Brief Forum Downtime

[eigen]

If displaying this number of boards has the desired outcome on server load, maybe we can give some thought to which board would draw in the most new members?  The job board seemed to be a big draw to the old fora, so I'd be inclined to vote for that one.

I think that's a great idea. Lets see how the servers handle things over the next few weeks, and whether it makes a huge difference or not.

Please keep suggestions coming if you have them!

[dr_codex]

If displaying this number of boards has the desired outcome on server load, maybe we can give some thought to which board would draw in the most new members?  The job board seemed to be a big draw to the old fora, so I'd be inclined to vote for that one.

I think that's a great idea. Lets see how the servers handle things over the next few weeks, and whether it makes a huge difference or not.

Please keep suggestions coming if you have them!

No suggestions, because I don't understand the technical issues, but another Thanks! for keeping this running.

I'd like to keep lurkers lurking -- I did this for many years on the CHE version -- but if the bots are coming, and this isn't possible, would there be a way to nudge actually curious people on a welcome page? E.g.: Because of bots, you'll have a better experience if you create an account. Accounts are pseudonymous, and you can reboot at any time.

Phrased more elegantly.

Thanks mods all.
dc

[traductio]

I, too, am grateful to all who have worked to continue the Fora in its new form. I just did the mental math -- I started reading the CHE fora in 2006, so 13 years ago. (I'm at the point in my career where I do lots of mental math and realize that I've been doing X or Y for a decade and a half. It's happened, folks -- I've become my parents.) I also just looked at the rate at which I post -- about .24 posts per day. It's been that way since I first registered in 2008!

As for letting lurkers know there's more than meets the eye -- perhaps a pinned post on the General Discussion board?

[namazu]

What's the current hosting arrangement, and what would it take to upgrade the servers so that they could handle 50 bots and a modest legion of lurkers?  Is there a feasible/reasonable way to do that? (If money is a limiting factor, I suspect some of us would be willing to chip in to help keep the lights on.)

[eigen]

What's the current hosting arrangement, and what would it take to upgrade the servers so that they could handle 50 bots and a modest legion of lurkers?  Is there a feasible/reasonable way to do that? (If money is a limiting factor, I suspect some of us would be willing to chip in to help keep the lights on.)

It's hard to get a number on that, but my guess is it's going to be a significant change.

We're on shared hosting donated by a company right now (Reclaim Hosting) to see if this will work and how our needs grow/expand/change.

There's definitely a possibility that we'll need to move to dedicated rather than shared hosting or to a beefier host at some point in the future, and we'll have see what our options are as we assess this.