Lost features *~*`

[cwarn23]

I have notice that some of the great features Daniweb offers have lately disappeared. Will the same happen to the advertisement feature? So far I have noticed that the number of people online at the top has disappeared and my favorite links to the right where the common forums are listed has disappeared. Is there more to disappear in the coming months and what is the reason behind this Dani because I thought Daniweb was meant to be the fully featured forum unlike it's sister site programmingforums.org. Please explain why such a good feature like common forum links would just disappear.

[Nick Evan]

So far I have noticed that the number of people online at the top has disappeared

If you click the link 6xx.xxx members, you'll still see how many members are online. It was probably removed because it stresses the DB somewhat and it's not really a useful feature anyway :)

MFF is a whole different story. I'm not sure why it disappeared, or if it ever will be back :(

[Dani]

The number of logged in members in each section of the site (and overall) was removed because it stressed the database just to display a count when it's possible to see the actual list of members anyways. Plus it looked bad when it just said 2 members in this section or 3 members in that section ... the numbers aren't really that impressive.

MFF will be discussed in the future :) Stay tuned.

[cwarn23]

The number of logged in members in each section of the site (and overall) was removed because it stressed the database just to display a count when it's possible to see the actual list of members anyways. Plus it looked bad when it just said 2 members in this section or 3 members in that section ... the numbers aren't really that impressive.

MFF will be discussed in the future :) Stay tuned.

Thanks for that info and may I suggest that some cpu hungry features only be available when logged in so that way those features only need to be processed to the 40 or so users that are currently logged in. Just a suggestion...

[Dani]

Nearly all CPU-heavy features are only accessible when logged in, and it's been this way for a very long time. However, even regular members can abuse the system, and nothing is stopping a logged in member from running a bot to constantly refresh a cpu-heavy page.

[The Dude]

Couldnt the server be set to detect that Dani and then block the offending IP for 5 minutes?

[cwarn23]

Couldnt the server be set to detect that Dani and then block the offending IP for 5 minutes?

Great idea that gives me another idea for the solution... What about if any ip request accesses more than 30 pages per minute then the ip is denied access for half an hour. I don't think the googlebot would access more than that and my Solution Search Bot only accesses less than 15 pages every 4 hours.

I see My Favourite Forums is back - THANKS!! Really like it.
Also if your after more cpu you could probably delete that "Posting Rules" box when typing a reply like I am now. I would Imagen that it would cause a bit of serverload for a useless feature. The "Posting Rules" box is only really useful when different forums have different permissions and when it varies a lot. In case your not sure what the "Posting Rules" box is this is a quote from it:

You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may post attachments
You may edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Also about the tag cloud. Not the tags for the current thread but the grouped tags for an entire forum. Wouldn't that drain a lot of cpu. Perhaps only show the tags for the current thread and not to show the tag cloud in topic list view. So what I am suggesting about the tags is to remove the tag cloud and only show the >7 tags for the current thread. I believe that will give you a ton of cpu.

[Dani]

For the most part, 10% of the features cause 90% of the server load. For example, accessing the memberlist was removed because anyone trying to visit just a single page of the memberlist would hang up the database for over a minute. If multiple members accessed the memberlist at the same time, it could ultimately bring down the database. Additionally, the Who's Currently Online statistics were removed (i.e. X Viewing, 8000 users currently online, etc) because I found out that the feature was a HUGE bottleneck for the database server, and removing the feature lowered the load average by an entire order of magniture (1% to 0.1%).

Also, the amount of times that Googlebot crawls your site is directly related to how much love you have from Google and how much of an authority site Google considers you. We almost always have Googlebot crawling at least a few hundred pages simultaneously at any given time of the day or night.

[cwarn23]

For the most part, 10% of the features cause 90% of the server load. For example, accessing the memberlist was removed because anyone trying to visit just a single page of the memberlist would hang up the database for over a minute. If multiple members accessed the memberlist at the same time, it could ultimately bring down the database. Additionally, the Who's Currently Online statistics were removed (i.e. X Viewing, 8000 users currently online, etc) because I found out that the feature was a HUGE bottleneck for the database server, and removing the feature lowered the load average by an entire order of magniture (1% to 0.1%).

Also, the amount of times that Googlebot crawls your site is directly related to how much love you have from Google and how much of an authority site Google considers you. We almost always have Googlebot crawling at least a few hundred pages simultaneously at any given time of the day or night.

Interesting statistics. I just have one question. Does the tag cloud use much cpu because I haven't worked out it's function.

[Dani]

The tag cloud has a couple of functions. Firstly, it has a lot of search engine optimization benefit attached to it, as it allows search spiders to navigate pages on DaniWeb about similar topics.

For the user, it allows you to quickly, at a glance, see what topics that might interest you are currently big hits on DaniWeb. You can also easily find other threads related to the page you're currently viewing. When viewing a member's profile, you can see their tag cloud to see what types of things they write about and are interested in. On your own homepage, you can easily jump to threads related to topics that you are personally interested in, based on tags you've submitted in the past yourself.