New Web Server Online

Our new web server is now online - this means we now have three web servers and a db server sharing the site's traffic load.

I don't expect the new server to make the site faster, but I do expect it to help significantly in making sure that big traffic surges don't cripple the site. In sum, RateItAll is now better equipped to handle significant traffic bursts.

So, in the past week, we have:

- optimized the Recent Comments page
- optimized the profile pages
- added a new web server

This is pretty boring stuff, but critically important.

We're also very, very close to rolling in the image server fix. Stay tuned.

Record Traffic Day

Yesterday was an all time record traffic day for us. Depending on what stats package you believe, we did anywhere from 41K to 49K total visits.

For the most part, the site held up, though it got a little bit sluggish from time to time.

For the moment, we have prioritized site performance issues over everything else - some cool features have been put on the backburner until we can get some problem pages (e.g. profiles) loading fast.

I've also requested a quote for another web server.

All Time Record Traffic Month

RateItAll is officially into uncharted territory in terms of the number of folks using the site. We did almost 1.1M visits in March, narrowly beating our top traffic month of all time.

Folks are also looking at more pages per visit, and a higher percentage of visits are repeat visits.

Happily, this is not an April Fool's joke.

Server Update

That new, rocket-fast, quad core web server will be arriving this afternoon. We should be able to have it up and running by tomorrow or Wednesday. I can't wait.

942K Visits in January

Five months of solid growth in a row. Let's go for six.

Visits:

January - 942K
December - 851K
November - 802K
October - 794K
September - 699K