What would you want changed the most on this site?

[TheMagicalMick]

As for the chat, I am okay with it, but unlike Lio, I actually would enjoy PM boxes a hell of a lot more. It makes it so you either have to type /msg name every single time, or dedicate your talking to just that person, making it a pain to have to switch back and forth to talk to the chat and the person. It also excludes the ability to have more than one PM at once. At a DM standpoint, I send my players little messages of what they know that other players don't, and say I have four players, I need to message all four of them seperately for something like a Search, Spot, or Listen check, each one possibly noticing something different. Then after I message each of them seperately, I have to switch back to chat.

Also, is there anything that can be done about the constant resetting of the server? Or is that you updating things? It's making the site run real slow, and then it'll just like crash for 10+ minutes.

[Poor_Knight]

I am still looking into the server lag. Host is throwing hand in air saying it not on them. I think its coincidental about the deployment of the chat - but I can't say for sure yet. I'll have to look into the pop-up windows. I think that might be out of the realm of this chat system though.

I was able to chat on my DROID - but I'd like to create an app. for the site in general so thats "on the list".

[violentcrayon]

I was able to chat on my DROID - but I'd like to create an app. for the site in general so thats "on the list".

I have the HTC Droid Eris, PK.  It's currently rocking Android 1.5, but they're supposed to roll out Android 2.0 in the coming weeks.  I figure since you just say Droid, you're talking about the Motorolla Droid.  So I'm guessing since you can use chat and I can't, it's a difference between Android versions.  Oh, hey, by the way, I can see chat.  I can see what people say.  I just can't chat back.  But an app would be super cool.

PM boxes would be cool.  Um.  I haven't been hanging around MDG chat for a few reasons lately, but other than PM boxes (for the same reasons Mick mentioned) I love the new chat.

I haven't noticed the lag because I haven't been here.  But have you bothered to run some ping tests or traceroutes to see where the latency seems to spike?  I mean, it sounds like it has to be their issue.  It would be one thing if we were all east-coasters experiencing lag.  But when it's all over the world...ya know?  Sounds like MDG needs a new host. 

[Poor_Knight]

I was able to chat on my DROID - but I'd like to create an app. for the site in general so thats "on the list".

I have the HTC Droid Eris, PK.  It's currently rocking Android 1.5, but they're supposed to roll out Android 2.0 in the coming weeks.  I figure since you just say Droid, you're talking about the Motorolla Droid.  So I'm guessing since you can use chat and I can't, it's a difference between Android versions.  Oh, hey, by the way, I can see chat.  I can see what people say.  I just can't chat back.  But an app would be super cool.

PM boxes would be cool.  Um.  I haven't been hanging around MDG chat for a few reasons lately, but other than PM boxes (for the same reasons Mick mentioned) I love the new chat.

I haven't noticed the lag because I haven't been here.  But have you bothered to run some ping tests or traceroutes to see where the latency seems to spike?  I mean, it sounds like it has to be their issue.  It would be one thing if we were all east-coasters experiencing lag.  But when it's all over the world...ya know?  Sounds like MDG needs a new host. 

Yea, Motorola DROID. And my wife just dropped hers in the toilet - preflush! DROID does - not do toilets. Its fried...

The site was killed again by lag again last night - could not even get to the server control panel. It finally came down and restarted the services and was as fast as lightning. I gotta find a new host and relocate before I get billed again for another cycle.

I'm no server wiz so I'm limited in what I can do. I ran top command from SSH and see the services running the most CPU - the top 4 were apache. Host says its not them, says its external, possibly even attacks - I know its not traffic overload and I know my code isn't doing this. I highly doubt its the new chat. It runs very smooth. Although this chat is not ideal for high volume because it runs over http the traffic on this site is not anywhere near enough to cause the CPU load taking place.

Anyhow - new update - I spent the last couple days creating the new template for the forums. Forum templates are a big time sink but I finished it for now. The 2.0 forum will be seamlessly integrated into the site design - not two separate looks. Chat for that matter also has the same theme so you really feel like you're still on the site where ever you are with access to all the same navigation.

[BusDriver]

I was able to enter chat and chat via iphone.

[violentcrayon]

Jeez, PK.  I hope you guys had the insurance plan for the phone!  Even  still...it's an $89 deductible for the Droid.  Ouch.

BusDriver- were you able to actually chat in chat?  Or just observe?  My Eris can see what's going on in chat, but for some reason it just won't let me say things.  I'll assume it's an Android 1.5 limitation if you can...and hope HTC pushes 2.0 even more.

Also, Apache should be the least of your concerns I would think.  It's not the lightest http server out there, but it's not the most intensive, either (IIS...rofl).  Who's your host?  I haven't had a lot of dealings with too many hosts, but I've had a few.  And I have a friend who's a web designer that's had more than a few.

