An Update About Technical Matters
[Guest post by DRJ]
You’re in trouble when I’m writing a “technical update” because this isn’t my field. Nevertheless:
1. A lot of work has been done but there is still tweaking being done to resolve lingering performance issues. It would help if you could leave comments on this thread advising of any problems — including things like slow loading, error messages, and coding issues. That would help us pinpoint when the problems occur and what issues are still unresolved.
2. For now, comments post in a slightly different way than before. Comments appear immediately but at first they will look different to the author than to others. Until you refresh the page, your comment appears without formatting and shows the author as “You,” regardless of your screen name. Since readers must refresh the page to see new comments, your comment will always appear to others with formatting and your screen name. And while we’ve requested that this feature be changed back to the way it was before, we’ll have to wait and see.
3. The strike code has been corrected.
Thank you for your patience and for continuing to visit and comment.
— DRJ
It does no good to fill in the “Website” box as nobody’s moniker is tied to a website, and apparently my pings on the two sites I post no longer make it to the thread.
John Hitchcock (3b0943) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:21 pmThat’s not good. Thanks for telling us, John.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:33 pmSeems okay now.
Jal (c36046) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:34 pmThe changes have been good thus far (once I understood them!), especially the speed that comments appear and pages load.
I also want to thank you, DRJ, for the immense amount of posting you’ve been doing that past 5 days or so. With so much unraveling these days int he political worry, you’ve managed to do a great job keeping readers current, and informed. It’s much appreciated. With that, I also hope Patterico is well, not too buried in work, and makes it back here soon.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:35 pmint he political worry,Meh. in the political world
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:37 pmThanks, Dana. Patterico is busy with work but I hope he finds time to post, too, because he’s the reason we all come here. (Maybe we should make this a Patterico Appreciation Thread.) And while I’m not minimizing how much everyone likes Patterico, at this point I think I miss him more than anyone.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:50 pm
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:50 pmIs it really fixed?I’ll be darned… It is…
HUZZAH!!!
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:52 pmDRJ, I’m sure you do (miss him more than anyone). I hope he comes back, too, not only to post – but so you can get some well deserved rest.
Dana (1e5ad4) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:55 pmDang. What did you have to go and fix the <strike> for? It was an easy way for us
dweebsreally cool guys to show off!And yes, I hope Patterico finds time to post too, but in the meantime: I’m sure glad you’re here, DRJ.
And also in the meantime, I have not seen any performance improvement (or enough to be noticeable, anyway), but then, I am at the other end of the country so my performance issues might be a little more involved than most others.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 3/31/2010 @ 7:58 pmIt’s pretty easy to be patient when the site is working much better than ever.
Thanks, DRJ, for the stuff Dana mentioned.
dustin (b54cdc) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:01 pmJust clicked on the “Comments (11)” to read the comments, and it took over a minute to load the page (did I have a stop-watch? No! But I watched 2, 30-sec commercials in a hockey TV time out that lasts 90 seconds).
AD - RtR/OS! (6f84de) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:12 pmPage loading is still slow.
Thanks DR9,
Apogee (e2dc9b) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:20 pmWers23lk but for askj;www, I sa2x!
There is a theory about bandwidth that I don’t completely understand, but one indication that it is a problem is if there are more website issues at the end of a calendar month. Thus, it is helpful to know that people are having problems today, March 31. It will also be helpful to see if the problems continue or improve tomorrow.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:24 pmAD,
Also, performance slows down for everyone when someone in the Admin section is posting. I was posting when you commented so that was probably the problem. They are still working on that.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:26 pmApogee,
So you’re saying everything is normal for you?
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:27 pmHis Buck Rogers – Secret Decoder Ring needs new batteries!
AD - RtR/OS! (6f84de) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:30 pmOccasionally, when it says my comment was submitted, it doesn’t actually show on the screen…
Refreshing takes care of it, but it’s damned odd…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:31 pmThat’s possible, if a lot of sites (maybe even a plurality) have it set up to archive at the end of each month – that would indeed clog the tubes…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/31/2010 @ 8:33 pmEW1(SG) #10 – be glad you’re just having “issues” and not “anxiety” !
(innocent grin)
Alasdair (205079) — 3/31/2010 @ 9:10 pm#20 Alasdair:
Huh…honestly never occurred to me to worry about.
/Open, sincere expression with honesty written all over it
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 3/31/2010 @ 9:47 pmDRJ: what’s the reason for the peculiar behavior for just-posted comments? I find it … incredibly disorienting, and i’m technical enough to be curious as to what’s causing it.
aphrael (4e93b5) — 3/31/2010 @ 9:48 pmIt seems to be loading in pretty quickly, comments too.
I will light a candle to the software gods…
Patricia (fa8e06) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:37 pmthe biggest issue i still see is the ongoing “imdw” type errors….. 😀
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:40 pmthat and smilies seem to have gone away….. %-)
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:40 pmaphrael:
It’s coded that way on purpose for now so they can test the website and pinpoint any remaining glitches. In layman’s terms (and I’m the quintessential layman when it comes to website software), they are trying to simplify the codes, identify any problems, and then rebuild things in a way that doesn’t interfere with performance.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/31/2010 @ 10:58 pmthey will never get a government contract with *that* attitude……
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/31/2010 @ 11:19 pmSince your initial update, the page has been loading *much* faster.
The only point I see any real hesitation now is on loading the comments pages.
NavyspyII (df615d) — 4/1/2010 @ 5:21 amWhatever they are doing, the site is no longer BlackBerry friendly, at least not for me. When I pull up this site, the front page pulls up just fine, but when I try to leave a comment, or click on a link to a recent comment, it destroys my CrackBerry.
JD (3b62be) — 4/1/2010 @ 8:40 amThat’s a feature, JD.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/1/2010 @ 8:44 amI guess for the other drivers, it is.
JD (3b62be) — 4/1/2010 @ 9:11 amThanks for mentioning it, JD, so we can add it to the list of things to check.
As for that end-of-month theory, I think things were worse today than they have been in days. We had several times when the website crashed for no apparent reason.
DRJ (daa62a) — 4/1/2010 @ 9:50 pmDRJ, whatever y’all did was not an improvement. Embedded reader websites don’t show up now, and the site is no faster for me as I tried to open this thread than it was before.
I have to wonder if the site hosting service is having bandwidth issues; this is a very large site, with a large number of visitors.
The blogger Dana (474dfc) — 4/3/2010 @ 1:10 pmI hear you, Dana, but it’s not finished yet. As I understand it, they’ve eliminated functions that might bog down the server — including things like Search and URL linking — and are adding them back in one-by-one to see where the problems are. You probably won’t see any improvements before next week, but I really think it will get better.
NOTE to Self: Remember to mention URL linking problems.
DRJ (daa62a) — 4/3/2010 @ 2:36 pm