Foo - Are we that BIG?

Everyone keeps saying these forums are slow and unreliable because they are so BIG. I really don't know how BIG they are... THis site (http://rankings.big-boards.com/) shows some forums with over 655 million posts. Based on my quick calculations, bikeforums.net has a little over 2 million posts.

So is it really that BIG? By reading some of these posts one would assume that we are breaking new ground with the size of the forums here at bikeforums.net. It would be natural to assume that these forums will NEVER work right just because they are so big. I assume that because that is the explanation that keeps being presented not by the forum owner, but by so many others.

Do they know what they are talking about? Do other large forums or larger forums have this amount of trouble?

www.ign.com?

Wasn't there just a server/software upgrade? If so working in the industry I can totally understand that there are bugs to be worked out and no sizes on that scale are not a problem to handle.

lmao @ your sig. :roflmao:

Wasn't there just a server/software upgrade? If so working in the industry I can totally understand that there are bugs to be worked out and no sizes on that scale are not a problem to handle.
Provided they didnt upgrade to a beta the upgrade they did should have been out for quite a few months and been in use around the world. I'm not overly familiar with vbbulletin and thus do not follow their weekly/monthly releases.

I will say that something is broked because this is 10-20 timesworse then it was right before the server upgrade.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
Compared to us we' pretty noob.

I know another forum that will quicdkly exceed the level that this forum is currently at.

All I know is this sh*t is driving me bonkers. :(

True, but isn't all of the bikeforums.net server equipment and stuff privately owned and maintained? Places that have huge forums can also pay for multiple servers and people to maintain them.

True, but isn't all of the bikeforums.net server equipment and stuff privately owned and maintained? Places that have huge forums can also pay for multiple servers and people to maintain them.
This site really only needs 2 beefy servers.
One server is for web/images. This server should have raid.
Second server is devoted to database. This server is not publicly accessible and has an intranet setup between server #1. Possibly raid but if you have enough memory raid may not make that much of a difference. Make sure mysql query caching is on and lots of ram

Or It could potentially use 3
Web. This server doesn't need raid.
Second server is devoted to database. This server is not publicly accessible and has an intranet setup between server #1. Possibly raid but if you have enough memory raid may not make that much of a difference. Make sure mysql query caching is on and lots of ram
Third server. This server is the image and attachments server. It should have raid because it will be serving up tons and tons of files.

Actually, this site has demonstrated a desperate need for at least one non-deployed machine (or at least one that can be taken offline during non-peak hours). We really need the ability to test changes before committing to them and to test ways to resolve issues without the entire site being affected.

Actually, this site has demonstrated a desperate need for at least one non-deployed machine (or at least one that can be taken offline during non-peak hours). We really need the ability to test changes before committing to them and to test ways to resolve issues without the entire site being affected.
I dont think the crew can do it. They can't even optimize the forum to work on a configuration that it worked fine on before the change :p

From a layman's POV, the server bill doubled, and the speed and quaility of the site was cut in half. Sounds like someone stuck it Joe without vasiline.

There was problems before the server move.

They used the same host another board I used to go to used, and both boards would go down at the exact same time....it was pretty annoying.

And yes, this board is big...looking at a global ranking is like looking at a list of the fastest cars in the world....yes compared to an Ultima GT-R sporting an 1400hp twin-turbo 5.7L engine "upgrade" (please don't do this if you ever buy one...the car is fast enough with 760hp stock), a Mustang GT pales in comparison....doesn't mean it's not fast though.

Our bigness comes from the amount of users online. Right now, webhostingtalk.com has 888 users online, bikeforums has 1470 users online.

As for the current issues? I don't know whats up. I'll be honest. I'm not a tech guy, I don't know the ins and outs of servers. But I do have a few friends that are tech guys, I have also hired quite a few freelance server admins to help optimize the servers we are on now.

