Slow forum

[joedf]

Yes, looks like it's still very slow again. This is frustratin. I will have a look again when I get home.

[kunkel321]

It's crazy here in the Seattle area. This is the first time I could even access the site for the last couple of days. And it takes a looooong time to load each page.

[tank]

I'm working on it guys.

[tank]

The forums are (still) rather slow here.
@tank & @joedf
Would you please provide some information about what's causing the problems?

A number of things actually, there was an issue with cloudflare certificate chain then some corruption of the configuration of the DB server likely from reboots. . After resolving that and a few other changes it seems stable enuff for now. But it's also been a silent but gradual doubling of traffic over the last year. I hadn't even realized we were maxing out bandwidth.

[kunkel321]

... But it's also been a silent but gradual doubling of traffic over the last year. I hadn't even realized we were maxing out bandwidth.

Thanks for the fix Tank -- It works great now. I'm wondering though, do we need to do a fundraiser to purchase more resources, or whatever?

[tank]

... But it's also been a silent but gradual doubling of traffic over the last year. I hadn't even realized we were maxing out bandwidth.

Thanks for the fix Tank -- It works great now. I'm wondering though, do we need to do a fundraiser to purchase more resources, or whatever?

we are in good shape there. We are pretty prudent on costs.

[rockitdontstopit]

Down but not out...

Is Microsoft attacking you for biting into their Power Automate revenues??

[joedf]

If anything they are trying to bite into our userbase.
AutoHotkey is over 20 years old now!

[tank]

Down but not out...

Is Microsoft attacking you for biting into their Power Automate revenues??

Funny;

They have bigger fish to fry.
our recent struggles were a combo of our growing popularity. couple years ago we averaged 1-1.5 million hits a day now it is closing in on 3 million. the server performance for the size of servers just barely handling it. then a momentary but several day long blip in Cloudflare issued certs
So no this wasnt even an attack.
I have updated certs and dramatically increased our hardware to accommodate for the growth.
even so our costs remain very low to maintain hosting and before anyone asks. of course, donations are welcome, but we currently have a steady and more than adequate amount in reserve and coming in. I also keep the hosting accounts paid 6-10 months in advance. the few times since i took over (11 years ago) and we raised money that we were even a little short I cover for less than a nice dinner date with the wife. i think it has only happened twice.

truth of the matter is, without all the typical nonsense many others do hosting a web site is pretty cheap. volunteers moderate, JoeDF handles alot of the Server admin work, and if some kind of code update to account for new issues is needed or something he can't figure out, i handle it. Lexikos handles the development efforts, and Ragnar handles documentation.
at some point i am going to modify the forum to add AI to assist with new posts and moderating some of the more common junk. but its a time based effort and i do work full time. Maybe next time i am between gigs I will get it done

[joedf]

wow 3 mil, we've come long way ahah

[andymbody]

now it is closing in on 3 million (a day)

In your list of credits, you forgot to mention that @mikeyww graciously responds to about 2.5 million of those hits each day.

[kunkel321]

now it is closing in on 3 million (a day)

In your list of credits, you forgot to mention that @mikeyww graciously responds to about 2.5 million of those hits each day.

No joke... I have just over 1,000 posts. I'll bet 800 of those are Mike trying to explain things to me over the last 8 years.

[RussF]

Is it just me or is the forum really slow this morning?

Russ

[kczx3]

Not just you

[joedf]

Yes it was for me, then it went completely down. I did and reboot and notified tank. maybe ~1hr later, the forum is back up.

[kunkel321]

Super slow in the Seattle area. That has been the case periodically for several weeks.

[joedf]

I've rebooted the DB server yet again. I think we may need to upgrade our db server.
I've also turned on Under Attack mode, and it's very fast for me.

[SKAN]

it's very fast for me.

For me too

[tank]

I have upgradedn the db cpu a level lets see how things go

[kunkel321]

Good so far here. Thanks Fellas.