...I know it's called "administration" but Geek Fiddle sounds so much more exciting...naughty even!
Hello all,
Just wanted to mention a few things that the more nerdly web geeks amongst you might find of interest...
We've been poking around in Joomla 1.5 ...here's what we're trying:
Turn offs
We've turned off the Search Engine Friendly URL's in the hopes of speeding things up and stopping some of these irritating error messages...the downside is that some of your links...and mine for that matter...aren't going to be working.
Turn ons
We've turned On the cache...it's set for 15 minutes and it might mean that some changes don't show up right away...but the hope is that it'll take some of the strain off the system and keep everyone logged in and having fun...or lurking and having fun as the case may be!
Dirty Hands
We're also digging deep into the guts of dGeek.com in the hopes of removing any modules or plugins that aren't needed.
Bits and pieces
All of dGeek.com's database tables have been optimized.
Traffic Jam
I've got two options as I see it right now in regard to traffic and response time of dGeek.com.
1. Bite the bullet and get a beefier hosting plan. I'm currently hosting with Siteground and I LOVE their customer support...The only problem with going dedicated servier is expense...my concern with going with something that automatically scales to demand is unexpected bills for bandwidth (had that issue way back when with the CUBE website and it scared the bejesus out of me!
2. Split the site into various different "sections" that are hosted on other sites...for example: Blogger.com or Wordpress.com or that kind of thing for the blog, and Forumer.comor Lefora.com or somewhere similar for the forum, the chat etc. etc.
I know which way I'd rather go...because I'm a nerd and love the idea of my own dedicated server!
Anyway...as always, you'll be the first to hear about whatever gets decided! In fact, feel free to weigh in at the http://www.dgeek.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=68&func=showcat&catid=51
As always, thanks SO much for your patience and support while we try to bring this beast with us into the future!
Cheers,
D!
PS. I keep getting asked about what I'm reading on my iPhone kindle app...currently loving Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Time and no, NOT just because I'm a cheap bastard and it's a FREE download!
I feel like there's an "Athens Burns" joke in there somewhere, but I can't find it... written by Kathleen Sweeney,
August 12, 2009
You might consider a tip jar - I'm sure folks would be happy to contribute to defray the cost of a dedicated server. While I commend your understanding that it's a 'cost of doing business' if you're an actor who has a large genre-centric fan base, creating a feature-heavy home for dGeek can't be cheap.
A suggestion for the Kindle - I've been reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels on my iPhone and it's brilliant. I've also read all of John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series on the iPhone - it feels weirdly appropriate.
Bonne vacances!
+1
... written by Marian,
August 12, 2009
Thanks for keeping us informed with all the changes here at dgeek.
+0
I was going to say the same thing! written by Kimberly aka Kdvb1,
August 12, 2009
I was wondering if you need some help with costs? Would advertising cover getting your own server? (which I agree would be uber cool!) Or do you want us to help raise some funds? I have posted a lot on dGeek *whistles innocently* and would be happy to chip in!
If I win the Power Ball ($180 million) I'll buy dGeek it's own server! Um...how much do those cost anyways...lol?
Thanks David for spending so much time, effort and maybe money on dGeek.
Kimber
+0
... written by Scruffnstuff,
August 12, 2009
At first glance I thought the title of this entry said Greek Fiddle and I thought of Mediterranean musical instruments!
I really appreciate the Twitters and Tweaks, and look forward to a nice shiny dGeek that doesn't have the white screen of frustration popping up at me!
Enjoy your vacation! Scruff
+0
Dedicated Server written by Andrew,
August 12, 2009
I think it would be a great idea for a dedicated server, if it is affordable. Even I wouldn't mind donating a bit towards one. Though, a suggestion may be to use a different path and any "donations/funds" towards a dedicated server go towards the likes of doctors without borders, or the like instead.
If you want to look into being a real geek, here is a instruction set for setting up your own dedicated server (using Ubuntu Linux)
Thanks so much for keeping us squirrels aprised as to the going ons with dGeek!
Take care & happiness always!
cath(animallover)
+0
some options, reduce hidden traffic with robots.txt written by Robert von Heeren,
August 13, 2009
Hi, I think too you should opt for a dedicated server. There are several pricing models out there and it should be possible to find a provider whith some bandwidth-limit/-throttle and monitoring, so that costs could not explode. Is it possible that some of the load is also caused by the so-called "hidden traffic" by crawlers and bots? (whould show within Apache access log). At my sites the hidden traffic is about 40% of the overall traffic. If so they can be throttled down (so that they do not crawl so frequently and aggressively) with an entry into the robots.txt: User-agent: *yahoobot* //just an example, wildcards can be used Crawl-delay: 10 //that's seconds this entry is respected by all major bots (Google, Yahoo). And for really bad ones (which do not respect the robots.txt) set an environment variable with apache-conf which blocks those spiders. (I can send you the command) Do not underestimate the load caused by bots. All the best, Robert
and no, NOT just because I'm a cheap bastard and it's a FREE download!
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Um...how much do those cost anyways...lol? 
A suggestion for the Kindle - I've been reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels on my iPhone and it's brilliant. I've also read all of John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series on the iPhone - it feels weirdly appropriate.
Bonne vacances!