Can't say I'm crazy about this idea. Perhaps if the day comes when I am able to monitor resource usage myself, we could try experimenting. But as long as I'm dependent on going through a chain of command to get those numbers, I'd prefer we left well enough alone.

Yeah, especially since the other thing wasn't done. If we WERE to try something like that, we'd want to turn it on or, say, 1 day, and get the numbers for that day. But, I agree, I wouldn't worry about it.

Personally, if the loss of the random quote generator cut our resource usage in half, I'd have no objection to the quotes becoming a thing of the past. It was a nice feature, but I'd much rather we lose something that's essentially an accent than have to make major changes to board setup and people's posting/reading habits.

But it would be good to know. Are we 90 percent sure it was the quote generator? If not, it might be worth going through the chain of command to set up a one day (or less) experiment where we turn it on for a fixed (monitored) period of time, and turn it off again. In my experience it is really good to be able to recreate a problem so you know it's source. I mean if we are planning for the future this may be important.

I am 99.5% sure it was the quote generator.

Yay! Healthy board!

Am Chau is the keeper of the list, Kristen. And I haven't seen her around recently.

I've been doing more lurking and less posting, due to lack of time and stuff. If you want the list, either e-mail me, or I can post it again: bascially, it says "CVS repository; Move search out of beta (though I understand that may not be a sensible move); ENUF filter (MARCIE); an admin only quick edit (!STOMP) that's replaced with the stompy image; Rearchitect code to use XML/XSLT; Shorten long URLs; Tag closer; Ability to label bookmarks; On-board poll ability." There's more-- see above if you want to know about it.

Personally, if the loss of the random quote generator cut our resource usage in half, I'd have no objection to the quotes becoming a thing of the past. It was a nice feature, but I'd much rather we lose something that's essentially an accent than have to make major changes to board setup and people's posting/reading habits.

Yes. It was nice, but it's not like most of us don't randomly think of, and/or spout out Buffy and Angel quotes all day, anyhow.

First off, thanks for all the thanks and all, but this was 99.999999% Kristen's work. She's the point person for the Buffistas account in the global enterprise known as FanGeek. I'm backup.

Second, those of you advocating turning on the random quotes generator make a good point about wanting to know what exactly caused the problem. However, and I hate to sound all Doom and Gloomy, but if you turn it back on and usage again skyrockets, we (the FanGeek we) can't guarantee that we'll be able to get the board back up in anything resembling a timely fashion should our Web hosts decide that usage is unreasonable and suspend Buffistas.org again. I also don't think it's fair to the other accounts on the server to ask that one account that has been known to have overage issues be allowed to possibly triple or whatever its allotted MySQL connections again for a test, even if it were a short one. To be blunt, we're lucky they didn't HostRocket you. I'd rather not test the limits of Steven's generosity.

If anyone were to ask me -- not that anyone has, but when has that stopped me? -- I'd say you've done an amazing, excellent job so far of cutting down resources. Breathe a little easier than you may have for the past week. I'd rather you post in a somewhat normal fashion, while keeping in mind things you can do to help conserve usage, than a large number of people be posting only when absolutely necessary and we get whalloped come the start of the fall TV season.

On the same note, keep thinking long-term. I'd recommend continuing to check through the code if people are willing to do so, and going ahead and implementing the housekeeping changes people are voting on now. You've gone through all the trouble of the discussion and the voting, and if the board feels things can be consolidated, by all means, take advantage of things and the situation will be that much better off come fall.

I'd rather you post in a somewhat normal fashion, while keeping in mind things you can do to help conserve usage, than a large number of people be posting only when absolutely necessary and we get whalloped come the start of the fall TV season.

Ooooh, good point.

Thanks to the coders and unloaders and everyone who helped reduce the strain on the board.

I am 99.5% sure it was the quote generator.

Good enough for me.

I'd rather you post in a somewhat normal fashion, while keeping in mind things you can do to help conserve usage, than a large number of people be posting only when absolutely necessary and we get whalloped come the start of the fall TV season.

I think this is really important. The worst thing would be the board crashing during a watch'n'post becuase everyone was too conservative now.

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sorry