Hi all,
Following discussions with Admins today we understand that very large threads may be contributing to server issues and performance on the Forum.
Accordingly we are going to try monthly Music threads and will close and restart some other monsters.
You can find the April 2021 Music thread here:
This thread is to discuss the changes. Suggestions for very large threads that people frequently use which could be restarted are welcome.
Seems a bit strange if the yearly and the new monthly music threads are both running at the same time as they seem to be at present.
I’d be interested to know if the posting of images affects this. The music threads seem to have lots of image data, compared to many of the other threads.
The Naim forum using the same software has no problems hosting a large WAYLT thread
@andybob what makes you think this is the issue?
.sjb
What I know about this could be inscribed on a match head, but here goes.
I understand it’s a combination of the size of threads and the frequency of reads by users. Roon is one of the largest Discourse forums and there are huge numbers of users who read but never post. The Music thread is particularly popular.
It may not be the answer, but we think it’s worth trying. Not being able to shift posts in or out of large threads is very limiting for moderation. The hardware has been upgraded a number of times by Roon, so it’s not the only response.
I understand the desire to try and reduce the load on the servers but I personally think this move will make total nonsense out of this thread [Showing (off) your Roon setup] in particular.
Just my 3 cents…
My specific suggestion: if you REALLY need to reduce thread size, do NOT delete a thread; just split it and indicate, in the title, something like “thread title (split) - 1, 2, 3, etc.”
This way we do not lose content and may always go to where the latest action is.
Hi Andrew,
While I have no problems with rearranging threads I wonder what the science behind the decision is; to “break up” the large (& popular) “What I’m listening to” thread.
I am also a contributor to the Naim Audio community who offer almost identical topics and also use the same (Discord?) community software. Some of the threads are larger & more frequently used than the Roon equivalent and with none of the problems with server loading/page loading issues (incidentally, I haven’t experienced problems for two or three weeks).
Are there actually known server issues or is this a troubleshooting exercise?
The larger annual thread of “music likes” offers, IMHO, better continuity & search options than splitting topics threads into monthly threads.
Just a thought.
After 1.8’s release, traffic went up quite a bit on this site. In fact, we were doing more traffic in a day than we did in all of 2015, our first year.
We’ve upgraded the machines quite a bit, but Discourse is still struggling in some areas. We found our database is spending all its time loading large topics, and it’s an easy and cheap fix to just split up the thousand post topics.
Hi @danny thanks for the heads up, out of interest is there some local configuration option that end users could do to reduce those server demands, for example increasing cache size etc.?
There is not anything as far as I know. I stated that the problem is “in some areas”. Those areas mostly relate to moderation in those very long topics.
Could the youtube clips I frequently link to highlight a favorite track or showcase a live version from the album cause the issues being experienced in the listening to threads?
I don’t think so John. No need to change what you’re doing for the moment. If avoiding videos is likely to make a difference then those with more knowledge about the servers will let us know.
Although ordinary users are not now seeing problems so much (cross fingers) the Mods are having problems shifting posts in or out of large threads. We should know whether splitting up large threads changes that over the next week or so.
Is there an update on this i.e. are the server loading/moderation problems resolved for the large threads?
Hi @PixelPopper,
Reducing large threads has worked, I haven’t seen (or had reported of) a bad gateway error for a while. Thus the consensus of the mods / admin is to continue to manage the high traffic topics in this manner (monthly, quarterly or annually closure and re-spawning as required).
I see no reason to have threads longer than one month. After a month, imho, shut it down to future comments, but allow it to still be viewed.
The solution is simple, just add all the requested features and then close the topics!
Fair enough, however searching for an item in a specific thread (unless you know the precise title) becomes an absolute nightmare. The value of the community as a source of information is severely undermined and usage is adversely affected, arguably, placing higher demands on support services.
The demand spike issues experienced by the Roon community servers appears to be unique, other communities using the same software have far larger & very active threads (e.g. what are you listening to in 2021 or different systems What are you listening to right now) and have no restrictions. Moderation of the community appears to be a major issue which appears to have got us to our current position.
Hi Carl, thanks for your response, I seen a couple of “Gateway Error” but forgot to report them, that said the frequency of such incidents certainly has diminished.
Hi @PixelPopper,
Coincidentally I had a “502 gateway error” pop up last night. It occurred when I was trying to manage another long topic (> 1000 posts) it failed on the first attempt but fortunately when I retried it when through.
Just goes to show, that there still an issue and we need to keep on topic of it.
It’s also encouraging that the Discourse developers are now looking in to this problem, fingers crossed they get to the root cause of this and fix it.
