Sheesh; I have been zipping around the web; but loading the piazo website and loading the messageboards and threads has been very laggy the last couple days; Anyone else having this problem; takes long time to post a thread; hate to loose stuff due to timeouts.
Director of Narrative
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This site has always been slow to load. Some of this is understandable seeing how much info they have going on with the message boards and all. I was thinking that the improvements they were going to make was going to be speed, but instead we get RSS and clickable names. Very nice additions, but I can't help but think that they are going to contribute to the speed.
Can we organize a fundraiser to get you guys new servers or something? Maybe offer a repaint mini or a pdf adventure for the sole purpose of getting some better machines?
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Yes. Lots and lots of lag. I blame the ST player's guide downloads.You're correct—the Savage Tide Player's Guide downloads are maxing out our bandwidth.
-Vic.
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Yeah, but you have to consider...
...wait...
...did you say I was right?
...I...I...I don't know how to respond to that.
How close are y'all to closing down the message boards? I know that has happened in the past with things like the black dragon promo.
That's the problem with good products at low prices; too much demand for too little supply! My local grocery store drives me crazy with this stuff - they'll put a staple product on sale (bread, trash bags, whatever), it sells out on Saturday, and then I can't buy it on Sunday. Not only do I not get the good deal, I don't get the product at all.
Not that I blame you Paizoins or would want this done differently - I just like to complain. I just hope everyone gets their ST players guide and the site returns to normal soon.
I love coming to this site and really enjoy Paizo products and the store itself...but I really wish they would speed the site up. It has always seemed slow to me.
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Chief Technical Officer
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How close are y'all to closing down the message boards? I know that has happened in the past with things like the black dragon promo.
It wouldn't help much. It helped in the case of the Black Dragon presale because all of the simultaneous cart-adding and checking-out was maxing out the processors on our database servers; removing database-driven stuff like messageboards provided relief.
The Player's Guide downloads have zero impact on our database servers—it's all just bandwidth, and relative to the massive downloads, the messageboards are pretty insignificant.
-Vic.
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I'm not going to get too specific for security reasons, but we're using MySQL on OS X Server running on Apple Xserves. With some other stuff. :-)
-Vic.
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Woohoo! That was all I needed. All your server belong to us.
Actually, I never really had a problem with the messageboards during this Savage Tide. I did spend 2.5 hours downloading the file 1 hour before my Wireless Service decided to cut me off and 1.5 hours to actually download the file.
Keep up the good work everyone at Paizo.
Just curious, but what are y'all running for a database server? Hardware and software if you don't mind?I'm not going to get too specific for security reasons, but we're using MySQL on OS X Server running on Apple Xserves. With some other stuff. :-)
-Vic
Eeee! *purrs and hugs the MySQL servers, petting them*
I loves me MySQL. :)|
Director of Narrative
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Just curious, but what are y'all running for a database server? Hardware and software if you don't mind?I'm not going to get too specific for security reasons, but we're using MySQL on OS X Server running on Apple Xserves. With some other stuff. :-)
-Vic
Eeee! *purrs and hugs the MySQL servers, petting them*
I loves me MySQL. :)
Thanks Vic. I really didn't want you to spill the proverbial beans, but my troubleshooting head was curious. Is the messageboard box dedicated to the messageboards only? That would speed things along.
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Maybe this is a Germany specific problem:
For as long as I can remember, the Paizo web site is the slowest site I know (no ranting intended, but it always takes **at least** five seconds until the message board page or any sub page opens in my browser).
My internet connection can't be the reason for that: I have a 1 Mbit DSL access which never let me down on any other site.
I also realized that web site speed heavily depends on the time I access the site. On afternoon times here (i.e. very early morning in Seattle) it is sometimes impossible to access the site (data base maintenance time?).
Maybe your site just gets too popular and your hardware can't keep up with the visitor masses? ;-)
(again: the problem I describe is considerably older than the downloadable Adventure Path Player's Guide).
