maryknitwit:

 When conecting to the NG page for the live stream, I get the lions and a few bars of music, sometimes played over and over, but then I get the error reported message and it closes down. Cannot get the Pond at all.

Mary

This has been happening for me also, and for the past day or so, the RP error message freezes my browser causing me to have to shut it down.  And may I add that posting here is hard work as slow as this forum is!

 When conecting to the NG page for the live stream, I get the lions and a few bars of music, sometimes played over and over, but then I get the error reported message and it closes down. Cannot get the Pond at all.

Mary

Many of us are losing the Pond over and over today while using RP. Frequently when it is restarted, it skips the commercials completely and goes to live feed for a varying length of time before it stops again. Sometimes it is a few seconds, sometimes for an hour. This last time, I looked at the clip info area while it was playing the Pond feed at that time. It showed the feed as being 0 frames per second. I don't understand how that can happen. Maybe this will help id the problem. Here is a screen shot of it showing that while the Pond is playing the live feed.

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.

One thing that I think would probably help would be to fix the problem with the browser's BACK button, which is refreshing instead of going back to the browser's cached copy as it is supposed to do.  Before this revision of the software, the BACK button went back instead of refreshing.

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.

I haven't noticed much of a difference with loading shorter pages,  In a way longer pages are better, as then one doesn't need to load as often!

We were just told on another thread that NG does not want us to create links that open on a forum page - they should open in a new window.  In this case, can you please take out the choices offered here:

and make all links open in a new window?

mbenefiel:

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Re: Sharing your Sightings and Animal Sounds

 

A reminder to everyone posting videos and photos (i.e.,YouTube, Tinypic) that open in a new window and stay within the forums is welcomed and adds to the viewing experience.  In other words, refrain from posting links that take viewers away from the forums to an external site.

 

Thanks to all participants who contribute to make the forums an enjoyable place for newcomers and veteran posters.

 

Enjoy,

Mary

 

This can easily be solved by adjusting the settings of the forum. Has to be done in the root of the forum software.

On my forum ALL links open automatically in a new window or tab. That is built-in in the forum.

Not everybody is able to do this themselves, not everybody is aware of the possibilities of this forum.

Beneath I have tried to explain how it can be done by members, when writing a message. One remark: The option to "dress up" a link with a title does NOT work.
And that's a shame, now you get very long links sometimes.

#1 Copy the url (address) of the webpage you want to link to
#2 Paste that in your message
#3 Select that (highlight)
#4 Above the message field you will now see the icon of a chainlink (by selecting text it gets activated)
#5 In the field "Link url" paste the url you want to link to
#6 In the field "Target" choose "" Open link in a new window" from the drop-down menu
#7 Click on "Insert" at the bottom left of the little window.

That should do it

 I have the automatic email enabled on The Traveling Stick thread, but it has not forwarded any for the last few days.  What changed?

 I have found the Forums behaving much better the past two days.  Except the Lets Chat and I usually get the Sorry message several times before it finally connects, especially when refreshing.

Mary

 The fourm is very slow for me this afternoon when I do a "Refresh" and I just got the usual error message:

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.

 Thank you for keeping us informed on the work. The forum has been behaving better since yesterday!

 We will request that the NG staff address the stuck threads. Thanks for pointing this out to us.

While our change has helped some, there's still more to be done. The system should perform much better than it currently is.

Webmaster.

 I too have to agree that there are just too many "Sticky" threads.  I believe that the slowness of the forum has more to do with threads that just want to ask a question or because a lot of people did/do not know to just use the reply button. 

The amount of threads on the page now is to low IMO, and it just adds to the number or pages now.  The threads that are not in use anymore, or have not been posted to in 3 months or more, should be archived on an "Archive Forum" that could also included outdated threads for the other forums as well, et al, the Polar Bears, Grizzlies, Seals, Cranes, etc.  If you are looking for something, at least you may have a point in which to start looking.

I also feel that since the format has changed, when you post, now the system automaticly adds more hard returns in the text, therefore taking more space especially when some one uses the quotes in the posts.

For what they are worth those are my thoughts and feelings, and I do thank everyone for the hard and dedicated work that they are taking with the forums.  I do like the new look.

Thank you
Betty

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...