Metafilter Server Performance

June 1, 2005 7:54 AM

I for one am interested in any plans for possible future improvements to the uptime capabilities of the website "MetaFilter". I am eager to discuss these issues with the group as a whole!
posted by Pretty_Generic to Uptime at 7:54 AM (58 comments total)

I hope a group discussion of these issues is fruitful!
posted by Kwantsar at 7:55 AM on June 1, 2005

posted by quonsar at 7:56 AM on June 1, 2005

everything will be much better as soon as the
server is upgraded
server is replaced
server is moved to a colo
database and web servers are separated
expert coders arrive
java whatsis is tuned
redesign is implemented
baby grows up
site gets sold!
posted by quonsar at 8:08 AM on June 1, 2005

someone is touching quonsar's hotbutton.
posted by erebora at 8:19 AM on June 1, 2005

Think of Metafilter downtime as life uptime.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:26 AM on June 1, 2005

I hate it when free entertainment is delivered unreliably!
posted by Mid at 8:30 AM on June 1, 2005

Pretty_Generic: "I for one am interested in any plans for possible future improvements to the uptime capabilities of the website "MetaFilter". I am eager to discuss these issues with the group as a whole!"

I plan to get sloppy on scotch tonight. I'm confident that I will be doing my part in improving the uptime of MetaFilter.
posted by Plutor at 8:31 AM on June 1, 2005

I suggest MetaFilter be served via wireless from a laptop in my diaper bag. That way, checking/rebooting the server can become part of my regular hygenie.

*Initiates a status check just for practice.*
posted by mathowie's baby at 9:11 AM on June 1, 2005

Well, it's a new joke, but not really a better one.
posted by Mid at 9:17 AM on June 1, 2005

Let's see, 8000 or so new users at $5.00 a pop, not including donations, google ad revenue, textads, etc.... carry the one.... that's at least about.... $40,000.

One might think that $40,000 is plenty enough revenue to hire someone who can figure out how to keep the website from crashing.
posted by dios at 9:26 AM on June 1, 2005

Well, it's a new joke, but not really a better one.

Sorry about that but I won't catch up to MetaFilter's average humor level for a couple of years.
posted by mathowie's baby at 9:31 AM on June 1, 2005

You be nice to mathowie's baby! You know, someday he may have your fate in his hands...
posted by languagehat at 9:33 AM on June 1, 2005

One might think that $40,000 is plenty enough revenue to hire someone who can figure out how to keep the website from crashing.

Not really. You should see my new recumbent pram though.
posted by mathowie's baby at 9:47 AM on June 1, 2005

posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:03 AM on June 1, 2005

someone is touching quonsar's hotbutton.

I blame the fish in q's pants
posted by matteo at 10:05 AM on June 1, 2005

That 40K figure is way, way exagerated. Just for the record, based upon what Matt's said in the past.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:20 AM on June 1, 2005

The uptime of MeFi is something I lose sleep over and I'm currently trying to get a hold of someone at Macromedia to see what is causing some of the problems and I'm looking for outside programmer help to do a review and optimization.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:21 AM on June 1, 2005

That young lady seems quite personable.
posted by jonmc at 10:45 AM on June 1, 2005

I didn't pay for this account, but 6000 people paid for theirs:
600 at $5 = $30,000.

Additional, there was an undisclosed amount raised during the Suicide Girls advertising debacle, which maybe went to bandwidth according to the thread.

