anyone else ready to give up?

[dmpbyrdwatcher]

I like many things about this site, but I'm about ready to give up - it is just too slow most of the time now...

I am not posting very often or commenting on photos because it is too frustratingly slow to do so - and it seems like others are not posting very often, either - which makes it unrewarding to wait so long for the site to load.....

sometimes the speed seems to come back to normal, but the next time it is crawling again...

I know you are busy, Tony - I'm not blaming you at all..... but I'm disappointed because i thought this was going to be my "home" site for camera stuff....

[benherrmann]

I love this forum, and I know that Tony is doing the best he can tweaking things here and there - but there are times when this forum is so slow that I don't want to reply...or even surf various threads. Some nights it takes 8 - 15 seconds just to go to a page (and I've got high speed Cable). Other nights it takes much, much longer. Not being an IT guy, I don't know what it could be. Unfortunately, what it does is make you not want to post, reply...or even read various threads. Hopefully, this will change in the near future - as this place is far superior in tone to the other site.

[Lorne Miller]

...seems like lots of sites are slow nowadays, so I'll hang in there...
...or maybe we're all in too much of a hurry?

cheers,

Lorne Miller
E-1, E-1 with HLD-2, E500, E300
14-54
50-200
future 35-100 f2
14-45
40-150
FL50

[BL3]

Doreen: It is indeed slow here, and maybe we all need to hold off on posts, especially those that eat bandwitdth, until Tony can find the solution. Meanwhile, the other place continues to deteriorate into political arguments, name calling, gear fascism, and general small mindedness. I don't care how slow it is here, I can't go over there for very long without feeling my psyche start to deteriorate, so for me at least, I'm going to tough it out here.

Rocky

[Bill_Turner]

Doreen,
I'm close as the speed is pretty abyssmal but will perservere as I can.
I still visit as I can, time allowed.

[tspore]

well unfortunately all the tweaking that can be done has.
Here is how the evolution has gone over the last 1.5 years.
1 - shared hosting account - over ran that with server requirements.
2- Virtual dedicated server - over ran that, a few months ago.
3- 1 month ago - put it on a e-mail server of mine, nothing else really on it, but a few e-mail accounts. Over ran that.
4 - Next month at some point I will go to a truly dedicated server.
(VBB is a very processor hungry application, expecially with 1500-2000 hits a day on it, and allowing people to upload photos, users able to track posts, etc, it becomes a very server intensive program)

So I will drop another $4-5000 for the server for this site, with nothing else on it, and then if that doesn't work, we will have to go to either a different forum, or I will take off all additions to the server software.

No matter what I do it makes someone unhappy. I apologize for the inconveniences, I have paid others to look into it, and really, it always comes back to many people at 1 minute accessing the forum, and causing it to slow down to a crawl.

[blueridgegirl]

I honestly don't find it that slow, so maybe I am just on a good part of the network from here to there? I mean, it's not lightning fast, but I don't expect that because I have satellite internet....

I haven't been here that long but I really like it and will continue to stick around. I think it's well worth paying for and also waiting for while the kinks get worked out. I can imagine it's a big job especially as a "break even" effort and I really appreciate all the effort that goes into it.

I hope people will stay and wait a bit for things to get better before leaving. I really like the people here and it's helped my photography a lot!

[ditto1958]

Tony, I am happy to see that you are trying hard to address this. I have a pretty fast cable connection here. At work I have the same company, but a slower connection and there (yes, I know, what am I doing on a forum at work? Actually, I'm self-employed) I do really notice it being slow sometimes. The biggest problem for me is opening threads with a lot of replies. Everything else tends to be tolerable for me. The bottom line is that it's much nicer here than the other place.

[3dpan]

Well, I have no idea what the problem is (in the US).
I log on two to three times a day and rarely have any problem with download times, maybe it's something to do with time zones and traffic density.

Cheers,
Alec

[tspore]

I think it depends a lot on time zones for USA (Where the majority of users are) In the morning and evening it gets hit. At about 50-60 users at one point it is way overloaded.
I have changed the reboot time so that I hope it will clear it out at a good time now, instead of the middle of the night (USA time) it will be 3 PM PST.

[timbertoes]

LOL I am on dial up. every where I go is slow. my lack of participation on some threads is due to that fact it takes to long to see the pictures.

