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Database issues unacceptable


hypochondriac

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Do you look at the accounts of every company you ever buy stuff from?

 

Nope, but I feel happy buying a Mars bar, knowing that Mr Mars is trying to make a profit out of me. As I think this site surfs a line between profit and non-profit that is at best unclear, at least that I don't understand. As a result, I prefer not to buy (at least directly - let James Caan advertise to me all he likes!).

 

It is the best Saints forum though and I cannot change my allegiance to the club. I also recognise that the owners / mods etc. do a thankless task.

 

PS. However, if I buy a Mars bar and instead I get a sausage, I'd feel a little bit cheated.

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A big problem on match days must be the match day thread!? You have countless people listening to the game and then updating almost identicle updates at the same time.... For every 1 post, you have 10! Wouldn't it be worth trying having a designated game updater (it's a real word!) and the rest can argue with alpine?

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It's really simple. In the short term turn off access for non registered members to the entire forum the next time we play - see if it works. Doing nothing is no longer an option because it's getting ridiculous. In the medium term fix the problem.

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This is obviously ridiculous, but perhaps to help things when you get a database error people could wait a few minutes before clicking refresh; everyone refreshing at the same time really kicks the server whilst it's down.

 

Not a bad idea Saint_clark. Another way of doing is to operate some kind of ticketing system. So you log on and a mo gives you a time (on an e-slip of paper) and you can only post at that time. No-one else is given that time and the mod gives the next person in the "queue" the next time (a minute after the previous time). This means you'll get a slow one post a minute across all forums, but the site wouldn't crash. Once the last person in the queue has made their post, it goes back to the beginning and we just keep doing that. I don't think we should limit it to busy periods either, maybe do it permanently?

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It's really simple. In the short term turn off access for non registered members to the entire forum the next time we play - see if it works. Doing nothing is no longer an option because it's getting ridiculous. In the medium term fix the problem.

 

As far as I'm aware, we've never had an explanation as to why such remedial action isn't taken at the time a problem occurs.

 

Mods/Admin - do you actually have the technology to restrict categories of users 'on the fly'?

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Any half decent server shouldn't be struggling with the volumes of this forum.

 

More likely your database has been inefficiently designed and is getting easily overloaded.

 

Needs sorting though either way. I won't be renewing until I can actually use the forum during matches.

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This is obviously ridiculous, but perhaps to help things when you get a database error people could wait a few minutes before clicking refresh; everyone refreshing at the same time really kicks the server whilst it's down.

 

I'm just off to check if the stable door is shut and whether there are any horses still in there. Back in a sec.... ;-)

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As far as I'm aware, we've never had an explanation as to why such remedial action isn't taken at the time a problem occurs.

 

Mods/Admin - do you actually have the technology to restrict categories of users 'on the fly'?

 

Of course they do. Anyone with access to the admin pages can do this in a few seconds. Even I could do it and i'm rubbish when it comes to technology.

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So, why (seemingly) don't they do it? Or pehaps they do and we don;t know about it?

 

I've scoured the mod control panel and I cannot find anything that would restrict user access other than the "ban user" section - and that is taking things a bit too far if you ask me.

Something else i've just noticed is that if you go to the last page on each forum, the very first threads ever started are still there...deleting those completely might help speed things up a bit.

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Good thinking Deppo. I'll make sure you're at the back of the queue - hopefully the match will end before it's your turn.

 

What a nasty thing to say. Maybe if you stopped defending the indefensible and started focussed on thinking of solutions we wouldn't have this problem.

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Fair enough, but Trousers originally asked if mods had access as well.

 

This is true. Sorry if I sound like I'm having a Victor Meldrew moment about this. As others have pointed out, it's not the end of the world.

 

That said, we do have this statement towards the top of the main forum page:

 

"Please note that, at busy periods, you may have to be a Registered or Full Member in order to view the main forum."

 

Which would lead one to believe that there is a configuration switch somewhere that could be flicked. I'd be inclined to restrict it to "Full members only" at really busy times, just to see how it panned out.

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I think it would be a good start to have someone with administrator access online during games.

 

Hmmm. Not easy to tell an administrator that he cannot go to the game.

 

And thats the problem. This site is run (pretty well) by Saints fans, so there is no-one around when it goes tittus verticus

 

I also get the clear impression there is a difference between mods (of which there is quite a few) and admin, whom I believe is only Baj and maybe Steve Grant.

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Hmmm. Not easy to tell an administrator that he cannot go to the game.

 

And thats the problem. This site is run (pretty well) by Saints fans, so there is no-one around when it goes tittus verticus

 

I also get the clear impression there is a difference between mods (of which there is quite a few) and admin, whom I believe is only Baj and maybe Steve Grant.

 

I am sure there is somebody who doesn't go to every game, that could be trusted with it. Even, if they only had admin access during games.

 

I don't go to every game, you would probably need a pool of users, like the contributors, who can let Steve/baj know when they are available to do it, and a rota made. I would be willing to do this as an experiment for the Peterborough game. To see if it helps?

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I wouldn't mind being shut out on match days, I would just use my alternative "Dune" log-in, which I normally just keep for satirical political wind-ups. I play the "Dune" character to make right wing politics seem as unpalatable and and odious as I can to help push the SWF readership further to the left. How am I doing?

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I m happy to organise the "ticket" approach to posting that I championed earlier. I'll start next saturday. When you log-in you need to send me a PM and I PM you back with a time that you can post. You are only allowed to post at that specific time. If you post at any time other than that shown on the ticket you will be temporarily banned (for an hour). I'll leave it to Boj to sort out my admin account. I'm hopeful that together we can overcome the problems SWF has been experiencing.

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Hmmm. Not easy to tell an administrator that he cannot go to the game.

 

And thats the problem. This site is run (pretty well) by Saints fans, so there is no-one around when it goes tittus verticus

 

I also get the clear impression there is a difference between mods (of which there is quite a few) and admin, whom I believe is only Baj and maybe Steve Grant.

 

 

They are the techies. They are the only 2 who can sort the DB issues as far as i am aware..............Steve goes to every game

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I m happy to organise the "ticket" approach to posting that I championed earlier. I'll start next saturday. When you log-in you need to send me a PM and I PM you back with a time that you can post. You are only allowed to post at that specific time.

 

If I send you a PM asking for a free slot, how will you know whether I'm PM'ing you in response to your 'sexual problems' thread or the match day thread? I feel we need a mechanism for differentiating the two.

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If I send you a PM asking for a free slot, how will you know whether I'm PM'ing you in response to your 'sexual problems' thread or the match day thread? I feel we need a mechanism for differentiating the two.

 

It should be easy enough to figure out what your PM is about - unless the performance of the team is having a direct impact on the performance of your micropenis?

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