Important Chatbox removal & other site changes

[Tex]

Greetings all,

Due to the high number of users online over the past couple of weeks we've been seeing slower page loads on the forum, specifically on the home page. On average in the past we would see at most, 60 or so users online at the same time - except for one fluke day in 2008 when 533 users were all online. Lately we've been seeing 100+ users all online at the same time. Keep in mind, the total users online refers to both registered members and guests - but we've especially been seeing record numbers of registered members online all at the same time.

In an attempt to find a solution for better site performance we've made a couple of changes. First the obvious which is the removal of the chat box for a day or two while we monitor the site performance without that load on the homepage. In addition we've removed the list of members who have visited in 24 hours from the Whats Going On box which constitutes a reasonable database query. Finally we changed the option to not display active users viewing a forum or thread. This used to be displayed on the bottom of the thread or forum, but when a lot of members are online it has a significant impact on performance.

We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you bear with us while we work to accommodate our expanding membership.

Thank you kindly,
Orbiter-Forum

 

[agentgonzo]

Hope it proves fruitful. If the list of current active members is causing massive DB hits, I'd say to lose it. I've never looked at it and I can't imagine a lot of other people have either.

The chatbox is useful. I hope it comes back. in the meantime folks, head on over to IRC for all your chatting needs

 

[jinglesassy]

i was wondering where the chatbox went and you can always try one of those free chatbox services out there

edit

yeah i never looked at the active members list at all and i say 99% of the people here havent so i say leave that out

 

[n122vu]

Hope the ChatBox proves not to be that much of a performance hit, since IRC traffic is blocked at work for me Whatever is best for the site though, I guess.

 

[Tex]

I would like to see the chat box return myself as it was some what handy at times. It was most certainly the biggest hit on the home page though, so it was vital we remove it for a day or so as we monitor the site.

I would like to see how things go during peak hours tomorrow as I'm feeling pretty confident about the other changes I made. When I install the chat box again I will make an option for users to enable/disable the chat box from their UserCP. By default I will have it set to disabled, this will minimize the number of members even having to load the chat box - which should help page loading times on the home page.

Don't worry though, before making any decision to permanently remove it I will try the user option to disable/enable it first along with a few other ideas I've thought about.

 

[Andy44]

I kind of likes the "who's viewing" feature, but oh well. Most forums don't use it anyway.

 

[Kelpie]

Lately we've been seeing 100+ users all online at the same time.

Less successful forums wish they had your problems :thumbup:

 

[Tex]

I kind of likes the "who's viewing" feature, but oh well. Most forums don't use it anyway.

For sure, me too Andy - but that is definitely an impact on page load times. The hope is that with it off it will directly improve thread page load times significantly. I've noticed the sites that do have it on don't have too many users online at the same time, but those very active sites tend to disable it as you've noticed.

 

[Bj]

I never really noticed the lag in page load times until just now. I always thought was the slow Internet. :lol: -or someones browsing.

I notice its loading much faster now though, thats always a plus. The only thing I really noticed missing was the chatbox, not like I am really active in there, just that it was a big box above everything.


I know this must sound like a broken record player but,
Thanks for the updates and the form guys

 

[Tex]

Just a heads up:

It may seem that "This Day in History" has disappeared from the bottom of the home page. I made it possible for you guys to enable/disable it from your Options page in your UserCP - so you will have to enable it from there if you would like to see it. Look on the very bottom of your options page to find it.

 

[n72.75]

It's sad that we had to cut back but, on the bright side its nice to see so many viewers.

 

[Lucy]

The main page does seem to load a lot quicker now. Though I already miss the chatbox.

Adding in options to hide the users online query results and setting that as hidden by default is a good idea, it was something I kinda looked at occasionally but never really... *looked* at.

 

[Sky Captain]

Now O-F homepage loads about 2x faster for me than it was yesterday. I always thought it was slow because my crappy internet conection, but now I see it`s not the culprit.

 

[Tex]

Keep in mind this is not peek hour, but we are definitely seeing an improvement. Tuesday afternoon around 3-6pm EST will be key, if you're on the site and notice more than 100 users online feel free to post your findings here as in how long pages are loading with the current users online.

Cheers!

 

[orb]

Yesterday, there were very long loading times at 7-10 pm UTC for me (2-5 pm EST), and very long chat update lag at about Atlantis launch time. Now page loading is very fast, but I'm on another computer and have other Internet connection at work, and it's morning.

Keep in mind this is not peek hour, but we are definitely seeing an improvement. Tuesday afternoon around 3-6pm EST will be key...

Tuesday, again...


I hope chatbox will be here, at least for another Shuttle launch.

 

[Linguofreak]

Keep in mind this is not peek hour,

So we don't get to see anything?

 

[cinder1992]

I've never noticed the slowness because every other page takes long (+5 seconds) time to load on 1 megabit-per-second WI-Fi (usualy get a peak of 0.7 mbs)

 

[dansteph]

Great improvment in page loading here also. I miss the "who's viewing" feature but I preffer by far that the pages load faster.

Much thanks for your work on this forum !

Dan

 

[Tex]

UPDATE - Well, I am pleased with the improvement we've seen so far. I've re-installed the chat box, but I made a few small changes.

First the main change is the ability for users to enable/disable the chat box from your options page. Look under Messaging & Notification options to find it. Choose yes to enable it. Once you do that, it will be visible in the same place it was before. The only other change that effects you directly is how long the chat box saves messages. Instead of 7 days it will now save only 2 days worth.

Hopefully these changes will keep page load times down as I know you guys really enjoyed the chat box.

 

[n122vu]

Definitely loading MUCH faster from my home PC. Thanks for the tweaks you implemented! :thumbup: