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edesignuk said:
Exactly. Still full access to browse the forums, just disable the search. I've seen quite a few other sites do it. Arguably searches put the heaviest load on forum software & their servers. Stop all the passers by from searching *could* help significantly, whilst at the same time allowing them full access to browse everything.
That idea could have another positive outcome: a reduction in trolling . . . at least it would stop the casual troll (and not the 80 hours a week in the basement troll).
 
I think any of these major changes for newbies has got to take into account the purposes of Macrumors as a site. Sure, a large element of this forum is for Mac fans to get together and talk about similar interests, but there's also the helpful aspect. Newbies come along, half the time intimidated enough by the internet, let alone the prospect of switching, to ask for our help/opinions and it's not necessarily a good idea for this site (and to a lesser extent, our favourite computer brand) to maintain it's helpful and user-friendly status. Afterall, we would love these people to be able to join in the many benefits of being Mac users as quickly and as seamlessly as possible.

I have no idea what state the servers are in, although they sound fine from what Arn's been saying, but I'm fully aware that site's like this are not free. I really appreciate the work that the moderators and Arn put into this site, I think it's great and my post count probably comes close to proving this, but if any major changes are to be considered, we must firstly sort out the site's priorities. Is the site here to help switchers or is it here to bring together Mac users? Thankfully though, from what I've been reading here, this won't be necessary. :)
 
Platform said:
Maby.........

Yes good job edesign ;) ............there needs to be some sort of a restriction for non-members, since they use a lot of bandwith....and the contribution is not a bad idea to get up again even if only a handful of people contribute ;)

I sent an ddress on this sitenever got a reply.. I am not looking for "status or an "avatar" I have a freelance site, and can appreciate the costs involved in keeping it maintained and operational!!

Someone please respond to my Email and give me the paypall address to send money.

Even if it sits in the account for a year and is used later, I would love to contribute!!
 
talking about searching putting a load in the server, pressing the "new posts" buttons counts as a search i assume maybe if the site had a little new post box on bottom of the page or somthing it would save people form doing the search possibly decreasing server load.
 
bobx2001 said:
talking about searching putting a load in the server, pressing the "new posts" buttons counts as a search i assume maybe if the site had a little new post box on bottom of the page or somthing it would save people form doing the search possibly decreasing server load.

Not all searches are equally hard on the server however. The main load will be generated from word searches, rather than searches for posts based on other criteria (date, new posts, user, replies) which the server can look for relatively easily.

I'm not familiar with vB 3, but I would be surprised if the basics were different from vB 2. To allow searching for text vBulletin keeps a list of what words are used in what posts. This part of the database can be massive (millions of rows) and searching through it does tax the server quite a bit.
 
The server was

cslbtable.gif


just now... Wondering what's the surge was about? Is there a WWDC today or something? :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, what's up with all the guests today? I can't even browse the forums it's so bad. I guess everyone is reading about Tiger, but the volume of people just seems ridiculously high.
 
you guys are just toying with me now... :)

let me see about brining another server online...

arn
 
arn said:
you guys are just toying with me now... :)

let me see about brining another server online...

arn
Good, the last two hours has been dreadful, with numerous double-posts and MANY "The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later."-messages... :(
 
at the moment the site is being strange, sometimes it is being really slow but recently pages have started to load much faster. i hope it stays like this :)
 
Working fine right now, for what it's worth...

Eh, I'm sure I'll jinx it and the server'll suffer a chokeslam and piledriver and a bomb drop all at once.

BTW, I got a thought... why not forbid avatars to be hosted on the server? Require them to be hosted remotely? Would that save on bandwidth and server load?
 
Blue Velvet said:
I don't think so. :rolleyes:

How about contributing because it's a great site and you want to see it get even better?

Honestly, I'll be really interested when the contributor scheme is resurrected, just exactly how many people who said they were going to pay up actually do...
When will a contribution drive be held again? I would seriously consider donating some money. This is one of my favorite sites on the net. I've been a lurker for a couple of years and recently started posting a bit more.

Do you get a new rank or anything? Would I be able to have an avatar for contributing? On second thought, I don't think I want the avatar that way. I'm halfway towards earning it with my post count anyway - gives me something to look forward to.
 
Raven VII said:
Working fine right now, for what it's worth...

Eh, I'm sure I'll jinx it and the server'll suffer a chokeslam and piledriver and a bomb drop all at once.

BTW, I got a thought... why not forbid avatars to be hosted on the server? Require them to be hosted remotely? Would that save on bandwidth and server load?

what about those of us who have no place to host our 'tars though? this is why the 'tar requirements are so strict and small as it is, if anything there should be an attachment limit put on the users....
 
Is it just me, or does anyone suspect that vBulletin may be to blame (as least in part). Searches shouldn't take a toll if properly designed and coded (aka cacheing and efficient indexing) - of course thats just one example - there are probably many more areas that could be improved for scalability.
 
Who thinks we should get rid of avatars?

I'm currently viewing MR with avatars and signatures turned off, and let me tell you, pages load and display much, much faster in Safari now and there's less visual clutter from all those signatures.

I also think attachments should go to only donators.
 
Lacero said:
Who thinks we should get rid of avatars?

I'm currently viewing MR with avatars and signatures turned off, and let me tell you, pages load and display much, much faster in Safari now and there's less visual clutter from all those signatures.

I also think attachments should go to only donators.

that might be a bit extreme and cause a bit of a riot in some places

i like sigs off, but not avatars - its easy to visually recognize who's posting

and if we get new hardware tomorrow, the servers are going to groan some more...

D
 
Lacero said:
Who thinks we should get rid of avatars?

I'm currently viewing MR with avatars and signatures turned off, and let me tell you, pages load and display much, much faster in Safari now and there's less visual clutter from all those signatures.

I also think attachments should go to only donators.
I like the avatars and signatures. It adds character and allows people to spice up their gimmicks. Besides, as you mention each user has the option of turning them off if they do not like them.
 
Lacero said:
Who thinks we should get rid of avatars?

I'm currently viewing MR with avatars and signatures turned off, and let me tell you, pages load and display much, much faster in Safari now and there's less visual clutter from all those signatures.

I also think attachments should go to only donators.

i think 'tars are good, i dont see any problems with them really, they are helpful for me at least in identifying users

i think there should just be an attachment limit per user so that there are not long old attachements that are left over, they could then be deleted, giveing this to only pait members would hurt the community, threads like the monthly desktop ones we have wouldnt happen....there should just a a cap on how much you can have uploaded at any given time

edit: as an incentive to contribute why not have a higher limit for the paid users?

this is just my .002
 
avatars and sigs aren't a big problem..

it's simply a load issue.

Today was popular because lots of people wanted to read about Tiger. Tomorrow will likely be worse since everyone will want to read about the new computers released. ;)

Beyond that... it's a server issue. 1200 simultaneous users on the forums is a fair amount of traffic.

I'm looking into splitting the forums into two servers.

arn
 
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