Forum switch to vBulletin?

[Shark]

I was wondering if it was maybe time to switch to vBulletin.
I think it loads a little quicker (I'm on 56k); and, the search facilities are better.

[snow_Cat]

I don't know,

I'd rather to see a new 'streamlined' skin that generates less garbage than rather than risk a database/security migration... but then again I don't need to do any of the work either way.

[Ryder P. Moses]

vBulletin costs money.

[chuck_starchaser]

I'd rather see the forums moved from scourgeforge to a half decent server, and I even offered to pay for the provider...

[CoD]

I'm a reseller.
If anybody in the vegastrike team is interested in buying web space and/or a domain I could make some discount

I don't link the website here because I'm not a spammer: this is just a discussion about forum programs.
Send me an mp if you're interested.

[chuck_starchaser]

I think the devs' main concern was the work involved in the move. How hard is it to move the forums? And do you offer any guarantees in terms of bandwidth and delay? Like if I'm gonna be dishing out the cash I wouldn't want to end up in yet another slow place, if you know what I mean

[Halleck]

Eh, the forums are fast enough IMO.

The wiki is what needs a faster server (so it can stop kicking us off when SF.net is overloaded).

[www2]

@all
or we pay ouwer one server and got a co-locasion only if we hef a sponser

[chuck_starchaser]

Eh, the forums are fast enough IMO.

The wiki is what needs a faster server (so it can stop kicking us off when SF.net is overloaded).

Seems to be different for different people. I have no problems at all with the wiky; but I have horrendous problems with the forum. This very morning I kept getting 'connection refused' from about 10 am till now (11:50 am)...

[Halleck]

Perhaps this has to do with time zones and source forge useage loads? If you're trying to use the forums when the sourceforge sql database is getting slammed, you'll probably have trouble.

If we were going to switch to anything, I'd say switch to a board that didn't rely on a goddamn SQL database to store everything... honestly, php/mysql is a very poor design for a forum. The database just gets slammed for simple requests like where an image is, and it winds up getting bogged down with requests before long and stops responding entirely.

It's much faster to use a three tiered directory heirarchy (similar to what the sourceforge shell server has for projects and users) and just store all the information in flat text files. That keeps file access times quick, and it scales very well. Plus, you don't have to worry about what times of day everybody else is slamming the poor SQL database into oblivion.

Unfortunately, the last forum program to use such a model (that I know of) was the perl-based YaBB, which has essentially been discontinued and replaced by SMF, yet another php/mysql implementation.

Perhaps they are faster on a smaller scale, but they only lead to scaling problems when you have a lot of users or have to share the mysql database with other people.

[klauss]

A properly indexed database handles queries in nearly O(1) - precisely, O(log n) but with the logarithm having a quite big base. Thus... if the database is being slammed, it's because of poor indexing.
I'd say the database needs mantainance.

Bad thing is... unless everyone using the databases does such mantainance, it's worthless. I guess SF itself should handle that, and force OPTIMIZE commands on all tables from time to time.

[CoD]

And do you offer any guarantees in terms of bandwidth and delay?

* Disk space: 1 Gb
* Bandwidth: 9 Gb
* Subdomains: 100
* Parked Domains: 20
* Addon Domains: 20
* Ftp Accounts: 30
* Frontpage (if requested)
* Crontab
* MySQL Databases: 50
* Mailing Lists: 20
* Spamassassin
* Guestbook
* Virus Scanning
* Fantastico!
* Perl 5.8.3
* PHP 5.0.4
* MySQL 4.1.10a
* GD libraries
1 year , including a domain: 188€
(It's just one of our ready-made solutions)

The bandwith is obviuosly YOURS, it's guaranteed bandwith, not shared bandwith.
I think there isn't any serious reseller that sells shared-bandwidth

For the delay... uhm... try checking http://www.stilisticamente.com
Our servers are in the UK.

About forums: we are using Invision Power Board for our support forum, but I couldn't tell how it works with large number of posts and users: it's a really simple and peaceful forum.

NOTE: I was just answering chuck_starchaser and I don't want to make spam at all.
If you think my post is OT, SPAM or simply annoying: delete it! I'll understand

[chuck_starchaser]

Sounds good, but I tried the sylisticamente and it's very slow for me here in Montreal (the picture of the watch takes several seconds to download, and I have a fast connection). Would be nice to have servers in Europe and Asia, but I think we need something to get started in North America first, where I'm pretty sure most of the users are. Also, I'm not sure the forums would fit in 1 gigabyte, and we'd like to be able to allow attachments as part of any new deal.

[Halleck]

I should hope it would fit into 1 GB... as far as I know our SF.net storage quota is more like 100 mb.

[chuck_starchaser]

Serious!?! I guess I'm spoiled; I got 2 gigs in my accound and only 30% left of it even after a major cleanup... but then again, text is cheap; most of what I got is graphics. But then again, we'd probably want to have graphics also.

[CoD]

I should hope it would fit into 1 GB... as far as I know our SF.net storage quota is more like 100 mb.

WOW!
I wonder how your site could stay online all the time... wait: 100mb just for the forum or for all the vegastrike subdomain?

Sounds good, but I tried the sylisticamente and it's very slow for me here in Montreal (the picture of the watch takes several seconds to download, and I have a fast connection).

Oh.... well, you're the first Canadian who tests our page

[Halleck]

Hm... well, I don't think that the quota counts information stored in the MySQL database (such as the majority of wiki and phpbb data AFAIK), nor does it count things like the CVS repository or file releases. But yeah, the webspace "soft quota" for sourceforge is 100mb per project unless you submit a request with a compelling reason for more space.

[CoD]

Aaaaah no no I was talking about bandwith, not space

[Halleck]

Oh. I don't think we have any hard bandwidth quota at all; we just share bandwidth with the rest of the SF.net projects on our server.