How about your take on the OT, Zubaz? I understand your feelings for the Community, and they are laudable. I don't contest them in the least. How about an answer?

I am concerned about the issues raised by Ken, and I expressed them earlier in the thread. Can't anyone give a substatative answer to the questions raised, or was my prediction about no one giving a real answer dead on?

Wincustomize (not the forums) is getting lots of love.  Resources have been allocated and have done work on the new WC.  As you are probably aware though, Stardock is a small shop and as other projects pop up they take resources so things get moved.  Demigod has taken a lot of unexpected time is a good example of that.

But there have been lots of fixes even to the WC forums that have been discovered because of the increased traffic on the Demigod site.

Does that answer?

Partially. Why does WC always go down on the weekends? Many of us note how slow the site is compared to other SD sites.

Look, Zu we're customers too. Not as big a share of SD profits, but we'd really like to know why WC going down on weekends is so predictable...

No one here blames any person or group of people for this. All we're asking is not to be kept in the dark.

If maintenance is planned, let us know. If a server is broken/whatever...it's ok to tell us. If servers are taken off line for wharever, maybe we'll plan differently to be online, etc. at different times.

Basically, it's a matter of consideration. I think if things weren't put off again and again, and if the site was more functional it'd be different. I think most folks have put up with a lot and subscribed and resubscribed showing a lot of loyalty. Is it so much to ask for consideration? I don't think so.

It's not actually 'always'....however it's more likely to be apparent on a weekend as Stardock still pretends valiantly to be a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday affair.....

....but I know for a fact they are often putting in 48 hour days, 8 days a week.  The times they are still actually present in the office is just plain silly, honestly.  I know I might be up till 3am doing things....but that's usually to fit in with US time ....but these guys are just plain bonkers [or committed].....[or should be....]...;)

On the odd occasion the 'right person' with the 'right pair of size nines' [to kick the squirrels into line] is taking a little time off on the weekends when a server sneezes and one or more sites catch the cold.....that's then you see the squirrels in the treadmills all outside having a fag....

More often than not, though.....they're back at work before they need to open a new pack.

It's no biggie, really....;)

Do you think the new WC [whenever that happens] will solve the problem, or is it a function of the number of hands?

I check on the site regularly throughout the weekend, and it's been working throughout the past month.  Saying it's going down every weekend is a bit of a stretch.  Being that most people are in the office throughout the work week, response times are faster if an issue comes up.

If I have an advanced notice about downtime, slowness, etc, I will put up an announcement.  However, problems and site issues aren't scheduled, and we react to them as they happen.

Right now, resources are going into the new WinCustomize.  I can't say when it will be released as delays have happened, and priorities have come up, but it is being developed.  We have to prioritize net development to both ongoing and future products, and with the subscription drive netting barely 25% of it's goal, dev resources are being allocated as much a they can.

The internet is a 24/7 world.  How about a staggered work week, still 40 hrs but some with a Wed to Monday week?  Many companies function this way to provide good customer service.

In the eyes of the beholder.  WC is the least reliable of all the sites I work with and if that is no biggie, certainly there should be no quandry as to the lack of subscriptions.  Back to Fuzzy's catch 22.

I don't think so. I wouldn't have posted this if I hadn't experienced it, and neither would several others.

kenwas....actually THAT's the part you are supposed to notice....;)

Not for me.  The libraies sub categories were out of sync for quite a while.  That is fixed and the only part still broken is that the personal daily download pages haven't totalled for the same period and still don't.  Trust me if you will, it is not my caches.  Is it the endo f the world? Of course not, but little irritations mount and over time, it is just a feeling of things coming apart.  It adds to the frustration when you say it is not happening.

I thought they had changed the calender structure on your side of the planet.

I am here for few days and to the best of my memory I was online at the last weekend. I never felt that it was merely a bit slow. It was just as the other days I visited.

As the the bandwidth issue,  it is becoming more and more normal to wait for page draws that may or may not happen before time to break for lunch.  An exaggeration? Of course!  Trying make a point.  It is not my vendor either.  I deal with many heavy traffic, heavy graphic content sites and WC has become the most trouble some of the lot.  I only say any of this because I do give a shit about the site and the community as do many others who have contributed to this thread.

Might have to do with the areas you visit.  I have no issues with speed in the forums.  In any case, glad it is all good for you!

The site not working at all, and some parts broken are two different things.  If there is an issue that needs to be fixed, it's logged for repair, but some things take priority over others.

I don't think this suggestion have been given, (sorry If I missed it),  you can always go to IRC and usually get a response if there are problems with the site by asking in the Stardock channel.  This has worked for me weekdays or weekends.  At the minimum you get an idea what the problem is related to and if someone is working on it, which there usually is.

Indeed.

Well, I've said my piece and certainly do not wish to belabor the point and get into a pissing match about the meaning of broken. Wishing everyone a great week!

The cause of the worst delays when loading pages on pretty much all websites, not just Stardocks, are ads. They are fetched from outside servers which tend to have MASSIVE loads on them. And the problem is obviously worse on weekends.

I would think that ads make up a fair bit of all the network traffic on the internet. It's not uncommon for a website to have 4-5 ads on a single page.

I think the size of pages is big too, may be due to graphics used or encryption or ads but its big. But if u visit cnet or softonic there are also ads but those sites load faster.

Over the last 14-15 months I have found rarely 3 or 4 weekends when it is slower than normal.

Overall, Its ok for me and just enjoying it.

That can be explained too. They run their own ad server.

I'm probably just spoilt with bandwidth, but I think that any page load that takes longer than a few seconds (say anything over 4 seconds) is too slow.

Slow and Steady wins the race.