Greetings,
Günther
Thanks for all the response; was curious; my lag doesnt sound as bad as most of yours; but some days it is very slow others very speedy and I dont notice any difference when use a faster machine or connection and my ping response at distance places doesnt really vary out of expected response so was just thinking it was this site. Didnt know about all the downloads and stuff like that as I dont do any savage tide stuff.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Thanks for the feedback. Overall site performance improvement is on the list; though it's important, it's a high-budget item; also, our priorities as we prepare for the holiday shopping frenzy are a bit different.
If you've been coming here a while, you might recall that we've improved overall performance once already earlier this year.
-Vic.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Is the messageboard box dedicated to the messageboards only? That would speed things along.
It doesn't really work like that. We have webservers, application servers, and database servers. The webserevers talk to the application servers, which talk to the database only if they need to. If you're looking at messageboard threads that nobody's posted to lately, most of the effort is done by the application servers which keep caches of content like that. If you're looking at threads that are changing a lot, the app servers are talking to the database to make sure that the changes are being seen by all of the applications.
When everybody's trying to download a new web supplement, the app servers and database servers don't even have to think about it—it's all handled by the webservers. But again, it's not the servers that are the problem: it's our bandwith hitting 100%. (Right now we're at about 75%; normally we're at less than 50%.)
-Vic.
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Director of Narrative
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This site has such a wealth of information that has benefitted so many of us countless numbers of times, which keeps me coming back no matter how long the pages take to load. But the important thing is that you tech guys get the budget to be able to meet the demand of this community. Fundraiser? Special Save the Techs product release? Hell, I'll come down and sell lemonade at the curb if it'll help the cause.
Yep, put me down in the "log of lag" column too.
8 hours to d/l a 26 meg zip file, pretty sad..........
The server has always been slow, but it has gotten worse. I was going to place an order today but decided to go elsewhere when each page was taking a minute to load. You literally can't browse this website unless you have patience and a ton of free time....
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Chief Technical Officer
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The server has always been slow, but it has gotten worse. I was going to place an order today but decided to go elsewhere when each page was taking a minute to load. You literally can't browse this website unless you have patience and a ton of free time....
We plan on doubling our bandwidth in the very near future.
-Vic.
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The server has always been slow, but it has gotten worse. I was going to place an order today but decided to go elsewhere when each page was taking a minute to load. You literally can't browse this website unless you have patience and a ton of free time....
I just wish I'd learn to Cut and Paste. I had a bit of a "gosh, I'd like to share how much I loved these products" moment... wrote a few positive reviews, and only the OoTS review actually made it. All the other reviews, once I hit 'preview,' went into the void, and the back button denied me.
Deny! Deny! Deny!
Thbbt.
Just adding myself to the "slowness of the site hinders my ability to participate in forums and purchase products" bandwagon. I know it costs a lot to fix, but this place is really cool, and, well...sometimes it just doesn't function. Or takes. Really. Long. To. Load. All the coolness goes to waste when the site is too slow.
I have always been curious if things like avatar pics are slowing things down. I for one would be just fine with them gone if it meant faster browsing. They aren't bad or anything, just eye candy... function should be followed by form and all that jazz...
Sean Mahoney
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Chief Technical Officer
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I have always been curious if things like avatar pics are slowing things down.
EVERY feature slows the site down to some extent. But it shouldn't be too significant... it's about the same amount of data that it takes to generate a page full of product images. And if you're looking at a popular thread, all that'll be cached for speed.
Gary has done a whole mess of things over the last couple of days that should help performance in many situations. Has anybody noticed it feeling more responsive?
-Vic.
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Senior Software Developer
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Also, I should clarify that there are two different issues with respect to paizo.com's responsiveness. First, the amount of time it takes the server to generate the response. Second, the amount of time it takes for your browser to download the response.
All the fixes I've been doing recently relate to the first number -- reducing roundtrips to the database, processing orders faster, that sort of thing.
The second number has to do more with how much bandwidth paizo.com has, and the general internet weather between our servers and your connection. We are planning to double our bandwidth early next year.
