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Site changes
7 February 2018
8.09am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Just a quick update, because I know things are still loading slowly. I’ve spent the morning combining scripts and files, refreshing pages, noting what’s broken, trying to isolate the problem, excluding files, rinse and repeat. I’ve made some progress but I’m not there yet.

Apologies if you visited earlier and something was broken. Hopefully it’s a little better now.

It also takes a long time just to reloading multiple pages to check that different parts of the site are still operating with every single change, and if there’s a problem to load the dev inspector and try to find the problem.

I *think* the major cause of the lag is all the elements that the forum tries to load simultaneously. According to pingdom test results, there are 82 elements that get loaded in one go on the previous page. It’s not an issue on the non-forum part of the site, which is why I believe this is where the problem lies.

There are some css and javascript (js) files that I’ve successfully combined (those under /min/ below), others that I’ve not been able to optimise yet (though I’m still chipping away at them), and a bunch of images (png and jpeg files).

This page makes 82 parallelizable requests to beatlesbible.com. Increase download parallelization by distributing these requests across multiple hostnames:

https://www.beatlesbible.com/f…..tedposts=1

https://www.beatlesbible.com/i…..equote.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/m…../83d20.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/m…..n/8ca3e.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/m…..s_async.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/m…..n/ee85f.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/m…..azyload.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ter_03.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ong_03.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..l-2016.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..l-2017.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..nshot1.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-Badge.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..d-2017.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..G_2144.PNG

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-Badge.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..rge_09.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..rge_10.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..acs_02.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…../heart.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..verlay.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ailure.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..uccess.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..p_Wait.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ropdown.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-footer.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-scale.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..avatar.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..eapple.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..safety.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..vatarz.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..vatar2.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..asty-3.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..394832.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..1_1280.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..avatar.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..t_av_1.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-badge.jpg

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..-header.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ery-ui.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..thdays.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ayIcon.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..inking.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ntions.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..upload.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ery.ui.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..upload.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ery-ui.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..thanks.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..nkInfo.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..t-post.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..search.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ptions.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..inymce.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..tinymce.js

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..viewer.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..atches.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..owDown.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..rrowUp.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..istory.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..cebook.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..p_Feed.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..mation.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..p_Jump.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..gInOut.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w….._Mouse.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..malink.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w….._Print.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..onNone.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ration.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..Search.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..icIcon.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..eSmall.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..eSmall.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ebsite.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..Denied.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…..ouTube.png

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w….._arrow.gif

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…../style.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…../style.css

https://www.beatlesbible.com/w…../jquery.js

It’s not so much that these files are large (most of the smileys and theme images are around 1-2k); it’s more that the server is trying to deliver them all in one go. Sometimes avatars can be large, although there is an upload limit.

One fix might be to distribute these across different subdomains and set up a content delivery network (CDN). For now I’m going to experiment with removing certain elements and see what effect it has. It might mean that things like smileys or polls are disabled, hopefully temporarily. It might well have to look into a CDN to fix this properly though.

Thanks for bearing with me, and apologies as ever.

The following people thank Joe for this post:

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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7 February 2018
9.37am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Test:

View post on imgur.com

Just wondering if disabling image uploads would help page loads. If we can offload them to a third party site like Imgur it would alleviate a bit of the bottleneck. Something to consider.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

8 February 2018
4.55am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Hi everyone. Quick update on this. The cache is now working properly on the main part of the site (there was a problem getting it going). Once a page has been visited once it should be much quicker to load for the next person.

Unfortunately some of the forum caching didn’t work and prevented new posts from displaying (ie it was showing an older cached version), so I had to disable the private caches which I’d hoped would work really well. For non-logged-in users the forum is really quick right now, it just runs a lot slower once people are logged in.

Obviously that’s not ideal and I’ll try to get the private caching working properly. Thanks for bearing with me. Hopefully nothing else is broken right now.

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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8 February 2018
3.52pm
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Leppo
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I couldn’t access the forum at all yesterday evening and also this evening. Strangely enough it worked fine in internet explorer tonight but not in Chrome until I refreshed using control R.

Pivotal Moments in Beatles History No.118:  Yoko helps herself to one of George's digestives. 

9 February 2018
9.50am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Because of the work I’ve been doing to speed up the site and server, I’m able to present the Beatles’ history page as a single list once again. That’s how it was originally, but a couple of years ago I had to split it over several pages when the huge list became very slow to load.

That doesn’t seem to be an issue any more, so I’m pleased to have it once again as a single page. If performance slows again I might revert to individual pages for each year, but fingers crossed that won’t be necessary.

https://www.beatlesbible.com/history/

paul-mccartney-thumb_gif

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9 February 2018
11.56am
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Ahhh Girl
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^Hallelujah!!

