Hi, CanadianBoy here, love the site, come here daily to check it out since I found it.
Something I noticed last month is becoming more blatant lately. In the daytime/evening, when I usually came here then, I attributed the rather painfully slow access to high traffic.
Now that I work late evenings and get off at midnight (I'm posting this at 3:30am my time), I find that the service is even slower. Like, half a minute to access what are basically just text pages with a bit of background color.
Is it a referrer/programming issue? Like, perhaps, the text all loads fast but the logo is stored on photobucket?
Or is it strictly server speed?
The former I probably can't help with, I'm really not much of a programmer. But can you perhaps make public what the cost would be to buy you a server that would allow the kind of speed that simple text (with minimal graphics) should allow?
I want to contribute to the fund that you do have listed on the main page. But if it would only go to server/rack-space use and bit transfer, nothing will ever get faster.
Can you put a spot where a guy could give money towards a nice blistering-fast server?
Thanks!
WYSIWYG!
CanadianBoy, a disclaimer here, I'm only speaking for myself, I have no connection with BC except as an avid reader and sometimes author.
Erin does the best she can, but I don't see any way for her to upgrade the system if she can't make the current expenses. We all need to chip in and help her with the normal day-to-day costs of keeping BC alive, and I'm as negligent as anybody else in failing to contribute my fair share.
Wanting a faster service here reminds me of the episode of M*A*S*H, where the orphanage director tells Winchester something to the effect, "Should we give them dessert when they've had no dinner?" Should we raise funds for a faster server when Erin needs our help just keeping the current one on-line?
Just my two cents.
Karen J.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Server Speed
Can't get a much faster server, this one is a Dual Xeon 3.0 HT. The problem is really that I need a software upgrade I haven't done yet. I'm running a CMS software that stores everything in a database, it's the database accesses that are slowing things down. Bob and I are working on it.
For a week there, the Gallery was sharing the same server and there was no real slowdown except at peak so the server is fast enough, the software is slow.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.