MoneysavingExpert.com...going down the pan?

Old_Skool

It's called mutual support.

Thousands of people have turned to this site needing help, advice and have received support.

With the recent DDOS attack and the server upgrade I'm sure the majority of users like myself make allowances for the technical issues and fully support the site. Everybody benefits.

Hey, Mulldoonuk, I've just noticed you're location.........:rotfl:

alphawoo

there are many unsecure things on the site. il probaply pm one of the mods what they are when i ge the program which finds them back...

Acehole_2

MULLDOONUKMe thinks you placing too much importance on this site, its only an information source after all, and the internet is full of that

planemad

The site has outgrown its current server and this is being changed as per the link on an above post.
Server changes are extremely difficult and time consuming and will always cause a bit of disruption but its part and parcel of making thing better.

Think of it like a road that is used to its maximum and by widening it for another lane the congestion could be eased, for a few months you will be stuck in traffic then after the work is complete you will be driving on an uncongested and smooth road.

marleyboy

mulldoonuk wrote: »

Problem after problem....

Technical issues?...
(very) slow loading pages...

Website down at times?? (then when back up...still the same)

Do you employ "experts" to sort this out???...
or are you moneysaving on these also??? :mad:

I suggest you go and find another far more technical and expert site that more suits your needs. Incidently im having no problems at all with the download speeds on this site. As MSE is also a FREE site I would hope Martin is moneysaving on just about every aspect of the site. What kind of man would he be if he didnt practice what he preached?

The_Economist

Long Live MSE!!!!!!!!!!. Keep up the good work everyone.

Iom-rf

I've got to agree to some degree that its odd how such a popular site isn't managed better, thats not to say i'm ungrateful because i'm not, but its not like the site makes zero money so can't afford beefed up servers, its a case of ignoring a problem until it goes bang (Ie the site gets slower....then slower.....then times out....then the server crashes and is down for the whole day), is this not costing Martin more money aswell as potential forum sign up's/extra forum usage in the long run?

superscaper

Iom-rf wrote: »

its a case of ignoring a problem until it goes bang (Ie the site gets slower....then slower.....then times out....then the server crashes and is down for the whole day),

So when did that happen? I've only noticed two times it's been down. One was for the attack which would have been impossible to preemptively defend against, the other time was when they were physically transferring to different servers, which is exactly what you're asking them to do and again it's impossible to keep the site up when doing that. Neither time did it crash because of normal use. Whenever any other site goes through that they are invariably offline for a lot longer than MSE was so I can't see how doing something better than everyone else makes it lacking in "better management". Surely the opposite it true!.

mountainchrisriver

mulldoonuk & Iom-rf... numpties!! :eek:









ps. I know that isn't very 'MSE' but some people eh... :rolleyes:

MSE_Martin

Don't worry we're not going down the pan. The site has grown rapidly and been through many changes and this isn't the first time we've had a few problems.

There's a few things people forget

1. We were hit by a DDOS. We've implemented solutions and that means a massive background shift. By far the best way would've been to close the site for a week; but I didnt want to do that, this means we try and keep it open as much as possible but by doing it this way problems can happen.

2. The main site is very reliable. It's the Forum where there are problems. When you talk about me on radio 2; that was three years ago when the site was tiny. The main site hasn't crashed due to traffic for over two years and when i do big appearances there's very little impact on the forum all the traffic goes to the main site.

3. This forum is one of the world's biggest on the type of software and we are in many ways a test bed - working with the software designers on how to make it cope with this much traffic and posts. MSE's forum is simply massive.

4. We have the servers and the technology. The site has been very reliable for the last six months or so since we increased the technology. The DDOS hit us hard, but we were up with three days and now use someo f the strongest protection to prevent it. The problems this week were sadly because of issues at our server company. There's little I can do on that; i chose them because of reliability and security and our servers are in an old MOD bunker - yet someone there messed up - that can happen to anyone.

5. Lots of site go through problems like this, but you tend to notice more on the sites you spend lots of time on. E.g. Facebook has problems and people are frustrated, because they're there all the time, yet if doodah.com that you only visit once a month has problems; the likelyhood is you'll never see it.

6. No one forces anyone to use the site or to pay for it. I want it to be a great resource; and I believe its unparalleled in scope and traffic. We have 15 full time staff; some of the money comparison sites, which get less traffic have 500. So we work well for the scale of operations.

Overally MSE isn't going down the pan. A more accurate description is "the MSE forums are having some growing pains on the back of dealing with a DDOS" that I accept and I've had my small team working almost 24-7 to fix it. It's regulars that feel the problems most; and its the same regulars I'd ask to stick with it as you know its worth it.

I've hardly slept due all this and am already overloaded; so are my team. Yet actually there's been very little down time and we're goignt o try and restore the old posts next week!

Martin