Sorry about the downtime. I've been spending every night when I got home from work and most of last weekend trying to figure out why the site was slowing to a crawl every time I enabled it.

It turns out there were a couple of culprits:

The Porn Thread (http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1803001) is being linked to by the outside world. Because it's such a long thread MySQL has to retrieve thousands of records every time someone brings up ONE of the pages in the thread. The load of thousands of people hitting this one thread was killing the system.

The Shoplifting Thread (http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1733650) is also getting a large number of hits.

For now the best thing you can do is to split large threads up into multiple smaller threads (10 pages or fewer). If you see a thread getting large, close it, sticky it, and open a new one (Part 2, or 8 as the case may be).

I'm looking at installing more memory and using Squid to cache pages, which should take a large load off the database, especially in cases where a thread is hugely popular. In the meantime, try to keep threads to less than 10 pages.

Would it be possible to just update the robots.txt file so that the bbs is no longer indexed?

Now I feel all guilty.

Also, we were discussing on IRC earlier that we could reduce mysql memory usage by making it so that threads that are more than 6 months inactive are automatically deleted from the database and turned into flatfiles as an "archive" I think vbul has this capability built in (I'll have to look to make sure). If the thread is more than 6 months inactive it's doubtful that anyone will be contributing to it any longer - if they are they could make a new thread and link to the archived version. The static files wouldn't even use mysql.

Sounds logical. You never know how much you appreciate this board until its gone. Thanks for the hard work and time you put in, Jeff.

One other thing that was causing a problem:

It turned out that the server that I use for primary DNS was down (and I didn't know about it), and MySQL actually uses DNS for some operations unless you tell it not to. So:
Queries would hit MySQL.
MySQL would do a DNS lookup to validate where the query came from.
Since primary DNS was down, it would just sit until primary timed out before trying secondary DNS.
A bunch of these queries would pile up and eventually Apache would run out of server processes, bringing the whole site down.Primary DNS is back on-line and I've added a directive to MySQL's startup so it doesn't use DNS any more.

Yes. Done. (I'd over-looked that when I switched to vB.)

I've thought of a number of possibilities along these lines, but the old threads aren't actually that much of a problem, and I'll be adding a script that closes threads automatically if no one has posted to that thread within X days.

The biggest problem is that I didn't have much visibility as to what was causing the slowdown. It wasn't until I enabled MySQL's "slow queries" log that I could see exactly what queries were really, really slow, which led me to The Porn Thread and The Shoplifting Thread.

The biggest problem is that I didn't have much visibility as to what was causing the slowdown. It wasn't until I enabled MySQL's "slow queries" log that I could see exactly what queries were really, really slow, which led me to The Porn Thread and The Shoplifting Thread.

I knew there had to be something like this for mysql. I was looking for this very thing the other week but was unsure of what to search for, haha. Thanks!

And thanks for the updates!

Have you thought os accepting donations yet like i have always said and i know others have as well we would be happy to invest in some new hard ware to keep totse from ultimately dieing a horrible horrible overload of a death

Brilliant. Thankyou for putting the effort into making such a good site.
Dont think my forums have a problem with long threads yet.

You never know how much you appreciate this board until its gone. Thanks for the hard work and time you put in, Jeff.

^ What he said. Appreciated!

Thank god we're back!

I just noticed this, but thank you for disabling rep.

I'm missing the "who's viewing" feature, though.

So as the caretaker of a forum hosting one of these uberthreads, about how many posts should I let accumulate before I ice it and start a new one?

Nice to see everything back up and running, and it's nice to see rep gone.

Good work Jeff.

We have a few threads in AR&R that are starting to get up there; The Offical What Song is This? (7 pages) and What Song Are You Listening to Right Now (15 pages).

Should we close them and open up a part 2?

Thanks for working so hard to get the site back up!

I think it's funny that pr0n was a variable in the crash.

Thanks for the effort Jeff.

-deus-

When it gets to about 10 pages it's time for a new one.

Just an idea, but could we not periodically run a script to select threads with over a certain number of pages, and split them?

-deus-

I'm looking at installing more memory

What type and capacity?

When it gets to about 10 pages it's time for a new one.

Hmmm...

Official Pill ID Thread: 15 pages.
Official DXM Thread: 46 pages.

I guess they're due for a new installment...

I second the "good work"--but am I the only egomaniac who misses rep?

I REALLY miss it. Sometimes I'd hand out neg rep when infracting seemed a tad too harsh.

I second the "good work"--but am I the only egomaniac who misses rep?

I REALLY miss it. Sometimes I'd hand out neg rep when infracting seemed a tad too harsh.

I'm also finding that I miss the rep system as well, it was a nice way of giving/getting feedback on your post. Neg rep was a good way to tell users to "cut-it-out" when an infraction wasn't needed.

Hmmm...

Official Pill ID Thread: 15 pages.
Official DXM Thread: 46 pages.

I guess they're due for a new installment...

Ogame thread in Spurious:

94 Pages. 3,729 replies.

What a behemoth!

I'm also finding that I miss the rep system as well, it was a nice way of giving/getting feedback on your post. Neg rep was a good way to tell users to "cut-it-out" when an infraction wasn't needed.

I miss rep too. I liked the messages.


OMG I <3 YOU
...or
You're a dumb cunt!!!

It kept me grounded.

I'm also finding that I miss the rep system as well, it was a nice way of giving/getting feedback on your post. Neg rep was a good way to tell users to "cut-it-out" when an infraction wasn't needed.

I agree, I used it a lot in this way also.
What about if mods only can give rep? I dunno if thats really a solution or a good idea, but it's a thought?

I think enabling PMs for mods would be more effective, though I don't know if that's possible.

That would be better than enabling reputation.

I have to echo that I enjoyed the messeges.

I did, too. :(

Never really figured out how to view rep until right before Totse went down. Haha, you had to scroll ALL the way down. Silly me. Never really cared for the rep system, I can go either way on it.

Anyone else notice that the forums have been rather subdued since Totse came pack up? Only 30 people in SG? I thought I'd never see the day. I noticed that there were over 2,000 users on Totse on July 31, and now there's only 380 users as of August 13, 1:50am. Given, it's the middle of the night (for me, anyway)....but still.

Are you sure everyone has figured out that Totse is back on line? That may be a possibility after all.

Are you sure everyone has figured out that Totse is back on line? That may be a possibility after all.I'm hoping that's what it is...

I think some succumbed to the call of the outdoors.

Weaklings.

Yeah, I've thought of that. Maybe this is a blessing, too: all the trolls that were here before have forgotten about us, and have moved on to another site. :D The cream is rising to the top...

Yeah, I've thought of that. Maybe this is a blessing, too: all the trolls that were here before have forgotten about us, and have moved on to another site. :D The cream is rising to the top...

By 'cream' you mean 'the foamy scum atop an ocean', right?

By 'cream' you mean 'the foamy scum atop an ocean', right?Whale semen?