For the server guys in this thread: We do have two servers, the front end is a dual xeon HT 2.66's up front and dual opteron 244's in back. 3gig in each box, scsi hd's, raid etc... It is a nice setup, and 95% of the time, it deals with the forum load just fine. Right now, I'm looking at optimizing the boxes further and researching the move from apache to Lighttpd.

Today I located a posible new home, a quad opteron with 8 gig of ram, 4scsi HD's etc... if i can get a good monthly price, we may be running on this box by the end of the week.

Another option is to roll back the software to vBulletin 2.x, the 3.5 software is bloated and is causing major issues for other large forums.

I hate to keep stringing along everyone, but a lot of this is over my head and simply takes more time and money then I have.

www.ign.com?

Heres the difference:

IGN - http://corp.ign.com/management-bios.html
BikeForums - http://www.bikeforums.net/member.php?u=3

:)

Thanks for the update Joe, when you get everything sorted out come out to Oregon and we'll treat you and the GF to a big Oregon Bike Forums ride in the country.

I hate to keep stringing along everyone, but a lot of this is over my head and simply takes more time and money then I have.

I truly appreciate your honesty. I'm not being a smart azz. I mean that. A lot of people would try and dress it up with a lot of tech speak and fabrications. I dunno what the future holds for this place, but like many others I enjoy it.

I can also understand if you grow weary. The forum is still a useful place but the technical difficulties are starting to make it much less so. Hopefully everything will get back to the way it used to be, if not, Say 'la vee. :)

One thing that seems strange about the internet and places like this is that it seems wierd that they can't be profitable. Don't misunderstand, i am not alledging that they are. It just seems that the millions of dollars of revenue that sites like this generate ought to translate into a lot of value.

THink about how much money the major bike makers, as well as Park tool,Nashbar, Performance etc. make off of this site alone, from all of the advice and links given. It's insane for them to get all of that free traffic and for those that generate and/or steer the traffic to get basically nothing.

Portis makes some good points, but the internet is a VERY BIG PLACE. While I'm in awe of the number of users and the vast amounts of knowledge and respources available here, it's not the only bicycle forum on the web. It's by far my favorite and that's mostly becasue of the open format and most importantly...the members. Paying for servers and bandwidth are an expensive proposition. Especially for a site this size.

Joe...thanks for the honesty and let me say once again "Thanks for Bike Forums." I'm hopefull that this site will stick around for a long time to come and be successful. I'm trying to be patient, but it has been a frustrating experience lately.

Baby Kingdom only # 56??? WTF???:p

[edit] But more on topic...Joe I think it's time to turn your baby into a revenue machine, ala, craigslist new upgrade.

A ton of people will miss this forum if it goes bust, but it does suck to see it crash often.

Good Luck.

I would consider going back to the older time tested and prooven software version. I always like to stay about two years behind the curve.

Our bigness comes from the amount of users online. Right now, webhostingtalk.com has 888 users online, bikeforums has 1470 users online.

As for the current issues? I don't know whats up. I'll be honest. I'm not a tech guy, I don't know the ins and outs of servers. But I do have a few friends that are tech guys, I have also hired quite a few freelance server admins to help optimize the servers we are on now.

For the server guys in this thread: We do have two servers, the front end is a dual xeon HT 2.66's up front and dual opteron 244's in back. 3gig in each box, scsi hd's, raid etc... It is a nice setup, and 95% of the time, it deals with the forum load just fine. Right now, I'm looking at optimizing the boxes further and researching the move from apache to Lighttpd.

Today I located a posible new home, a quad opteron with 8 gig of ram, 4scsi HD's etc... if i can get a good monthly price, we may be running on this box by the end of the week.

Another option is to roll back the software to vBulletin 2.x, the 3.5 software is bloated and is causing major issues for other large forums.

I hate to keep stringing along everyone, but a lot of this is over my head and simply takes more time and money then I have.

Thanks for the update. Honestly if you're thinking of going from a 2 servers to one server, imho it's not the best idea unless you know for a fact that the network is alot better (and probably downgrading also). Your server hardware sound far more then adequate. I would say rolling back to prior version of the software and see where that goes.