What exactly is a server? is it a tangible thing? Aee they costly? Would you like us to does lots of advert clicking so you can get some more?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I have been clicking - Tesco kitcgens won't last and they do one called Porto which was both apt and pleasing.

Can you just order servers off the shelf? Is there a shop? Hiw many more can you fit in Biscuit Towers? How many would yiu need to stop a repeat performance of the travesty that was PenisBReakerDay. Not a typo.

How much much clicking do I need to do? Should I be prodding my few MN fruends to click away as well?

Eh?

Thank you for posting on site stuff.

Yes it is a physical thing. Imagine its a computer. But many people who have websites don't have the physical computer in their office they just rent a "bit" of computer from people who have buildings full of computers (Amazon provide this as a service).

Depending on how the website is built it could scale up smoothly and easily simply by saying "please give us more computer, we will give you more money" but it probably doesn't because it's a lot harder to write it to be like that and MN feels very much like it has grown organically.

Think of MN being like the tube, rather than like the Tokyo metro system. Yes, it's creaky and sometimes you have to go up and down interminable stairs that seem to go nowhere, and sometimes you have to walk down crowded platform to get to the other line, but with was built by the Victorians for fucking steam trains, and nobody turned off London so they could make improvements, they had to try to add bits in while everything else was still running.

Good analogy Trills! I will be using that in the course of my paid employment.

Trills, that is a beautiful analogy. I don't think I want a new server now you've put it like that.

That's a perfect analogy Trills.

We should get a new server, but it must be added on with duct tape and the twisty wires from sandwich bags :o

That's beautiful, Trills (the bit about Victorian London, not the bit about twisty sandwich bag wires).

Will they be using sticky-backed plastic?

Hello hello

ad-clicking is always appreciated for gin-and-biscuits purposes, obvs

We're sorry about the site performance over the last few days - there's just been a completely mahoosive traffic spike. Tis almost impossible to predict these things, as we're sure you can appreciate.

And blutac. Don't forget the blutac, Trills.

DH said that you could probably manage 1M hits quite happily with two servers and he knows of just such a site and the server architect. The trouble is that they would have cost £££££££.

I presume the trouble is that MN has grown gradually and its been a case of adding a bit more capacity when and if it is needed and there never has been a point at which change to such a system looked to be the way to go.

Perhaps we should do a Blue Peter stylee appeal for MN to get new servers-maybe save your old tin foil or something. With a totaliser and everything.

If it helps I can add my skill of cut and paste to the appeal?

Just tell me what you want cutting and where you want it pasting and by when and I'll crack on.

"you can't run up to a box and go 'that one, Mumsnet's on there' because it could be anywhere on any SAN disk"

The SAN disk would have to be somewhere though. You could run up to that and give it a stroke.

BTW I wasn't suggesting that stroking it would help.

Well, it couldn't hurt Because. Might make the server feel better.

Tee - but if you gave it and or even , which would show your appreciation, it would probably not work as well...

Mind you my laptop worked quite happily after 1/2 glass of (after being left upside down to dry out for 36 hrs) so perhaps it wouldn't be too bad?

No, I would not feed or give drink to the server.

And you were really lucky with your laptop!

Maybe if everybody nominates MNHQ for the Christmas appeal it could get sorted.

You could give or to the people who look after the server, and then if there is a problem you might get preferential treatment. Best not give them though.

We do have a plan re servers as it happens. It was already in place before Beakergate but obviously that has made it even more of an obvious priority.

A brief bit of background for those interested... because MN is so old we have a slightly weird set up whereby historically every time we've run out of server space we've replaced our old server with a newer, faster, bigger one. This is costly and not a particularly sensible way of running things (too much reliance on one server). We've been doing tonnes of work behind the scenes (Tech's been on this for months and months and months) to allow us to move from one to multiple servers which are more flexible and can deal better with surges, as well as more efficacious. Basically it's all about getting the servers to talk to eachother so they hold identical info in real time (in incredibly layman's terms).

Anyway, we are not far off the first migration from one to two servers - a matter of weeks in fact, so fingers crossed it will all work MUCH better and were something to go viral again, we'll be able to stop things falling over. That's the plan. For anything more in depth I'll have to get Tech out of the shed, but am loathe to interrupt his banging for obvious reasons.

Oh and yes do please click the ads and shop using mall, discount partners, weekly deals. Every little helps. .