Noticing a big slowdown on my forum

onetwentyeight

I think it may be related to Vanilla, as everything else on my server is running at normal speed. My forum has approximately 225 members, and has about 400-500 mb of traffic a day. My SQL db for vanilla is a bit over 5mb. The extensions I have enabled are as follows: Audioscrobblerizer better bbcode category jumper comment protection applicant discovery discussion filters extended text formatter flickrizer hide success html formatter legends live search new applicants newsmailer panel lists preview post private accounts quick keys quick tags quotations smooth page jump spell checker custom styles text mode switch whisper notification whos online window links yellow fade comments permalink I have contact my webhost (mediatemple) and they say they are not having anything unusual going on. has anyone experienced a slowdown after vanilla reaches a certain size? Any ideas on what may be causing this? apologies on starting my second discussion here today asking tech questions...

lech

Typically, any extension which requires the forum to make outside connections, for example Audioscrobblerizer & Flickrizer will add a delay because of the extra outside connections it needs to make. Try limiting the number of extensions you're using which make these kinds of connections and you should see a noticable speed-up. The user base here is quite huge, but if you look there aren't that many extensions running, otherwise access times would be slow.

LoOkOuT

225 members and 400-500mb per day? Is that about average bandwidth... I mean what I can expect when I go live with an average Vanilla install, or is there a reason so much bandwidth is used on yours? Edit: I guess, looking at the extensions, Audioscrubber would have an effect on bandwidth. Maybe Flikr extension too. Edit 2: http://lussumo.com/community/discussion/2235/roughly-how-much-bandwidth-should-vanilla-actually-use-then/#Item_12 discusses bandwidth

garymardell

woaw are so many extensions really neccessary?

lech

To be practical and have things run smoothly, no they're not. :) More extensions = more processing to do = slow downs depending on the nature of the extension = bad news.

onetwentyeight

are audioscrobblerizier and flickerizer the only ones doing this? I kinda like those two. the forum is near non responsive right now. Would repairing and optimizing the DB for vanilla in phpadmin be a good idea?

onetwentyeight

immersion = but they're fun! :) i guess ill try getting rid of a few. it was running fine yesterday. siighhh.

onetwentyeight

look - its a small userbase but very heavy traffic. a lot of people sit on it all day and post while at work. it is faster paced than this forum.

onetwentyeight

disabling the flickerizer made all the difference. gonna try sirnots flickrfeed, doesnt seem to be grabbing photos...)

iambigred

Audioscrobblerizer should only consume bandwidth/much processing power when viewing user profiles. Perhaps a 'extension performance monitoring' extension is necessary, but then what would monitor the extension monitoring extension ;-)

I'll try and see if theres a more efficient way to parse the Audioscrobbler RSS feed - or possibly more away from using the RSS feed for the Audioscrobblerizer extension completely. I notice Audioscrobbler offers a variety of formats, including a simple .txt feed which would need significantly less time parsing the feed. I'll have a look tomorrow.

Alex

onetwentyeight

imabigred - audioscrobbler is still running on my forum, and its as snappy as ever.

iambigred

I know, that's good news but I just want to make sure that it runs as effectively as possible. At the end of the day someone, whether you or your host, has to pay for the bandwidth so it's best to aim to minimize it. Could you post a link to your forum so I can my creation in action ?

Alex

onetwentyeight

onetwentyeight.com/sffixed , will be moving to sffixed.com later tonight hopefully, but there will be a redirect from the first url. just make a note in your app who you are and i will approve. its a private forum.

Krak

Doesn't the Who's Online extension query the db on every page load? I remember someone saying is causes a noticeable slowdown when activated on boards with a lot of users (that are online).

lech

Krak, yeah it does however it's not as bad as the type of extensions which make external calls to other sites. Not that the extensions are bad, but if you have as many users as onetwentyeight has, having your site contact another can cause really obvious slowdowns.

onetwentyeight

what i dont understand is why the flickerizer extension is pinging flickr at any other time besides viewing a members profile...