Other Forum Issues

[Spokes]

These MySQL connection errors have become increasingly frequent, as have slowdowns and timeouts in general. I realize this forum is free and that the cost of operating it has to come from somewhere. I appreciate the efforts and financial support of those behind this forum. My intent isn't to criticize but to (hopefully) help resolve these issues.

FWIW I've been involved for many years with another website that operates on the same principles as WRC, i.e. free to all thanks to the personal financial support of a few. We've always run on a shoe string budget that necessitated the use of a "cheap" shared host service like http://www.bluehost.com/. We've experienced similar slowdowns and timeouts. Occasionally this was due to a configuration issue with our host service provider. But most often it's been due to one or more other sites that are hosted on the same server as ours. It took persistent reports of service issues to the hosting company, including provision of statistical proof of service degradation, to get them to address the issue. I have no idea if they intervened with the offending site or simply moved us to a different host. The point is that the squeaking wheel gets the grease. 

I wonder if the management of WRC could comment on how aware they are of current service issues and what they're doing to address them. What can we do to help (e.g. money, reports of service issues, etc.)?

I've noticed increased issues lately too, although I admit I haven't been on the site as much lately due to being out of town.  

The site is indeed hosted by GoDaddy as someone mentioned.  I'm going to get in touch with them to find out what the issue is.  As the summer progresses if it isn't solved I'll be looking into other options.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a tech genius.  I have some knowledge of this stuff, but not a ton.  If changes are made I'll be asking for help.  That being said, we're not working with unlimited resources here.  I pay for this site out of my own pocket.  A couple of donations have helped (THANK YOU again!) but it's not like funds are unlimited.

Continuing to report service issues is helpful as it gives me data when finding a solution.  As for money, if an increased service package is needed, that's something that will be addressed.  But I don't think we're getting enough traffic to necessitate that. 

I have not reached out to GoDaddy as of yet, that's the next step.