Forums...get it fixed!

Ballistix

Ballistix

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Feb 2008
Messages
1,046
Location
Oxfordshire
www.cinematreadwell.com
Not sure how many posts like this it is going to take. Clearly one of the problems is at the "root" of the forum pages. Try removing the "whos online" crap, no one cares and it takes processing to show the information.

Fire the guy that was looking at the database from the end of last week. It's been 7 days and he hasn't had an effect. Buy a bigger server, processing power and disk IO will help. Lots of memory, 4GB.

Get it sorted guys! PM me if you want server help...

T
 
They should switch to a proven BB performer like vBulletin. It's cheap, customiseable and it works. It can be completely IPC/YBW branded and you can throw cheap linux hardware at it. It scales rather than this bespoke junk.
 
Come on Dan you said we'd have an update. Almost unuseable again this morning, what's you teccie person up to? Or maybe he's not started. It's a poor reflection on IPC.
 
that isn't the problem. They tried removing the search engine, and it had no effect. Now they've tracked down the problem, and have some resource to fix it, they can sort it without resorting to removing more functionality. I hope!
 
Considering the facilities etc with the present software and add the problems we get almost every day perhaps a new package would be better in the long run and save money,
 
A new package was being planned. With the departure of Kim, we don't know who has taken over, and what the new plan is.

Even if there is a plan to implement new software, it's not an overnight process, it will take many months.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Techies can't wave magic wands. It needs time to find the problem, write a fix, have it tested, and put it live.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes that may be so, but as you've said on another thread would it not be sensible for Dan or someone from ybw to give us an update. They must have some idea as to how long it will take.
 
It depends on whether they are going to fix this for now, in which case it will take a while to work out the exact problem, work out the fix, have it tested, and put it live. Or. If they are planning new software for the forums. That will be vastly more complicated, as they then need to evaluate self build, buy in, what modifications are required. That will probably take a year to do, once a commercial decision is taken, and it's the commercial decision that takes time in many instances. In the current commercial climate, many of these decisions will be put off.
 
Yup, I use various other forums as well and the ybw one is by far the worst in terms of performance. Definitely a poor show particularly as I guess the forum and the ybw site in general is now an IPC profit centre thanks to advertising and selling the database to other commercial organisations
 
Hi all, i posted this on another thread:

The problem this morning was again database-related, a lot of queries caused the whole site, not just the forums, to run slowly.

The current work on the forums will split our databases so that when the forums go down, the rest of the site, and other sites in IPC, do not.

However, this obviously doesn't resolve the problem of the forums breaking. Given that the forum software is legacy, our operations teams try and find solutions to the problems but there are inherent problems.

The queries that seem to cause all the problems are now mostly identified, and our sys admin team are going to re-write the way these run in order to try and bring the problems to an end.

However, the only sure-fire solution is to move to a whole new software platform. It is necessary for us, as a company, to identify the best platform to do this on as it will affect many brands other than YBW who are all suffering the same problem.

Of course, there will be a lot of factors to consider, such as migration of existing content and finding software that meets AOL's security requirements.

Ultimately, the forum software needs to be upgraded, but until we have found a suitable replacement we have to do our best to manage their performance. This has been poor, but we now have a dedicated system administrator monitoring performance, so downtime should be limited to an hour as opposed to days from now on.

I genuinely appreciate the kind offers of assistance, but the truth is that there is such a root and branch change here at the moment that it is not lack of knowledge, rather resource, that is the barrier to any more permanent move and the red tape and bureaucracy involved in getting someone near the digital department makes it a non-starter really.

Thanks,
Dan
 
Apart from probably losing historic posts, is there any reason why a product such as vBulletin isn't used?

Surely it's cheaper than paying a developer?
 
We would NEVER sell our database, the information kept on our forum users is absolutely private. Also, vBulletin is probably the front runner as far as alternatives go at the moment, but we need to do a full audit.
 
[ QUOTE ]

vBulletin has one particularly useful feature: it works.


[/ QUOTE ]
Which is why just about every large forum in the world uses vBulletin and it costs peanuts.

The current crap search facility is reason enough to switch let alone reliability issues.

For the umpteenth time YBW, just do it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Also, vBulletin is probably the front runner as far as alternatives go at the moment, but we need to do a full audit.

[/ QUOTE ]Go for it then NOW! When the rain is falling on ones head and somebody hands you an umbrella, just open it and use it immediately.

No need for IT evaluation committee think tanks to discuss the options in endless circlies - business is about taking decisions and acting on them - please just get on with it. And that's from somebody in the IT biz!!! It's a no brainer and could be implemented by one competant IT web bod within weeks. It also has a low maintenance/running overhead.
 
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