Digest Time moved up to Noon

[Barry]

Hi Everybody,

I've noticed that the digest is taking longer to send out and it's slowing down the site in the evening. So I'm going to do a couple things to fix that.

1) Move the digest cutoff time from 6pm to Noon. This wil allow the digest to be sent out during the afternoon when the site usage is bit lower. I'll also slow down the pace of sending a bit so it taxes the site less. Non-the-less you should still receive your digest by 4pm.

One nice side effect of this is that it's now possible to post an event in the morning and be sure it gets delivered by 4pm the same day. Whereas before about half the people would open their digest on the evening they are sent and half the following day, I now expect the vast majority will be opened on the same day.

2) We're going to stop sending the digests to members who haven't visited the site or opened the digest and displayed images (which lets us know you opened it) for 6 months. So if you read your digest without the images displayed please be sure to either display the images or visit the website to let us know you are still interested. Clicking Gratitude on any post will also know you are still out there. Not displaying image can be a prudent precaution for many emails to prevent spam and other malware, but I review posts on WaccoBB.net each day to insure they are safe.

Thanks for your continued participation in our community!
Barry

[Barry]

It seems the digest was sent out twice yesterday. Sorry about that! I'm not sure why that happened. I'm hoping it was a one time glitch. Please have patience if it happens again. I'm on it.

The basic problem with sending out the digest is that it is rather large and puts a large strain on our server (even after I have upgraded it) which causes slow response time when using the website.

Among the options I'm considering is no longer including the full texts of all posts in the digest. The full-text digest would still be available on the website, which is what the link on the top of digest links to:

The link above will display the full digest quite quickly, and without some of the formatting issues that some of you experience which is caused by the particulars of your email reader (gmail, hotmail, outlook, etc.). That link stays constant but the contents of the page is updated daily. You can bookmark that link so you can always access the most current digest. Please give it a try by clicking here, and the next time you notice it in your digest.


In addition to the link above the emailed digest would still include the full table of contents (TOC) as it does now (though possibly reformatted) but with each line of the TOC being linked to the post on the website rather than within the digest.

The digest may contain featured posts that were either sponsored or selected by my self and/or selected community editors as worthy of special attention for one reason or another. As some of you might have noticed there is now a side bar on the website with widgets with links to "Editor's Choice" posts as well as posts with the "Most Gratitude" to help you find items of particular interest. We'll be introducing other widgets as time goes on.

If there's interest, I could also make the emailed full-text digest available to supporting members.

And of course all posts will be available on the website in their entirety as well. I also hope to add an option were you can see the full text of all recent threads in a category on the website, rather than needing to click on each individual thread.

The changes mentioned above, aside from the new sidebar on the website, have not been implemented yet. I may need to implement them sooner than planned if the website response time continues to be a problem.

My overall goal is to continual evolve WaccoBB so it can serve the community in both an encyclopedic fashion as well as a curated fashion and give you the tools access it however it serves you best, within the constraints of technology and have it all be sustainable. Thanks for your understanding and participation!

[Karl Frederick]

Among the options I'm considering is no longer including the full texts of all posts in the digest.

Barry,
Would the increased demand on the website bandwidth by all of us who want to see the full text have two potentially undesired results?
1. An access bottleneck for users, and
2. Increased web hosting fees due to higher data downloads by users.

Perhaps a survey of the members could give you enough data to do some cost trade-offs.

Best,

Karl

[Barry]

Barry,
Would the increased demand on the website bandwidth by all of us who want to see the full text have two potentially undesired results?
1. An access bottleneck for users, and
2. Increased web hosting fees due to higher data downloads by users.

Perhaps a survey of the members could give you enough data to do some cost trade-offs.

Best,

Karl

Currently the digest email contains full-text.
I believe viewing it on the website is much less demanding that sending it as an email.
Sending a shorter email (just the table of contents) should also lighten the load.

[Barry]

I'm happy to report that after tweaking and upgrading our server that the site is much more responsive and you should be getting your digest by 5pm. Thanks for your patience!

Hi Everybody,

I've noticed that the digest is taking longer to send out and it's slowing down the site in the evening. So I'm going to do a couple things to fix that.

1) Move the digest cutoff time from 6pm to Noon. This wil allow the digest to be sent out during the afternoon when the site usage is bit lower. I'll also slow down the pace of sending a bit so it taxes the site less. Non-the-less you should still receive your digest by 5pm.

One nice side effect of this is that it's now possible to post an event in the morning and be sure it gets delivered by 5pm the same day. Whereas before about half the people would open their digest on the evening they are sent and half the following day, I now expect the vast majority will be opened on the same day.
...
Thanks for your continued participation in our community!
Barry