And even longer to post a reply to a thread. The blue iOS progress bar gets to approx 10 percent immediately and then hangs for Approx 20 secs before the page loads. This does not happen on any other website. I have a very fast internet connection. I've tried on 5 separate devices and for some reason, since the site went down a few days ago for approx 36 hours the site has been mega slow. I'm based in the U.K. If that makes a difference. Have never known it this slow since 2004.

Same here too. Everything is really slow... Never used to be! I'm based in UK too. Using Google Chrome browser on PC.

Yep, same here on an Android tablet.

The Café has been loading slower and slower over the past 10 days or so.
This morning it was loading so slowly, I gave up.

Average page for me up in Canada takes approximately 30-45 seconds to load, as clearly indicated on the bottom of each Café page - "this page was created in 40 seconds requiring xx database queries".

This is all new, as the Café was very speedy a few weeks ago.
Other of my regularly visited web sites continue to pop up onto the screen in milliseconds.

Maybe this is the problem?

Even worse today. Do we still have tech support on the Café?

Yes we do but like the rest of the staff, they are only here part time and not everyday.

Same here on a MacPro on FIOS 150/150

I've noticed that it is hit and miss.

Some days it is greased lighting while other days the page times out before loading.

Tonight I'm having a heck of time just checking PM's it's taking over a minute to get into my PM box.

Just a little information and not offered as a total reason for the slowness but our server is not dedicated to the MagicCafe. It is shared. Response time often depends on total users from all those using the server. It looks like this is compounded right now as we are in the holiday season and more folks are using the server than normal.

Thanks for the clarification Dave. Have a Happy and Healthy New Years.

Jake Sr.

Just wondered if you guys are seeing a faster response time now. I've been on line for hours and the pages and forums seem to be loaded very quickly.

The last 2 days there hasn't been any delays at all.

Unfortunately for me the Café forum is the slowest. That is why I have noted in exchanging PM's you will sometimes get 2 with the same content. I found out this happens because you click the first time and it seems to take a long time, so another click because you think it did not accept it the first time and of course you have 2 of the same.
I use Google Chrome browser and have a MacBook Air laptop.

I believe that in many cases this is one of the problems that stem out of the fact that this forum is done out of "love and passion" with no desire on the owners' part to make any money from it.
While that all sounds great and wonderful and very altruistic (and admittedly it is nice not having to pay anything for access) also understand that the flip side of that noble undertaking is that costs are minimized as much as possible which can often result in problems or annoyances for the users.

I, for one (perhaps the only one?) would much prefer to pay a small and reasonable monthly fee and not have to rely on everything being done behind the scenes as volunteer work in their spare time. I am certain that this could provide a much better user experience and allow for many more updates and improvements. It would be totally worth it to me. It would also help keep out the general public and merely curious looky loos.

Good idea, how 'bouts a dollar per post count?

The Café is the slowest of any sites that I go on. Is there anything being done about it, or do we just work with what we got? I have seen no response from the tech people, so I guess nothiung is being done.

Some good comments here. First, it's free. Second, it's using a single server on a shoe-string budget (and that's being generous). Third, any searches being run slow it down (don't get me started on searches!). Fourth, just take a look at the index page (it's huge). Fifth, the database storage engine we were using (MyISAM) was a good bit faster but is no longer available (we're on InnoDB now). There are other things as well.

While there are some things I could do to speed it up, those things would not be generally accepted (trust me). Changes would likely include limiting searches in some way (tried that before and we never heard the end of the complaints); Rewriting the way bbcode (especially smilies) are stored and retrieved for display (that would mean shutting everything down for an entire weekend at least to alter every post in the database that uses bbcode); Remove certain features that were specifically added from user requests (even as additional features are being asked for regularly); Plus other things I can 't think of right now.

It's not that we don't care or don't want to do anything. It comes down to time (making those kinds of changes takes a good bit of time and would affect much of the code base) and it seems that when we *do* do something to make things better/faster there are always complaints because something is gone or whatever. It's really difficult sometimes, you know?

In any case, at this very moment load is good, memory is good, and the server is stable. Other than that, I don't know what to say. I just hope everybody can understand and appreciate what it is we offer here.

Having run a few web sites, I know that better hosting costs more money. I'd hate to see the Magic Café start to charge users, but the fact that it's free doesn't mean we can't pay for it. In fact, I made a small donation just a moment ago, using the handy "Magic Café Donations" link that's at the top of each page. It was quick and easy. If we all kick in a bit now and then, the Café might be able to afford to step up its hosting.