Posted on 10/23/2012 3:58:44 AM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark
The 4th and final of the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates have come and gone for 2012.
Here are the three things we can walk away with.
- Romney can't lose a debate coin toss, going 3 for 3. Which of course means nothing.
- Obama gets more moderated debate time, going 3 for 3 in the time column. Which of course means nothing.
- Free Republic crashes before any debate and doesn't get back to normal until dawn the next day.
I would like to state that I have been here since the 2004 election season. I can't lay claim to being an old timer here compared to some of the posters here. I can safely say though that I am not a spur of the moment account meant to come here and spam, insult and run away.
Here's my point; Free Republic is in danger of not being relevant and it's purely because of technical reasons.
I know your technical team or advisor is trying like mad to isolate why this site is unavailable for hours on end surrounding the debates this year. It's not working.
This debate season for Free Republic has been the equivalent of having a TV network go out for a wild card round, divisional round and conference or league championship. The network knew the times of the contest, they knew tons of people would be watching, they knew where the technical problems might arise yet failed 4 times over the course of every scheduled event.
Now the Super Bowl of American politics is 2 weeks away and the same team that has aired loading screens for every head to head political contest this year must realize this simple fact; if you're not up and running on election night 2012 you might as well close the door on any thought of continuing your political relevance.
Online communities do not build themselves overnight but they can collapse overnight. As inconceivable as it may be this could be a swan song moment that you were warned about, tried to prevent yet ultimately could not control. If your traffic can't get to your site, you have no site.
If you fail in giving voice to this community during what should or could be a glorious night for America your role in history will be noteworthy, just like print edition of Newsweek's coverage of the Presidential inauguration in 2013. Non-existent.
History will indeed be made on November 6th because of the nature of the event. The question Free Republic needs to determine is if it is going to report history or become part of it.
And how much do you contribute to the Freepathons, or donate monthly?
Well dude... donate 100K for a few new servers and a bigger pipe and all will be copacetic. That’s all.
What makes you think it is a money problem?
I’m not a tech guy so I can’t offer any solutions, but I do see that it’s not excessive posting that’s causing the problem. That leads me (a non tech guy) to believe it may be an external problem. Whatever it is, it is real.
We hated the slow speed, but posts like this serves no one.
At worst, this is a DNS attack. There may not be anything they can do under this regime.
I’m with you . $ 400K a year + in donations and we can’t use the site on important nights like POTUS debates . Can you imagine election night ? I think more people would donate if the site was up to speed . Even on reg. days it is a lot slower than it used to be . I’ve been here 13 years and remember the good old days when all was copacetic .
I don’t buy that. FR has handled big loads in the past. Something software related has gotten messed up.
Besides, money was supposed to have been dedicated to hardware in the last two Freepathons. Word from Jim is that additional server capacity is not the issue.
Uhng..DOS attack. Coffee!
More importantly, it is much easier to bring a website down than it is to keep one up.
Any website that allows people to post, is always a hundred times more vulnerable than a we site that allows viewing only (Drudge for example).
In sort dear friends, this may be a situation that no amount of money can totally eliminate.
This is not a money issue.
We have been told time and time again that all the needles and gauges are where they should be and the site should be fine. The bottom line is all we’ve seen are loading screens.
You can attack the messenger all day long on this one. You can point and say donate more, where’s your checkbook or anything along those lines. However that doesn’t change the fact that Free Republic is in very real danger of collapsing.
No television network could survive a technical blackout of a Super Bowl it was scheduled to broadcast. No political website can survive a technical blackout of a Presidential election.
It’s just that simple.
I agree with your estimation, but something that all are missing in this being a recent problem but one needs to consider the number of users on the internet is way up over the good ole days and remember the executive order he signed giving him total control of the internet? I am not going tin foil hat here but with all of the other nefarious crap this administration has done under the radar one does not have to be reaching to find their way there.
The true analogy is it’s like visiting a friends house but no one answers the door and all the lights are out.
It is a rather large problem. Too bad as well. I would love to be able to follow and comment in a live thread during a debate.
I just hope we don’t have these issues election night. My early plans are to have FR on my computer screen, MSNBC on my TV screen, a beer in one hand, and a cigar in the other.
***Any website that allows people to post, is always a hundred times more vulnerable than a web site that allows viewing only (Drudge for example.***
Perhaps two websites then - one ‘pay per view’ and one ‘pay per post’. Free enterprise - it’s what we do.
Was posting disabled during the debate?
Whenever I would click on “post reply” in that thread, the window to post a comment never showed up. I was redirected to the first page of that thread.
I hadn’t changed any settings on my computer so it couldn’t be on my end.
Look to see if packets are being diverted. It seems to me this is external.
I don’t even bother coming here when there soemthing big going on. You can bet this site will be down.
Ignore the “shoot the messenger” noise, you are spot on.
Bump.
***Any website that allows people to post, is always a hundred times more vulnerable than a web site that allows viewing only (Drudge for example.***
Perhaps two websites then - one ‘pay per view’ and one ‘pay per post’. Free enterprise - it’s what we do.
Having said that, I have always found the live threads extraordinarily interesting and entertaining. To not be able to access them is a great disappointment to me. But that does NOT change the other values of the site.
I'm already dreading inaccessibility on election night. But I do believe the owners are doing everything they can to change that. There would be no motive not to. No one benefits by what has happened in the debates.
Just don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
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