Yes, I am wondering about this too.  There are several threads that are ongoing conversations among the Pondies and are frequently updated, such as The Traveling Stick.  I went to find it and did, on Page 2.  But I did notice that it no longer would fit on the front page, no matter how many posts are current in it, because there are quite a few threads that have been "stuck" although they haven't been posted in or viewed since March or February., or even earlier  As LAP points out, these threads are not currently relevant....if they could be "unstuck" to make room for some of the current conversations, it would be really helpful.  And then, of course, if there were current news or a new post in the unstuck thread it could move up, just like the other threads we post in on a regular basis.

Thanks for all you are doing.  The forums are moving much better this morning, and I haven't gotten The Message once yet. 

 I agree there are too many stuck threads..the whole block of announcements and FAQ can go..no new announements and never were questions there..also some sticky threads that haven't been viewed in months should fall off..just my thoughts

MeliaTech:

 Jayell,

Thanks for your insight. We're going to try to limit the number of database calls by reducing the number of posts per page. Let's see if this will improve performance. Furthermore, we are simultaneously researching a couple other promising possibilities.

Update: The change to the # of posts per page did positively improve server performance. Please let us know if the change to the posts and threads per page has a negative impact on the manner in which members interact within the community. If so, we can hit the drawing board again. Regardless, we're still exploring other potential culprits.

Further update (7-23): Changing the # of posts/threads per page was only moderately effective, and the system continues to have issues this morning. We will report back with any updates on our efforts from today.

Webmaster.

Just got here this morning to see that the number of posts/threads per page has been changed. The main NEGATIVE impact that this has is that any FLOATING threads (those not push pin stuck at the top) are automatically on page 2 and many people will have a problem figuring that out. Are there any "stuck threads" that can be "unstuck

WildCam Africa Viewing Season Update

Updates on other National Geographic Cams

or eliminated altogether now that they are no longer really relavant?

Trips to Africa 2008-2009

WildCam Africa has been nominated for a Webby Award!

Thanks...

 Jayell,

Thanks for your insight. We're going to try to limit the number of database calls by reducing the number of posts per page. Let's see if this will improve performance. Furthermore, we are simultaneously researching a couple other promising possibilities.

Update: The change to the # of posts per page did positively improve server performance. Please let us know if the change to the posts and threads per page has a negative impact on the manner in which members interact within the community. If so, we can hit the drawing board again. Regardless, we're still exploring other potential culprits.

Further update (7-23): Changing the # of posts/threads per page was only moderately effective, and the system continues to have issues this morning. We will report back with any updates on our efforts from today.

Webmaster.

Jayell:

I thought I'd mention something that I discovered a couple of days ago.  I discovered that I could get a page to load sooner if I used Safari instead of Firefox.  Safari reports on its status line the number of page elements that were successfully loaded out of the total number to be loaded.  AND, most significantly, Safari does not wait indefinitely for a graphic to load - it times them out and goes on to the next item.  When the page was finally displayed, ALL of the user avatars had failed to load, as well as many of the other NGM-provided graphic items such as the buttons for star ratings, change view, previous and next.  The page was sprinkled with little question marks where graphics had been timed out and not loaded.  ALL of these were NGM graphics - those linking to photobucker or tinypic images loaded promptly.  (Safari also offers the user the ability to open an "activity" window in which it lists all of the loading errors and the reasons for them.  "Timed out" was listed for all of the missing NGM graphics.)

Here are images of what the above looks like.

(This listing is even longer, but doesn't all fit on the screen to capture)

All was well this morning for about 30 minutes. Then the forum went sluggish, and then it just locked up and I got this error message when I refreshed on the New 2008 S & S thread:

Sorry, there was a problem with your last request!

Either the site is offline or an unhandled error occurred. We apologize and have logged the error. Please try your request again or if you know who your site administrator is let them know too.

Thanks...

 Still getting the error messages and opening and posting to threads is slow

 We just performed a system restart, which caused a brief outage.

Webmaster.

In the last hour or so I have had NO problems with the forum - it is quick, refreshes well, and so far, no error messages. You may have fixed it now... Thank you so much...

PS - I'll let you know if this changes..... lol

Just as a test I tried to go to the last post in "Let's chat" and I got the "Sorry . . . . "error message again. Now, that thread has over 20000 posts and more then 500 pages. Seems to me that this is part of the problem. Threads that are too long and have such many posts just won't load anymore. Or just barely every once in a while.

 For the past three hours not one error message and the speed has picked up too..fingers and toes crossed!!

MeliaTech:

We are continuing to work on the problem to reach a resolution to the performance issues. Thank you for your patience as we attempt to address the concerns. We continue to place the highest priority possible on these issues and will report back to the community here when we have additional information.

Thank you,

Webmaster

 Thank you. We understand and are trying to be patient...

We are continuing to work on the problem to reach a resolution to the performance issues. Thank you for your patience as we attempt to address the concerns. We continue to place the highest priority possible on these issues and will report back to the community here when we have additional information.

Thank you,

Webmaster

Although I have not had any error messages today, the forum is still very slow. Even the index page takes an average of 16 seconds to load.
Have to add that I only visited the new S&S thread and now this one.

 I have just tried to get into the Sightings Forum and the Lets Chat, and both got a new error message:-

                               Critical Error  : Site Urls. Config

                                    Specific Error Message:

                         Unable to open connection to data provider.

         An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When    connecting      to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server

Is this a new problem, or a variation of the old one???

Mary

Today when I refresh on any thread I get the error message as before, and now I am also getting this message:

I have no idea if this is going to post or not. I have been getting the error message since i tried to post on the SS thread yesterday. I have no idea if my post went through or not as I have not been able to get back to check due to the error!

Once everything is back to normal(soon I hope :-)  )  i wonder if it would be possible to start a new thread for SS each and every month? I just think it would be easier that way.

Iam getting more errors than ever! :(

Sorry, there was a problem with your last request!

Either the site is offline or an unhandled error occurred. We apologize and have logged the error. Please try your request again or if you know who your site administrator is let them know too.

I received an email notifying me that my password had been changed.

I did not request such change and advise the administrator on this. 

I would appreciate if NG would let us know if this is one more glitch in their software or if the Forum has been hacked.

Thank you!

Forum seems faster...for the moment.  But I still get error messages!

I got on S&S briefly yesterday, but am not able to get on today. I have seen no improvement.

 I got that one too..yesterday as well.Forum seems faster now though

I got the following messages six or seven times in a row (two windows) trying to get into the S&S thread:

Mary, a new thread might not be as fast as we wish for, but it is certainly faster and less frustrating than the "old" S&S thread.  Technical thread does not get error messages as often!

Even a TWO page thread is getting error messages!  And to make matters worse, whomever wish to continue on the July thread is not allowed to do so as they have locked it and no replies or new messages are allowed!