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View Full Version : Site Issues: Update? (Response from Rich inside)



TheMeanDM
2008-01-15, 04:38 PM
As has been mentioned several times in a few different posts lately....

Even when the comic has already been updated (days after updates, tha is), the site is still having connectivity problems, delays, incomplete loads, etc.

This post was made in AUGUST:



We are currently dealing with some bandwidth and server load capacity issues. Please bear with us as we resolve these issues. Some features may be temporarily or permanently disabled. We are addressing the issues and appreciate your patience.


We're now 5+ Months later, and is there any kind of an update on...well...support?

As OoTS grows, so too grows the demand on the site.

As Erfrworld grows (grats for their mention in Time magazine), so too grows the demand on the site.

As participation on the boards grows, so too....

Well, you get the idea.

Just wondering if there are plans to upgrade the server, or buy more bandwidth, or do whatever technical stuff technical type people do to bring about zen-like surfing of the giantip site.

Thanks!

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-01-16, 06:04 AM
I would like to mention the fact that I got bandwidth issues at 3AM est, which strikes me as fairly ridiculous. I realize this is a free site, but this lost me a fairly long post, and I am just wondering when the issue will be resolved.

InaVegt
2008-01-16, 06:13 AM
I would like to mention the fact that I got bandwidth issues at 3AM est, which strikes me as fairly ridiculous. I realize this is a free site, but this lost me a fairly long post, and I am just wondering when the issue will be resolved.

3 am EST is a peak time for the European members, of which there are quite a lot, there might even be as much as there are American members.

Tormsskull
2008-01-16, 06:31 AM
The mods/admin have been very silent on this entire matter, which means that they are either ignoring it all together (doubt it), or they have something in the works that they just aren't comfortable announcing yet.

Zeb The Troll
2008-01-16, 07:04 AM
3AM also tends to spike a bit as people in the know try to cram in their boards checking before it goes down for regularly scheduled maintenance from 4:00 to 4:30 am every day. You're not going to get rid of that.

chrono
2008-01-16, 10:32 AM
I've always wondered why the site doesn't have any ads at all. To me that would seem like a perfectly reasonable way to pay the hosting bills (as revenue grows as usage grows). Instead the "solutions" like crippling search, disabling the rich editor by default, splitting some forums, etc only get us thus far.

I don't usually have bandwidth problems (every now and then the site is simply inaccessible though), so I don't care that much. If people experience it more often than I do then maybe you should try to bring the issue up - perhaps the admins and Rich aren't aware that this is an issue for people.

Ego Slayer
2008-01-16, 11:48 AM
3AM also tends to spike a bit as people in the know try to cram in their boards checking before it goes down for regularly scheduled maintenance from 4:00 to 4:30 am every day. You're not going to get rid of that.
Now there's something I didn't know. :smalltongue:

Azrael
2008-01-16, 01:43 PM
... splitting some forums ...Had nothing to do with server load.

Pyro
2008-01-16, 10:34 PM
As Erfrworld grows (grats for their mention in Time magazine), so too grows the demand on the site.

I don't know that. Ahhhhhhh! Yay overused Monty Python!

The Giant
2008-01-19, 03:09 AM
Yes, we're aware of the problem, though it has only moved from "annoyance" to "crippling" in the last two weeks. The real issue is that we're essentially at the limit of what one server can provide, so we're investigating multiple server options, which are a.) not quite as easy to implement as simply sticking more RAM in the existing server, and b.) much, much more expensive.

One of the possibilities that we are examining would involve splitting the comic to one server and the forum to another, so that no matter how overloaded the forums got, it would not affect viewing the comics. Given that the entire registered forum population amounts to less than 10% of the total audience for the comic, this will keep the most people happy. Of course, even the forum will have better service (theoretically) by not competing with the people reading the comic.

However, don't expect any solution immediately...it will take us a while to get anything finalized. Part of any solution will include funding, which is a tricky issue. Since we don't charge for subscriptions or run advertising, all recurring expenses must be balanced against how many books and t-shirts we sell. Basically, it comes down to the fact that GITP's revenue and expenses are pretty much in balance now, and any large increase in the server cost will throw the whole thing out of whack. A webcomic is not a business that is really flexible with its finances, you know?

