The volume of traffic on the forum has escalated dramatically as EU3 has moved towards release. That's hardly surprising, but it is causing a few problems that you've undoubtedly noticed. While we are doing everything possible at our our end to address the situation, there are two things that you can do to help:
1. Tabbed/Multi-Windowed Viewing
Most internet browsers now support multi-tab viewing, allowing you to have several different pages open at once. This is a great thing, and really handy for rapidly opening a bunch of threads and then reading one as you wait for another to load. The trouble is that if everyone is doing this, the load on our server starts to resemble having 3000-5000 people on line at once as opposed to the 500-1000 that are shown as "viewing". This added load is a catch-22. The more tabs you open, the slower the forum is going to be in responding to each tab. The slower it gets, the more tabs you're likely to open. This escalates to the point where no one can view the forum any longer without massive delays.
For your own sake, therefore, and for the sake of other interested users, we we would ask that you please refrain from using multiple tabs to view the forums unless it's absolutely necessary. If everyone does this, the forum will be faster and more accessible for us all.
Of course it's human nature to let others be inconvenienced, and we can't really enforce it; but remember that unless you -- yes you -- do your part, it will not improve and you'll run into continual problem accessing the forums.
2. New Threads
The massive number of new threads, combined with the current lack of a search function, means that it can be hard to find the information you're looking for. The search function had to be disabled because of the strain it placed on the server to process the searches from a great many users. While we do hope to be able to bring it back as a forum function, this probably won't happen anytime in the near future.
Since it's harder to find the information you want, a lot of people simply give up looking if it's not on the first page (heck...some people don't bother looking at all) and simply start a new thread asking their question. It's understandable, but it just escalates the problem by making the threads that already contain the information drop off the front page all that much faster.
Worse, with the flood of new threads, the people who can answer those questions are even less likely to see and respond to them than normal -- and particularly if it's the 10th time in the last day that the same question has been asked and answered.
So our second request is that you please take a little extra time to look at existing threads to see if your subject has already been discussed before starting a new thread. Taking a little extra time to look back through the last 2-3 days of threads will pay off immediate dividends to everyone. There will be fewer threads so it will be easier to find what you're looking for, and for new people coming along it will be a lot better too. You might want to start by checking the FAQ post in the Main "read first" forum thread since it contains the answers to many common questions.
The added bonus is that new questions (ones that haven't yet been asked and answered) are more likely to get a more detailed and rapid response. If we (the mods/admins/developers) don't have to worry as much about endlessly scanning new threads for problems, we can spend more of our time responding to the community.
It will take a bit of time for this to have an impact, but you can benefit yourself and all other members simply by following this request and doing your part to make this a more useful forum for all.
Thank your, in advance, for doing your part to respond to both of these requests.
MrT
on behalf of the forum staff
1. Tabbed/Multi-Windowed Viewing
Most internet browsers now support multi-tab viewing, allowing you to have several different pages open at once. This is a great thing, and really handy for rapidly opening a bunch of threads and then reading one as you wait for another to load. The trouble is that if everyone is doing this, the load on our server starts to resemble having 3000-5000 people on line at once as opposed to the 500-1000 that are shown as "viewing". This added load is a catch-22. The more tabs you open, the slower the forum is going to be in responding to each tab. The slower it gets, the more tabs you're likely to open. This escalates to the point where no one can view the forum any longer without massive delays.
For your own sake, therefore, and for the sake of other interested users, we we would ask that you please refrain from using multiple tabs to view the forums unless it's absolutely necessary. If everyone does this, the forum will be faster and more accessible for us all.
Of course it's human nature to let others be inconvenienced, and we can't really enforce it; but remember that unless you -- yes you -- do your part, it will not improve and you'll run into continual problem accessing the forums.
2. New Threads
The massive number of new threads, combined with the current lack of a search function, means that it can be hard to find the information you're looking for. The search function had to be disabled because of the strain it placed on the server to process the searches from a great many users. While we do hope to be able to bring it back as a forum function, this probably won't happen anytime in the near future.
Since it's harder to find the information you want, a lot of people simply give up looking if it's not on the first page (heck...some people don't bother looking at all) and simply start a new thread asking their question. It's understandable, but it just escalates the problem by making the threads that already contain the information drop off the front page all that much faster.
Worse, with the flood of new threads, the people who can answer those questions are even less likely to see and respond to them than normal -- and particularly if it's the 10th time in the last day that the same question has been asked and answered.
So our second request is that you please take a little extra time to look at existing threads to see if your subject has already been discussed before starting a new thread. Taking a little extra time to look back through the last 2-3 days of threads will pay off immediate dividends to everyone. There will be fewer threads so it will be easier to find what you're looking for, and for new people coming along it will be a lot better too. You might want to start by checking the FAQ post in the Main "read first" forum thread since it contains the answers to many common questions.
The added bonus is that new questions (ones that haven't yet been asked and answered) are more likely to get a more detailed and rapid response. If we (the mods/admins/developers) don't have to worry as much about endlessly scanning new threads for problems, we can spend more of our time responding to the community.
It will take a bit of time for this to have an impact, but you can benefit yourself and all other members simply by following this request and doing your part to make this a more useful forum for all.
Thank your, in advance, for doing your part to respond to both of these requests.
MrT
on behalf of the forum staff
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