POSTS: internal system changed

MarkG · February 15, 2003, 05:02

(If this sounds familiar please let me know

)As part of our load reducing measures, we've changed our posts database structure so that posts of the forums archive are stored separately in the database.

On the user end this should not have any kind of difference in terms of just browsing into the archive. Issues might(or to be more frank, will) probably exist in the search feature(although there is an already an issue with the archive not being fully indexed for searches). You'll also notice a drop in our front forums page post counter from over 1.5 million posts to 750,000

A general increase in the speed of the site at high traffic hours(or better, less incidents of huge waiting times) should be noticed as of... yesterday.

If you experience any problems, please report them here. If you dont experience any problems, please also report this.

DrSpike · February 15, 2003, 08:56

It's been slowing down a lot the last week or so when it get's busy......hope this works.

Gramphos · February 15, 2003, 09:13

Not a single problem yet.

Alex · February 15, 2003, 09:18

NP.

H Tower · February 15, 2003, 11:16

only time poly is slow for me is around the noon hour GMT-6.

As for problems with search, it's nothing new

Nikolai · February 15, 2003, 11:43

I can't say I've noticed a huge improvement, but I have felt that the forum has been a bit quicker today.

As for searches, I don't use them much, other than to find out what the development in the threads I've replied to is.

Alex · February 15, 2003, 13:59

This is probably a very stupid question

, but how old must a post be in order to be archived? One year? Two?

H Tower · February 15, 2003, 14:40

just go look at the last post in an archived forum. IIRC, some forums are never archived though, for instance civ2 general has no archive forum yet it's one of the oldest forums on the board

Frozzy · February 15, 2003, 15:09

I think it happens when the fora reach so many posts. Like Civ3 General was approaching 99,999 posts, and a whole heap got archived. CtP-Multiplaying reached 500 threads, and around 50% were archived.

MarkG · February 15, 2003, 16:08

obviously, only the "archive forums" shown in the archive are, well, archives of the "normal forums"

http://apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=142

Thrawn05 · February 15, 2003, 22:22

Well, because of the local phone lines, and my busy nature, I only get to go on poly at or around 9:30pm EST (or 21:30 for you europeans

).

mrmitchell · February 15, 2003, 23:04

Poly was reaching speeds that a dead snail could beat within the last week or so, but now it's all better.

Keep it up with the load-reducing, Markos

Grrr · February 16, 2003, 01:14

A lot faster :b.

Skanky Burns · February 16, 2003, 05:21

Speedy.

But then it normally is at this time. Will keep an eye on it.

Good job Markos.

MarkG · February 16, 2003, 09:43

here's a graph of your server load during the last days

DrSpike · February 16, 2003, 09:48

Sorry to be dense, but what does this prove?

MarkG · February 16, 2003, 15:54

that the average load and the occasional spikes have gone down(with similar traffic)

DarkCloud · February 16, 2003, 17:46

Well, it's peak time about now (or at least my computer usually is slow on apolyton) and I would like to say that everything was great- but there has been at least one forum hiccup when I tried to post and received a (CANNOT FIND PAGE) error... thus, apolyton was defacto down for one minute... as for speed- it does seem faster- but apolyton was down (don't know if this is related to the server speed issue; but it could have been down because of overload)

Skanky Burns · February 16, 2003, 19:56

Ok, definately improved.

I was editing a post at the same time I was loading about 6 different threads (all during peak time). Now what would normally happen is that the edit would fail, and perhaps 1 of the pages would load, the rest would say cannot find page or similar.

Instead, the edit still said it failed, but every single page I was trying to load (all at the same time) actually made it through! Not only that, but checking back to the post I edited before, my edit worked too!

Now that I know its peak traffic hour, I won't be loading as many pages as before, but at least I know it can now handle it.

Markos: Would you mind posting that a server load graph from the 7 day period before that one. The low load on Sunday might have just been from, well, people here having a life. I know, a long shot...

DrSpike · February 16, 2003, 20:04

Sundays are really quiet I think........the best test will be the Monday morning effect.

H Tower · February 17, 2003, 10:57

poly actually seems quite slow this morning.

Nikolai · February 17, 2003, 14:52

Yes, I have also felt that Apolyton is slower tonight...

It takes longer time to open pages, and it's a bit frustrating to get such long responce time with broadband...

DrSpike · February 17, 2003, 14:56

I've had problems today also.

DarkCloud · February 17, 2003, 23:56

It crashed on me with "page unloadable" about 2-3 times yesterday

but overall it was faster!

and no crashes since yesterday!

tniem · February 18, 2003, 00:48

Been slower tonight but that doesn't prove anything long term. Anything to help with the server load is desired. Thanks Markos.

Bloody Monk · February 18, 2003, 03:13

The page loading has been very slow at times and the smilies no longer are "alive." But the pop ups have disappeared. Is this what you mean??

Monk

MarkG · February 20, 2003, 06:01

i'm happy

the purple dots are the average for 17/2, 18/2 and 19/2

DrSpike · February 20, 2003, 06:04

Well no problems at all for me yesterday......let's hope it continues.

mrmitchell · February 20, 2003, 08:32

Markos, I've a question.

Somewhere I read that Poly's vBB was seriously customized.

Is this another customizedation, and how much is customized?

MarkG · February 20, 2003, 08:41

Quote:

Somewhere I read that Poly's vBB was seriously customized.

yes, it is

Quote:

Is this another customizedation, and how much is customized?

this is another customization. when a thread is asked, there is check to see where the posts are: in the normal posts database table or the archive one. then the page goes to read the data from the proper source

unlike most customizations which are totally or partially from third parties, this one is 100% markg-made