I don't know how many times in the past this has been mentioned, but the practice of blocking out all usage of the site while in high-load mode is very inefficient on the user end. If the switch from standard load to high load occurs while submitting a file or posting to the message board, the time spent writing the description or the forum post is lost. One would think you could just hit the back button and try again, but hitting the back button brings up the high-load screen as well. Being a person who routinely types a signifigant deal per forum post, this is a bit of an annoyance. There are better solutions than this.
hmm, i never lose my post. if i try posting then get a high load screen and press back, the text is still there (and i never get another high load screen because the page was cached and is not being re-loaded)
one day hopefully we will have the money and bandwidth to have no high load screen at all. but for the mean time, i suggest surfing between the hours of 2am and 2pm EST :)
I ususaly anticipate the HighLoad screen and make sure I copy/paste my posts in notepad before hitting "Post Message." I agree however, having a separate highload screen is rather inefficient. I think I'd rather the site just be operational but slow rather than not operational at all. :B
Genesis: Well, we would love to be devious and do something about it, but unlike Jark, we don't have 100s of gerbils running around the house to use to power our server.
Attila: I agree, I'd rather have the site be slower. But, that's not my choice, and I understand where Lamplighter and Revird are coming from. It's not just about the site being slow, they're worried about the load causing the server to crash, as it did when Custo first launched.
I'll never forget the day Custo relaunched, Lamplighter: Ok guys, it's up. Go get it! (in our staff channel)Revird: Oh shit! oh shit! it's gonna crash! Oh shit! GORMAN! WHAT SHOULD I DOOOOO?????
it was great, heh... (the above quotes may have been slightly altered :-)
here's the thing with the high load screen - without it, the site wouldn't exist. we reached a level of traffic that our modest server couldnt handle, and had to do something. as we couldnt afford to upgrade the server, the high load screen was born.
we've tried increasing the threshold before it shows up (so the site is slower), but the overload of traffic just makes it grind to a halt :(
Ahh yes... the relaunch, now that I remember that day, I suppose I can better understand the necessity for the high-load screen. Maybe it will even become the mascot for Customize.org :)
The problem with the high load screen is that many prolly just press F5 or tab (then) enter, which will obviously give the server even more traffic. Some people just don't understand to wait..
About the posting. When I get the high load screen after posting a message, i just wait 5 mins and press F5. It asks me if I want to resubmit the information, and I press retry (or sumthin'..), and it works prefectly (every time).
