Ifishneeds batteries. It just keeps growing, and growing, and groaning.

[Jennie@ifish]

Hokey dokey here, all you users in the know and soon to be "know"...

Here is the latest...

Ifish is using a new fairly powerful server, because we were at max capacity on the old one, and there was a slowing happening. At times, it brought the server to it's knees.
Now....
Ifish is growing still.
UBB says that the software we are using is maxed out by our growth. It was intended to be used as a moderate use board. We are by no means moderate anymore.
I have two options offered by Infopop.
There is a board they call Threads. It is not as user friendly for the admin, but is OK for you guys. But, hey, I want easy too!
There is also one called Open Topic. That is an awesome board, but very expensive.
They also offer a hosting solution and add in a really COOL board called UBB.x. This runs like Open Topic, but is only available with a hosting solution.
UBB.x uses MYSQL, a exciting, and lightning fast option for us!
The board is very similar to what we have, except it offers some cool new features.
I do, however, have to pay more for them to host that part of the board.
I will keep the picture upload, and all of the static ifish pages on the ifish server, and pay extra to house the board only, on the infopop server.
(The board uses the majority of, and perhaps up to 20 or 30 Gigs of transfer a month. YOUZA! The people at Infopop called us fishing addicts!!!)

We are going to give it a try, perhaps starting as early as tomorrow. They are going to let me try it out, to devise exactly how much transfer I might save. MYSQL compresses pages better and is a much more efficient way to run a board).
Yikes. It's scary, because there is no transfer utility to transfer back our posts for this trial period, and we will lose any posts, if we don't like it, and want to go back to ubb classic. (What we are running currently.)

Anyway, it is a big decision for me. I'm trying to do the best for ifish, and keep within my budget. What budget? :smile:

See ya....
J

[AngleThis]

Jen,

It seems to me that ifish has gotten big enough such that it could spin off some pretty influential groups...lobyists, political 'contribuitions', paid press releases, etc. The size of potential strength of the ifish membership amounts to a sleeping giant that cold possibly be awakened by the recent closing of the river, if you time it right.

I don't know what your feelings are about this type of growth, but it seems to me that it's either gotta go this way, or sooner or later turn into a pay site, or maybe both.

DC

[STGRule]

Make sure they back-up EVERYTHING before transfering stuff. :shocked:

[Beek]

Another option is to go with the vBulletin software. It runs on mySQL with PHP scripting, which drains significantly less resources than UBB CGI deal.

It is bullet fast and there are tons of modifications available. It will also transfer your UBB member list without problems. The cost is only 160 bucks with free upgrades for a couple years. I post on both style boards and the vBulletin board is amazing. Heres an example of a board with 10,000 plus members that is still extremely quick:

www.sitepointforums.com (http://www.sitepointforums.com)

Good luck with any changes you make Jen!

[Jennie@ifish]

I've looked into Vbulletin before.
I forget what stopped me from going there, but there was something...
I think it lacked an import for UBB6 for a while. Maybe that has changed.
J

[Hogmaster]

Hi Jen,

I am a new user and this may be considered blasphamy, but I think you should ask for funds from the community. Maybe even make it a non-voluntary pay site. I have had an incredible amount of fun just reading the posts and lies already, and there is value there.

The real time reports and information is great!

Sorry I can't help directly with the tech side issues, but wanted to say thanks for doing such a great job!

[Jennie@ifish]

Hi Hog!
The ifish family has been very generous to the causes.
I've been giggling lately, calling ifish, the "Sports Fishing Tabloid".
It is fun, isn't it? :smile:
Anyway, anyone can donate to the cause at any time, but I'm not going on any more fundraising drives till next year.
I can do this. It's not that expensive. 100 or 150 a month more.
If you want to help out, there is a link on the top of every page.
Thanks,
Jen... (who, by the way, is going to catch one or two HUGE springers tomorrow before I have to go have a root canal at 2:30!
WHOOOPPEEEEE!!!)
Whoopee about the nook, not the tooth!

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Jen

Although the current software may not be able to handle a maximum number of hits it is important that all other possible bottlenecks be eliminated before a software change is warranted. First, insist that all data connections to your server be given priority and debugged for bottlenecks. Second, make sure that the RAM that your server is running is of high quality, maximum size, and of a type appropriate for server use. Ask if partitioning your server to reflect the high use of the BB would speed up access.

Good luck…

[Jennie@ifish]

Check, check, check and check, ***.
The good thing about the infopop server is that it has been fine tuned to run this application.
It will be closely monitored and trouble shot by the infopop team.
Everything is running smoothly on ifish, except for at high traffic times, when the cross posting still occurs.
We could get by with what we have now, but if it gets any busier, then it's a no go.
STG, back up is done nightly now.
The backup boo boo before was caused by the tech at the new server, fogetting to even install the backup program.
I'm doin the best I can! I wish it wasn't all on my back. These are tough decisions.
:smile:
J
Jen

[Lured In]

Jennie: Here are a couple other thoughts for you. I checked out what infopop is offering and it looks reasonably good. (From a technical standpoint and no I am not an UBB guru :wink: .) Keep in mind what they are offering is not just hosting, rather it is an ASP (application service provider). You pay only a service fee and own virtually nothing. There are several benefits and drawbacks of which I am sure there are others I am not aware of.

This is based on my own job which is to help ensure that companies like infopop deliver on what they promise to their customers concerning performance and uptime commitments for SLA's. (service level agreements.) As a potential paying customer

Infopop's goal is 99.5% uptime less up to 10 hours a month for scheduled maitenance. Keep in mind this is a goal and I can find nowhere where they actually promise to meet/measure this.

1. How do they measure uptime and are they willing to compensate you if they do not meet that goal of 99.5%?

2. Can they measure the uptime outside of scheduled maintenance windows and will they provide you a report of this?

3. Find out what the "scheduled" maintenance times are first. Better yet see if you can choose when you go down.

4. Make sure you retain all rights to the data, so that should you ever cancel the service you can rebuild and/or have access to all the content.

5. The pricing is actually less than I would have expected, even for "plan B" based on most of the ASP models I have worked with.

6. What happens if ifish grows and needs another server or more disk space? What is the incremental cost and will it be "seemless" if another server is added? Better yet can they load balance? If it has a mySQL backend they can run that on a separate server and really get creative with performance tuning.

I hope this was somewhat helpful. Email me if you have anything specifically you want to pick my brain on. :wink:

[ 04-29-2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: Lured In ]

[Jennie@ifish]

EXTREMELY HELPFUL, lured.
I'll shoot that, as written to the guy I'm working with.
I love the "Do I own the data?" question. Dang good point!
Thanks!
J