An idea was given over at my forum about having a live thread. You can see it below:
http://wweforums.net/showthread.php?tid=972
Will quote it here for those who cba:
Quote:What this does it, it'll automatically update new posts in a thread without refreshing it. You just stay on the thread and watch new posts come up live. So whenever there's a discussion thread for RAW, SmackDown, or PPV, it'll be much easier to discuss instead of having to refresh every time.
Now the question is, is this a great idea, or will this be absolute suicide for the server? A few experienced webmasters have already said a feature like "a notice comes up when a new reply has arisen before refreshing" is already a strain on the server, so surely this feature would be too? However, some say different and argue the case that refreshing probably causes more queries.
So come to the help of the experienced. Please help
Depends, if a lot your vistors leave their browser open on your site it's a lot of load for nothing...
Is it not possible to make it stop after let's say 10 minutes of inactivity?
I would imagine so but I'm not really a javascript person
.
Although even then it still does put a higher load than a regular refresh. It's the same reason some hosts don't allow shoutboxes (the consistent pinging to the database for everyone on the page does equal a query).
(2012-01-30, 04:35 AM)Alex Smith Wrote: [ -> ]I would imagine so but I'm not really a javascript person .
Although even then it still does put a higher load than a regular refresh. It's the same reason some hosts don't allow shoutboxes (the consistent pinging to the database for everyone on the page does equal a query).
But doesn't refreshing the page cause more? Especially on a forum like mine, we have live discussion threads (a live thread whilst the program we're watching and niche is based on is on, for example for mine, WWE) where all the users are discussing the show live. This means constant refreshes.
Meh, as I said on there I'm sort of out of my depth on this one. Probably not a wise thing to go for immediately anyway as I'm on shared hosting, but it's something I'd love to ponder with in the future. vBulletin released the same plugin. Apparently it causes less server load according to the developer.
Again, it depends on a lot of factors. I mean how often is the average visitor refreshing? How many queries are run for thread on your site? Is it mostly reading or writing data? Do you have enough visitors for the extra load to matter?
An alternative you could look into getting like an IRC channel running. There some irc servers that will give you way to embed the chat into your site. Or, there are some services that do this as well that aren't IRC but, I'm personally not a fan of them
. This way the load is put on another that's designed for chatting.
So the idea is a member makes a post then sits on the page waiting for a live reply?
How many will really do that? Most make post then click to another page. And if someone did wait for a reply it's likely because they just opened a different tab and just let the page sit there.
This is a terrible idea from a lot of angles.
I remember when the iPhone 4S/5 launch event was on Engadgets site went down because of the auto refresh. Yes, they are a huge site with lots of customers. But I imagine they also have huge amounts of computing power behind them. The fact is, because of that sudden surge it took their entire site offline. I'm not sure who they were hosted by, but I think it may even have been an EC2 instance.
It's ok, I suppose, if you don't have much traffic. But it does add a lot of idle loading and strain. However, as labrocca said who will actually use it? Will they just load a new tab and leave it in the background?
Let's say they find a thread they like, and it auto refreshes every 30 seconds. Now, they load the thread and go to another in a new tab. If it times out after 10 minutes that's 20 refreshes per page. Now imagine 40 users doing that at any one time with 3 tabs and you've got 2400 idle refreshes. Is it really worth it?
(2012-01-30, 07:38 AM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]So the idea is a member makes a post then sits on the page waiting for a live reply?
How many will really do that? Most make post then click to another page. And if someone did wait for a reply it's likely because they just opened a different tab and just let the page sit there.
This is a terrible idea from a lot of angles.
No the main point of the idea is for the live discussion threads. Hard to keep up when refreshing. The question really wasn't about if the idea of the plugin is good, it's what potential damage or load it could cause.
Wouldn't be activated the whole time either, would only be for the hours of the shows we discuss live. When the discussion threads are in place, hardly any of our users are posting elsewhere because they're watching and posting...
It's called a shoutbox, and yes it's pretty much server suicide if you have a lot of members on at once.