What happened to myATS?

Guys... honestly...

My old myats page, if you look on the bottom took 28 database queries, while the new version takes 9.

Some people had massive amounts of "subscribed forums" and it was dragging things down.

Why not try to understand that sometimes things have to happen in order to keep things running.

The speed with which some people willingly shout out "your new layout sucks, I'm leaving" is really disgusting.

With all due respect, i think we are concerned because you folks work extremely hard to upgrade and make our free site better and better....

Since it is only temporary, i can certainly deal with something i dont like.

Our concern does not have anything to do with whether its free or not. Our concern is just your concern (the owners) of making this website the best there is.

Did that make sense? Or is it sence?

Originally posted by Springer

We are sorry for the inconvenience our free service has caused you.

Nothing in life is free, you and I both know we pay for everything one way or another. The content I provide is part of the lifeblood of what is ATS, the same goes for the ads I view.

I hate to be a rabble rouser, but resistance is what keeps people free.

Viva la ATS........
Viva la revolution...........

I liked being able to quickly view all my favorite forums. I actually used myats a lot more than surfing the homepage of ATS.

I would greatly appreciate if you reinstated the old format so I can "quickview" my favorites.

Or give us a new button so I can see that list again.




There already is the "recent posts" button. Why combine the two?

MyAts should be only the personal favorites, not the most recent threads/posts.

Please fix this admins.

I know you are trying out new things, but I loved the way you had it before.

Keep the changes, but please bring back the old style.

It just looks confusing and most of those threads I don't even want to read unfortunately.

Thank you!

Please, please, please!!!



Let me clarify. I love how you (3 amigos) put so much freaking work into this beautiful project. Without your effort, I don't know how I'd access so much information at one click.

Don't take these comments as insults. You have a GREAT AMAZING site. You have done wonderfully.

We just want our old MyAts back please!

All the other changes can be understood and are fine. This is part of the site though.

I was able to click on myats and find my most recent subscribed threads and the forums I had decided to see.

It was great!

Now I only see cluttered posts. Its very confusing.

[edit on 1-7-2007 by biggie smalls]

DJ, you can rearrange this whole site and I would hardly notice. All I really use is myATS favorites and Chat (member center too). All I really need is my top 15 subscribed threads and organized favorite forums. Have the 10 most recent posts in that forum with its own tab, and the same goes for the others favorited. I know it may not seem big to you as its just myATS for you, but for me its like changing the entire site, cause its the main part of the site I visit.

Taking that and changing it to what it is now is like taking the main page for you, and throwing everything under one tab, telling you to find it if you can.

Originally posted by Djarums
The speed with which some people willingly shout out "your new layout sucks, I'm leaving" is really disgusting.

In the end, ATS is subject to the same principles of commerce as any other business. Provide a product or service that people like, and they will come.

Like dgtempe said, if it's temporary, then no big deal...

Originally posted by Djarums
The speed with which some people willingly shout out "your new layout sucks, I'm leaving" is really disgusting.

this is true, I'll never abandon you ATS, you're my best friend.

[edit on 1-7-2007 by thehumbleone]

For the past several weeks, we've been having short-lived crashes of the database that last from 1 to 5 minutes, depending on the load. As a means to troubleshoot problems like this, we also track "slow queries" and pages that require a lot of processing time. Nearly 90% of all the database crashes have been traced back to the MyATS page and members with excessive forum favorites.

During the past few months, we've been seeing steadily increasing numbers of members who spend time on ATS. A significant percentage use the subscribe and favorites functions of the MyATS page, and a startling number have more than 12 forums defined as favorites. The problem is, as previously coded, the page becomes a performance risk with anything over 8 forums.

With more and more members being active (especially in the high-load 10pm to 1am EST window), our database server was regularly running at a "load average" between 6 and 8 (4 is appropriate for our server).

To mitigate the database problems and increased server load, this new format (which is essentially the "today's posts" structure) was launched with an immediate result... server load has been reduced.

The old tables-and-grid format of MyATS was indeed a convenient structure that I also appreciated... but the code required to offer that format became problematic as more and more people used it. I'll be looking at alternative ways to code a similar display, but frankly I'm not hopeful. At some point, even monster-sized database horsepower can't make up for poor code.

SO,

If you want donations for a faster server just ask .

I'm sure more than enough of us will pitch in to help.

We love your contribution to helping the world access information.

I don't think you really understand how much we appreciate your efforts.

If a donation will get me back my old format, my only question is this. How much do you need?

Originally posted by Springer
We are sorry for the inconvenience our free service has caused you.

Why take constructive criticism as a personal insult? Many things have been changing around here. I though we were perfectly at liberty to share our feelings about this website that we are all a part of.

