Computer Geek Question

[dr_mabeuse]

Sometimes when I click on a link to go to a new thread or post a reply in Literotica, I end up waiting like 2-3 minutes while my little Internet Explorer flag waves in the upper right-hand corner and the bar-graph at the bottom of the window slowly creeps towards completion. I've always been curious as to what's really happening inside while this is going on.

Is my PC having trouble finding the site? Are all the 'lines' busy? Is my message zipping around the world from satellite to satellite trying to find a route to the mainframe?

I always get this picture of the Literotica server buzzing and smoking and shooting sparks while my message knocks and knocks at the door...

I'm just an analog-type guy in a digital worl, I guess.

---dr.M.

 

[CrazyyAngel]

I guess the server is just busy at that moment. It happens to me too and I have a fairly broad line. You just have to have patience then .

CA

 

[Guest]

dr m.
there are so many different reasons why that happens..
ranging from the many hundreds of posts being sent to general pm traffic.
i dont know how many servers they have running but im sure that even if they had several, there would be a few bumps in the road.
when they do back ups, there is alot of lag time. youll see it especially on the weekends.
its not your computer but it could have something to do with your isp and your connection speed as well.

so, that, encapsulated.. i dont know, the exact answer but there are some of the contributions to it.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I always asume it's the Gremlins.

-Colly

 

[BlackSnake]

Dr. Mabeuse,

I noticed the same thing, but being the geek that I am at times, I took notice of my environment: the time of day (network volume); the number of programs and browsers I have open(system resources); and the number of replies on the particular thread(server requests).

When the thread finally came up, I noticed that there was an additional reply posted.

My conclusion is that it was just a matter of timing, asuming that the board is using a RDMS (Relational Database Management System) like MySQL, DB2, SQL Server, Oracale, or the like. Requests to these systems are handle FIFO (First In First Out), if this is true then your request would have to wait its turn in line. During normal operations, thousands of request are handle in a blink of the eye. Since they are using PHP, there is the additional factor of the Server converting PHP script commands into pure HTML before delivering it to your browser. Continuing on the path of possibilities, your request for a page is not sent to the server all at once. It is broken up into small packets and sent one by one. Here's the kicker. Not all the packets sent make it to the server. Hince: 404 Errors, then you hit refresh and the page auto-magic-ly appears. When the server gets the packets from your particular browser, it attempts to put it together, so it can find out what the heck you want. I'm trying to gloss over this and leaving out a lot of stuff, but when it puts that puzzle together and find pieces missing it asks your browser to send them again. If your browser acts stupid like it doesn't know what the server is talking about, then the server tells your browser that its not going to give it jack in a 404 Error message.

Some times you may think that you can rush your browser by clicking the submit button again when it appears that its not doing anything. It heard you. Ever see double posts?

In conclusion, when this happens, just go refresh your coffee, juice, soda, or whatever and relax, and let your browser deal with the server. It'll let you know what's up if it doesn't give you what you ask for. Better than service at Vinni-V-V's

 

[Clare Quilty]

Sometimes when I click on a link to go to a new thread or post a reply in Literotica, I end up waiting like 2-3 minutes while my little Internet Explorer flag waves in the upper right-hand corner and the bar-graph at the bottom of the window slowly creeps towards completion.

I've noticed similar server congestion at times, particularly in the middle evening hours, when one would expect traffic to be heaviest across the United States. I'm surprised that the owners of this site do not offer fast server access at a price as do some blog sites and message boards.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Since I have my portable jacked into an ordinary telephone line at work (at home, too) I alway imagine the SuperBowl parking lot emptying into one two-lane surface street.

I have no idea if that is a realistic analogy, but it helps me keep my Irish down.

 

[Carl East]

I have this theory, and it goes like this. This site needs to start charging a membership fee, of something like $5 a year.

What would that accomplish? I hear you say. Well, for one thing they could afford to use the latest scripts and technology to bring this site into the twenty first century. As an added bonus it would eliminate a lot of trolls, cause they're too horrible to fork over any money just to be nasty to people.

I also believe Laurel and Manu deserve it. What they've done with this site for free is quite extraordinary. As for your question I believe that it's just Internet traffic, the busier it is the slower it becomes.

Carl

 

[MLyons]

I have this theory, and it goes like this. This site needs to start charging a membership fee, of something like $5 a year.

What would that accomplish? I hear you say. Well, for one thing they could afford to use the latest scripts and technology to bring this site into the twenty first century. As an added bonus it would eliminate a lot of trolls, cause they're too horrible to fork over any money just to be nasty to people.

I also believe Laurel and Manu deserve it. What they've done with this site for free is quite extraordinary. As for your question I believe that it's just Internet traffic, the busier it is the slower it becomes.

Carl

I don't know anything about running a website, but I think your idea would drive alot of authors away from the site, and would defeat the purpose. I could be wrong.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Judging by the size of the membership, charging a small yearly fee would generate a tremendous amount of cash.

It would also clear out a large number of freeloaders who may – or maybe not – be sending negative comments to the authors. I think the certain impact upon the writers would be a smaller, and since they are paying for it, a MORE critical readership.

Surf-by new memberships would also drop.

Some authors who don’t mind having a free archive display their works, would object to paying for it, or would start fomenting for a piece of the action.

Not every member is also a writer – or even wants to be one – many are content to be readers. This is a problem only for the writers, and seems unfair to penalize readers for something that doesn’t especially affect them.

