Site development: reprioritizing

As many of you pointed out, the site, specially the public forums, were running super slow for a while. A few weeks ago, it got better, not because I implemented a fix, but because I upgraded the server up a level. It means a higher cost, but I didn't have the time to work on a fix. I also noticed that the site is also running on an older version of Ubuntu, and some older software, which could be a part of the speed issues (I'm not positive). However, server upgrades would be good. To help with this, I'm pausing the site redevelopment to work on learning Docker and to setup a new server, more up to date, which should help with future development in general, but also help with the site speed, I think. This may mean some site downtime in the near future, but I'll let you know as far ahead of that as I can.

Right on. You do what you need to do. Take care of yourself first, though!

Let us know if there any one time costs. I'm sure we can find some way to assist with upgrades.

^ This ^

We spend a lot of time here, so if there's anything we can do, let us know :)

No one time costs with this one. It'll take a bit for me to learn how to do this properly (migrating an entire active site), but besides the slight monthly increase, not much there. I want to make sure I don't bring the site down in the process, heh.

What may end up being a slight short term cost is I may spool up a second server with the new OS/updates, copy all the data from here to there, and let you folks access it to help me find if there are errors, before I do the actual switch. Then I'd spool down one of the servers (returning to the standard monthly cost).

We all appreciate the work. Thanks!

Well, thank you for the work! Without you this site wouldn't exist.

Thanks for your efforts to making our experience better, Keleth.

I'm sure the migration will make things better. Anyhow, I'm pretty sure there is something that can be done with the webpage part. As you said a few months ago, there are some slow queries regarding forum and post-related database tables. Do you use any ORM for accessing database models, or just raw queries?

Sorry for insisting on this query issue, but I hope to shed some light. I can help with some parts of the development if you may.