See, when we got FARKed, they pointed to the blog view, which is better. It requires fewer database lookups. It also made like $3 in ad revenue that day (typically about $15/month). This time they are pointing to the thread, which means the whole system has to work harder to resolve the page.

I've made a few adjustments so that the system will just become slow, and not stop responding altogether, when these things happen. There are a lot of other performance tricks I could implement - unfortunately some of them would remove features of the forum software, so right now I'm just hoping this is temporary.

I have applied all the performance tuning I possibly can to the forum... We hit a new record number of users about a half hour ago and we can actually handle a few hundred more, I think. The thread has been not only boing'd and metafiltered, but also fazed, attu'd, i-am-bored'd, is on jwz's weblog, many myspace pages and countless little forums and whatnot.

They are HAMMERING us, with like 5 incoming new requests per second. Remember the actual images are hosted on another server, so each of the nine requests for the images and the bandwidth for those is sent by another machine.

It's kinda cool though.

Luckily Fark linked to the Strategypage gallery or it would be all over... the server would have melted by now

Did I jinx us by commenting in the foam thread on all the great bandwidth the Cellar has now? The internet gods rained slings and arrows on our heads for my hubris.

Actually, yes -- I think some places consider that sort of thing when they link. I know Fark does. If every single server they link to gets crushed, why link at all?

Oops.:redface:

But it's not a bad thing. Why build it, if it can't withstand being popular?

Damn, UT. Next the internet groupies will be beating a path to your door.:mg:

Actually, when I sent you those pictures, it was for your entertainment. I thought there would be too many for IOtD.