Young Writers Society

When you go into the chatroom, you'll notice that it's changed. Long-time users will remember it as the same chat we once had up until several months ago.

The reason for the change is simply money. As YWS grows, the server has a tougher time handling the traffic and the site is actually operating at above 100% capacity for substantial periods of the day. That in turn leads to slowdowns and user frustration.

A month ago, I added 33% more capacity to the server, but it wasn't enough. So, I'm left with two options: add more capacity or switch to the chatroom we're using presently. The cost of doing either is an extra $30 per month. However, switching to the present chatroom has some advantages: namely, it can continue running even while the rest of the site is down.

So we're back to the old chatroom, at least for now. If it does not result in the reduced server usage, then we'll just switch back and I'll add more capacity to the server.

Edit

Thus far, it seems to be working although it really is too early to tell. However, as soon as I switched to the present chatroom, server usage dropped by about 25%.

Heh, no one has replied but that won't stop me!

The new chat, thus far, is a success. Here's the chart showing server usage from this past Monday through today:


We switched to the new chat on Tuesday, and you can even tell exactly where we switched to the new chat (look for the first big drop on Tuesday that's a little bit past the mid-point for that day). As you can tell, server usage was substantially lower on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday compared to Monday. Site activity wise, Tuesday was actually slightly busier than Monday, and yet the server performed much better.

By the way, the occasional spike is usually due to a search engine bot going out of control on the site.

So the new chat, which is hosted by a third party, is doing it's job. It's actually doing so well that we have almost always had excess server capacity for the past few days for the first time in months (the exceptions are those occasional spikes).

To sum up, we're sticking with the new chat.

Yay! Old/new chat is so very nostalgic.

I love the Tahoma font, the fact that the PM box stays open if the person you talk to leaves suddenly, and I'm sure there was something else I meant to say but I've forgotten it right now.

Whoo!
The only thing is, for me, this chat can get slow. It sometimes takes a long while for the words to appear as I type.