[Miss Marple]

John, for heavy news days, like today, or the day they arrested the snipers, is there a way to cut down on the load so that we could still get access? Could the non-news forums be de-activated with a note that it is an emergency? Does freepmail take up space that we could temporarily sacrifice? How about blocking lurkers from access until things slow down a bit?

I am not a computer expert, nor do I play one on TV. I am just kvetching because this has happened twice this week when I REALLY wanted to know what was going on. Thanks for your work and your patience!

[HighWheeler]

"...is there a way to cut down on the load so that we could still get access? ... How about blocking lurkers from access until things slow down a bit?"

We'll only let people with screen-name initials from "A" through "L" allowed to get through during the high volume periods. That is my plan, and I think it would work fine.

[ladyinred]

Good suggestions. I noticed the same thing when the sniper was caught, could not move at first, and finally, could not get on at all. Same today after Wellstone's death. I was just lost without FR! Having to rely on the TV newscasts is just horrendous to addicts like us! :-)

[John Robinson]

It is probably the searching that kill us. It puts an inconsistent load on the system.

We're talking about offloading the search engine and its own database onto another machine.