Who has had a 503 this week ?

[the black fox]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

been trying to post a pic all friday afternoon ,tried reducing the size etc ,just keep getting a 503 .this is the only place it happens so it has to be the sever your using

[Dave_S]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Ouch!!!, I've only just now come back to this 'thread', and oh dear me, nerves have become a little frayed, and some raw nerves have been touched..

Some mild flippancy, hasn't helped the demeanour of the 'frustrated ones', but fortunately things have remained civil, which is testament to the quality of the memberships here.

I do also feel that Doug was playing 'devils advocate', and speaking for many other members here, albeit not as far as the reference to Canon' management is concerned, and the 'pulling of the plug'.

Being totally independent from Canon, the way that this site functions, or doesn't function, does not reflect in any way on Canon. This forum may or may not encourage, or discourage people from using Canon EOS products, but that is totally outside of Canon's control.

Without doubt, this problem has gone on for a long time now, and the fact that members have become increasingly frustrated with it, is fully understandable.

However, I suspect that Robert is equally as frustrated, in that a solution hasn't materialised, and I very much doubt that its not for the want of trying.

Personally, I have yet to experience the 503 problem, but then I'm not a prolific image poster, as for me, the forum is more about discussing techniques, equipment, and software etc, as opposed to being a gallery for showing my pictures. However, we all enjoy the forum in our own way, and 'variety is the spice of life'.

I have no experience of using the software on which this 'board runs', but other forums are using it, and not experiencing this problem, so it does seem to point to the fact that the 503 problem is not vBulletin related. This would point to it being a server problem. Not the server per-se, but a storage space, or bandwidth problem.

Of course I am not privy as to what Robert is renting, in terms of what the 'server package' provides, and it may well be that there is adequate 'storage space' (headroom), and bandwidth.

I don't even know, if the forum is hosted on a 'shared server', or a VPS. Albeit, given the speed of page loading, I suspect its a VPS.

Where do we go from here?. That 'ball' lays in Roberts' court, but what can he do about it, probably nothing that he hasn't tried already, other move to another server. However, the 'business case' might not justify this, or given the fact that the forum is not his 'core business', would he want the hassle.

Whatever, the cause, the problem is clearly real enough, and long running.

A difficult one, for 'both camps' unfortunately.

Finally, I would be very sad to see the 'plug pulled' on this forum, as I have said it before, and still maintain, that this is THE best photography forum on the net.

Dave

[Stan]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Finger, toes and everything else crossed, I have not suffered a 503 for a week or two

Stan

ps - probably will return now though

[djguk47]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

I had the 503 this week when I posted my Avebury Ring B&W. All I did was to delete the image, post the the text, went back to edit and then included the BBCode from Flickr and all worked so that you unfortunates could see the marmite image.

[the black fox]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

weirdly enough it now a hour or so later seems to have rectified itself ,so perhaps its time related ???

[Robert Scott]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

I don't think it is a server error, as such, but a result of heavy traffic on the server. We are on a shared server (a virtual server is expensive), so a lot of photo uploads at the same time can slow things down or give a timeout, leading to a 503 error message. These uploads can be from other sites on the server, not just from our forum. There were quite a few images posted this afternoon, so the 503 error is not affecting everyone.

We have unlimited bandwidth, so that is not a problem - and it is one of the reasons I am reluctant to move servers. All the alternative servers I have looked at charge extra if you exceed a specified bandwidth each month, and we are well over the limit for many servers. And there is no guarantee that the problem will go away on a different server.

[Dave_S]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Now that we know its hosted on a shared server, I think that you are probably right Robert, and that it is a 'heavy traffic' problem giving rise to a 'time out' issue.

When my forum was hosted on a shared server, we suffered differently in that it would at times, take an age to actually open the forum, or access another page on the 'board'. This caused a lot of frustration for both us (Admin) and our members, and so we moved to a VPS.

However, VPS hosting is expensive, and we introduced processes to keep our data storage within our rented 'package' limit. Unlike other astro-forums, we are totally independent, and have no income from sponsors or advertising.

This forum is somewhat different, in that it is also and advertisement for EOS Magazine, which is why I think you allow 'guests' to read all of the content that registered members can read. The 'Classifieds' section being for magazine subscribers only of course.

Given that you have a business to run, and that the forum is very much secondary to this, I do not believe that you would have the time nor the inclination to manage it in the same manner as we do our forum, as it is time consuming.