Regarding chat integration, I'm assuming it will be more like the old chat integration, right?  As it stands, new chat is its own window instead of being a frame/div/whatever you web guys call it now.  That doesn't hurt my feelings any, but I'm sure someone will be crying about it eventually.

[BusDriver]

I can chat via iPhone.

[Poor_Knight]

Jeez, PK.  I hope you guys had the insurance plan for the phone!  Even  still...it's an $89 deductible for the Droid.  Ouch.

BusDriver- were you able to actually chat in chat?  Or just observe?  My Eris can see what's going on in chat, but for some reason it just won't let me say things.  I'll assume it's an Android 1.5 limitation if you can...and hope HTC pushes 2.0 even more.

Also, Apache should be the least of your concerns I would think.  It's not the lightest http server out there, but it's not the most intensive, either (IIS...rofl).  Who's your host?  I haven't had a lot of dealings with too many hosts, but I've had a few.  And I have a friend who's a web designer that's had more than a few.

Regarding chat integration, I'm assuming it will be more like the old chat integration, right?  As it stands, new chat is its own window instead of being a frame/div/whatever you web guys call it now.  That doesn't hurt my feelings any, but I'm sure someone will be crying about it eventually.

Nope - I paid for the insurance when I bought our Storms and never used it - didn't go for it this time - doh! We'll see if I can slip it past them...my wife's phone is only 2 months old...

Right now I'm using Gate.com - I too have been through a mirad of hosts. They relocated my server last year and since then things have not been so good - I think they merged or are under new management. Hosts are a dime a dozen but the service levels can vary greatly. If (when) I move hosts this will be the third time relocating MDDG - its not that fun to do.

Integration means just wrapping it in the site theme - will be a little more extensive that the old one because the forum and chat will have the same look-and-feel as the rest of the site. I never customize the forum theme on MDDG v1.0, and chat was integrated with the forum software. This time chat is actually a stand alone (but will still be in the Community section). This will allow me to add chat to all the campaigns, even if I have to install it separately from the forum chat I could if I wanted.

[BusDriver]

I don't have much experience in dealing with hosting companies, but GoDaddy has always been great with the customer service every time I have had to call. And I have not had many issues with them, for my personal site and the company's site I work for.

[violentcrayon]

I don't have much experience in dealing with hosting companies, but GoDaddy has always been great with the customer service every time I have had to call. And I have not had many issues with them, for my personal site and the company's site I work for.

I second GoDaddy.  And IxWebHosting.

[Poor_Knight]

Yea, I think they are the ones I am going with. I'm not looking forward to this. Its really a big interruption for me right now but so is not being a le to access the server...like what happened today...most of the day. Was sort of hoping to upgrade the server in his process but ill be paying over double the cost for slightly less. Their service and support better be worth it. I've gotten a few good recommendations for them now. Plus I see their service reps active on twitter which I thought was cool. If I knew more about server admin from a command line I would try vps.net but I need a good GUI and am somewhat proficient with Plesk which godaddy offers.

So might try and make the switch this weekend. Inevitable downtime if I do.

[Poor_Knight]

ixWeb looks interesting. I'm curious about these "cloud" hosts. Close to the same price as godaddy but the server is better (RAM, CPU, etc). But I'm leaning towards godaddy due to service and support. At this point I'm uneasy about switching to a "small-ish" web host.

VPS.net looked neat because I could scale the capacity on a daily basis, even set it to do so automatically such as with a traffic spike. It would add more resources and then take them away when they were no longer needed, and I only pay while they were being used. But alas, no Plesk. They offer cPanel, which I've heard a lot about but never used. But several bad testimonials I read scared me away.

[violentcrayon]

ixWeb looks interesting. I'm curious about these "cloud" hosts. Close to the same price as godaddy but the server is better (RAM, CPU, etc). But I'm leaning towards godaddy due to service and support. At this point I'm uneasy about switching to a "small-ish" web host.

I'm not going to tell you what to do.  I have a web designer friend that uses ixWebHosting pretty much exclusively, and he loves it.  I've used ix for two contracts I've done, and the only problem we ever ran into was the owner forgetting his password.  Of course, neither contract was high load or anything.  Static content in both cases.  So I dunno.

But GoDaddy does have a larger consumer base.  So if support is what you're after, go with GoDaddy. 

[Mythknight]

Careful with cloud hosting as you do not always get a dedicated server. granted its a fairly nice server cluster usually but sharing HD space with other people tends to put us security guys on alert. If you can find a company that does cloud hosting but can dedicate a server to you then thats great.

[violentcrayon]

Careful with cloud hosting as you do not always get a dedicated server. granted its a fairly nice server cluster usually but sharing HD space with other people tends to put us security guys on alert. If you can find a company that does cloud hosting but can dedicate a server to you then thats great.

True, but with server virtualization the way it is, a lot of times you can get a virtualized server.  Or sometimes get your server jailed.  Jails aren't exactly the easiest to break.