> -----Original Message----- > From: Jim McAtee [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 3:39 AM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: How'd www.firstnight.org do over new years? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jim Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Talk" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 9:23 PM > Subject: RE: How'd www.firstnight.org do over new years? > > > > Anything else you'd like to know? > > That was certainly fascinating, but why the particular fascination with > site stats for a web site that only has significant traffic for 72 hours > out of the year?
There are several reasons: 1) I love stats. ;^) 2) The site does get traffic for only a few days, but in those few days it gets a quite a bit of traffic. This makes those stats great "point in time" stats. 3) The site is non-technical in focus and community oriented. I feel this means the stats are more representative of "average" computer users (at least those in the Northeast) than other sites I work on. > I'm guessing you must be volunteering your time. You'd have saved many, > many hours of work by simply moving to a dedicated server a couple of days > prior to being swamped. There are many situations where no amount of > hardware will overcome software design problems, but by the same token, on > badly underspec'd hardware you'll never achieve satisfactory performance > levels no matter how much time and effort you put into optimizing the > software. Well, I not quite volunteering my time - I do get paid a flat yearly fee for doing the site (a fee which works out to around $4 an hour for my services). ;^) As a non-profit it's very difficult to get them to spend money unless there's a clear need. Worry about the site going down isn't enough, the site going down is. Still, a dedicated server for one month is going to cost them more than hosting for the entire year has. There are only two of use that officially work on the site (myself and a graphic designer). With the changes requested this year (and the fact that all materials were quite late) we didn't have time to do the testing or optimization I would have liked to do. In a weird way I'm glad the site had problems. This is a perfect defense for insisting a move to a dedicated server in early December next year. A move early enough to allow for some late night load testing. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:189235 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
