Had a bunch of 503s and just horrible loading times (sits and spins on a blank screen, then 20-30 seconds later the page comes up), probably not just me because other pages on other sites come up normally. Been seeing it intermittently the past few days, but today's the worst I've seen it. Are we at capacity? :(

Had it briefly last night but not today.

I've experienced this today too.

I get this all the time... You get used to it after a month or so... Or you just go browse another tab while it's loading.

I’ve been having this the last week.

I get this all the time... You get used to it after a month or so... Or you just go browse another tab while it's loading.

Ha, yeah, been doing that, but that sucks you get it all the time, I've only seen it a few times recently, and today about 5-6 times, I'd go nuts if it happened all the time.

Same here in past week slow to load.

I’ve been experiencing this for over a month in conjunction with the pop ups being blocked.

We've had an avalanche of traffic, particularly during the day.

To provide perspective, we average about 1.5 million page views a month -- and that is a ton.

Halfway through March, we've had over 2 million page views; over 250K in one day.


We are hosted on a shared server because the jump to a dedicated server is super expensive, but if this keeps up, that may be the only solution.

Pete, just out of curiosity but what is the price for a dedicated server?

Pete, just out of curiosity but what is the price for a dedicated server?

It's about 3x what we are paying now.

Oh wow. That is a big jump.

Pete, just out of curiosity but what is the price for a dedicated server?

Best deal for managed, dedicated hosting with superb customer service is Dreamhost
https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting/dedicated/

^

We use a company that specializes in vBulletin; they go way beyond hosting, they do all our upgrades, enhancements, fixes, etc.

I'm pretty technical but vB is a bear and very, very convoluted and complex. So you have to have a company that has expertise. I've been incredibly happy with our host.

Pete, would you ever like to switch from vB or is that just not even worth the hassle?

PS, for some reason I can’t edit but I wanted to add to my comment: sorry if my responses sound stupid but I have little knowledge in this field.

To Mr. Blue, thanks for that link. That stuff is interesting to me.

Pete, would you ever like to switch from vB or is that just not even worth the hassle?

Would be almost impossible.

We have over 1,000,000 posts!

I see. I am surprised the format of this system hasn’t changed and it’s like this in many forums I browse. What works works I suppose.

vBulletin is by far and away the gold standard of discussion forums.

I am not sure what Tulsa Now Forum uses but it is awful. I am not a fan of CityData either.

^

TulsaNow uses Simple Machines Forum (SMF) and yes, it's terrible.

^^^ it’s almost unusable for me. Every once in awhile I check them to see what is new or to get a chuckle out of the usual forum users over there bashing OKC but I get most of my Tulsa updates here or SSP.

^

We use a company that specializes in vBulletin; they go way beyond hosting, they do all our upgrades, enhancements, fixes, etc.

I'm pretty technical but vB is a bear and very, very convoluted and complex. So you have to have a company that has expertise. I've been incredibly happy with our host.

Ahh, yes, of course.
These days if you are “incredibly happy” with anything ​- keep it!

Ahh, yes, of course.
These days if you are “incredibly happy” with anything ​- keep it!

Yeah, no kidding.

You wouldn't believe what we had to go through to neutralize that last virus and they worked on that for like 2 months and were always very responsive.

We've had an avalanche of traffic, particularly during the day.

To provide perspective, we average about 1.5 million page views a month -- and that is a ton.

Halfway through March, we've had over 2 million page views; over 250K in one day.


We are hosted on a shared server because the jump to a dedicated server is super expensive, but if this keeps up, that may be the only solution.

Must mean lots are out of jobs based on increase lol

Must mean lots are out of jobs based on increase lol

Quite possibly! But, on the other hand, have you ever noticed how things slow wayyyyy down here around 5:00 (on a normal day)? Methinks lots of people post on the bosses dime. I’ve always thought that.

Quite possibly! But, on the other hand, have you ever noticed how things slow wayyyyy down here around 5:00 (on a normal day)? Methinks lots of people post on the bosses dime. I’ve always thought that.

Our traffic is the highest during business days.

Evenings, weekends and holidays are always much slower.

Our traffic is the highest during business days.

Evenings, weekends and holidays are always much slower.

Thats kind of what I thought. Thanks for the peek into the metrics!

Quite possibly! But, on the other hand, have you ever noticed how things slow wayyyyy down here around 5:00 (on a normal day)? Methinks lots of people post on the bosses dime. I’ve always thought that.

You are not wrong lol

Quite possibly! But, on the other hand, have you ever noticed how things slow wayyyyy down here around 5:00 (on a normal day)? Methinks lots of people post on the bosses dime. I’ve always thought that.

I've noticed it's around 4 PM that the posts slow down.

I mostly post during the workday because I like the experience much better on a desktop. The mobile experience just isn't great.

I mostly post during the workday because I like the experience much better on a desktop. The mobile experience just isn't great.

Same and I'm usually not around a PC on the weekends.

^

We use a company that specializes in vBulletin; they go way beyond hosting, they do all our upgrades, enhancements, fixes, etc.

I'm pretty technical but vB is a bear and very, very convoluted and complex. So you have to have a company that has expertise. I've been incredibly happy with our host.

this is so true

and really the only way to do it

my website doesn't have close to the traffic that this one does but having a good hosting partner is key