I “just” got on after trying for over an hour.
Anything being done?
I find it impossible to get on here between about 8-8:30 am US Eastern almost every day. Today was worse than usual however. I too would like to know what the scoop is…
I had trouble too. The board was down for a long time. It didn’t matter if I was in AOL or IE.
Same here. Took about an hour.
I suspect the problem is that the server is overloaded when nine kajillion horsepeople look outside on a Saturday morning, realize it’s p***ing cold rain, and decide to log onto the COTH forums instead of riding. The server is probably sized for normal loads rather than maximum traffic. Bet you won’t have any trouble on a sunny Sunday morning during show season.
The regular board maintenance usually goes on in the wee, wee hours, so it was probably just a case of a heavier than normal activity level as the other folks suggested.
I notice things will run slowly a lot of mornings when people are getting into work and firing up their computers first thing. 
Sorry for the hassle!
I changed the title of this thread, because I see so many signs of a couple years ago going on.
Difficult to access the board, posts getting lost, getting timed out…slow, slow, slow.
something is “up” so to speak.
(Moderator 1, I must say you are always really polite. That’s awesome)
Thanks–doing my momma proud.
Yesterday, I posted an announcement on all the forums that shortly we’ll be clearing out older threads as part of the regular board maintenence. (So copy any old threads you want to save!) That should hopefully help things run a little more smoothly, and if things are still creaky afterwards, we can address it from there.
Thanks for the input!
Just for fact gathering, the board was completely inacessible to me this morning, as much as ever. Every day it is impossible to get on from 7:30 until sometimes after 9: am EST, and yes, it reminds me of the last board problems. It also happens periodically througout the day, but when it happens, it lasts for 30 -45 minutes or more, not just a few minutes. Only this site, not others, no AOL involved with me.
Thanks for the input, AR. After we finish with this round of pruning, perhaps will put up a poll to get some more feedback on how the board is behaving for people, and I can talk with the tech advisors about further improving performance armed with that information.
Thanks again!
I’ve had some major problems getting on at times too. Quite often.
This morning for example. Between 8:15am and now (8:49am).
I thought all the old threads were purged already…
I keep getting long periods of server timeouts. If you’re going to purge large amounts of threads, you need to take the database offline and do the purge in one swoop otherwise it’s going to keep resetting itself while responses and new threads are being added.
I am also getting many “server not responding” messages–doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it, it can happen any time. Sometimes the first page loads up, and then the next link won’t load at all. Interestingly, when my bookmark doesn’t work at all, I can sometimes gain access by going to the main website and clicking on the link to the forums from there.
Any purging is done in the wee hours of the night when as few people are online as possible, so I think issues in the morning are unrelated to thread clearing. I’ve only done two forums (off course and horse care) thus far, last Weds. night (well, Thurs. actually) between 12:30-3:00am EST. Mods need sleep too, so I’m having to spread out the pruning/resulting zombie days accordingly.
The mods even have trouble getting on sometimes, so you’re not alone and I promise we’ll be continuing to look into it! :yes:
Well, I’m glad to know it wasn’t my computer!
I tend to get the Server Not Responding, etc messages very consistently in the AM, almost always between 8 - 8:30AM, and even on weekends. I use both Firefox and IE. This has been happening for maybe a couple weeks now. I guess it’s a sign that I need to get up and on the ball earlier ;->
Yvonne
And tonight: 7:58pm to now, 8:15pm Wednesday, March 19th.
Today, March 20th has been especially bad. On and off all day so far (it’s 12:46pm now).
Having big problems today too! I will get on finally and then go to, say, “Off Course,” which will take forever to load and then finally up comes a totally blank page and at the bottom it says “done.” No problems with any other websites, so it’s not AOL (this time). Thanks!
