tavern at all. It is usually the second most populated sub-forum at any one time. The most populated forum (as in number of current people viewing) is almost always the Hosted Mods sub-forum. I believe this is the source of the more annoying slow-downs. With 40-50 of the 100-200 people generally one the Org at any one time, the Hosted Mods section is the one with the most concurrent viewers. I believe the real culprit is the graphics posted in the Hosted Mods area. As members (and non-member guests) read through threads with posted pics of various parts of the in-progress mods the Org slows down for everyone else as well.

Some solutions are possible.

If there is any way to do it, make it impossible for quots to repost graphics. There is no need at all for a pic to appear in a re-posted quote.

Encourage posters to post links to graphics, not the actual graphics.

Make the Hosted Mods section viewable by members only. I'm not in favor of this; but it might become necessary.

If nothing else works, disable graphics posting altogether. Again, not something I'd like to see happen; but the slow down situation is getting steadily worse.

Before we decide to prune/eliminate forums, and before we go forbidding people to post bitmpa images, I would really like to hear someone who has a solid undersanding of why the forums have been so slow. There could be a number of reasons, and I'm not sure anyone has given a definitive (or even well-informed) answer.

I've noticed that the main page will only load the banner at the top of the page. Then if I clear my history the remainder of the page will load very quickly (as it normally does for me).

It's the server/hosting that's the problem, not a particular forum, though if there are many users requesting and updating to some of the bigger threads they will slow the board a little.

Slowdowns are really getting on my nerves, as they are really usual. :furious3:

I had slowdowns again last evening. I had to wait almost 10 minutes to log off.:furious3:

How soon before the autologout happens?
I had typed a long response and together with the slowdown got my post lost gah.

I now make a habit of copying every long message before clicking the "post" button.

It's saved me a ton of aggravation on my Mafia thread, I can tell you that.

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Originally Posted by Aenlic

If there is any way to do it, make it impossible for quots to repost graphics. There is no need at all for a pic to appear in a re-posted quote.

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This is my one of my pet peeves. Totally uncalled for, and a reflection of pure laziness on the part of the "quoter". :furious3: Unfortunately pictures appear only as html links when you are quoting a post, so I don't see how it would be possible to auto-prune them without deleting non-picture links too.

Of course the Org DOES auto-prune text in quotes (so you can't quote a quote unless you reinsert it manually), so it theoretically shouldn't be hard to do. And losing all quoted non-picture links might be a small price to pay for eliminating the gratuitous graphics.

And since it's always fun to beat down on the tavern, maybe the Babe Thread IS the problem! Didn't this slowdown take root around the time that thread started up? And exactly how many pictures are in there anyway? And how many of you pervs are regular viewers? Hmmmm. :laugh4:

(realizes it's been a few days, and heads over to check Babe thread for new hotties....)

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(realizes it's been a few days, and heads over to check Babe thread for new hotties....)

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:laugh4:

What connection are people using? I only get slowdowns if in/posting threads that have multiple pics, (thinks of Babe Thread etc). Wouldn't slowdowns relate to your service provider and connection, (I feel sorry for dial-up users).

A slowdown for me is when the org loads a lot slower than every other page on the net, but it´s getting better lately I think.:2thumbsup:

Lately it is as slow as a bucket of molasses uphill. Sometimes it doesn't even react at all, you guys using smoke-signals lately?

Last two days have been really bad. Today it is almost unbearable. What the heck is going on? Aren't those advertisements paying for enough bandwidth?

As for the Tavern, closing that would be a very bad idea. Not only is this forum about TW, but it is about bringing people together of all different backgrounds together who share at least one common denominator. The Tavern is a great place to pass the time between TW releases and to take a break from the Modification threads.

Bad blood between members? I have yet to dislike a single member here. I like everyone I argue with, even if their perception is completely different from mine. I NEVER see eye to eye with JAG, Tribesman, and most others, but I still like 'em all. Each person brings character to these forums and nothing lets you see the awesome personality of each person like the backroom.

Anyway, The Org is ungodly slow right now. :no:

Don't like all members but that feeling is probably mutual, most of the time it's a friendly place though.

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Originally Posted by Rythmic

:laugh4:

What connection are people using? I only get slowdowns if in/posting threads that have multiple pics, (thinks of Babe Thread etc). Wouldn't slowdowns relate to your service provider and connection, (I feel sorry for dial-up users).

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I have 4mb broadband, hardly dial-up.

Some crazy stuff is going on here.

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Originally Posted by currywurry

I have 4mb broadband, hardly dial-up.

Some crazy stuff is going on here.

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I agree. No matter what connection people have, the .org wouldn't be that slow even if you were using 56k dial-up. I gave up earlier, after waiting 5 minutes for every thread to load, and logged out (which took long enough in itself).

The Tavern is not vital, but shouldn't be closed because it is something important to the community. Also, as I've said before, it's not the Tavern that causes all the slowdowns, when I was on earlier, and the forum was very slow, there were about six people viewing the tavern and up to about seven each viewing the others. The RTW mods forum had about 19 people viewing it however. All of the requests are going to the same database, so it doesn't matter which forum people are viewing. The problem seems to be the number of connections and the server being unable to cope.

-Edit: Just checked and there were 23 viewing the RTW Mods forum, and 43 on the Hosted Mods, and now it's responsive and not slowing down at all.

The problem could be the that the actual server that the org is located on is also hosting other high traffic websites. I've encountered this before on another board a few years ago, and it had the same lag problems as the org.

As has been mentioned by someone, high amounts of images probably contribute to it all - maybe enforce the suggested rule of linking to images rather than directly posting them?

Warning points perhaps for offenders? I know it seems harsh, but i'd rather have 50 people having to click on links for their pictures, rather than all clogging up the .Org's bandwidth and slowing the site down for all 500+ of us.

Images have nothing to do with this :

The images are hosted by Photobucket, imageshack or whatever. Their servers send the images, the Org only sends the command to retrieve it (the [ img] link [/ img] text).

I think the reason that we've not heard from someone with a "solid understanding" of the situation is due to an unfortunate confluence of events: TosaInu (our previous Forum Admin) has just stepped back due to lack of time, and KukriKhan (our new Forum Admin) hasn't been online lately. Which basically means there hasn't been anyone who can diagnose the problem and give a definitive answer as to why things are intermittently slowing to a halt. The appearance of the M2:TW modding forums as if from thin air would, on the face of it, seem to be a good sign that this has changed. :thumbsup:

Stormcrow is right though: images hosted on other servers, and linked to by the [img] tags, shouldn't have this effect on the boards. Even if there was a problem with images hosted on other servers, all that would happen is that they'd wouldn't be displayed when a thread is viewed.

Really really bad today. Trying to read threads in the backroom or hosted mods hidden forums is unbearable. I have a 300k cable modem, and I have no problems outside of the Org.

:help:

Last two nights I had slowdowns after 20p.m. (CET):furious3:. And always when I have slowdowns it's after 20p.m.