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Geek Culture / Forum changes today

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 19:03 Edited at: 9th Jan 2007 19:04
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Hi all,

I've made a few small changes to the forum today.

1) File downloads moved to a new HTTP server. 'Download' buttons will now link to forumfiles.thegamecreators.com, which will serve the download rather than the forum server itself. This should do two things: (1) Speed-up the forum by offloading long-running HTTP requests to the second box and (2) Allow you to download files while allowing continuous browsing of the forum - this was a hit and miss affair for some users, who found that the forum just 'stuck' while the download was in progress. This should no longer be the case.

2) Fixed the 'who's online' list! It was incorrectly recording user thread views, meaning the stats were totally wrong. It also didn't count anonymous users (those browsing, with accounts, but without forum profiles), which it now does. The only thing it doesn't show is those browsing who are not logged in, but that's ok.

3) Re-indexed and optimised the forum overview. This page should be a lot faster now. The index was trashed, rebuilt with new criteria, and the query modified slightly. 180,000 row scans down to 32. Niceness.

I still need to look at what causes the delay when posting new threads / replies, but that can happen tomorrow. The forum is also moving to a brand new server this week, which will also help speed things up considerably until the re-write is complete.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

Rich

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Robot
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 19:37
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Sounds good. Was that why the forums were down earlier then? There seem to be so many more people online now you've fixed it.
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Vampiric
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 19:43
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Nice job on the row scans, I was wondering why the forum was down when I came back from school.

Computer says n00bed
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Peter H
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 20:06 Edited at: 9th Jan 2007 20:07
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Quote: "Re-indexed and optimised the forum overview. This page should be a lot faster now. The index was trashed, rebuilt with new criteria, and the query modified slightly. 180,000 row scans down to 32. Niceness."

thank you!

lately the main index had been loading in thirds for me... with the second two thirds taking forever to load (which was annoying since the nVidia compo board is nearly at the bottom )

loads lightning fast now!

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 20:18
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Sweet, and when the post delay is fixed it will be grand


Its 9/11 - but its FAKE 9/11 Ts=SQRT(Df/16)
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Richard Davey
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 20:29
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Quote: "Was that why the forums were down earlier then? There seem to be so many more people online now you've fixed it."


Yes, I had to take them down for a few hours to get the changes in and tested.

There actually aren't more people on-line than before - you just didn't know they were online before

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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 21:11
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HUGE speed improvement!

Thanks!

EZrotate! TextureMax! Enhanced Animations! (coming soon....) 3D Character Maker! (coming soon....)
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 21:30
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Quote: "The forum is also moving to a brand new server this week"

Wasn't it moved to a new server quite recently (within 1 year)?

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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 21:40
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Yep was moved to Rich's laptop

Seriously though, great job. It's way faster here now as well

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SageTech
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 21:55
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Phew, I thought it was just me, the forum was taking forever to load! Really fast now though.

Kenjar, yet another victim of NRS (N00b Relapse Syndrome) May he code in peace...

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spooky
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 22:38
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Yep, certainly much faster now. It had been getting really slow recently.

Hopefully you will find the slow posting bug as that is annoying. Takes anything up to 10 seconds to post a reply. Hopefully just a simple query or index problem.

Boo!
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FredP
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Posted: 9th Jan 2007 23:47
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Good job,Rich.
Noticable improvement in speed.

http://www.wembley1967.com
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Chily Dog
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Posted: 10th Jan 2007 04:17
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Nice work! (*watches speed of this post*)
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Chris Franklin_
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Posted: 10th Jan 2007 14:12
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WOW thanks Rich seems alot lot faster

Desert conflict progress: 1%
Media: 25% Coding: 2% Gameplay: 1%
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Code Dragon
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Posted: 10th Jan 2007 22:36 Edited at: 10th Jan 2007 22:37
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Nice, when the forum gets to the new server it will be amazingly fast.

The only thing I can suggest for the forumns right now is to not have the post message box when come up when a thread's manually locked, or have that yellow box say "Sorry, but this thread has been locked by a moderator"

[edit]

Also, why do the page navigation controls when a thread's only one page long? There's really no point, and ommitting them could make the page load faster, however a tiny boost it may be.

Quote: "Gimme teh code!"

Thank you for not flooding the forums with posts like this.
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Jeku
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 04:36
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Quote: "The only thing I can suggest for the forumns right now is to not have the post message box when come up when a thread's manually locked"


Well the mods can still post messages in locked threads, so it's not entirely a waste of space.

Quote: "Also, why do the page navigation controls when a thread's only one page long? There's really no point, and ommitting them could make the page load faster, however a tiny boost it may be."


And that speed increase would probably be negated by the extra logic required to hide those controls if the thread is just one page long

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Kentaree
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 18:29
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Are my eyes deceiving me or did you change the main forum page somehow? (Adding borders possibly?)

Nephin Games
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Richard Davey
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 19:01
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I did, you'll see why in a moment when I enable the group show/hide feature.

Heavy on the Magick
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Hawkeye
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 19:43
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Ooooohhh, I like it! Makes it much more streamlined Nice idea!


