Problems with disk speeds

[Osayidan]

All the problems we're having right now is due to disk read/write speeds. We're on a virtual server, so our hard drive is actually a really big file stored along side hundreds of others on a single storage infrastructure.

That storage infrastructure is experiencing problems. It's that same storage that got screwed up a few weeks ago when nation was down for a few days.

At first they tried to blame the problems on nation being too big of a website but I showed them traffic and other stats and they finally gave in and admitted it's a problem on their end. So right now there's nothing we can do except wait for that to be resolved.

I'm turning the forums back on now, but once people start flooding back onto it, it might get slow again (also when it becomes peak hour in north america and the other websites hosted by the same company start getting more traffic). I've disabled search functions to reduce mysql queries, since those cause a lot of disk activity.

[Intimacy]

Sounds like a good plan, i hope the server can hold up, like i said on bean rua, it was slow starting up but after 2-3 pages it really picked up speed.

[Kingofrunes]

You should have a donate function Osay so that those of us who love this site can donate to possibly fund better servers.

[Murasaki]

I get Nation withdrawals. ;~;

[Intimacy]

I get Nation withdrawals. ;~;
Haha, yeah, i was checking every 20 minutes, i clicked saw no mabination, clicked refresh saw it was up and started posting.

[Osayidan]

You should have a donate function Osay so that those of us who love this site can donate to possibly fund better servers.

Was going to but it looks like we don't need anything better yet, it's the host that's screwing up right now. The specs we have is enough for nation as it is now.

[Kingofrunes]

Was going to but it looks like we don't need anything better yet, it's the host that's screwing up right now. The specs we have is enough for nation as it is now.

I was just worried because some dude on Nexon Forums posted this:

[3:22:01 PM] XXX: osay did mabination break again
[3:22:10 PM] ___: lol
[3:22:30 PM] Osayidan: yup O: well sort of D: the site grew too big for virtual server
[3:22:47 PM] XXX: yay
[3:23:00 PM] Osayidan: so the people who want it to stay online can donate for a proper server or I'm shutting it down, problem is I can't even get it to stay online for people to see that message
[3:23:56 PM] XXX: do you know their skype chat thing
[3:24:06 PM] XXX: you can tell them there
[3:24:51 PM] XXX: I can also post it on the Nexon forums
[3:25:00 PM] Osayidan: nope D: the only good thing is if this keeps up I don't need to waste my time maintaining it anymore Dx I don't even want to anymore but I don't think anyone would take over and not shove ads all over it to make moniez

[Intimacy]

Was going to but it looks like we don't need anything better yet, it's the host that's screwing up right now. The specs we have is enough for nation as it is now.
As the nation gets bigger and continues to grow you just might need to take kings suggestion and let a few of us pitch in for a new server.

[Osayidan]

problem with a new server is that it's a monthly cost, if we switch we need to get enough donations every month, if we miss one the site goes offline.

[Moppy]

problem with a new server is that it's a monthly cost, if we switch we need to get enough donations every month, if we miss one the site goes offline.

We could always have ads.

[Byte]

1 week, 2 week, and a 4 week subscription(donation).

1 week would be 7$

2 weeks would be 12$

4 weeks would be 23$

Special usergroup, color, section, insiders, ect ect. Wait I think I've went over this before.


*back to lurking*

[Claudia]

$23 a month for a subscription? no ****ing way LOL.

but, I would donate...if I could. Otherwise, I don't mind ads as long as they're keeping the server afloat.

[Aubog007]

1 week, 2 week, and a 4 week subscription(donation).

1 week would be 7$

2 weeks would be 12$

4 weeks would be 23$

Special usergroup, color, section, insiders, ect ect. Wait I think I've went over this before.


*back to lurking*

Not paying more than i pay for an xbox live subscription service for a forum


No thank you.

50-60 bucks a year is the most ill pay. and that is pushing it for a forum.

[Skye]

I'll be honest and say that I won't pay just to be able to visit a forum. So if it ever comes to that...see ya guys. :/

[Kazuni]

I'll be honest and say that I won't pay just to be able to visit a forum. So if it ever comes to that...see ya guys. :/

not to visit, lmao. you get special titles and stuff.

[Aubog007]

not to visit, lmao. you get special titles and stuff.


How many of these features do i even use currently?



I am already annoyed that there are "special sections" that require special access to enter. (besides the obvious moderator one i am assuming)


Personally every section should be shown to everyone.

[Baku]

How many of these features do i even use currently?



I am already annoyed that there are "special sections" that require special access to enter. (besides the obvious moderator one i am assuming)


Personally every section should be shown to everyone.
Besides the staff section there's only two hidden sections that anyone truly interested can gain access to.
Rua's House, all you have to do is PM an admin or Os, if he thinks you are mature enough by reviewing your posts, you gain access.
Eden Eternal Guild, which obviously, you just have to be interested in the game and nation's guild to gain access.

[Aubog007]

Besides the staff section there's only two hidden sections that anyone truly interested can gain access to.
Rua's House, all you have to do is PM an admin or Os, if he thinks you are mature enough by reviewing your posts, you gain access.
Eden Eternal Guild, which obviously, you just have to be interested in the game and nation's guild to gain access.


Still think that's nuts that there is an adult section on the forums.


Personally...


Why in good nature is that there?

