Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 was the biggest single day in the history of the BFF. Easily. According to the site, we set a new record for concurrent site users at over 400. All other metrics, from total site visitors to posts to page views to new members, were all up a consistent 300-350% over an average day. The site struggled under the load, but I'm happy to say that it was up a lot more than it was down (unlike poor Crytomundo which really was nothing more than a smoking crater all day yesterday - thanks a lot, Fox News!).

What will happen next? Well, the Biscardi costume-in-a-freezer scam* news story is being picked up and dispersed by hundreds of news sites around the world hungry for content. This time yesterday, Google News showed about 2 sites with the news and now it's getting close to 300. Also, the coup de grace news conference won't happen until tomorrow, so it's entirely possible this will get a lot worse before it gets better. I expect the site's performance to be maybe only a little better today than yesterday. All bets are off for Friday. Once this goes to all the national news outlets, there's no telling how many people will try to access the site. I fully expect the site to suffer intermittent outages all weekend and into next week. Because of that, Search (along with View New Posts) will unfortunately need to stay offline. I hate that, but it's a resource hog. Also, I've tweaked a few other settings (like how often a thread's stats update) to help lessen the load.

So anyway, hang onto your hats! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!



* Home version coming this fall from Milton-Bradley.

I know I just said Search was staying offline, but I FINALLY found the setting where I could limit non-members from using it, so it's back on for members only. We'll see how it goes...

Further note, I have limited search to only those members of the Members user group, meaning new members, unfortunately, will not be able to search until I can determine the impact of having it on at all.

Not sure everyone appreciates all you have done in past few days to keep the BFF running.

Thanks for the extra effort.

Bipto,
How many new members did you aquire over the course of this situation?

Yes kudos for a terrific job Bipto, especially considering how difficult this week has been on another front.

Pssst Bip....Wednesday was the 13th, today is the 14th. At least up here in northern Minnesota.

Dammit. Thanks!

We were averaging about 20 a day. Yesterday, we got 64. 19 already today. These aren't huge numbers, but their variance from the norm is dramatic. It's interesting to me that all the metrics are 300-350% higher for yesterday. It was very consistent across the board. The only thing that saved us, I think, is that we aren't on the first Google page when someone searches for 'bigfoot body' while Cryptomundo was number 1 and 2.


It's odd how things converge. Yesterday was surreal at times...

I had a case of the BFF yesterday. Most of the "other" sites like you said "burned" but the BFF was always there.

Oh, and over on the BIP site, traffic doubled and a couple hundred people downloaded the BIPcasts. A rising tide raises all boats, I guess. The BIP site, being archaic and constructed mostly of bailing wire and sheep fur, never went down yesterday because it doesn't use a database.

Search has been switched off again I'm afraid - the database is still being hammered.

Feel free to use the Google search at the bottom of every page, and let the good folks at Google take some of the strain.

Bipto is trying a few tweaks to keep this puppy moving.

I've pulled the batteries out of all my flashlights, transistor radios and smoke detectors, and they're boxed up and ready to go for the cause - just say the word!

Surreal is a very accurate desctiption. Yesterday was one of the most emotionally draining days I can remember in a long time. I know it was the same for many of here at the BFF. I just wanted to thank Brian, Paul and all the mods for the work they are doing in these difficult days.

K

I agree.

Thanks bipto and all the staff, good work! I got a few "we're not home" responses yesterday but it's to be expected. I can't wait for the...the...the whatever happens tomorrow and after!

Hello,
Just joined the forum. I can help you guys out..I know IPB inside and out and your server is not optimized to work with the kind of stress it is presently getting. Over the past several days lag has been pretty bad at times. I don't have PM capability yet but if the site admin would like some pointers I would be glad to help. I own one of the largest weather forums on the web and we use IPB as well.

Good luck on the growth.

I think Bip and all the mods did a tremendous job through all of this. I am amazed at how many people have joined the forum in the last couple of days and already have more posts than I do. Of course my mama always said "it is better to be seen than heard." Wow I wish more people had a mom like mine. GREAT JOB GUYS!!!

Until August 15 that is.

The BFF set another concurrent site users record with an amazing 730 users online shortly after the "press conference" had concluded.

OMG, I can't beleive I missed the biggest day in BFF history! I'm not quite back into civilization (posting this from my iPhone overlooking Lake Superior at Grandma's Saloon in Duluth, MN - if you're here now, come say hi!). I'll post a complete recap when I get home, but in the mean time, I just want to say howdy to the nearly 500 new members we've picked up since Friday. I sure hope some of you stick around after con man Biscari's s**t storm has blown over.

Ahh Grandma's. Is Fitgers still around?

I don't know how many were added, but I've sure noticed on the home page that the "user(s) active in the past 15 minutes" list is slam full of people.

Good thing I switched from dial-up to DSL last November....

Sure thing, however I know what goes into running a large forum. Our traffic is quite staggering actually and it continues to grow. I saw the admins doing some things when traffic was high that would not really help them (I used to think that as well) . This forum looks like were wer were two or three years ago. Just wanted to help them along is all.

Yep. It's still there!

I guess. I estimate that since last Wednesday when all this crap started going down, an extra 1,500 people downloaded the latest BIPcast (that's above and beyond the number who would have anyway). Crazy.

So your excellent pod-casts are no longer our (BFF) little secret? Drat.
Or maybe good..... there are now a lot more peeps out there who know know to find the really good groups out there..... wonder how much other BF items got a shot in the arm from this?



PS - Wonder how many with new info will want to contact 'Biscuit' after this fiasco?

The bright side of that Bipto - other than the lights at both ends of the tunnel are oncoming trains <G> - is that by listening to your Bipcast, folks are getting a "fair and balanced" version of the BF phenomenon, and not a load of B*** S*** like the GA folks put out....

We're definitely on the down-swing now. Overall site traffic peaked on the 15th at almost 5x the normal day, dropped to about 3x norm on Monday, was roughly 2x norm yesterday. I'll be curious to see if we'll eventually settle back to pre-hoax levels or if we've picked up a enough new members and returning old members to see a permanent increase. Time will tell.

Or dropped to below the previous level because some people are completely hacked off with the whole bigfoot thing now.

Oddly, I don't consider that to be an option. I guess we'll see!

Bipto,
Thank you and the moderators for keeping this forum up and running during this trying time. It helps to have commiseration in this major disappointment.

I need this system for work! Bailing wire and sheep fur you say, I think I can acquire those.

BTW great job keeping things running last week!