SCF Slow To Load At Times

Same here.

I recommend that folks stop using the SCF search and instead the Google Custom Forum Search on the same page. Not only is this search much faster but it would stop the slow page load times that others are seeing.
Don

I am not searching Don. It just starts clocking and then eventually loads.

The SCF search is impacting the server's overall performance and is causing all other pages to load slow. So if folks did not use the SCF search, then all the other pages would load quickly for all users.
Don

Ah, got it.

Don, while that's true, depending on what you're wanting to search for, the Google search isn't effective. You can't constrain the search to a particular section of the board, and you can't control the sorting. It's whatever Google decides is important.

Sadly, the problem is with the underlying board database and architecture; I say that not as a criticism of Bobby and his efforts. It just is what it is. Once you take a "standard" forum software package and highly customize it, over the course of time the deviation from the standard makes software updates and/or optimizations increasingly difficult.

It's not easy.

Customizations have nothing to do with search. Every forum on the internet has the same issue. Two things crush resources on a busy forum, searches and subscriptions. Doesn't matter what software you use or how many customizations you have, those two things can bring a forum to it's knees.

That being said, I have a suspicion that there may be bots/crawlers submitting the search form so I think over the next few days I'll add some code to restrict the SCF database search to logged in members only.

I know some forums limit search results and how often one can search like 1 search every 10 seconds.

Yes, and this is exactly why.

Yep. That's what I have done on my forum, and also somwehat incentivized support by changing group options in the "Supporters" group to bypass the flood control. The other and more important part of the solution is what Bobby alluded to: only allow authenticated users to use the search functions. Those two restrictions should free things up considerably.

I have added that code, if you log out you should only see the Google search.

Confirmed.

Thanks, We'll see what happens.

Not a complaint, just observations.
Over the past week, I have had to log off numerous times, SCF fails to load,
and times out.
3 times today.

I've always had issues with the site not loading but it's definitely noticeably worse in the past 1-2 weeks. Most times the page I want eventually loads, but I have seen some time outs.