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I really, really hate to be the guy who has to tell you folks this, but the site is acting up again in a very similar way to the past few episodes.
I’ve been watching for a couple of hours, and if it's any help at all in analysis, the issue seems to run in spurts- the site will behave normally for maybe five minutes or so, and then comes a longish period where it gets very slow in response, and then deteriorates further to no response at all.
It’s almost as if there is some process which is running intermittently which is using so much of the server resources that everything else either runs very slowly or even not at all. I’d think that if it was an electronic (equipment) problem it likely would just break and not work at all. That suggests that perhaps some sort of intermittent data process occurs which is almost more than the server can handle, or possibly a bandwidth issue where just too many users are trying to access the site all at the same time.
There must be some sort of analytic record which documents various parameters of server activity. I surely hope so, anyhow.
I've emailed David and Chip, and they're aware of the situation. A major issue is the fact that back in the beginning the fellow who did the adaptation of the Vanilla software to satisfy the requests of the MFO users made a number of modifications to the basic Vanilla programming, and while that may not be the cause of our problem it makes it very difficult to sort out exactly what might be going on now.
We have to realize all of this takes a significant toll on the time resources of David and Chip, who do all of this without significant compensation. Viewing that, I suggested to David that perhaps we might explore the possibility of hiring a programmer who specializes in Vanilla to see if the existing platform can be debugged.
If David chooses that option (and he hasn't responded to my suggestion, so I have no idea what he might think of it) we users will need to seriously consider coming up with some financial resources to cover that expense.
Chip has responded to my emails, and she is very receptive to "hiring somebody who can take on some of the programming, and possibly even complete the server migration."
Chip also asks that "If you have any sense of where to find programmers skilled in WordPress, vanilla board, PHP, and MySQL, running on a CentOS server with cPanel for controls (our current tech stack), please let me know . I'd be happy to chat with them."
If anyone can be of any technical help at all on this, including possible leads to programmers meeting Chip's needs, please mention that here, and I'll inform Chip. Let me clarify something regarding my relationship with David and Chip: I have absolutely no "official" position of any sort with the management or operation of MFO.
I do, however, have a certain degree of communication access because of some minor early work in the design of the MFO website that I was involved with. Because there is no way via the website for any of us to communicate with David or Chip if the site is in trouble, I try to keep them informed via email of any serious malfunctioning.
You are wonderful people--- all concerned. Computer ANYTHING is beyond ME. But I could certainly contribute, and hope that others might likewise be willing. Thanks for the update!
Comments
Additional note, at 20:35 PDST: I just noticed that the time stamp on this post is also wrong- it's showing 4:50PM.
I've attempted to alert Chip and David to the site problems via email.
10 minutes for this post, to post.
We have to realize all of this takes a significant toll on the time resources of David and Chip, who do all of this without significant compensation. Viewing that, I suggested to David that perhaps we might explore the possibility of hiring a programmer who specializes in Vanilla to see if the existing platform can be debugged.
If David chooses that option (and he hasn't responded to my suggestion, so I have no idea what he might think of it) we users will need to seriously consider coming up with some financial resources to cover that expense.
That's all that I know at this time. Stand by.
OJ
Chip also asks that "If you have any sense of where to find programmers skilled in WordPress, vanilla board, PHP, and MySQL, running on a CentOS server with cPanel for controls (our current tech stack), please let me know . I'd be happy to chat with them."
If anyone can be of any technical help at all on this, including possible leads to programmers meeting Chip's needs, please mention that here, and I'll inform Chip. Let me clarify something regarding my relationship with David and Chip: I have absolutely no "official" position of any sort with the management or operation of MFO.
I do, however, have a certain degree of communication access because of some minor early work in the design of the MFO website that I was involved with. Because there is no way via the website for any of us to communicate with David or Chip if the site is in trouble, I try to keep them informed via email of any serious malfunctioning.
Thanks for your attention to this serious issue.
OJ