In my time here, I have read about special seasonal contests, as well as monthly contests. I have also read some comment about prizes.

Perhaps I misunderstood, but it seemed like they indicated money. I don’t imagine those prizes can be very large, but month-by-month, plus those special events, they would add up to enough to pay at least one more person (if only part time) to be employed as a reader – to check that the stories are within the boundaries of what the site permits.

Instead of cash prizes, perhaps the owners could develop an online award symbol – one that can only be entered by the board operator – on the profile and on the story – that would identify the author and the story as a prize winner.

Perhaps, there could even be two additional categories, one of “Award Winning Authors” in the membership database, and an additional story category, “Award Winning Stories.”


One may choose a name upon joining, install an Avatar after 100 posts on the bulletin board, and choose a subtitle after 1000 posts, but nobody could display a Literotica Story Award symbol until they have earned it.

I bet that a lot of authors would prefer something like that, to the cash. Unless, I have vastly under-rated the size of those prizes.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I should stress that I'm not necessarily complaining about the speed of access on Lit. I mean, I'm not always happy about it, but I was just really wondering what the hell is happening while my little Internet Explorer flag is waving: whether my computer is thinking things over, or whether my message is flying through cyberspace, or whether it's knocking on the Literotica door and standing there tapping its foot, or, wether like VB says, my message is sitting behind the wheel of its car waiting to merge down from 1000 lanes of traffic to one.

BlackSnake seems to know, and I get the idea that what's going on is my computer and the Literotica site are kind of talking back and forth to each other, trying to understand what the hell the other one's saying.

I can live with that. I was just curious.

---dr.M.

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

I never stop to wonder why that happens I just sit and swear at the monitor because it's taking so long

Wicked

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Great Cybernetic Thingummy,


Grant me, the Courage to Use those Features that I Know


the Wisdom to Recognize Those Which are Different


and the Serenity to Accept That I Cannot Understand http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/conf44.gif

 

[A7inchPhildo]

I should stress that I'm not necessarily complaining about the speed of access on Lit. I mean, I'm not always happy about it, but I was just really wondering what the hell is happening while my little Internet Explorer flag is waving: whether my computer is thinking things over, or whether my message is flying through cyberspace, or whether it's knocking on the Literotica door and standing there tapping its foot, or, wether like VB says, my message is sitting behind the wheel of its car waiting to merge down from 1000 lanes of traffic to one.

BlackSnake seems to know, and I get the idea that what's going on is my computer and the Literotica site are kind of talking back and forth to each other, trying to understand what the hell the other one's saying.

I can live with that. I was just curious.

---dr.M.

Phew! For once I didn't have to ask the stupid question I have always wanted to know the answer for, but had no real purpose other than curiosity.

Thanks dr.m

 

[NoJo]

BlackSnake hath hit it on the nail.

I've set up and run a bulletin board very similar to Lit. There are lots of reasons why you get delays, but a common one is more than one person trying to post to the same thread, while others are trying to see the latest post.

The magic of keeping everything reasonably sane is done by the database system.

What's amazing to me, is that you can get these unbelievably clever and powerful systems for free nowadays. Ten years ago when I first set up this kind of system, it cost a small fortune for the database alone.

 

[Xelebes]

I should stress that I'm not necessarily complaining about the speed of access on Lit. I mean, I'm not always happy about it, but I was just really wondering what the hell is happening while my little Internet Explorer flag is waving: whether my computer is thinking things over, or whether my message is flying through cyberspace, or whether it's knocking on the Literotica door and standing there tapping its foot, or, wether like VB says, my message is sitting behind the wheel of its car waiting to merge down from 1000 lanes of traffic to one.

BlackSnake seems to know, and I get the idea that what's going on is my computer and the Literotica site are kind of talking back and forth to each other, trying to understand what the hell the other one's saying.

I can live with that. I was just curious.

---dr.M.

I believe it is more to do with traffic and the capability of the servers. I am assuming this site runs on a powerful server, but now needs some further adjustments in either code in dealing with traffic or could be just the hardware.

 

[Liar]

I should stress that I'm not necessarily complaining about the speed of access on Lit. I mean, I'm not always happy about it, but I was just really wondering what the hell is happening while my little Internet Explorer flag is waving: whether my computer is thinking things over, or whether my message is flying through cyberspace, or whether it's knocking on the Literotica door and standing there tapping its foot, or, wether like VB says, my message is sitting behind the wheel of its car waiting to merge down from 1000 lanes of traffic to one.

If it's just you clicking on a link, nothing happens for a while, and then it starts moving again, then it is most likely that the best analogy wouold be this:

You knock on Lit's door.
Lit hears you knock.
But Lit had 1673 other doors that it has to run and open first.
So yes, there's alot of foot tapping going on on the net.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

“Instant gratification takes too long.”
– Carrie Fisher (Postcards from the Edge)

 

[BlackSnake]

BlackSnake hath hit it on the nail.

I've set up and run a bulletin board very similar to Lit. There are lots of reasons why you get delays, but a common one is more than one person trying to post to the same thread, while others are trying to see the latest post.

The magic of keeping everything reasonably sane is done by the database system.

What's amazing to me, is that you can get these unbelievably clever and powerful systems for free nowadays. Ten years ago when I first set up this kind of system, it cost a small fortune for the database alone.

LOL...8MB Hard drive...I was cooking with gas

 

[BlackSnake]

....LOL