[EBH]

I don't know the answer either. Every time something is going on ...debate etc. FR is unavailable. I think it is because the site growth outpaces capacity. Especially in this kind of an election year too. BUT...this has been an ongoing issue Freepathon after Freepathon....

FR runs pretty clean and lean, but I wonder if there are some features that could be ‘turned off’ on nights like last night.

I know election day or night I won't even bother visiting FR...I won't be able to get on...so why frustrate myself?

I go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freerepublic2/ , but even being on this alternative isn't effective. Most folks are just posting complaints, instead of starting a new ‘live debate thread.’ Or perhaps WE as FReepers should anticipate this issue for the next debate and say Freepers East of the Mississippi use the yahoo group and West of the Mississippi use FR. For the last debate we could switch it up.

So instead of complaining....lets find a workable alternative for now!

[epic stache]

The one and only solution is for those who actually own and operate FR to make it more reliable.

So far they have not chosen to do this.

[ken in texas]

FR runs pretty clean and lean, but I wonder if there are some features that could be ‘turned off’ on nights like last night.

Some years back there were some performance problems. We have the option of choosing displays of 20 / 50 / 100 / 250 items and I recall John putting in a change to cap it at 25 for the duration.

I don't know what the bottleneck is but last night was frustrating, and I finally gave up veiwing the live thread.