I am but mad north north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw - Hamlet, Hamlet
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Peter H
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 20:29
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i thought it looked different lol...

goodbye FPSC forums!!

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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FredP
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 20:37
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Quote: "goodbye FPSC forums!! "


Hey!...
Quite understandable...
I hope you don't judge us based on the posts of a few who escaped the FPSC forum bondaries.
I'll have to check it out in a few...

http://www.wembley1967.com
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John Y
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 20:38
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Hehe, moderation gets easy when I folder everything down.

Get the new DarkBasic Professional IDE for only $19.99/~£9.85
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Peter H
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Posted: 11th Jan 2007 20:39
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heh, it's just that i think i've only gone in there a total of maybe 2 times (when i was looking for laughs, no offence to you, but there are some funny n00bs in there)

so it saves all the effort of constantly scrolling down past them (it's so rough )

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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Saikoro
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 10:02
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Quote: "goodbye FPSC forums!!"

Amen!


My band Phoenix Ophelia : http://www.myspace.com/phoenixophelia
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Darth Vader
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 13:40
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Quote: "Quote: "goodbye FPSC forums!!"
Amen!"

Amen Amen!


http://ideal-entertainment.galekus.com
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 17:37
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Not wanting to put a bummer on anything here - but these changes...
1) The forums feel the same speed to me.. Maybe they're less load on the server.. who knows (except Rich) - but to me they feel the same.
2) The new file server seems much slower to me. I just downloaded a file from it for the first time (i think)... And I never went about 60kb/s and I should be getting about 400kb/s (which I used to get off the "old" file server).

Rich - is the file server located alongside this webserver?

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Zappo
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Posted: 16th Jan 2007 11:58 Edited at: 16th Jan 2007 11:59
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There appears to be a slight bug which I am guessing is to do with new users who are still on probation. When they post to a thread they don't appear as the last poster, even when the post has been okayed by a mod. Here is a quick example...
In the 'Program Announcements' area check out the last poster for the 'Berzerk 3D' sticky near the top. Then go into the thread and check the last poster. They are different.
Just thought I would point it out in case people are missing new posts

EDIT: Just wanted to confirm that I am seeing a definate speed increase while browsing the forums.
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Peter H
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Posted: 16th Jan 2007 21:52 Edited at: 16th Jan 2007 21:53
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I don't suppose you changed the maximum file limit drastically?

because i've been trying to upload a 10.8 Mb demo of my NVidia game, but it always times out when i use the "browse" method (i think that's what happens, the download link links to a 0 KB file with a name like "whjsdt"). And the file uploader applet tells me "Maximum upload size exceeded" whenever i drag the file onto it (which is 10.8 Mbs... less than 50 i think)



One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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indi
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Posted: 17th Jan 2007 06:58
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It times out for me as well trying to upload larger files, most annoying when your trying to demonstrate a large media element like a video.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 11:39
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I think the new file server is considerably slower than the old one - I've still yet to see more than 60kb/s out of it on any connection.

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Jeku
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Posted: 19th Jan 2007 21:41
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Yes, it's slower for me too, but that's just for posting. Whereas you UKers had to wait x seconds after pressing post and I didn't, now I do and you don't. It's ok though

Ben Stein's Christmas Thoughts
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 17:46
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When I click Post there is still quite a delay...

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 20th Jan 2007 19:25
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Nothing has changed at all re: the code that handles message posting, so this would not have changed either way (i.e. got slower or faster). The main work was done on the forum index, as stated, which is now virtually instant as opposed to barely loading before. Moving the files to another process would not increase the speed of downloads, it just stops the impact on the forum itself, and your open http connections. I'd rather the forum carry on working and you get a slow download, than a slow download and a dead browser.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 21st Jan 2007 11:16
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Rich - I totally agree, the forum takes precedent over file attachments... I'm sure, though, that I used to get more than 60kb/s from here though!
Quote: "Moving the files to another process would not increase the speed of downloads"

I think I may have misinterpreted the initial post. When you said moved it to a new HTTP server, I assumes a new/separate machine to the forum. Reading it back now, I can see that it could also mean that you setup a new Virtual Host in Apache which would effectively separate the two 'sites' but, in turn, leave both on the same physical server.

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2007 11:50
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Sorry, my original post should have said HTTP service. It's the same physical box, but a unique service (it's a Windows server, hence my choice of terminology), so one doesn't conflict with the other. I can control the files site independently of the forum (stop it, restrict it, etc), unlike a vhost in apache where the same master process controls both. Hope that clarifies it a bit.

I'm going to look at the post speed issue today, but I fear that the database size has simply outgrown its original 4 year old design, and the fresh version I have on the dev box would be the better solution. I'll see what I can bandaid in the meantime.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2007 00:18
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Quote: "I can control the files site independently of the forum (stop it, restrict it, etc), unlike a vhost in apache where the same master process controls both."


Ahh cunning! I'd never though of that before... I wonder why Apache have never given that option... You can gracefully restart which seems to cause less down time than a full restart.

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