***ANNOUNCEMENT FROM franksolich*** update 01-19

[Karin]

Maybe I'm just dense, but how can you "lock down" an internet forum?  I guess I don't understand much of this thread. 

[thundley4]

Maybe I'm just dense, but how can you "lock down" an internet forum?  I guess I don't understand much of this thread. 

Comments have to be reviewed by mods before they are seen?  I dunno, but some blogs moderate their comment sections in that way.

[Oceander]

You could also refuse any new user-account applications made that day, and even temporarily lock out some users based on some criterion, such as having a new account and not enough posts yet to make you a known quantity.  For a site like DU, there is probably at least a little common-sense (about the most they'll ever have) in making it harder for posers and trolls to try and eff up their forum on a day like today.

[Carl]

Expect the "crash" where the site won`t load and then will be excused as a computer glitch a day later...so sorry DUmmys.
It is the usual action they take in explosive times lately.

[Oceander]

Expect the "crash" where the site won`t load and then will be excused as a computer glitch a day later...so sorry DUmmys.
It is the usual action they take in explosive times lately.

Well, any site that gets too many hits too fast will go down, even if all of the hits are from legitimate users.  If every legitimate DU primitive starts trying to read every article at once, and if they are continually hitting the refresh button to get updates on the "Live" election threads, then they'll be generating a heck of a lot of traffic to the servers which could very well overwhelm them, even if their management don't try to pull the "server's down" trick as a means of curbing the enthusiasm.

Then again, they might also get hacked today.

[Carl]

Well, any site that gets too many hits too fast will go down, even if all of the hits are from legitimate users.  If every legitimate DU primitive starts trying to read every article at once, and if they are continually hitting the refresh button to get updates on the "Live" election threads, then they'll be generating a heck of a lot of traffic to the servers which could very well overwhelm them, even if their management don't try to pull the "server's down" trick as a means of curbing the enthusiasm.

Then again, they might also get hacked today.

Almost on cue,this site has slowed to an absolute dial up paced crawl for me right now.

[BlueStateSaint]

Almost on cue,this site has slowed to an absolute dial up paced crawl for me right now.

It was pretty slow for me, too, until just a few minutes ago.

[franksolich]

Maybe I'm just dense, but how can you "lock down" an internet forum?  I guess I don't understand much of this thread.

By "lock-down," I mean that only members are allowed to view Skins's island.

All web-sites have that capability; we use it here to a limited (very limited) extent, in that only logged-on members can see certain forums, and more so, that only members who are logged on and have more than 50 posts, can see other certain forums.

[DixieBelle]

^yeah that. essentially Skins will limit the bonfires to the fire starters and ember kickers. The lookey-loos won't be able to see anything.....

[Oceander]

Almost on cue,this site has slowed to an absolute dial up paced crawl for me right now.

Yup, same here.  At one point it simply stopped loading for me.

[IassaFTots]

Yup, same here.  At one point it simply stopped loading for me.

Me too.  Seems to be fine now though.

[franksolich]

Me too.  Seems to be fine now though.

One sign is when the primitive avatars and signature lines no longer show up.

That means the elusive enigmatic elad is taking down the bells-and-whistles; this is usually done during unusually-high traffic, so as to save bandwidth, and it's also a prelude to a lock-down.

[IassaFTots]

One sign is when the primitive avatars and signature lines no longer show up.

That means the elusive enigmatic elad is taking down the bells-and-whistles; this is usually done during unusually-high traffic, so as to save bandwidth, and it's also a prelude to a lock-down.

Oh....I was referring to this one.  It was slower than molasses earlier.

[franksolich]

Oh....I was referring to this one.  It was slower than molasses earlier.

That happens sporadically here.

The machine that runs conservativecave is stored at some place in Florida, and the place that stores it also maintains it.  They're supposed to do their maintenance work during the middle of the night, when there's hardly anyone around, but sometimes they end up doing it during the day too.....and when they're doing that, it slows down the site.

[AllosaursRus]

That happens sporadically here.

The machine that runs conservativecave is stored at some place in Florida, and the place that stores it also maintains it.  They're supposed to do their maintenance work during the middle of the night, when there's hardly anyone around, but sometimes they end up doing it during the day too.....and when they're doing that, it slows down the site.

So how much cash do we have to raise in order to support our own server?

[Chris]

We're working on switching hosting companies.

I watched the server last night during the election... our CPU load never got above 50%, the memory usage is even lower.