The site was stripped of many of its bells and whistles recently to save space, or something like that.
Did it work?
I couldn’t tell you about the technical side of things, but I do like the new no-frills feel. Previously I had suggested more bells and whistles in various forms but now that they’re gone I don’t miss them at all.
In fact, I think it’s improved the quality of posts, and reduced the no-content froth (“Bob will buy a sheepshagger chop for 25 guanxi 
” etc.)
Don’t bring back bells and whistles. It only appeals to a small group of regulars.
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”]The site was stripped of many of its bells and whistles recently to save space, or something like that.
Did it work?[/quote]
Yes, it did ‘work’, but not in a way that we hoped.
It confirmed to me that the Bells and Whistles were NOT the source of the forums problems. If at all, the Bells and Whistles seem to have a negligible impact on the conuary counts and CPU usage.
The real culprits are (1) increased popularity of the website and (2) too many open “sessions”.
(morris explained the following to me last month – but I may not have it straight. I invite someone more familiar with how MySQL works to correct my understanding)
Sessions are connections to the underlying SQL database; I think of it like each session can mean a whole bunch of conuaries being requested at the same time.
Imagine each window you open into forumosa is a session. So if you pop open several browser windows, you create that many sessions (that’s bad).
The PROBLEM is that if you do not properly close that session, the session remains open, and ‘connected’ to the SQL database.
So, how do you properly close a session? I guess logging out does the trick
So put in simpler terms, it would help if members only viewed the forum using one browser window, and then logged out.
This doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to expect of regular members who read the forums. I certainly do not read forumosa this way.
So instead of asking everyone to behave optimally, I recommended to Maoman that we (1) go to dedicated hosting so that we are no longer restricted to CPU limitations, and (2) consider moving the entire website physically to Taiwan ( details: forumosa.com/donations.php )
What you see today is an interim website. Because of my committments at my day job, progress in completing the Taipei-based web server has slowed.
When we duplicate the forums over there, we can then proceed to reinstall bells and whistles more deliberately. I invited the community to request modifications that they found especially valuable, and have put in place some of these already. But I hesitate to install anything somewhat complex since it will all be redone at the new website (well, I think it will)
Also, my day job constrains my time. So unless Maoman specifically asks me, modifications to forumosa for now will happen slowly.
[quote]So put in simpler terms, it would help if members only viewed the forum using one browser window, and then logged out.
This doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to expect of regular members who read the forums. I certainly do not read forumosa this way. [/quote]
Huh? I open Forumosa, log in and then open windows, read them, post sometimes and then quit and go home.
Are most people NOT doing that? What? They log in 10 times and have 10 windows going in different places on the site? That seems a bit manic to me. Or am I not getting it?
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”][quote]So put in simpler terms, it would help if members only viewed the forum using one browser window, and then logged out.
This doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to expect of regular members who read the forums. I certainly do not read forumosa this way. [/quote]
Huh? I open Forumosa, log in and then open windows, read them, post sometimes and then quit and go home.
Are most people NOT doing that? What? They log in 10 times and have 10 windows going in different places on the site? That seems a bit manic to me. Or am I not getting it?[/quote]You said you open windows, in the plural. That’s what Gus means. He said that having multiple windows open means multiple sessions for PHBB. You don’t have to log in multiple times because your browser still has the current cookie for the main session.
To have only one session going, one would have only one window open and use the back button a lot to navigate between threads. Rather unwieldy.
As with you, Gus, and probably most other forum users, I also open threads in multiple concurrent windows (actually tabs), because it makes sense. I have started logging out before I switch my computer off, however, because it appears from what Gus said that that reduces the load.