At last, Similar Threads is a reality! (1 Viewer)

[Jon]

Welcome to the new Similar Threads feature. Please note, I am monitoring the page load times while using this add-on and if it adversely effects them, I will remove it. Elastic Search is supposed to help with this sort of thing but I will be doing experiments to ensure all is good.

 

[Jon]

Ok, I'm noticing it is hammering the backend with searches, which pushes up the CPU usage, which has a slight impact on page load times. The main reason is the guests. I could always turn it off for them and leave it for logged in members. It all just depends on how useful people find it.

 

[Jon]

I've disabled Similar Threads for guests. Keep an idea for how good the recommendations are in the Similar Threads widget. It they are no good, I will get rid of it.

 

[jdraw]

Sound good Jon. I have found Similar Threads useful in the past and have encouraged posters to read same for ideas.

 

[Jon]

Ok guys, I am removing the Similar Posts for a while as it is hitting the speed due to a large number of mysql queries. If you really think it is useful, there is always the future option of only showing it to logged in users. That would have little impact on the server and keep the site speed zippy.

 

[jdraw]

Seems reasonable. I have pointed a few people to it in the last few days. I think it's useful, but if it interferes with speed generally, then restricting it to logged in users is understandable.

 

[Jon]

Once I get all my speed optimisations in place I will revisit this issue.

 

[isladogs]

It is a very useful feature and very much hope that it will be restored soon.
Even if it does slow down the site slightly, the forum is now much faster than many other forums I visit.

 

[Jon]

We can bring it back easily for logged in members. That will hardly hit performance at all. When we have 400 guests, each time they come to the site there is a query that has to be done. With logged in members, there are only usually about 20 people logged in at any one time, and that would have very little impact. The fact you like it suggests that it will probably be coming back.

I have implemented a memcached cache, but my page load times seem to have slowed! This is very frustrating!

 

[isladogs]

Thanks

 

[Jon]

You're welcome. I want to give you guys as much as I can to make it a nice place to hang out. I am so pleased the old server downtime and slow speed issues are gone. We have the fundamentals in place, so now it is about the tweaks.

 

[zeroaccess]

Ok guys, I am removing the Similar Posts for a while as it is hitting the speed due to a large number of mysql queries. If you really think it is useful, there is always the future option of only showing it to logged in users. That would have little impact on the server and keep the site speed zippy.

I think a good compromise would be to only show it on click of "related posts".

That way it isn't running queries for those doing casual browsing.

 

[Jon]

There isn't that option in the software.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Similar threads have helped me a number of times when a thread doesn't quite give the answer you want you can check the similar threads where you can sometime pull a solution together.

Mick