One of the hazards of pay-for-membership is the users want something in return, which may be treacherous for the admin, but unavoidable.
posted by four panels at 10:46 AM on June 1, 2005

The uptime of MeFi is something I lose sleep over

We can't have that. I want you well-rested for those 3am feedings.
posted by mathowie's baby at 10:48 AM on June 1, 2005

Every time someone fills out the info, they get a user number. The account is only activated after they've paid their $5. If they don't, the user number isn't freed. I don't recall the exact ratio, but I think Matt said that he was seeing about 1 in 5 people actually doing the "donation". So divide that 30K by at least 5.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:51 AM on June 1, 2005

I believe that Matt's said that the "number of users" on the front page includes users who went through the rigamarole to create an account, but didn't do the Paypal dance. There's no way for us mortals to tell how many that is, but I think it's fair to make a wild uneducated guess of "about half". And Matt said he paid for a year of hosting with the newbs' money, and I wouldn't mind if he bought himself a couple beers, some baby-proof earplugs, and a few gallons of nice paint for his office.
posted by Plutor at 10:57 AM on June 1, 2005

Damnit, EB.
posted by Plutor at 11:14 AM on June 1, 2005

i wonder if he reports the income?
posted by quonsar at 11:24 AM on June 1, 2005

And Matt said he paid for a year of hosting with the newbs' money,
"Oh, hosting. We thought you wanted a year's worth of hosing. Sorry, misunderstanding."
posted by Wolfdog at 11:29 AM on June 1, 2005

EB is correct on the paid/unpaid showing up in the total user counts, and I don't have an exact number on paid accounts.

I'm not going to discuss my accounting directly, but I do indeed claim it all on taxes and pre-pay quarterly taxes on all this. I'm hoping to hire someone soon to help get the app back into something resembling stability.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:33 AM on June 1, 2005

Meh.

I criticize a lot, so in the interests of fairness . . . it sounds like Matt's genuinely working his tail off to figure out WTF is going on. I don't think we can reasonably ask for more anytime soon.

I mean, yeah, there's the recurrent cry of "Please move to a LAMP stack or something similar!" but that's a huge fucking undertaking. In the nearterm . . . well, really, what more can you expect of Matt? He's one guy and a new dad at that.
posted by Ryvar at 12:15 PM on June 1, 2005

Q is now questioning Matt's tax returns!?

That's Quonsar--always sticking up for the U.S. Treasury!
posted by Mid at 12:17 PM on June 1, 2005

Just a thought, but how about some of the (expert) coders get together and write a scalable commublog app in PHP/Ruby/whatever? After it's tested offsite with junk data and load, Matt can spend a couple of afternoons to plug-out and plug-in. Best would be mefite coders, looking for work and resumé padding.
posted by Gyan at 12:35 PM on June 1, 2005

I just hope he's taking full advantage of the available tax deductions. Redecorating the home office should be deductible.
posted by anapestic at 12:38 PM on June 1, 2005

Home office!? You told me that was a nursery!
posted by mathowie's baby at 12:42 PM on June 1, 2005

Can I start a petition to have the 'mathowie's baby' account removed? Or, at least hand it over to someone funnier?
posted by vacapinta at 12:48 PM on June 1, 2005

Mathowie,
Your baby, while precocious in the extreme, is suffering from juvenile onset notfunnyatallness, may I suggest one of the Baby Rodney Dangerfield tapes that are all the rage?

On preview:

The bird is the mo-effin WORD, vacapinta.
posted by Divine_Wino at 12:53 PM on June 1, 2005

mathowie's baby is a sockpuppet. I suspect timeistight.
posted by Kwantsar at 12:55 PM on June 1, 2005

mathowie's baby is a sockpuppet.

Well, let's not jump to conclusions.
posted by Divine_Wino at 12:59 PM on June 1, 2005

mathowie's baby is a sockpuppet

Suddenly it all makes sense.
posted by grouse at 1:00 PM on June 1, 2005

yeah, the mathowie baby account just isn't that funny anymore. I'm going to put a sock in it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:09 PM on June 1, 2005

I agree that it's not funny, but I suspect that shutting it up will only lead to "mathowie's demon seed," "son of mathowie's baby," and "mathowie's redheaded stepchild." Hopefully I'm wrong, though.
posted by anapestic at 1:22 PM on June 1, 2005

yeah, the [...] baby [...] just isn't that funny anymore. I'm going to put a sock in it.

OMG don't do it!

