I just spent a few minutes clicking on various pages with-in this site. Fastest response was 25 seconds, the slowest was 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

From Montana Matt's profile page:

Last Active: Sep 8, 2011

So he has been logging in. Just doesn't give a damn enough to do anything about the site or even comment to us directly.

what the hell happened to this site? it has been painfully slow to navigate for the past few months.

Eastking is asking me to post a page, but the server speed would make it take way too long. Especially if I wanted to do a good job with pics.
I contacted Matt, hope to get a reply.

I thought it was me, but seems not. Very slow here.

The response time of SP is terribly slow. It's almost unusable. Perhaps SP has grown too large and it's time for some radical changes?

I remember hearing that it takes a tremendous amount of server time to open a profile page because of all the image thumbnails. Multiply that by the thousands of people that use SP every day and I'm sure that adds up. If it would improve the overall response time, I'd be in favor of not displaying the images initially when a profile page is opened. Instead, display them in a collapsible section and retrieve them only on request, i.e. if that section is expanded by the user. Is that possible?

I know what you're thinking. Just what we need; another armchair quarterback. But something needs to be done. SP has been dead slow for weeks. It's time to think outside the box.

There's no easy fix for it. Images are hosted on a content delivery network and are not pulled from the main SP server (if they were the issue you'd see different symptoms too, ie. images would take a longer time to show up after the rest of a page has been rendered).
AFAIK Matt has tackled this worsening problem numerous times but with the site owners remaining absent, SP seems to be doomed...

Perhaps it is time to build a new site and transfer the current content over to it (for those who want that done). I have the resources in the outdoor industry to pay for it to be done, via a more progressive/interactive format anyway. All of it, not just my beta. But someone needs to have the ability. And obviously if starting a new site, more thought needs to be put into the many suggestions that have gone ignored for so many years. Will take a full time job of at least one person coordinating the move, establishing the site, the arduous effort of coping the material over. So any programmer who thinks they have this capability and wants a full time career in the outdoor industry, contact me. I would rather SP just keep running as it is really, for my needs, but can think of no other solution at the moment.

Just as Jane, I thought it was just with me the problem. I also have problems between 08:00h and 08:30h (Brasilia - GMT+3) with SP, it seems to be an "update time" or whatever because it`s always down for this hour, and by down I mean not even runs. Today it took me almost three minutes just to log in, and another 20 or 25 extra minutes to vote for like ten pages. It is awful right now.
I agree with Josh and Alpinist, something must be done. SP beta is huge and to me and to half the world`s climbing community unquestionably important. After all, Summit Post is done by us, taking care of by us, it means a hell lot more than just a website.
We cannot let it sink like a damaged old ship. Dow`s solution is pretty good. In fact, I think that all SPers should contribute with some cash to help for the professional job that must be done. We are thousands folks, if everyone gives like US$ 5.00 we can raise a reasonable amount of money to pay this professional for his working time for probably 3 or 4 months. And I think this time d be enough to solve all problems we have to deal today for good. I am willing to help.
What do you guys think about that?

Alpinist wrote:I remember hearing that it takes a tremendous amount of server time to open a profile page because of all the image thumbnails. Multiply that by the thousands of people that use SP every day and I'm sure that adds up. If it would improve the overall response time, I'd be in favor of not displaying the images initially when a profile page is opened. Instead, display them in a collapsible section and retrieve them only on request, i.e. if that section is expanded by the user. Is that possible?

This isn't about thumbnails. It just took 9 seconds for the following page to show up when I hit the quote button.

It just took me 51 seconds to open the SP HOMEPAGE, nevermind anyone's profile.

It took 12 seconds for any content to show up when I expanded the 'Messages I've posted' box on my profile.

I just tried accessing finance.yahoo.com, which as FAR more traffic, content, continuously updated data with refreshing, and it took less than 1/3 of a second.

Putting a bandaid on the problem isn't what we need. We need a real solution.

phlipdascrip wrote:AFAIK Matt has tackled this worsening problem numerous times but with the site owners remaining absent, SP seems to be doomed...

Something to keep in mind, Montana Matt is one of the owners, and he has been logging in. So the owners are not actually absent, rather they are aware of the problem and currently choosing to do nothing about it.

I would certainly be willing to pitch in with the costs and I'm sure others would too. Unfortunately, the site owners are nowhere to be found and their cooperation is required to get access to the source code. Does anyone have Josh's or Ryle's email address? Perhaps they'll pay more attention if they get a flood of emails from the SP members.

We've all invested a lot of time and energy into this site. I love SP but if the owners don't care enough about it to maintain it, then perhaps it's time for an alternative site. Each of us owns the copyright to our own material and has the right to post it anywhere. If 90% of the top 200 members decided to move their content to a new and better site, SP would cease to exist. Maybe that will get their attention. It would take some effort to copy and paste my material, and upload my images, but if that's what it takes then so be it. SP is becomming unusable. If Dow has the resources and a better solution, then I'm all for it.

Matt - if you're working on a solution then please let us know. This is pretty frustrating.

Perhaps just you (Alpinist) should get the e-mail. Don't make it public; mass harassment doesn't warm peoples' hearts, and friends are unlikely to give out e-mail addresses if they know the subject is in for a flood of ill-will. If you get some sort of agreement, post (or PM the others who have shown interest) and we can chip in as appropriate.

Unique Visitors: 24294

That's as high as I've ever seen it. A year or two ago I remember seeing it in the 15,000 range.

jspeigl wrote:

Unique Visitors: 24294

That's as high as I've ever seen it. A year or two ago I remember seeing it in the 15,000 range.

What is your conclusion? Also do you have any stats on how long those visitors stay before closing their browser or moving on to a faster site?