'You may like'

[TonyRPH]

rscott said:

Here goes then (braces for snide comments).

So what would you migrate the forums to? Presumably something like Lithium. Or an open source solution , if so which can cope well with the volume of posts on here without any ongoing 'fettling'.

No snide comments from me.

The forum side of PH is a simple text only site. Images are not stored along with posts.

From a capacity point of view, it's good hardware and the way that said hardware is structured (e.g. a tiered solution) that's important.

Any open source forum software would likely cope, if the right hardware solution was in place.

[eybic]

Hi Guys and Gals,

Based on your feedback we have now reduced the ads to just one and the rest of the "you may like" bits link back specifically to PH content, you should see this immediately.

Thanks for your patience.

Nathan

[Hideaway]

Still got all

[rscott]

TonyRPH said:

rscott said:

Here goes then (braces for snide comments).

So what would you migrate the forums to? Presumably something like Lithium. Or an open source solution , if so which can cope well with the volume of posts on here without any ongoing 'fettling'.

No snide comments from me.

The forum side of PH is a simple text only site. Images are not stored along with posts.

From a capacity point of view, it's good hardware and the way that said hardware is structured (e.g. a tiered solution) that's important.

Any open source forum software would likely cope, if the right hardware solution was in place.

Yep, but as any sysadmin knows, coding inefficiency expands to fill the available processing power.

Just the General Gassing subforum has over 4 million posts in it and the entire forum has about 20 million (approx). Are you happy that phpBB (for example) would be just fine? I've seen it bring reasonable specification clusters to their knees with just a couple of wide open searches.

Googling suggests that there are in excess of 1000 simultaneous users on this site much of the time. Would you be happy that phpBB out the box would be just fine?

[eybic]

Hideaway said:

Still got all

I only have one advert showing, how many do you see?

[porridge]

rscott said:

TonyRPH said:

rscott said:

Here goes then (braces for snide comments).

So what would you migrate the forums to? Presumably something like Lithium. Or an open source solution , if so which can cope well with the volume of posts on here without any ongoing 'fettling'.

No snide comments from me.

The forum side of PH is a simple text only site. Images are not stored along with posts.

From a capacity point of view, it's good hardware and the way that said hardware is structured (e.g. a tiered solution) that's important.

Any open source forum software would likely cope, if the right hardware solution was in place.

Yep, but as any sysadmin knows, coding inefficiency expands to fill the available processing power.

Just the General Gassing subforum has over 4 million posts in it and the entire forum has about 20 million (approx). Are you happy that phpBB (for example) would be just fine? I've seen it bring reasonable specification clusters to their knees with just a couple of wide open searches.

Googling suggests that there are in excess of 1000 simultaneous users on this site much of the time. Would you be happy that phpBB out the box would be just fine?

Not sure why you want to have a protracted conversation on this? its is a fact that a text based forum such as this is an easier job than many others.

Here is a comparable example: www.avforums.com

1) Just checked and has 3,911 people currently browsing compared to PH's 1000
2) HUGE classifieds which not only is free but actively moderated, PH makes a ton of cash
3) AVForums homepage = 1 top banner, 1 bottom PH homepage has 1 top, 1 full length side, and another ad box
and so on.

PH is a corporate, AVForums is owned by founder. The former took years to make any changes to classifieds or indeed anything else, the latter has been through at least 2 entire site changes.

PH is great- but it is the members and not the tech which makes it great.

[TonyRPH]

rscott said:

Yep, but as any sysadmin knows, coding inefficiency expands to fill the available processing power.

There's no disputing that.

rscott said:

Just the General Gassing subforum has over 4 million posts in it and the entire forum has about 20 million (approx). Are you happy that phpBB (for example) would be just fine? I've seen it bring reasonable specification clusters to their knees with just a couple of wide open searches.

Agreed, but the search facility on this site hasn't worked for months anyway - and it's now powered by Google, something which could be done with other BB engines.

rscott said:

Googling suggests that there are in excess of 1000 simultaneous users on this site much of the time. Would you be happy that phpBB out the box would be just fine?

I don't have enough experience with phpBB to say either way TBH.

When I wrote my post, I had both phpBB and Vbulletin in mind, but when I searched for some information regarding scalability of the two products, I drew a blank (admittedly it was a very brief search).

It would however be an interesting exercise to see if they could handle it, with appropriate caching / accelerators in place.

[TonyRPH]

porridge said:

<snip>
2) HUGE classifieds which not only is free but actively moderated, PH makes a ton of cash
<snip>

And their classifieds actually works!!!

porridge said:

<snip>
PH is great- but it is the members and not the tech which makes it great.

Which is why Haymarket are so keen to put advertising all over the place - to sell us - the forum contributors in essence.

The users made the forum what it is today, and Haymarket's change in direction may well be the undoing of that.

[Hideaway]

eybic said:

I only have one advert showing, how many do you see?

5

[illmonkey]

Hideaway said:

eybic said:

I only have one advert showing, how many do you see?

5

You'll have 5 icons but only 1 will be an advert, that's my understanding anyway.

[Hideaway]

illmonkey said:

You'll have 5 icons but only 1 will be an advert, that's my understanding anyway.

I can still click on 5 adverts

[B'stard Child]

Hideaway said:

illmonkey said:

You'll have 5 icons but only 1 will be an advert, that's my understanding anyway.

I can still click on 5 adverts

4 are links to PH content - You might like

1 is an advert

[eybic]

That's right, 4 are links to PH and 1 will be an external advert.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

I'm seeing 6 icons, but only one of them is an ad.

[Accelebrate]

Looking at the API for Taboola it appears that it can be configured to serve text links rather than full blown adverts. Someone has shared a snippet of code on pastebin that shows that 'Cosmopolitan' magazine use both types of Taboola ads on their site. The text links are still full of rubbish, but a lot less annoying...



Would a good compromise be to move to this style of ad, given that it's very similar to what was previously there from Google?

[AmitG]

Question to PH central: how are the adverts chosen? Are they based on user browsing history? Posting history? User profile information? Or just random?

[illmonkey]

Hideaway said:

I can still click on 5 adverts

Ah, I was just helping to clarify. Clearly work still needs doing.

[rigga]

Hold the front page, we have a results ....no crappy ad's, all Ph related


Bugger that didn't last

[AmitG]

Is it just me or have they just disappeared?

[B'stard Child]

AmitG said:

Is it just me or have they just disappeared?

Just you