Pulse of the Community - Chat Edition

[Alliteration]

But it loads very slowly, even when the chat server is not under high load.

I've been testing the load time periodically since last night, and at least for me, it's never taken more than 2-3 seconds.

EDIT:

Speedtest.net results - ping 116 ms, download speed 1.90 Mbps, upload speed 0.32 Mbps (San Francisco server) // ping 259 ms, download speed 2.84 Mbps, upload speed 0.30 Mbps (London server)

Is this faster than most users?

[les]

I agree never more than 2 to 3 seconds

Ping 16, Download 50MB, upload 4.85 London

Click here

ping 125 Download 32.36, Upload 4.44 Los Angeles.

[les]

What about iFraming it into a small window above the chat entry page? That way it shows on the chat page, it's non-intrusive, and relatively easy to implement?

Then it would be like a notice board in the lobby

                                    That is a very good idea indy.
                  Hopefully it will also stop people bouncing in and out of rooms while looking for someone.

[seraph0x]

Speedtest.net results - ping 116 ms, download speed 1.90 Mbps, upload speed 0.32 Mbps (San Francisco server) // ping 259 ms, download speed 2.84 Mbps, upload speed 0.30 Mbps (London server)

Is this faster than most users?

The relevant metric is the page wait time, using Pingdom I get 146 ms for our front page:

http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/v5zFUCY ... ovana.com/

Look at the list of requests at the bottom, the yellow portion ("Wait") for the very first request is the time the server took to generate the page.

For the Chat status page this figure is 2.31s:

http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/ddUu9Nv ... status.php

Grossly oversimplified this means that opening this page keeps one of the Apache workers busy for twenty times longer than an access to the front page.

This can quickly become an issue if I add a link to the page on the Chat page. I remember when I changed something not too long ago that took the Webteases browse page from an average of 150 ms to around 350 ms which immediately flooded and killed the old server. We do have more reserve capacity on the new machine(s), but I don't want to immediately squander it obviously.

There is another idea though, I could load the data client-side using JavaScript. Then the slowness wouldn't affect our main server at all. That's an idea for when I have some free time.

[les]

seraph0x
As far as I am concerned what you have done by giving us the URL is more than useful.

Anything else would be a nice bonus, but not at the expense of something else.

I for one am happy to wait while the server does a head count of members in the chat rooms.

[Alliteration]

The relevant metric is the page wait time

I fail at the internet

Grossly oversimplified this means that opening this page keeps one of the Apache workers busy for twenty times longer than an access to the front page.

Gah, that is bad!

Another alternative would be to try and make it faster. The most obvious way of doing that would be to make it a static page that automatically updates every two minutes lets say.

Would that be preferable? Make it non-realtime, which will make it load much faster and would allow me to link it from the main chat page without worrying about QoS issues or putting too much extra load on the chat server?

I think the main benefit to something like this is that it *is* real-time. Doing away with that feature only limits people to the possibility of members being in the chat, not giving a true reflection of who actually is.

*idea*

How much server killing would it do if it was static, but auto-updated every minute? every 30 seconds? every 10 seconds? Maybe we could find a happy medium between server load and non-realtimeness.




------------------

Anyway, there seems to be a pretty strong consensus so far among people who responded to the OP (although that's admittedly not very many people) that more team members are needed. Should we explore that further?

[shell]

@shell;
adding it to the room description would do that. But you wouldn't be able to click on the link since attempting to do so will I believe connect you to the room. So you will still have to type it into the browser's url bar.

Thank you *soft smile*

***

Ohhhh...this is cool. *smile* Can a link of this be posted on the choose a room page?

I could add the link on the Chat page outside of the chat window. But it loads very slowly, even when the chat server is not under high load. So I'd rather keep it as sort of a hidden feature for those who understand and accept the caveat with it.

Another alternative would be to try and make it faster. The most obvious way of doing that would be to make it a static page that automatically updates every two minutes lets say.

Would that be preferable? Make it non-realtime, which will make it load much faster and would allow me to link it from the main chat page without worrying about QoS issues or putting too much extra load on the chat server?

Okay, I could pretend I understood all of that...but I don't. *blushing* So...ummmm....how about this...I will leave all the techy stuff to you....and just enjoy the benefits of the things you give us. *smiling*

Thank you for doing the little things like this.....well, little to me...but it sounds complicated for you. *smile*

[Banquo]

Sounds alot of work for essentially very little benefit to me.

[seraph0x]

Sounds alot of work for essentially very little benefit to me.

I tend to agree. As in: Let's put it on the todo list, but not at the top. For those who really can't live without the feature there is the option of bookmarking the link I posted.

Anyway, there seems to be a pretty strong consensus so far among people who responded to the OP (although that's admittedly not very many people) that more team members are needed. Should we explore that further?

Since this thread was about the chat: Who becomes chat moderator, how many mods there are and what channels they have access to is up to Jenifer as chat admin.

[seraph0x]

Okay - how about a static link to the resource on the chat page, at least?

I added it with rel=nofollow, that way it's there for humans, but most robots (Google, etc.) will ignore it.

I noticed a problem yesterday with pages half-loading and then getting stuck - wondering if it has to do with the new server or maybe with the chat status page, or might just be an issue with my own connection.

[seraph0x]

Failing that, can you at least make the link a pop-open window? That way it doesn't leave the main chat entry page, and you can simply close it to log into a chat, when you're finished.

Done!