Is that not the case?

Maybe ATS could look into converting the site to a CSS-based, semantic design. There are many benefits to having semantic markup styled with CSS, including the fact that the CSS gets cached, and markup is kept streamlined, meaning dramatic server load decrease.

Would it help if the members deleted the long lists they

have saved on MY ATS?

I'm sure i can get rid of 50 or 60 of the stuff there.

Members, i think would be willing to clean up stuff to help the site run smoother.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
I'll be looking at alternative ways to code a similar display, but frankly I'm not hopeful. At some point, even monster-sized database horsepower can't make up for poor code.

I just hope you appreciate how much that feature alone set ATS apart from the pack.

The convenience provided access... Please don't underestimate the importance of that.

During the past few months, we've been seeing steadily increasing numbers of members who spend time on ATS. A significant percentage use the subscribe and favorites functions of the MyATS page, and a startling number have more than 12 forums defined as favorites. The problem is, as previously coded, the page becomes a performance risk with anything over 8 forums.

This seems obvious... but how about limit the number of displayed forums? If more than 8 is a problem... why not set the limit at... 8? Or even 6?

We're talking about what seems to be the primary interface to ATS for the majority of users. It became the primary interface because of its layout. Now that layout is apparently being done away with. If such an abandonment is only temporary, so be it as I'm sure most of us will suffer through it. But if ATS is to be demoted to the same interface as any other bulletin board out there, it will inevitably share the same rank.

[edit on 1-7-2007 by apc]

Originally posted by Implosion
Why take constructive criticism as a personal insult? Many things have been changing around here. I though we were perfectly at liberty to share our feelings about this website that we are all a part of.

Is that not the case?

I think the problem might be that, most of the criticisms that are flowing, are not constructive in any way. We are receiving threats that if it is not returned to it's old format, members will no longer be returning. How is that constructive?

Constructive criticism is always welcomed. Bitching & whining, well, that's a different story.

There are some constructive posts in here, and those do not go unnoticed. But those that provide nothing, and are demanding they get their "cookie" back, those are the one's that this frustration is directed towards.

---

My problem with these drama fests that happen every time we go through a transition period is that people forget why we are here. Did anyone here actually sign up because the myATS page was that damn good? Or did you sign up because the discussion here was that much better than every site out there? I'm willing to bet the latter.

Has the discussion on this board deteriorated that much in the last two hours that members actually want to leave? Yes? No?

I can understand being lost for the time being, and trying to adjust. But threatening to leave, making demands... just seems completely unnecessary in my opinion.

If you've got something constructive, dig in and fire away. If not? Well.. try harder.

Originally posted by Implosion
Why take constructive criticism as a personal insult?

Constructutive criticism can be a great thing. The only problem is I don't see a whole lot of it going on in this thread. Constructive criticism offers ideas on how to improve, plain old criticism does not.

Criticism: Duzey, you smell bad.

VS.

Constructive criticism: Duzey, you might not smell so bad if you took a shower.

See the difference?

Donations won't do anything. (and honestly, our next upgrade is in the five-figure range)

While the user-centric thinking of the display was a great idea, it was conceived when (1) my PHP coding skills were still in a transition from CFML, and (2) we were getting 10% of the traffic we have now.

Frankly, both the code and the underlying database structure of the MyATS page sucked. The legacy database schema of the core forums-threads-posts system is a poor backbone for the kind of display I coded. Then, the code itself, while as streamlined as possible, required far too many queries for just one page of data.

As far as CSS is concerned, we are moving toward a more CSS compliant structure in the near future, with some interesting additions. However, it won't help this aspect at all... since we're talking about database server load.

Like I said, I'm looking at a solution, but this change was required.

One possible solution is the creation of static modules for each forum. The modules with be "pre-rendered" every few minutes with the latest forum activity. These modules would then replace the "dynamic" tables in the old MyATS layout. The functionality would be much the same, but the content would not be "live."

I'm more than willing to cha-ching you some change if needed.
If everyone chips in a few bucks you'll have more than enough to cover the traffic on this site.

Give me a pay-pal acct. or some way I can contribute, I'm more than willing to add to the pot with my MC if needed.

I don't think this should ever become a pay as you go site, it's too valuable a resource for everyone on the planet, and I think access to the information should be free to anyone that explores the topics we discuss.

If money is an issue I'm sure a little fund raiser could pull in what is needed.

I am sure that many were not aware of the issues that led to the decision to change the MyATS page (myself included). I would much rather have that, then be greeted with this when I log onto ATS...



three for the three amigos!
Sorry for complaining about it.

[edit on 7/1/07 by Mechanic 32]