Forum Optimization underway

[Mark Pollard]

Some users may have noticed periodic problems with getting the forums and/or main web site to load at certain times of the day. This is due primarily to heavy traffic spikes that stress the server. I've been working on optimizing both the server and the forum software. This should greatly reduce the possibility of server timeouts and speed up page loading.

A few necessary changes have been made to the forums that are worth noting. Member lists have been disabled. I've significantly upped the caching of posts and threads to speed load times. Avatars and attachments are now being stored as files in a local directory instead of in the database. Unregistered users can no longer view photo albums.

I have also enabled a feature that is supposed to be able to track server load. When the server starts to reach it's maximum capacity of concurrent usage during spikes, users will begin to be turned away by the forum software automatically. Essentially, it will keep a large influx of forum users, the majority being unregistered, from crashing the server or significantly impacting the performance of the site for everyone else.

Forum users should not expect to be turned away from the forums very often if at all, especially with all the other optimization that's going on. However, I will be monitoring this feature and I encourage users to email me with feedback at either mpollard@kungfucinema[dot]com or, if the server is down, at kungfucinema@gmail[dot]com.

[Li Ho]

Thank you Mark.

[Nakadai]

I'm really digging the changes, but any chance of moving the what's going on box back to the bottom?

[Mark Pollard]

Done.

Take your pick:

Full Screen
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/?styleid=4

or

Fixed Width
http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/?styleid=6

Change back and forth with the dropdown menu in the bottom left corner of the forums page.

[Nakadai]

Excellent! With the fixed width the forums integrate perfectly with the main site. Makes lurking the forums all the more pleasurable. Thanks Mark!

[peringaten]

Can you put back the "Today's Posts" option of listing all posts in all sections chronologically, when you're not logged in?
This is how I like to read the forums.

Logged in with the "New Posts" is similar, but I don't like it as much, the way they disappear when read... I find logged out, using today's posts as the easiest most user friendly way to keep track of the forum, they're there, don't dissapear and cut out earlier posts when you've read a later one, all trackable so you don't miss a good topic, don't have to click into every individual forum to see what's going on...

Ta.

[Mark Pollard]

I'll take it into consideration. I'm trying to strike a balance between performance and features. The same goes for member lists, which I am aware that some members find useful.