April Fool’s Day Survival Mode

April 1st is approaching, which means that the Museum will probably experience its annual surge of traffic that results in pages loading incredibly slowly or not at all. I'm going to do whatever possible to stop the site from crashing on April 1st, though I'm not sure how much I can really do.

I've already moved most of the images to a separate server, to reduce the strain on the main server. I'm also going to temporarily eliminate avatars in the forum. I'm not deleting them. They just won't show up until I reactivate them after April 1st. Unfortunately, because of the way the forum software works, I can't move them to a different server. They're either served up by my web host, or they're not served up at all.

I'm also tweaking settings in the blog software. If it can be easily done, I might turn off commenting on April 1st. Better to have new visitors be able to see something, but not leave comments, than not see anything at all because the page won't load.

Miscellaneous

Posted on Tue Mar 25, 2008


Comments

Is this a joke?
Posted by MadRat  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  02:26 PM
If it is, the joke's on me. Every April 1st, the site crashes because of the huge spike in traffic.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  02:45 PM
Sounds like you have a good plan in place, Alex. Good luck!

By the way, do you have any speaking engagements or appearances (radio or TV or other?) planned yet that we should be aware of?
Posted by Tah  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  02:59 PM
Not a joke MadRat, it happens every year. I'm just lucky that I live in the opposite time zone to the majority of people visiting so it doesn't go too slow for me.

And I second Tah's question. It's nice to know in advance if you'll be making an appearance anywhere Alex.
Posted by Nettie  on  Wed Mar 26, 2008  at  03:18 AM
If you have admin control of the web server, check out bandwidth settings. Most web servers have some sort of throttle to limit bandwidth for these kind of situations. Well, not April Fools Day, but when expecting a huge spike in traffic.
Posted by Bill  on  Wed Mar 26, 2008  at  04:11 AM
I don't have admin control of the server, but I've given my web host a heads up, so hopefully they'll be able to manage the situation.

So far, I'm scheduled to appear on an NPR show based in Cleveland, "Sound of Ideas," on April 1, 9 am (which means I'll have to wake up at 6 am :long: )

I'll also be on BBC Radio Jersey at about 10:10 am on the first. That'll be taped, so I don't need to wake up early.

And I'll be on 95bfm in New Zealand at around 1pm on the 1st.

MSN.com should also be linking to the site. As well as National Geographic News.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Wed Mar 26, 2008  at  03:41 PM
you're gonna be on NZ radio? I can't say thats a station I know of though..
Posted by sarahearth  on  Thu Mar 27, 2008  at  04:43 PM
Most radio stations have websites...and many allow downloads of broadcasts. 😊
Posted by Maegan  on  Fri Mar 28, 2008  at  09:24 AM
I almost got caught tweaking my blog once too, Alex. I was 12 and it was in the basement of St. Alphonso's School for Wayward Werechildren. I had a copy of "National Geethatsgraphic" magazine, and was enjoying an article entitled "Lycan Ladies of Micronesia", when Father Down happened upon me. It was all the more embarressing because, you guessed it. It was his magazine. My blog, though, dammit, and I'll tweak it when and where and how I want to, thank you. Tweak, tweak
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Sun Mar 30, 2008  at  06:03 PM
still tweaking as we be speaking
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  06:50 PM
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