[IMPORTANT] New Policies to Address AHS slowdown
 

We are sure members have noticed the slowness of the AHS server lately and experienced frustration. That's why the staff at AHS have decided to make some positive changes to try and address the problem. Starting from now the moderators are going to:

• Close topics that have more than 500 posts.
• Purge the Posting Games forum regularly.

Large threads are server intensive and they slow the forum down for everyone. We simply do not have the resources to continue hosting large volumes of off-topic threads. A way you can help is by staying on topic and using an instant messaging program (i.e., AIM, MSN, ICQ, et. al.) if you want to chat with someone.

Lets work to keep this forum tidy and efficient!

Thank you,
AHS Staff

I'm had a super frustrating AHS loading time day today too -_-'

But hopefully this will make a great difference!! :) woohoo

Today quite a number of weird things happened because of the "slowdown". I'm glad measures are being taken, and I'm hoping they will have effect :).

About the purging of the posting games board, I'd like to suggest that the policy for what a game thread is to be slightly changed, considering for example threads like the Singaporean thread, or, especially, the Internanational Thread.

I would also like to suggest the Downloads boards to be another target for the purging, considering that most threads there become outdated after only a few months.

Considering something completely else, I'd like to see less threads moved there or to trash because of a few bad posts, which I in some cases see as a punishment towards a lot more users than the actual offenders. I know most of those threads probably already are straining the rules, or are very inviting towards posts that might get them locked/trashed.

Please understand that I am only expressing a few thoughts and not complaining.

edit,
Maybe it could be an idea to require users use an external host for user avatars, instead of hosting them on the AHS server.

There will be a lot of work to do, but it'll all be worth it for the server.

Ugh. Today was horrid. The pages just wouldn't load. I think the problem is more than just mega threads, though. I remember that's what they thought it was at a different site, but then Owly messed around with something and got it working really fast and there've been no problems for years. =/

Either way, best of luck.

AHS does not have the resources to continue hosting large volumes of off-topic threads. It's no good to compare with other sites. It's like comparing a car to a bicycle.

its ok...its better decision than no access to AHS at all
i'm trying to get in to AHS about 3 hours
so frustating

disagree with the download forum purging suggestion
simply because the old threads are good to search for the obscure / less-noticed files (for requests / searches elsewhere, even though they're expired)

of course one can still browse the media discography lists available outside of AHS.. but still...

Apparently 500 is the suggested thread limit size. I say if it works it's not that big of a sacrifice... the only threads that get that high anyways are posting games, and I'd say they're the most disposable threads since no one really needs them for reference or anything ^^

how about a forum mod to display a user's sig in only his/her first post in a certain page of a thread?

saw this mod used somewhere else.

awww that's no fun :) I recognize people by their sigs and want everyone to see mine! hehehe

Hmm, here's been dead for the past 2 hours o_0

I guess a 500 post limit is good. And of course, as immel suggested, purging the DL sections regularly sure helps alot. Like how there are currently so many threads hosting the same thing now (AT 06 download). Can either merge all together, or keep only the earliest one.

The signatures does not use AHSs bandwidth, only the avatars does.

Maybe the mega threads doesn't have anything to do with bandwidth, only that it's performance heavy?

Great thing they did, sometimes i cant log on to AHS a few hours, like yesterday,waited and waited...until i sleep, but nvm, yay! New policies.

oh well.. i couldnt log on to AHS for several hours jus now. it was simply frustrating but i am not blaming it on AHS. its frustrating because i have the habit of refreshing AHS everynow and there and there is nothing loading.. :(

but are the staff here sure that its due to the amount of threads that slows down AHS loading? cos if the staff close down threads with 500 posts, then the frequency of the new threads emerging will be higher. isnt that what we dont want? can the staff delete those threads that are very outdated?

last night i had soo much trouble coming here. the page would never load. "cannot find server" a million times. then it comes on for a minute, and it's back down again.

but now it's working fine and i hope it stays that way! :D

I hope this will help the server. It was pretty slow and sometime not working for me, but it seems more normal now.

posting games theads are the ones who you make a reply with reference to the previous reply, right?

i can imagine these take up a lot of resources. i think they can be discouraged.

The posting games definition on this board would rather be a thread where your posts do not count. There's all kinds of threads in there, chat threads, games, what do you listen to, what do you wear and so on.

Take a peek, it's my favorite board here.

You know what we did at our forum, when a thread reached 500-1000 posts, the thread got closed and a new was opened to continue. Maybe that'd be an idea?

On our forum I love the games/random section too. All threads there get very huge, however we do not expierence slowdowns from them. So I'd suggest just closing big threads and reopening new ones till they get too big.

If you actually read the first post in this thread, you'd see that the new policy involves closing threads as they reach 500 posts.

can AHS appeal for donations to upgrade server or buy more bandwidth?

haah.. i duno what happened... i jus experienced several hours of problems with AHS. i jus couldnt access to the AHS page.. i dont think its due to an excess of threads.. so what is the real problem??? :(

The page was very slow today, when I got back from work a lot of people had asked me on MSN if AHS was down, I believe it might have been down/slow/something all day.

Seems to have cleared up now.

The mods have stated before long ago that they absolutely will not appeal for donations and that donations will come from the members whenever they choose to give them.

Not that I don't think it wouldn't be a good idea for us to "pitch in," I believe that the mods do not want anyone to feel obligated to in any way.

it is interesting how immel has become an unofficial mod!

Donation drives are not for long term. We would like to stress that AHS's primary mission is to share news and multimedia with the ayumi fans around the globe, not chatting. We would rather the members contribute the funds solely from their own good will and not by "driving".

You can try to help out by posting moderately. For example, participate the games lightly, not chasing them all the way down to the drain. Stay on topic and try not to chat too trivial matters. Say "thank you" by using PM, not replying them straight in the news thread. You can help us a lot by doing that.

as long as i can get to ahs, i don't care what the cut off limit is for threads, i'm just happy to be able to access the site. thanks to the staff for all their hard work. :)

Will not using an avatar help?

Couldn't we host our avatars on our own site?

But they have 4,000 members... This site has an excess of 11,000!

It would, but not everyone is going to not use an avatar anymore.

Well, then at least I saved 10kbs for the site. :D