It has been very bad from Virginia.
Can’t imagine user growth is making this much of a difference. Am assuming software/data base changes have not occurred that would actually make a negative impact to system benchmarks.
If the above is correct, then logic tells me that a new data center is in order. Perhaps a central location like Chicago, with multiple Tier 1 providers/pipes.
Should have included Jim Rob in your comments.
Either FR is going to have to go to a pay site (your suggestion), which is not a bad idea or it’s gonna have to start accepting ads. I think this latest stretch of problems has proved that $85K per quarter is not enough to fix this problem.
Personally I don’t think new servers will fix the problem. I think it’s deeper, in the software used to manage the traffic. Maybe it needs to be updated. Maybe it needs to be replaced. Maybe FR needs to go back to home base and start over from scratch. Maybe FR needs to hire some consultants for a few hours to provide some guidance. Lots of maybes. Really fast servers do no good if the software is overwhelmed by the traffic.