[Baku]

Still think that's nuts that there is an adult section on the forums.
It's only mature discussion, very similar to The Library sub-forum, but where people can discuss more personal issues without the fear of any lurker reading them.

[Osayidan]

Don't like subscriptions idea D: Seems silly for a fan forum. If the forum was for something more suitable to it then maybe.



How many of these features do i even use currently?



I am already annoyed that there are "special sections" that require special access to enter. (besides the obvious moderator one i am assuming)


Personally every section should be shown to everyone.

There's only 2, 1 of them is a guild forum so it's for guild members only. The other is for mature topics and is available to people who opt into it.

[Aubog007]

It's only mature discussion, very similar to The Library sub-section, but where people can discuss more personal issues without the fear of any lurker reading them.


Some of that has been seeping into the normal sections of nation.


Hence why i am against it.


I try to differentiate between fantasy and notsofantasy.



Just my personal bias i guess.


But then again. Where my posts are really tell you what i only post in.


I don't mean any negativity but sometimes there is bleedthrough.




EDIT: Eh, Guess i sound harsh. But that's just my personal opinion.

[Phunkie]

I doubt anyone's gonna pay a subscription. I'm personally against it.

I'm okay with some ads though. Anything to keep the Nation up.

Also, a donation box for those who wish to donate!

[Okami]

I could possible donate if you opened them up.

Would have to get paypal account and whatnot though..

[Kingofrunes]

I already have a paypal account and would be more than happy to toss $5 a month or maybe more pending on my finances.

[Cho]

Agreed with the subscriptions being silly...And ads...Wonder where to put them. Just don't ever put them in for the background wallpaper live they do for AnimeDreaming...That gets annoying to close whenever you misclick. @~@

We could have it somewhat like DeviantArt, whereas the non registered members may see ads, but able to skip them. o ^ O?
Although overall ads would make somewhat of a noticeable difference to the site. ;;

[Aubog007]

Donation feature would be nice.

I donated on other forums.

[David]

What are the specs on the current VPS? I'm paying quite a bit for a VPS with only one small site on it, so - depending on whether or not it'd be an upgrade from the one it's currently on - if the site ever hits the point where it needs a server upgrade and you're not willing to pay the bills, I'd be willing to move it to mine.

[Osayidan]

The specs don't matter i nterms of RAM or CPU, we've got plenty to spare on that. The problem is that the hosting's storage can't keep up with the IO requirements, although for the past half day it seems like they resolved it. When I get home I'll be enabling search to see if everything still runs smooth.

[Taycat]

ads at the bottom of the screen or off to the side if we do have to get them.

a donating option would be cool too!
something neat would be like...
donate so much and you get a little pet that says you donated $$ to the site.
or something?
and if you donate, say, 100$, you get a little user thingie under your name.
just a suggestion!

[Hanna]

Still think that's nuts that there is an adult section on the forums.


Personally...


Why in good nature is that there?

Why not?
It's not all sexual discussions you know, like Baku said it's something you can post in confidence without having the whole world/immature chilren/trolls to read it.

[Cynic]

Ads and a donation button sounds good.

[David]

To everyone suggesting advertisements: most ad networks (the decent paying ones, at least) will not accept sites with adult content, even if it's not accessible to the public (Rua's House).


The specs don't matter i nterms of RAM or CPU, we've got plenty to spare on that. The problem is that the hosting's storage can't keep up with the IO requirements, although for the past half day it seems like they resolved it. When I get home I'll be enabling search to see if everything still runs smooth.

Regardless, the disk speed shouldn't be too much of an issue. If you webhost is unable to sort things out, it may be time to look for a new host - in which case, my offer still stands.

Though if the site grows much more, it may be wise to just move it to a dedicated server.

[Osayidan]

I'll see what I can come up with for ads, got my google adsense account. They don't want adult material, which basically means pornography, our mature section is just discussions, it's no worse than having them on a health discussion forum. Already got that cleared with them anyways for other websites.

[TA]

I think that some non-evasive ads and allowing donations would be a good idea.

Donators would get special features and we should have some sort of progress bar showing how much Nation needs to stay afloat each month. 0-100% with the price required above it. Animebytes has a nice one.

I think we could have like 3 different levels of donations. $5, $10, $15. We could make them gain gold faster and get colored names and some extra features normal users don't get, and reset it every month.

It'd be like subscriptions. Subscriptions to special features. You could even have it so people could donate for like 3-6-12 months at a time if they wanted, in one of the three plans. Though with that, we have to worry about admins lining their pockets and stealing donation money. If we don't want to worry about that, we can only allow 1 month at a time, but with a different system for it and only allow the max server cost each month to be donated. So, the people that donate first would be the only ones to get the special features.

I think with a system like that, we could make donating give some gold and make the shop more useful with some more interesting pets and some other things people might actually want. People could earn them on their own, but donating would be a lot faster. You know, kinda make it a little like an MMO. People like watching numbers go up and grinding out for something cool, and some people... they like to be able to just pay to not have to grind so much. Works out for everyone, in the end.

We aren't taking features away from normal members though. They could post just like they can now. There'd just be.... extra stuff.

I'd say get at least one annoying flashy ad up top that pays out pretty good, but don't allow any pop outs or audio.

I mean, hey... When it comes down to just you not wanting to do it, or the site going offline... You really oughta break down and do it. It's a community here, and you don't have to carry it on your back. I'm sure a lot of people here wouldn't mind pitching in, if it meant the site staying up or going under.