LXer server performance

Forum: LXer Meta ForumTotal Replies: 13
Author Content
tadelste

Mar 26, 2006
12:33 PM EDT
Even though we've increased our capacity exponentially on the hardware end, we have had some performance problems. At peak times the system slows down. Bare with us as we grow.

You can have a problem because you don't have much business or because you get busy. I prefer the latter.

To get an understanding of our growth, last year vs this year our statistics look something like this:

hits 1, 677,086 for the month vs 4,700,000+ on March 21 visits 163,432 for the month vs 550,000 + on March 21 top story 42,000 all time vs 239,500 as of today, March 26 pages viewed for top 50 2,200 vs 10, 876 as of today, March 26 page views 339,091 vs approx 1.5 million and increasing

On March 21st, we had 1+ million hits for the day.

We've done a lot of software revamping and access times have greatly improved especially at 1 AM. We have enough capacity on the hardware side but a significant percent of our hits occur in a prime time period of 3 hours.

I have noticed a significant improvement in performance ever since we were swamped five days ago, but it has taken massive amounts of time on Dave's part.

We ask you to remain patient with us. We just have a lot of readers. Also, keep in mind that our syndicated feeds on numerous sites and in RSS apps do not come to the LXer site. Instead, the mouse click leads the reader to the article directly. So, we give away our newswire to at least 1/3rd of the people who use us.

What accounts for our growth? You.

We appreciate your choosing us. You have a lot of choices out there and we appreciate your participation. Also, please continue submitting stories and even if you write on your own blog, we don't mind simultaneous submissions with bloggers.

Thanks again.

Any comments welcome.
jdixon

Mar 26, 2006
12:41 PM EDT
> Bare with us as we grow.

Tom, I don't think that's the message you want to send. :) Bear with us might work better.
tadelste

Mar 26, 2006
12:49 PM EDT
Darn. you mean I don't get to slip any subtext in my posts any more?

Oh well sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

Sometimes you shine your bare and sometimes you don't.
grouch

Mar 26, 2006
2:06 PM EDT
Was that big bump on the 21st the day you stirred up slashdot and digg? IIRC, somebody in an LXer comment said it was like hitting a hornet's nest. Maybe some of the hornets decided this is a good place to get some news.

tadelste

Mar 26, 2006
3:13 PM EDT
Oh yeah.
peragrin

Apr 17, 2006
4:05 AM EDT
Hey Tadelste is this why I have lost my favorite feature of Lxer? I seem to have lost the ability to change lxer to my own colour scheme.

I never had a major change like some but everyone who has a custom design appears to have had some changes made to their pages. Or maybe it's just the background colour for the main page.

Did something accidently get hardcoded?
rsheim

Apr 17, 2006
6:47 AM EDT
I tried to adjust mine to look like hkwint. But it's a mess.

Who is in charge of the site? adelstein doesn't post articles and hasn't banged on Microsoft lately. Maybe he's moved up in the organization and is too good for us peons.
jdixon

Apr 17, 2006
8:24 AM EDT
> Who is in charge of the site?

That would be Dave Whitinger. See http://lxer.com/members/member/dave/

> adelstein doesn't post articles and hasn't banged on Microsoft lately.

Someone told me that Tom had left LX'er. Since I haven't seem him post for a couple of weeks, I assume it's true.
dcparris

Apr 17, 2006
12:35 PM EDT
Tom resigned week before last. I have assumed his duties. I know I have some big shoes to fill, and I'll keep my nose to the grindstone. Hope this helps.
hkwint

Apr 25, 2006
11:55 PM EDT
As far as the Microsoft bashing is concerned: I am trying to fill that gap. But, to be really honest, I think I should focus more on Linux instead of MS, since I think that is what brings people to this site.

For some reason my layout works pretty well for me. Just check the HTML, and it should work. But, not all things which should, are.
grouch

Apr 27, 2006
12:03 AM EDT
>"Tom resigned week before last. I have assumed his duties. I know I have some big shoes to fill, and I'll keep my nose to the grindstone. Hope this helps."

dcparris:

I wish you well. Is tadelste ok? Not being pursued by all those hornets he stirred up on slashdot, I hope. :)

He's been willing to stick his neck out for quite a while. I hope he continues to be inspired to write in support of open source, open standards and freedom for individuals. (Yeah, I know that's a selfish wish which completely ignores the personal toll taken on anyone who does stick their neck out.)
dcparris

Apr 27, 2006
9:37 AM EDT
Thanks, grouch. Tom is fine. No he didn't sign on with Microsoft - he is still definitely part of the FOSS community and will likely continue to write editorials and how-tos, I'm sure. Meanwhile, we will do our level best to keep things interesting around here. All we really need is for Ballmer to say something - anything at all, really. ;-) Maybe I could give him a call...
jdixon

Apr 27, 2006
10:00 AM EDT
> Tom is fine.

Glad to hear it. If you get the chance, tell him not to be a stanger. We miss his comments.
grouch

Apr 27, 2006
10:04 AM EDT
LOL dcparris!

If Tom were to sign on with Microsoft, I could almost guarantee Ballmer would say something newsworthy. My guess is that there might be a chair-throwing contest over their use of the word "open". My bets would be on Tom.

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