• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Server has been BUSY lately...

Sasheena

Sasheena

Imperfect
Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Messages
1,037
Reaction score
1
Points
0
Age
57
Location
Klamath Falls, OR
I've been getting the following message lately (this one was from today when I wanted to see what a warning was issued for).... just was wondering if this is a new problem, an old understood thing, or ... ?

This message was from today:
 

Attachments

  • fauna01012005.jpg
    fauna01012005.jpg
    14.4 KB · Views: 88
Sasheena said:
I've been getting the following message lately (this one was from today when I wanted to see what a warning was issued for).... just was wondering if this is a new problem, an old understood thing, or ... ?

This message was from today:
Click to expand...

Well, I am already running a pretty beefy server for this and my other sites. But I am thinking about upgrading the main RAM in the box in a few days, since that may help the loading problem.

vBulletin has a number of options I can set to try to moderate the load, or reduce it over all with some settings:
vBulletin can read the overall load of the server on certain *NIX setups (including Linux).

This allows vBulletin to determine the load on the server and processor, and to turn away further users if the load becomes too high.

If you do not want to use this option, set it to 0.
A typical level would be 5.00 for a reasonable warning level.
Click to expand...

I have this particular setting at "20.00", so I am giving this system a lot of headroom. I have my other forums set at much lower values, so they will turn away people much sooner if the load starts climbing.

But if you would, when you see that sort of message, could you make note of the time and date for me (eastern time, please)? There might be processes taking place on the server that I could move to a less busy time, if I could nail down which ones are causing some of the load problems.

Thanks.
 
WebSlave said:
But if you would, when you see that sort of message, could you make note of the time and date for me (eastern time, please)?
Click to expand...

Server Too Busy

12:37 Eastern, Jan. 3, 05
 
Hmm. Ok, I guess I need to add some additional RAM to see if that helps.

It's going to be real tough finding a server that is significantly faster then the one I am already using.....
 
Well, I'm not complaining. Just reporting. Doesn't bother me to just hit the back button and then trying again.
 
Well heck, if it happens enough times to enough people THEN there will be some complaining. I'm really not sure why I am getting a loading problem like that in the middle of the day. I had some statistics programs running that I had to disable a while back because they were kicking off during peak activity periods. I've got dual Xeon processors (which actually act like 4 processors in the server box, with a fast SCSI hard drive and 1 gig of main ram, and a very fast 100 Mb/s port, so there really is no reason at all for the server to bog down at all.

Traffic is pretty fair on this site, but there are vbulletin systems out there that are MUCH larger and more active that seem to be doing just fine. I guess I may have to do some checking around. But to be honest, if I find that I need to go to a server that is MUCH more expensive then the one I am already using, this is going to be pretty much a brick wall on expansion of this site. There is only so far that I can dig into my pockets for this.
 
I wouldn't worry about too much, Rich. Unless it becomes a real big problem and it's brought up a lot it's still a quick system you have going on and one that is enjoyable to navigate.
 
I also don't find it's that big of a deal. I was just wondering if there was something wrong and reporting it could help you solve the problem. I think that with my Cable Modem, I tend to get cranky if it takes longer than three seconds to do anything online.

But I'll continue to report if I see the "server busy" signal just so you know the times it is happening.

The high popularity of your site amongst "good guys" keeps it busy, but the ... how shall I say it... the "displeasure" you create amongst the bad guys doesn't put a server hack as an impossibility.... So when things go awry, I feel like reporting them in case it's a bad guy pounding at the virtual door.
 
Yeah, I do realize the possibility of bad guys trying to hack this site. But I try to stay on top of the security updates and patches, so although anything is possible, I think this wouldn't be an easy target for someone.
 
I made some changes in the way this system handles some background chores. So let's see if that makes a difference in the loading problem.

Let me know if you see more problems, please.

Thanks.
 
Are you sure that the flavor of *nix you are running supports hyperthreading? Are you using the same box to do all of your database work? That could be another potential culprit. I run MSSQL2000 and have to restart the SQL server service pretty frequently when my sites are getting hammered (usually when we are in a development phase on a new site).

Just trying to throw out ideas to help Rich :D
 
Thanks for the thoughts.

But yes, I am certain my server is utilizing hyperthreading. I can see this in action when I run the "top -i" command and see the processors in action.

As for database processes, the changes I made in the background processing here have to do with the way vbulletin handles view counts. It appeared to me that the loading problem was showing up on the hour, every hour. Well, two admin functions would cause vBulletin to update thread and attachment views, every hour on the hour. So I thought this might be significant. Perhaps this updating was causing the loading problems we are seeing here. Not sure why Jelsoft would implement something like this, especially since this is certainly not the most active site around using their software, but it seems worth a shot to try it out.

Time will tell, I guess.....
 
Darn!

I've got another 1 gig of main ram being installed sometime in the early AM on Wednesday. Not sure what to do if that doesn't help. I may have to cut back some server intensive options, I suppose. Maybe limit searches to members or any other number of things I can come up with. I can think of several things right off the top of my head that might help, but they will most certainly piss off some people.....

Heck, maybe it is time to start charging a membership fee here. THAT would certainly cut out all but the people serious about being here. :dgrin:
 
LOL

It was a momentary glitch, the next time I tried I got where I was going. Just reporting so you'll have time/day/info in case it helps
 
A lot of boards are going to members only viewing. I am not in favor of that. How do you know if you want to be a member if you can't see the content?

Do you allow the bots to index the site? If so, non-members can use their search engine of choice allowing you to reserve the search function for members as you mentioned.

I sure as heck don't know the answer. I know of a board with membership over 100K and posts into the millions. The are running on FuseTalk though and that would be more cash outlay plus needing a ColdFusion server license.

I guess my rambling is not really helping though.
 
Back
Top