AD's Software?

msfantastico87

Joann the Goblin Slayer
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
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2,404
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Orlando
BUT I will start things off by saying that while the board was down I spent the time running optimization scripts on the database to hopefully alleviate the server load spikes we've been having. Each one took several hours and caused a lot of load on the server so it wasn't really possible to have people posting at the same time.

I actually had a question about that and wasn't sure who to ask. BB is a very large board and it seems to be crashing quite a bit. I noticed that during the down time, I totally forgot I registered at AD (sorry!) and checked it out for a bit and saw that you had changed the board software thingy. Will that be happening here as well?
 
Well, the short answer is maybe 😉

The person who developed the software that AD is currently running is the original developer of vbulletin. I currently own two licenses for that software, one for AD and one for BB. We've ported AD over to it as a test for porting BB. But in doing that, I've found some things that concern me about it and I'm not sure it's ready for a board the size of BB. I want to make sure we have to give up as few features that we use as possible and that the software works well with a board our size in a shared environment before we make the change. I have a LOT of confidence in the software and its developer, who I've known since 2001, BUT I'd like to wait until the bugs are worked out. The software has actually just gone gold (AD was running it in beta version) so I hope that soon some things will be added to make it better for us.

In some respects the server load is a reflection of the fact that we are really too large to be on a shared server. If I could find an affordable hosting option for a managed VPS, that is probably what we need. But I also know that our hosting provider - where I think the people are great and provide great service - has recently been bought by another company (one that in the beginning BB was hosted on for two weeks before we asked for our money back) and I feel like something is going on there to cause these problems. Cause it wasn't this bad before.

BUT I did make a change to how searches are conducting that I am crossing my fingers will stop those load spikes. Cause that is the ONLY thing we've done differently on our end.
 
M
msfantastico87
yikes, sounds like a hassle. thanks for the quick response!
In all honesty, I hope you stick with vBulletin. I just checked out the other software and I can't say I'm a fan. Just my two cents.
 
Tillow4ever
Tillow4ever
Totally agreed, my friend. Totally agreed.
At first I was like O_O gah how do I work this but I've been on for a few days and starting to get used to it. So it cant be that hard if I can adjust to it in just a couple days.

I didnt know how to get around BB when I first joined either lol.
 
I really love the software we use on AD. I didn't know how I'd like it, but after using it for a while now I do love it a lot. But I'm with you Darla, I don't know that it would be good for a board this big.
 
I like it a lot as a member, but there are some things about the back end I don't like. I'm hoping those are things that will change with time, though. Unfortunately most developers don't run our kind of forums, so they aren't imo that in tune with what not-for-profit boards need.
 
that in tune with what not-for-profit boards need.
Beside money! When you say inexpensive hosting what are you looking at.. I think it was vpsslash or something like that.. but I cant find it now, sorry. You might try looking. I thought they had like a $15 plan.
 
Managed VPS and VPS are two different things. I can't be online 24-7 in case something would go wrong with a VPS server, and so we'd need someone (knowledgeable) who took care of all the server stuff.
 
It supposedly (I thought) was managed.. I could be wrong but I thought it was. I cant karma you as I karma'ed you last or thats where this would go.

VPS Latch
was it.. not sure about prices.. are they high? low or average?
 
Well, it wouldn't make sense to keep both, because if we just went back this host after without updating it we'd lose all the posts for the month on the others site.

We will never use hostgator lol - that's who bought our current host and the one we got out money back from lol

Also, from what I'm reading now, the machines the low price plans are on don't have enough RAM for us. So even though the low plans aren't much more expensive than Shared, I'm not sure we'd be any better off.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
Ah, HostGator... yes, I had to deal with them at work. We bought a domain from them, spent a ton on SEO and what not, only to find they had the domain pointed to another domain.. it was liked that for months before the could "fix it" pfft HostGator
That linode sounds pretty good as well.. but thats why I like(d) VPS Latch, because they have been in business a few years already, and that's always a good sign at least.

I know when I signed up on SiteGround, geez, three-four years ago, they had been around for a bit but had just gotten slammed by a bunch of bad reviews so I got a discounted price. Never had a bit of trouble. Went back to them for three or four more sites even. I think much better than GoDaddy. Even told you about them once if you recall.

So, just because something gets a negative review or is economically priced doesnt really mean the death toll. Thats about the only advice (not that you were asking) that I can tell.
 
Well, yeah, but still - we don't want to move to a worse performing server just because it's VPS. Though economically priced often means they're overselling, so it is something that needs investigating. You can't just make an impulsive decision.

(VPS Latch would be too expensive to buy the amount of server I think we need atm.)

🙂
 
You can't just make an impulsive decision.

No, thats why I thought dupe the forum. So you dont mess with the real site and try out before you really commit. But that doesnt seem like it would work very well either. Sorry, hun, seems like a real cluster to me.

Oh yeah, I guess it is! I was thinking about the other forums that are as big but they all had 'corporate' attachments. This probably is one of the bigger ones, isn't it? As far as individually ran. I guess I forget that sometimes. Damn. You should charge!! LOL

Charge? Hmm.. Free to post on the main pages, but if you want access to the Slayground section you have to pay. $3 a month or a year for $30

Sorry, went all Anya there for a minute.. still I like the idea.
 
It wouldn't really tell us anything unless we have the same number of people using the site.

Do you mean is BB one of the bigger ones? Not really, actually lol.

A lot of people do that premium account stuff, but I always think that's weird lol.
 
Oh, ok.. I dont go to enough I guess. Usually the ones I know all have, ya know, backers or what not. Just SEEMS big for a person to run.

I dont think there is anything weird about premium account. I'd pay. (providing I am not moving to california anytime soon!)
 
Well, yeah, I guess the big ones either are selling something or they're for a company. There aren't that many non-commercial ones I guess. Most of the big ones I think are either for cars or world of warcraft.

See, I don't understand why people would pay just to chat in an additional forum lol. We thought about offering custom avatars for a $1 or something...
 
OH!! Do you mean custom that we can make our own (still adhering to the PG-13 rules?) But sweety, it's not just to chat in an additional forum. The Slayground, for all the reasons you dont like it, is why people like it. Because it's off topic, because it's fun and games, and because it's fun and games you get to play with your 'family'

The same is true for the houses. Sure, there would be some that would not want to pay, and some that may leave... but others that think $3 a month (randomly generated number) and maybe for a bit more flexibility in the houses, would not think twice. OH, especially if the $3 allows them to create a customer avatar.

Honestly, I would give you $30 right now for a year if I can make my own avatars!! then I would never have to think, if I could just be house prefect I would get me my own avatar.
 
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