Need advice about forum server

[bearpaw]

Some of the forum boards had "Blocks" for Quick Links, New Member Links, Random Photo, Chat Details, and the Recent Posts visible and some other forum Boards had some or none of those blocks visible. So yesterday I decided to add the blocks on all the Boards which did not have them so that members could conveniently see all the blocks when on any board.

There were about 130-140 people online when I added the blocks to the other boards. I added one block at a time to all boards and all boards seemed to work great. One thing I definitely noticed, the load time for a board was doubled or tripled with all the blocks added, which meant much slower load times for users with slower connections.

An hour or two later in the afternoon traffic picked up to 200+ people which began to overload the server. I believe that is why some posts were lost, the server was overloaded and did not recognize all posts.

Because the server was overloaded I had a hard time logging in to remove the "blocks" from any of the boards. In order to get the forum working as best as quickly as possible, I was finally able to log into the server, I removed the blocks from all the boards, except the forum home page. Immediately the forum boards operated faster than before I had added any blocks to the boards.

What I learned is that our server ($120 monthly) is definitely limited, outdated, and close to being overloaded more frequently. As the forum grows this problem will occur more often. For now I have the forum set to get by with the current server as long as possible. I have checked and a server upgrade will be about ($200 per month) but that should make us good for a lot of growth if we upgraded.

Since many of our users are limited by connection speeds the users on slower connections may not like the blocks added to the forum boards anyway. So with all this in mind I need to ask a few questions to learn what will work best for everyone.

Please try to vote at least 4 times:

1.  Is the forum faster today than a couple days ago?
2.  How many boards should have blocks?
3.  How soon should we upgrade the server?
4.  What's the best way to pay for an upgrade?

Please post any comments you may have, that is why I posted these questions.
Thanks, Dale

[7mag.]

I don't know much about this kind of thing, but I'm sure you will do what is needed. I have a hard time noticing different load speeds, because I access the site from several different computers, all with different connections. I wouldn't mind making a donation, and maybe if enough of us do it, you won't have to raise the advertising rates too much. I like to see our local businesses advertising on here, and would hate to see the advertising on this site pushed beyond their budget.

[bearmanric]

i would help with a donation allso. my home is here mainly. i sell my calls at predatormasters. but alot of my friends are here. Rick

[Heredoggydoggy]

I'll be happy to donate if it means keeping such a great website going.  I don't think the advertisers should carry the whole load, and neither should the site owner who already contributes so much of his time. 

[bearpaw]

Thanks to those for offering to help and to everyone who has voted so far, that really helps to see what everyone is thinking.

I am going to add the blocks back to the general discussion board for a day or so before adding them back to any other boards. You guys with slow connections please comment on how fast that board loads compared to other boards.

Please keep voting... and let me know your thoughts. 

[bearpaw]

Bumping this back up so everyone sees it and gets a chance to express their thoughts.

[addicted]

I just voted, AKA bump*

[Huntbear]

Am not an advertiser on here, and have no idea what the rates already are, so would not just vote to increase those rates, but I am willing to toss a 20 towards helping out  with the server...

[Bean Counter]

Member fees! Only serious hunters would apply  You could always do like a  free 60 day subscription or something to let people try it out. Only $5 or $10 per member per year should cover everything 

Although, some of the resident libs would ask how much is in each of our wallets and then say "Well Bill over there has more money than I do so he should pay more."