What's the Point of Donating If We Can't Access This Site at Peak Times?

October 12, 2012 | Self

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I have to ask this very seriously, do you know that this site has been completely unusable to perhaps thousands and thousands of others during either the first Presidential or Vice-Presidential debate and for an hour or so after their respective conclusions?

This has never happened in previous election cycles during debates, election night results or during large breaking news events. Slow? Yes. Unusable, no.

I've had multiple tabs opened for the debates this year and the FR one just wheel spin, wheel spin, wheel spin... blank page, no progress bar moving on the address bar. It's just the internet equivalent of dead air for hours.

If you're getting this during a VP debate I fully expect this site to be dead and inaccessible from 6PM-4AM election night.

Update us would you? What's going on?

[The Cajun]

Lots of people here trying to access one particular thread, bottleneck somewhere because of that????
Just thinking that could be right up there with a real DOS attack?

[Irenic]

I don’t know if others have noticed but it is not only during big events. It also seems to happen much more when there are Freepathons.

I’ve wondered if there are disgruntled ex-freepers that might get a jolly off running a DOS. Especially during fund-raising and large events.

[DRey]

PING

[ExxonPatrolUs]

If denial of service is a problem, FR could make connections secure at login and IP whitelist forum usage. Could even use certificates installed on server and in browser.

[Yaelle]

That 9/11 thread is amazing history. It wouldn’t be possible with FR unable to handle a lot of people wanting to post at once. I’m sad about next week and election night. I miss FR.

I bet there would be a ton of solid donations if there were an explanation and guarantee that FR would be able to handle huge volumes on big days.

Why can some chat rooms hold thousands of people? There must be a solution. And I’d love to help pay for it, once it’s explained.

[The Cajun]

Was really wondering if a bunch of FReepers trying to access the same thread at one time could possibly mimic a real DOS attack due to some configuration problem.
Just taking a *SWAG* at it.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

They weren't tossed, they left. Romney isn't the first choice for many of us, he is only a lesser evil. Many of us were doing all we could do to get a real conservative nominated, others insisted on undermining the effort, and they got called out on it, got their feelings hurt and left.

We can be pretty sure of one thing, Romney's choice of Paul Ryan was the result of conservative efforts. Without that he may well have picked someone far less conservative.

[guido911]

Ace of Spades and Hot Air had similar problems last night. Not fair to rip on FR.

[Vendome]

Well, we could fill up the pages with all kinds of ads from anyone and everyone, even those who have agenda’s we don’t care for.

A ford logo here, a Solyndra logo there...pretty soon we are Huffington post and have to listen to drivel from idiots.

You want it this way or Huffpo?

I know, you were just venting. hell, even I do it.

Long live Jim Thompson!!!

[trebb]

Understood, but on the other side, Jum keeps taking flak from always “begging for money” and many work very hard to keep FR funded and free from becoming a commercial-ridden site. If you want to belong to an exclusive club, you need to make sure it is properly funded.

[FrogMom]

I had trouble getting in last night, too, just like the last general election night.

I hate to talk about feelings when facing an issue, BUT,
FreeRepublic is feels like a child to me - I love it dearly even though it screws up occasionally.

My name is on the list of monthly donors and suspect it will remain so until you have to post me on the Memorial Wall.

Hugs, Jim, ya’ll will figure it out!

[mlo]

I would suspect it’s not a horsepower issue, it’s a caching issue. Websites with a lot of users have to cache database hits, they can’t do a live query every time.

[ShadowAce]

Sorry, I’m fresh out of ideas. I’m sure John will get it solved, but I don’t know when.

We have a ton of IT professionals on this site. My problem is that I do not know the configuration or the setup of what FR is running. We can't troubleshoot without information.

Can we get information on number/type of servers, type of internet connection, NICS per server, traffic each NIC is seeing, Apache/database/OS versions? Firewall setup?

[Roccus]

I used to be a $1+/day contributor, at first anonymously and later posted, even during the increased levy that was supposed to get the hamsters up to speed. Just as FR slowed to a crawl right before the present FReepathon, it did so before the previous one. THAT was the one where I decided to stop donating. Now I'll grant you that I get very few 404 pages anymore, but the incessant slowness I find off-putting. I haven't been here as long as many, but in the early days I only had WebTV and FR was a nightmare to navigate back then. When I tried again in 04, your format (or whatever) had changed and my joining was possible. Dial-up was slow, images made the wait seem interminable, but I accepted that. I knew my equipment was chisel and rock. In 06 I finally got a computer and except for the porn attacks that used to show up, I was pleased. The last couple of years though, ESPECIALLY the weeks before the FReepathons, FR is in the mud.

Get FR up to snuff, and I will be MORE than happy to resume my contributions......otherwise it feels like I'm just throwing money at a problem that never seems to end and I am averse to doing that.

PS, I stay logged on to FR 24/7. I know MANY FReepers do this also. If this is part of the problem, PLEASE make an announcement to that effect.

[epic stache]

They weren't tossed, they left.

Not true.

[epic stache]

Many of us were doing all we could do to get a real conservative nominated, others insisted on undermining the effort, and they got called out on it, got their feelings hurt and left.

The most vicious purgings took place after Romney had effectively wrapped up the nomination.

[Politicalmom]

It is too true. I saw idiots swearing at Jim, and they didn’t get “tossed”. They Opused out. Some even told him to cancel their accounts, and he didn’t.

[PapaBear3625]

Being an IT professional, I would suggest that he run it in the cloud, that way it scales, is reliable, and it can add servers dynamically....I do this all the time for customers who have much bigger problems.....

And the cloud has your data, and it's easier to put pressure on a cloud company to shut you down.

[advertising guy]

bingo.....the cache, search and routing is the problem

had it looked at 3 months ago by the best of the best IT folk.....

told the powers that be and was told no thx to any help

FOR FREE

[Jim Robinson]

If you have some concrete advice to offer, please be my guest. But freepmail it to John Robinson not me. Does no good to offer it to me. It’s all over my head. Thanks