I agree though, it was funny for about twelve nano-seconds.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:29 PM on June 1, 2005

Free mathowie's baby!
posted by he opens a window at 1:44 PM on June 1, 2005

and I'm looking for outside programmer help to do a review and optimization.

I thought Michael Buffington was on the case -- or has his top secret project pulled him away?
posted by me3dia at 1:52 PM on June 1, 2005

he opens a window is totally timeistight.
posted by Mid at 2:16 PM on June 1, 2005

Making a LAMP version of MetaFilter would take about a weekend.
posted by xmutex at 2:18 PM on June 1, 2005

He did some stuff here and there, helped me tune a bunch of stuff and answered a bunch of questions. There was a big code rewrite project he started but didn't complete (I was going to pay him more for his time on that, which could have taken months).

I'll probably start snooping around coldfusion mailing lists and asking around in my network of programmer friends to see if anyone's up to the task.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:18 PM on June 1, 2005

You guys are a regular bunch of Hardy Boys, ain't ya?
posted by timeistight at 2:27 PM on June 1, 2005

Our detective skills are only slightly worse than your comedy skills.
posted by Mid at 2:28 PM on June 1, 2005

:)

So, who is Kwanstar? Carlos, is that you?
posted by Mid at 2:32 PM on June 1, 2005

"You guys are a regular bunch of Hardy Boys, ain't ya?" Quipped the portly youth.
posted by Divine_Wino at 2:42 PM on June 1, 2005

Kwanstar is most likely someone who abandoned and earlier account. Look around for who is missing. Anyone seen Stan Chin?
posted by LarryC at 2:45 PM on June 1, 2005

I'll probably start snooping around coldfusion mailing lists and asking around in my network of programmer friends to see if anyone's up to the task.

I suggest throwing the server in a lake , whereupon it will reappear to the one chosen by the almighty to update it.
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:46 PM on June 1, 2005

what you need, matt, is McGyver--just give him a paperclip, pencil, and some bubble gum, and we'll be all set.
posted by amberglow at 3:44 PM on June 1, 2005

LarryC writes "Kwanstar is most likely someone who abandoned and earlier account. Look around for who is missing. Anyone seen Stan Chin?"

Yep.
posted by karmaville at 5:21 PM on June 1, 2005

OK, he's in the clear.
posted by LarryC at 6:24 PM on June 1, 2005

there are still mailing lists for things? I mean... the internet... why... but... how?
posted by shmegegge at 7:27 PM on June 1, 2005

Don't kick the baby!
posted by graventy at 9:16 PM on June 1, 2005

You'd think with all the exposure JRun errors have gotten via MetaFilter, Macromedia would have already surrendered a team to make sure it wouldn't happen again. I can't name any other site off the top of my head that uses Coldfusion. (This isn't meant to be a mathowie critique -- it's meant to be a Macromedia critique from an Internet PR perspective).
posted by VulcanMike at 5:38 AM on June 2, 2005

I'd bet the folks at MacroMedia are too busy polishing their resumes to spend much time worrying about MetaFilter.

Does anyone out there have any inside info on Adobe's plans for CF?
posted by timeistight at 9:11 AM on June 2, 2005

Matt- I've emailed you a buncha times offering up my time on this exact thing.

... I feel so unloved...

Does anyone out there have any inside info on Adobe's plans for CF?

No- Adobe's very tight-lipped on their MM plans, and we even have an NDA with them. I'm guessing they won't abandon CF anytime soon- the language itself is fairly mature and most of the recent effort has been toward using it as the glue to tie other technologies (java, flash, etc.) together. Given Adobe's stated desire to get more into the enterprise/server-side market, there's a place for it in their strategy.

VulcanMike- MeFi is hardly the biggest site out there using CF. I can't name any off the top of my head, but there are a lot of .cfm pages out there. It's also got significant corporate penetration because it's so easy to build fairly complex sites with it, but you're not going to see those in the wild.
posted by mkultra at 9:53 AM on June 2, 2005