What we will NOT be doing is a straight donation drive for the server; in the past, donations have led those who donated to believe that they had a right to demand faster updates to the comic, and that's just not going to happen. More likely would be some sort of low-price additional product whose revenue would specifically be earmarked for "funding the server". That way, anyone who purchsed it would actually get something tangible for their money, in addition to knowing that the server problems will be improved.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-01-19, 03:56 AM
I was just thinking to myself yesterday that "man, giantitp.com's service issues could be resolved perfectly if they just stuck the forum (or the comic) on its own server." Of course, then I said to myself "an ad-free site can't really afford that." As a peon for an IT company that does a little bit of hosting, I understand the economics involved.

Looks like I was exactly right on both counts. Well, since you're addressing this problem and likely solution, I'll be sure to up my OotS-products-related spending to help out.

TheMeanDM
2008-01-21, 10:42 AM
Thank you very much for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to reply, Rich. I'm sure that I am not the only person that appreciates the information and personal response from you regarding this issue.

stm177
2008-01-21, 10:05 PM
Probably a ridiculous idea, but Blizzard gets away with BitTorrenting their patches. Maybe at the same time you post the newest OOTS on your server, you can also create a BitTorrent. Although I know that they frown on tiny files.

adanedhel9
2008-01-21, 11:07 PM
[somewhat uneducated hypothesis]Using BT for a file that small is probably counterproductive. Someone would still have to host the tracker, and the tracker would probably require more bandwidth in overhead than would be saved by downloading the comics themselves from peers.[/somewhat uneducated hypothesis]

chrono
2008-01-22, 02:36 AM
Had nothing to do with server load.

Are you sure, because depending on how your database is laid out you can save a lot of processing power by splitting off the most visited parts (database load is usually the bottleneck for forums, rather than actual bandwidth - that's why searching is effectively switched off (it strains the database process a lot more than it uses bandwidth)).
Of course I'm looking at it from a web programmer's point of view - it's totally possible that the forums were split of for entirely different reasons :)

Rich said why he won't run a donation drive, but I still have no idea why he doesn't seem to be considering ads. Sure, most places don't advertise on forums, but almost all comics I can think of have ads on the news and/or comic page.

With a little bit of shifting content around I'm guessing that a few percent of bandwidth/power can be squeezed out. I particularly like how the LFG comic website does things - news (latest news item displayed, rather than a year's worth of news on a single page), a small preview of the latest comic (the comic page can be loaded on a click), ads, items of interest. That exact setup might not be perfect for the OotS (i.e. the news here are far from daily/weekly) but I've always thought that optimization on the software/layout side is worth considering as it can sometimes be more valuable than a hardware update.

Icewalker
2008-01-22, 10:52 PM
Aawww, and 3/4 of the way through the Giant's post I though I was going to be helpful in suggesting a donation kinda deal. Ah well...

Maybe one just for the forum, with large red text showing that it has nothing to do with the comic...[/sarcasm...?]

I'm sure either way it is a lot of trouble for you. :smallfrown:

Lady Tialait
2008-01-29, 05:34 AM
Yeah, the only reason I havn't bought anything from the shop is my Money gets kinda short really quick, (Holidays just came up, i'm the only one who reads hte comic so T-Shirts don't work) plus, I pay for most things in Cash, not good for Online perchases, But I could find a way around it, if there where some Cheap things to buy. I would LOVE for this site to have better relyabilty, thanks Rich for giving us your update. I really love your work.

Aaaaanyway. nothing constructive to say. I'm just kinda flitterbrained.

Surfing HalfOrc
2008-01-29, 05:41 PM
I wonder WHY this happens from time to time.

There hasn't been any new strips for a couple of days (I'm not complaining, I'm just stating a fact), but today for the past couple of hours getting onto the site has been very difficult. I look at the posting rate, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of posting going on the forums at the moment...

Sometimes I don't mind if the site seems to lock up, that often means that there is a new strip posted, but other times things will slow to a crawl, then back up to speed, and no new strip for another two-three days.

Shhalahr Windrider
2008-01-29, 07:54 PM
I look at the posting rate, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of posting going on the forums at the moment...
People may not be posting, but that doesn't mean they're not reading. :smallfrown: (Wishing there was a good "shrug" smiley.)

SPoD
2008-02-01, 02:37 PM
People may not be posting, but that doesn't mean they're not reading. :smallfrown: (Wishing there was a good "shrug" smiley.)

It's also a vicious cycle. Once the message board starts to slow down, people click several times to try to get a page to load. This slows the server down more, causing more people to try to reload the pages...and so on.

So a lack of posting may well be the RESULT of a server slowdown, not indication that no one was trying to post.