[Bojan Volcansek]

Yesterday evening, for the first time, I've seen what you are all saying - it is simply too slow to be usable. Unfortunatelly I've been so busy in the last couple of weeks/months (and it will NOT get better) so not that I can't help Tony, but I don't even have time to regularly read/comment on the board...

If it is possible, can you hung out a little more, and try to resist leaving, when tony comes back from his week off, he'll try to do something (and I'll try to help him).

Yours Bojan

[llpoolej]

The last few days have seemed much better. There seems to be glitches with all the boards I visit(not that many!) and I think it is a clue I need to clean my house :D

[OzRay]

It's been a lot faster of late down here, but then there's hardly anyone on line when we lot are awake.

I know 'very' little about server technology, but there seems to be a lot of horsepower behind that other site, as it is always very fast. Or has that something to do with the design and the fact that it runs on MS SQL Server?

Cheers

Ray

[orthogent]

I always feel lucky when the OS works and the Windows screen comes on. My wife lost her hard drive last Saturday. (Bad news.) It was replaced today. (Good news.)... I could continue in that vein,but just wanted to declare that my expectations are not so high I can't wait for Tony to figure it all out. So I will peregrinate, if that is the right word,between here and photo.net and see how things go..So,anway, what IS the measure of success with web places,nowadays. Hits?. Number of registered members?. Number of paying members. Loss/addition ratio?
Tony Spore set this up to my recollection as an UN DPREVIEW ,not as a personal profit center, and added some physical goodies or enhancements,like readability for tired eyes.
It still furnishes same as far as I can see. And speed hasn't slowed to the point of total fatigue at least here in MIDPAC Road Runner time slot.
GS.
Aloooha, Gerry

[OzRay]

So,anway, what IS the measure of success with web places,nowadays. Hits?. Number of registered members?. Number of paying members. Loss/addition ratio?

I think the measure of success is the complete lack of drongos that all too often frequent other sites, simply looking to cause trouble. We can disagree here and not get into personal fights just because we disagree. There's a much higher level of respect for individuals here than in many other forums.

I guess the difference for me, is that I would gladly hold a BBQ for everyone that participates in this forum, but that wouldn't be the case with other forums.

Cheers

Ray

[llpoolej]

I went over there the other day and the amount of bickering and stress is palpable. Give me a few seconds hang time over that negativity!

[dmpbyrdwatcher]

I think the measure of success is the complete lack of drongos that all too often frequent other sites,
Ray


not to mention the drongos that own the other sites...... P.A. is up to usual thuggery with handling of SmugMug issue....

the leak that Tony mentioned must have been the problem because this site finally seems back to normal --- slow still, but not the crawling paralysis it had been for many weeks...

[Bill_Turner]

OzRay,
Please let me know when you fire up the "barbie" so I can be there.

[Prairie]

This site has never been slow for me....i'm a mod on the 15th largest message board on the internet- if you want slow, head over there.

[Hokuto]

Just to eat up a bit more bw, I find a few days when the site is somewhat slow, and if it feels that way, I just go elsewhere until it speeds up again. But that's pretty rare. Usually it zips along. I used to go to MyFourThirds until it got truly too slow for use (I almost think they did it deliberately to cut down participation by less-than-truly-dedicated members); I spend too much time on sites anyway, so it's probably for the best :(

[Dan Browning]

I don't care if this site is as slow as dial up. I would never post again over on DPR. While there are some good folks over there, the rest of them are trash. DPR went to the dogs a year or two ago and I quit participating there back in Jan 06.

Over here it's like a better breed of people.

[tspore]

Hey Guys I am back in town almost. Well at least back in the USA.
I will not have full access till the end of the week. Right now I am in Santa Rosa, visiting some friends, and then family for the 4th, and moving out of our apartment till saturday. After that I will be back full time. (I HOPE!!!)
But the forum seems better. Right now (5 AM Sunday moring the site seems fine) I think that the memory leak is the problem, so I will continue to go along that route in checking things out. I will also try to get on with my laptop, and work on it a bit when I can this week.
Anyhow, thank you to all for your nice comments, they are a breath of fresh air, in the cyber world. :D

[Bojan Volcansek]

Hey Guys I am back in town almost. Well at least back in the USA.

It great to hear that you are doing fine. Welcome back!
I'm very busy at new work, but if i can spare some time next week, you can tell me if I can be of any help.

Yours Bojan