Server Testing Underway - No Ads or Featured Articles

[Jason Dunn]

We're in the midst of doing some stability testing on the server to try and make it work better, and to do so we've disabled our ad server, which also controls the featured/sponsored articles. We'll have them back up soon, and hopefully and end (or a reduction at least) in the number of "phpBB Critical Error" problems we've been plagued with lately. Thanks for your patience!

[Darius Wey]

No Ads or Featured Articles

Hey...nice! I just noticed that. I was wondering why there was a period of about 5 minutes when my account was a little non-responsive. You guys were doing a server modification. ;)

[DavidHorn]

I've noticed our server getting slightly unstable at the moment too, I get 2-3 emails a day informing me of services that have restarted. Not sure what software it is, but it monitors HTTP / MySQL etc and restarts them if they stop responding.

Mind you, you put far more load on your server than we do. If you're still with Rackshack (or EV1) don't forget to claim the Out-of-State tax rebate. They owe me over $400 which I'm quite looking forward to getting back!

[daS]

we've disabled our ad server...
...We'll have them back up soon...
...Thanks for your patience!
No need to rush on our account Jason. Just less work for Proxomitron & Spybot. :razzing: :rotfl:

[DavidHorn]

Without wanting to be rude, why don't you set Spybot to ignore the ads on places like Thoughts? They're never intrusive, and often genuinely useful.

The revenue from the ads I receive has plummeted over the last six months, and while just as many ads are being called, none of them are showing clicks, mostly, I suspect, due to people running ad blocking software.

I think blocking ads from sites that rely on them to survive is a very selfish thing to do - however, you do have the upper hand as you're a subscriber! :-)

[daS]

Without wanting to be rude, why don't you set Spybot to ignore the ads on places like Thoughts? They're never intrusive, and often genuinely useful.

The revenue from the ads I receive has plummeted over the last six months, and while just as many ads are being called, none of them are showing clicks, mostly, I suspect, due to people running ad blocking software.

I think blocking ads from sites that rely on them to survive is a very selfish thing to do - however, you do have the upper hand as you're a subscriber! :-)
Well I actually do have Thoughts passing the ads, specifically for the reason you state. And I try, where possible to "click through" from such sites. However, The one thing I do continue to block are the "tracking cookies". :evil: I use Spybot for that, and I don't allow Doubleclick etc., regardless of the source.

I certainly understand the free sites need some source of income, and Jason has one of the few that I frequent every day. However, as with TV ads, I understand that they pay for the content so that I don't have to, but I draw a line between showing me something I might want to buy and tracking my viewing habits. (Not that I have something to hide :wink: , but it's nobody's business where I've been on the net! :evil: )

PS: And, no I don't think you're being rude to point this out. :)

[SteveHoward999]

I think blocking ads from sites that rely on them to survive is a very selfish thing to do - however, you do have the upper hand as you're a subscriber! :-)


In principle I agree. But ads are so f*****g obtrusive these days ... all that stupid animation. All those LIES. Half the screen taken up with tripe. Coupled with spyware and other nasties, it is wiser for security and sanity to ignore them all.

Perhaps if sites were using more scrupulous, spyware-free advertising revenues would recover.

[Jason Dunn]

If you're still with Rackshack (or EV1) don't forget to claim the Out-of-State tax rebate. They owe me over $400 which I'm quite looking forward to getting back!

Great, thanks for the reminder!

[manywhere]

Is this a sign of the internet going down: two different sites are getting unstable? When you put it this way, it makes me think of what the Internet-armageddon-professor mentioned in the news yesterday: Professor Warns of Internet Collapse (http://www.yle.fi/news/id1230.html).

Especially this is the juicy part:
What makes their sabotaging of the web easier is the fact that many people fail to download the latest security upgrades on a regular basis. So we are all part of the downfall of the internet...? :worried: Don't believe everything he says, since he has been predicting the end of the internet for years... :roll:

[Janak Parekh]

Don't believe everything he says, since he has been predicting the end of the internet for years... :roll:
Yeah, I was about to say that. The article is essentially content-free. There are very serious threats that could horribly segment the Internet, but they're not going to be triggered by email spam or anything of the like. Rather, routing security (and of the BGP protocol) is the biggest structural threat against the Internet today. Google "BGP security problems" if you want to know what I'm talking about, although it's pretty technical. ;)

Anyway, our server isn't unstable; in fact, it's extremely stable. We're just going through growing pains. Hopefully it's better now. :)

--jaank

[Wiggster]

I've always liked the ads here. They're usually for PPC-related things, and almost always useful. The one exception is that MSN search ad... with the spinning wheels. I've played with it a lot, but still never could get a two-word phrase that made sense... but I clicked search anyway to see the result :wink:

However, I don't like the ad for PPCTechs. Knowing that they have a 128MB RAM upgrade for my hx4700 is exceedingly tempting, but then I'd void my warranty! So tempting, but so not-a-thing-I-should-do... :mrgreen:

[manywhere]

Anyway, our server isn't unstable; in fact, it's extremely stable. We're just going through growing pains. Hopefully it's better now. :)

It sure is snappier than before: logging in is much faster and the page load as well. What ever you did, sure made it whole lot of faster over at this side of the Atlantic! It is almost as fast as my server, but then again I haven't got the same amount of visitors that PPCT has got. ;)

[Janak Parekh]

It sure is snappier than before: logging in is much faster and the page load as well. What ever you did, sure made it whole lot of faster over at this side of the Atlantic! It is almost as fast as my server, but then again I haven't got the same amount of visitors that PPCT has got. ;)
;) We made some database engine tweaks. Let's see how it holds up over time.

--janak