A couple of days ago I noticed a post by Brad on how to get threads from old posts to display more effectively.

An option in Control Panel can be turned on:

"Display lists of threads by date each thread is updated."

Well I did that and I find the whole experience much more satisfying. I believe this option should be the default.

Moreover, I haven't had any slow response, lockups or 500 errors since!

Brad, what do you think?

I've always had that option selected and I get Error 500 by the score. More, if you click on things quickly, before the page is completely loaded, you can cause Error 500 almost at will.

Unfortunately, neither are the cause. The problem is a coding error somewhere that I cannot find and no scripting editor can locate any illegal code either. All that I do know is that the issue is in the default file, which makes isolating it almost impossible. The only cure is recoding the file from scratch, which might happen one day.

The reason the thread sorting option isn't on by default is because it was added later when I reformatted the timestamping in the database to allow the function to work. In a perfect world the option to sort by most recent post would be the only option but it would break the ability to display anything so it has been left as is. One day, this will change however I don't have much time to spare to do web coding these days which is why it has been many years since such work as been undertaken.

The problem is a coding error somewhere that I cannot find

Are you sure that it's a coding bug and not a resource issue? I believe that you said that you are using Microsoft Access as the database engine here. Access has been known to perform poorly once its file size reaches a certain point, especially in a multi-user environment.

Nup, not that either. The database is only 1/4 the size of the theoretical limit of Access and it was split into two separate databases many years ago to ensure that the limit would never be reached. One database is for the forums and the other for the site logging system.

If this were the issue, the problem would be permanent and there'd be no time when the site is working well.

If this were the issue, the problem would be permanent and there'd be no time when the site is working well.

Not necessarily, if the problem is possibly related to the number of simultaneous users in posting mode. Do you have metrics of inaccessibility periods versus user count, etc?

On the other front there's a well known concept that the last thing touched is usually where the problem was created. Do you keep a record of code modifications? Are you able to back out the last two or three code modifications for instance? As I recall, reports of the error 500 problem and so on began a particular point in time, as logged here in various threads.

The site is not busy enough to be affected that way. Queues for databases (small and enterprise) can handle tens of thousands of transactions without issues. Performance in this area is more dependent on the physical server than the software, although Access is single-threading the amount of traffic here can't cause it to lock up.

The last paragraph is closer to the mark. Because this site has had many features added to it over the years, there is a possibility that there is a code clash somewhere. There is no record kept of upgrades and the code contains no commenting. Because of this, it isn't feasible to backtrack to a time when errors may have started.

When it is my turn to win Powerball, I will simply contract a developer to start on a clean sheet of paper and build the site the way I've always wanted. This will cost me about $20,000 but will include the extra forum features that were most recently requested and the extra content I've always wanted to deliver.

Access was never designed to be industrial strength.

Traffic volume here has decreased in recent years and I think the problems may have contributed to that. You may not have to rebuild the site from scratch. After all it performed well for years. Maybe a few hours code look over by a pro could get it back on the rails.

Brad, GTC access to this site is great. As you know I do a fair bit on Facebook and spend a lot of time booting or managing dropkicks. 99% of the members here are great and very knowledgeable.
In short anyone with intellect would find this site easy to access and easy to find wortwhile posts.
This site to me is a encyclopedia of knowledge and a great break from the Facebook madness.

"Access" is the name of the Microsoft database product used to store the data comprising this forum.

Yes, this is very useful and valuable site. Let's hope the bug(s) can be fixed.

One thing this forum software does do well, which other forum software doesn't, is filtering out automated sign-ups. Robots smash the registration form 24/7 here, as they do on literally millions of websites around the world. But the back end script gets 99.99 to the power of a million percent of the automated sign-ups and dumps them like a bad habit, yet not one human-initiated sign-up has ever failed.

This addon, which is quite detailed in how it detects bad registrants has saved me a lot of work over the years and it's something that I wouldn't hesitate to include in a future upgrade. Naturally, I can't explain in the public domain how it detects the bad apples as then any bot owner would then know how to circumvent it and occasionally one will get through but its an ingenius system. What's more, it means I don't need to add functions that human beings don't like such as the Captchas that many other sites do have. Captchas are by no means bot-proof and the better bots can get around them, including the more complex ones like clicking on pictures that have traffic lights in them.