Unlike most all other forums, we do not store 'Deadwood', and consider that any member who has not logged in for a continuous period exceeding six consecutive months, has lost interest and left, as such they are deleted. They are of course free to re-register should they wish to.

Most forums show their membership number as being in the thousands, when in fact the "real" membership is actually a very small percentage of this, as many of those included in the claimed number, have long since left.

We could probably claim to have over a thousand members, if we didn't delete the 'deadwood'. As it is, we average around 350-370 real and active members, and this is the number that we display. An average of 50-60 of these logging in and posting every day.

Because like this forum, we are about digital imaging, a significant number of images are uploaded on a daily basis, and of course it is image data that eats into storage space on the server.

To keep this within affordable limits, we delete 'threads' and accompanying image data, that are over two years old. We are more about recent and current activity, as opposed to two year old historic data, that nobody bothers to go back and read. Storing such historic data has to be paid for, and for no benefit.

'Threads' such as Tutorials etc, remain irrespective how old they are.

I can understand your reluctance to move server, as it can be quite time consuming, and with no guarantee of any benefit.

As I said earlier, I am not a prolific image poster, and as such have not experienced the '503' problem, when I have posted an image. However, if I was, and constantly came up against the problem, then I too would likely get frustrated and not bother.

It is a 'fly in the ointment' of an otherwise excellent forum, but nobody has been able to come up with a definitive answer to it. It has all been as a case of "it could be this" or "it could be that".

Robert has made it clear, that a move to an expensive VPS, is not an option.

This sporadic 503 problem may be something that we either have to live with, or migrate to another forum.

Dave

P.S. Robert, just a thought, is the server based in the UK, or the US?

I ask this because Doug mentioned that he was suffering the 503 problem at 02.00 hours. At this time, the bulk of UK users would be tucked up in bed, whereas folk in the US are very much up and about.

[Robert Scott]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Now that we know its hosted on a shared server, I think that you are probably right Robert, and that it is a 'heavy traffic' problem giving rise to a 'time out' issue.

Thanks for your feedback. It is very useful to know how other forums are managed, especially those handling lots of images.

We don't have a problem with storage at the moment, so it has not been necessary to prune or delete threads.

Our server is based in Germany, but could be hosting sites with a lot of US members.

If the problem could be solved with a modest one-off investment of cash, it would be done. However, most of the available options involve significantly higher monthly fees and these are ongoing year after year.

There is a suggestion that updating or improving some of the php code might help. I am following this up.

[Dave_S]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

There is a suggestion that updating or improving some of the php code might help. I am following this up

That might indeed offer some improvement.

In the case of phpBB software, the developers do look at improving the software, as an on going project, and in general, there is at least one updated version released each year.

I would assume that the people behind vBulletin are doing the same.

Whenever an updated version of phpBB is released. we always update.

I wish you luck with your efforts to solve the current problem here.

Dave

[djguk47]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

An "experiment" to see the difference between uploading from Flicker and uploading from computer.

Computer:
SCOTTISH WILDCAT (503).jpg

Flickr:

SCOTTISH WILD CAT by djguk47, on Flickr

[Stan]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

The "true " shot is probably between the two, ie direct upload softens the shot and from flickr, sometimes oversharpens

Stan

[djguk47]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

The "true " shot is probably between the two, ie direct upload softens the shot and from flickr, sometimes oversharpens

Stan

and that is the "gotcha"... how to get the image in between.....
I guess every forum has this conundrum

[Robert Scott]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

An "experiment" to see the difference between uploading from Flicker and uploading from computer.

Thanks for the comparison. A excellent choice of subject. Of the two, I think I prefer the softer computer upload. As already mentioned, the flickr image appears oversharpened. Which is closer to the image as viewed on your computer monitor?

As no one has yet reported a 503 error uploading an image direct from their computer, I will see if there is a method of improving the quality of the directly uploaded image.

[djguk47]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Robert the computer upload is the closer of the two except the detail of the whiskers close to the body of the cat is softer than the original.
The Flickr upload looks over sharpened along the top of the back in particular when compared to the original.

[Les McLean]

Re: Who has had a 503 this week ?

Sorry I'm late to the show on this, but I can't remember ever having a 503 problem, perhaps it's because I upload images from my own domain? Never used flickr, and never uploaded images directly from my computer.

I'm on a mac and Safari.