The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Some of you might have noticed Vampire Rave's site speed slowing down. There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first is popularity. Vampire Rave is growing fast. We're attracting more and more users each week. I administer over 10 websites and this one has quickly become the most trafficked of the lot.

The second reason for the slow down is the page tracking code I added a few weeks ago. In a nutshell, when you are logged in, the system records every page you visit here. When you load a page, the system then compares that list against every page on Vampire Rave. The difference is pages you have not viewed, and that is how they get specially marked for you. As I add more and more pages, this becomes a longer and longer process. The result being the slower generation of pages for you.

I'm sure most of you aren't aware, but this entire site is written in PHP. Vampire Rave is a dynamic site. That means, when you request a webpage, the server actually writes the page on the fly. Most websites are static (meaning the pages content never changes). Dynamic webpages like Vampire Rave offer much more functionality. The trade off is slower response time as pages are written by the server before you view them.

What I am getting around the saying, in a round about way, is that I am aware of the slowing of Vampire Rave's response time. I am working on solutions to speed it up. If you log out, you may notice that pages load quicker in the Database and Profile sections. This is because the system doesn't have to track your usage and it runs faster. Of course if you log out, your time here isn't recorded, your status doesn't increase, and pages don't get marked as read.

Today I managed to optimize the page tracking code a little. I've shaved an average of 1.5 seconds off of the average page loading times.

Pages are now loading at an average of about 4 seconds. This is about twice my goal of 2 seconds.

If you're on dial-up I'd be interested in hearing how the site is loading for you. Some sections (such as profiles) will continue to load slower than other areas of the site. I added a line at the bottom of each Vampire Rave page that tells how long it took to generate the webpage.

Cancer,
I'm using dialup 56K and I have seen, thanks to your page generated timer, times ranging from 2.5 seconds to 10 seconds, based on the page size. This page for example, when first viewed was 8.6 seconds. Upon revisit it took only 2.7 seconds. Either browser cache helped speed it up or the traffic was lighter.

On average, I'd say its running round 5 seconds a page on dialup.

What I would really like to know, is the average difference in loading times between when you are logged in and logged out.

Personally, when I am logged out pages are popping up in about .4 seconds. When I am logged in they are coming up in 3-4 seconds.

I've come to the conclusion that the current page tracking system needs to be tossed out. It's slowing down to much and it will continue to slow down as more pages appear at Vampire Rave.

With some help from ElderDaniel, we've put the framework together for a new system... Which I plan to implement over the next week. I'll try to make the transition as simple as possible.

Mr. Cancer, will you take out the "TIME SPENT?" Hope not...
I'm almost 30 hours..
hehehe =)

No.. I can't take it out. It's necessary for the status levels.

I have also noticed that VR has been abit slow nowadays.

This thread is 5 years old... lots has changed. And I haven't noticed any lag, personally.

LOL I like that heidi, it is 5 years old and I guess people do not bother to look at the dates of posting.

So it is good to say that VR is doing well these days, due to the changes done back then. ;)

Yep... and again, I'm going to go ahead and RIP this so the bumping of this thread doesn't make people think it's current.