Has Apolyton become too big?

[Seeker]

Well? It seems like we get a new forum every month or so.

Besides off-topic, I always check the EU2 and Civ Creation to see if someone has made the big WWII scenario I'm waiting for.

How can you possibly afford such a big, expensive site guys??

[RGBVideo]

How would they make it smaller? Ban all who have pc of under 1 000? :/

[Dis]

they got rid of some older forums.

they should probably delete inactive screen names. But it is no big deal I suppose. I can't imagine a screen name would take up too much room.

[ixnay]

As long as it still runs, it's not too big.

[alva]

Maybe a split-up in the OT section?

Serious, on some days it's impossible to follow the OT.

[Datajack Franit]

Agreed, delete the older forums

[DrSpike]

Does it matter how many forums there are? Surely it's just traffic that is the issue.....and aside from very occasional mishaps the server seems to handle the load well.

[Solver]

It's not too big, except that, from a technical view, we should really stop using mySQL for a database, and do something else. Long times for editing posts, occasional database mitakes and UUUUUUU messages show that the database is too big somewhat.

[spartak]

What would you suggest if not SQL?

[Solver]

I don't know what would the server support.

[Alex]

Apolyton is not too big; we are too small.

[Dinner]

The OT has to much going on for just about anyone to follow but I wouldn't say 'poly is to big. We''ll know when it gets to big because it will take five minutes to load a page.

[Rasbelin]

1. MySQL is just fine for the database. vBulletin only supports MySQL and it can handle large databases, as can vBulletin handle larger amounts of users than on Apolyton. This isn't the largest community that uses vB.

2. What would these old forums be? GGS maybe, but nothing else maybe. Pruning old messages and unused user accounts would be the best approach to this. vB has good administrative pruning features, so that's not the problem. The only obstacle is if Dan and Markos agree to do that and what the criterias would be for account pruning.

3. I have actually tackled this size issue in a The Column writing which has not yet been published, but generally speaking I could add that using a separate database server would also be a good idea.

4. The service quality can't be addressed with limited funds and as the potential funding models have been dismissed until further notice (i.e. the models of donations and paid memberships I've promoted because of that). I'm not trying to say I know better than Dan and Markos how to run this site, but indeed I have some insights on this issue. No more cash = no improvements in quality. More funding = improved quality.

[Rasbelin]

Just to clarify: service quality = server speed and capacity, bandwith, website uptime. So it's not related to the contents of the site.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Solver
It's not too big, except that, from a technical view, we should really stop using mySQL for a database, and do something else. Long times for editing posts, occasional database mitakes and UUUUUUU messages show that the database is too big somewhat.

i still say the UUUUUUUUUU is caused by the banner-ad script and not the mySQL DB.