I get a sql error a few times a hour lately. Robin should let scripts be used and let us hot link photos so we dont have to upload them.

Would the distance also be an issue? The server is in the Netherlands.

The server needs an intervention! All that temptation there, no wonder he's distracted.

Dan

Thank you.

I was so much hoping that someone else would start this thread today. It's been bad for a couple weeks now, but today really seemed to take the cake. It's pretty bad and only getting worse.

Yes, pretty slow at times. I suspect Robin is already on it.

I thought the servers were in NY ? I know Robin is in the Netherlands.

LTG : )

This is why it is more important than ever to donate to this kick butt site.

The servers are in Texas, aren't they?

Yes.

Robin said Texas. It was the most central location.

The IP I'm getting locates to Absecon, New Jersey... and Duncan, Oklahoma... and Cartersville, Georgia.

But they seem to be hosted at http://www.linode.com/ which seems to be a cloud host, so there might not be a "single" physical location.

any predictions on the # of members next year by March 2014 ?

$10000 by christmas

You could always donate since that money helps goes towards running the site

600 online at once by March 2014.

I heard Alaska?

Interesting - I'm in Texas and I haven't had any problems so far...

I read somewhere on here before, that the server is in TX.

Hang in there guys!

I am working on this but it takes time, especially since the Pinside is something I do in my spare time (which is severely limited at this moment due to other things happening in my life).

The server is located in Dallas, TX and hosted by Linode. Monthly funds are not enough at this time to cover the costs of a dedicated server so I am working on upgrades to the way the site is hosted (replacing Apache with Nginx/PHP-FastCGI for starters).

Getting the site up to par for the amount of members using it is high on my priority list but the site's growth has been much more than I anticipated. It's not just the 400 or so members logged in, there's many hundreds more who are just browsing around anonymously (we currently have around 122,000 page views per day).

I second that

Robin > what would it cost monthly to cover the costs of a dedicated server?

If that would speed things up, then maybe some folks would be willing to donate some larger funds to make it happen.

Good question. I would love to move the Pinside over to a dedicated box if that means more ram, disk space and speed Maybe there are some Pinsiders in the hosting business who can answer this question?

Some things to keep in mind:
- We are currently running on a VPS with 2GB of memory. Memory (or rather, the lack of) is the biggest problem for the Pinside at this time but the upgrade to the next tier is (too) expensive.
- Hosting is currently around $100 per month, which I pay mostly with donations from all of you!
- The Pinside is independent. Some kind people on here have already offered me space in their racks, but truth is that the independence of this site is very important to me. The hosting must be with a professional hosting company and 100% in my own control.
- Hosting has to be in the USA as most traffic is from the USA.

I'm also interested in connecting with people who run and maintain big web servers for a living. Keywords: Linux, Ubuntu, MySQL, Apache, Nginx, PHP etc. Can you help me tune and speed up the Pinside server? PM me!

Throw up some google ads.

no dont do that

then I WOULD throw up

Then throw in a donation

Have you contacted the owner of Pair Networks?

Would he not donate some services or give a discount?

He hosts IPDB

http://www.pair.com

With over 100,000 page views a day it seems like an easy decision to me. Gotta pay the bills.

Rather make it a place were only donators are welcome.

That probably wouldn't change hosting costs much.

Then an ad free site for donors? Everything is the same but its ad free. I'm empathetic to robin since he pays out of pocket. To those that don't want ads to help offset costs on an otherwise free website need to stop whining. If he chooses why shouldn't robin use ad generated income to pay the bills and maybe pay for some of his time.

Many of the ads would likely be pinball related too.

With the exception of all of those with freaky google tastes.

hmm.... I guess the 100s of non members are also slowing things down some

A few words...
I live in Europe, Hungary. The site was always fast, and stable for me. Maybe, the bandwidth to US is the problem? Or, I'm just a lucky man?

I think there should be a donors only sub forum that only annual donors who do some minimal amount can access.

I wish I knew enough about the field to get some bids to you. There is such a broad spectrum in costs for this. About how much per month are you getting in donations now Robin? I am very saddened to hear the donations only mostly cover the $100 per month fee. We may need to start thinking of raffles or something for you to raise some money.

By the way, I have no speed problems with access to the site.

Another thought: you could pull a page out of the MMPO world and have nom-contributors build karma at half speed. Many people don't care about karma but some do and that may increase the donor pool (high karma helps people buy and sell games for example).

That is done with the donate button at the top of the page on the right.

No one can seriously have a problem with ads on a webpage anymore, can they?

Well you'd better organize a bake sale too. Donations alone have no where near the reliability as a slow and steady google ads income. From what I've read above donations aren't even covering costs.

The time you are on is not the peak time for the site. That helps you a lot.

Then right now I'm out.

LTG : )

I think Ops like you would have an auto pass . . . you guys help us all with technical knowledge and keep pinball alive for the non-collector in a market where you make almost no money. Obviously, some exceptions would need to be made for people like you and the other uber respected Ops that help all of us out by posting here. You guys make the site!

Man, I wouldn't say "seriously have a problem" but it sure is nice that there are NO ads here. It helps when I surf on my phone and ipad. This is the only message board I come to that doesn't advertise and it is NICE. I would still come here and still donate even if they did advertise, but I sure enjoy the fact that they don't!

Only the ones that pop up on the screen that you have to "X" out of.

I have been on other forums where if you browse for free then you see ads. If you donate a small annual contribution, then the ads go away. It works well the times I experienced it.

LTG, I would happily pay for you to have ad free service. The amount of $ you have saved me is crazy! Toss on top of that the knowledge I would have had to pay for in a traditional setting...

That seems like a viable option.

I've never seen that before; but that sure sounds awesome to me! Very cool idea.

Can I donate 20$ in LTG's name? He should have a gold heart next to his name.

Give him a hart.... like maybe a hart that cant be bought but only earned. Make one of those and it might make people go out of there way to help people in order to earn one.

Robin, I may be a new member here so I understand I haven't earned my stripes as a member you can rely on but if you'd like I (along with others) can help sort out what is needed to optimize the site. I am part system administration, web developer and application support for my company. I know hosting services enough to get forums up and running but not enough to see what is needed in this case. The keywords you mentioned are standards in any good hosting company. At this point its really bandwidth and server performance.
If you can give me a few days, I have two very close buddies that work for web hosting
companies and I can ask what are the requirements for a top package to host a good forum but not be expensive. They truly are experts and they've dealt with configuring account packages for customers.
Is it ok I ask around my peers?