20 February 2018
12.44pm
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Von Bontee
496 km NW of the '69 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival
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Hey Joe, I was just wondering if the “recent forum posts” could be re-added to the home page, or if there was a conscious decision made to remove it. I miss it!

Thanks.

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

20 February 2018
7.44pm
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Evangeline
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Von Bontee said
Hey Joe, I was just wondering if the “recent forum posts” could be re-added to the home page, or if there was a conscious decision made to remove it. I miss it!

Thanks.  

Is that on mobile?
I’ve noticed when I use the mobile site, the home page doesn’t have a recent post list.
(I use the drop down recent posts menu.)

I am you as you are you as you are you and you are all together. 

21 February 2018
3.33pm
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Von Bontee
496 km NW of the '69 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival
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It’s the main site as well 

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

21 February 2018
4.00pm
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Evangeline
1334 North Beechwood Drive
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Von Bontee said
It’s the main site as well   

Try clearing your cache.
That’s one of the only (not complicated) things I know of that fixes most everything

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26 February 2018
7.58am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Von Bontee said
Hey Joe, I was just wondering if the “recent forum posts” could be re-added to the home page, or if there was a conscious decision made to remove it. I miss it!

Thanks.  

I’m sorry! I didn’t realise it had gone. It’s back now.

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7 March 2018
9.16am
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Joe
Pepperland
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I’ve just added a Beatles videos page to the site. This takes and embeds the feeds from the official Beatles channel and their BeatlesVEVO channel (I’m not sure why there are two separate ones).

There’s also a random video from the VEVO channel now embedded on the homepage (left-hand column, below Song of the day).

The following people thank Joe for this post:

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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7 March 2018
9.19am
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meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
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Will you add the officially upped solo videos at some point? 

 

Edit: I’ve just seen that Paul alone has 292 videos on his channel! Never mind.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

7 March 2018
9.44am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Good idea! I didn’t think of the solo clips. I’ll look into it tomorrow.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

8 March 2018
5.13am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Videos galore!

The Beatles

John Lennon

Paul McCartney

George Harrison

Ringo Starr

These are all added to the top menu – you can access the solo pages either via the Videos dropdown, or via People.

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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1 October 2019
5.29am
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Joe
Pepperland
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Just a heads-up that the site needs to move to a new server soon. I’m staying with the same hosts (KnownHost, who are great); there’s just a technical issue that requires a move to a new IP address.

I’m not sure when it’s going to happen, and there’s likely to be a little bit of downtime (I’ve asked for clarity on this), but hopefully not much. Ideally it’ll also happen during a slow traffic time (ie when most of the US is asleep) so disruption is minimised, but if it happens during a busy time there’s a danger that some posts may get lost. I’ll let you know when I have more info.

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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1 October 2019
6.42am
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Joe
Pepperland
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OK, the plan is to set up a brand new server, clone all my sites and move them over, then point the domain names to the new server. There’s a chance of some content being lost in the changeover, if it’s posted to the old server after the backup is taken. In order to avoid this, once I know that the migration is going ahead I’ll put the forum into read-only mode.

Carry on posting for the time being.

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1 October 2019
10.06am
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Joe
Pepperland
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OK, the migration is likely to happen within the next hour. If you’re planning on writing a lengthy post, please consider either holding off, or copying and pasting it into a text file on your computer in case it gets lost. As soon as I know the migration is happening I’ll put the forum into lockdown, but there’s a possibility that my hosts will get started without letting me know.

“My hosts” makes me sound like a parasite. I kind of like it.

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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1 October 2019
12.56pm
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Joe
Pepperland
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OK, a backup of the site has been taken. The forum’s in lockdown until the migration is complete. If you’re able to post then feel free to do so; it’ll mean the switchover has happened where you are (it can take a while depending on various factors, and isn’t the same for everyone).

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

1 October 2019
4.11pm
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Joe
Pepperland
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Sorry everyone, this has turned out to be more complicated than I’d anticipated. I need some assistance from my domain registrar to get it working properly, but right now they’re not responding to my support ticket. Grr.

The new site is ready, with everything moved across, but nobody can access it yet. I don’t want people accessing the old (current) site, as new posts will get lost once the switch takes place.

I thought it’d be straightforward but I’m going to have to keep the forum closed for now. Unfortunately it’s 10pm here so if it doesn’t get sorted in an hour or so it’ll have to wait till I wake up tomorrow. Apologies.

In the meantime, there’s an unofficial alternative here for when the forum goes offline: http://thefourmofbeatles.freeforums.net/

The following people thank Joe for this post:

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
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Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

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