Choosable skins would also be possible without database access. The reason most scripts store virtually everything into a database is that it's 'easier' for the normal idiot webmaster....

Edited by Mr Creosote at 14:29 on September, 15th 2002

The bg image wasn't the point of the thread, it was just an afterthought.
I'm not talking about 'flashy graphics', I'm talking about creating a visual atmosphere. Your old board did that pretty well even without a bg image, this new one however doesn't.

The main point of this thread was the speed issue, take a look at these boards to see what I mean about the speed difference- http://www.morelerbe.com/cgi-bin/ubb-cgi/ultimatebb.cgi
http://tfgen3.com/board/index.php http://www.2005boards.com

My board is also slow, but that's primarily due to lycos.

Maybe the reason other boards use the database for layout/design is because they use changeable skins? ...Or could they do that some other way?

Edited by Cypherswipe at 14:25 on September, 15th 2002

The server is an "AMD Athlon XP 1900+" (i.e. running with 1600 MHz) with 917504kb RAM. So yes, it is fast, especially compared to my old server. On the other hand, there are of course a lot more sites on this server, all sharing the same resources. On the whole, I wouldn't say this forum has an extraordinary amount of system resources to use in comparison to most other forums.

The layout doesn't play much of a role either because this script has as many table cells and all this other stuff as other forums - with just the difference that they're not shown as extensively. The same amount of code has to be transferred though.

So after the 'non-reasons' to the reasons. First of course the design (I distinguish between layout and design). No graphics apart from the logo (which is put into cache right from the first page on) and the avatars. The design templates aren't stored in a database like so many other forums do (never understood why), but in text files - faster.

Second: relatively small database. The forum is 'new', there aren't that many topics and posts yet. Everything can be found quite quickly by the script. That is bound to change of course.

Last but not least: I programmed it so that the forum uses as few database queries as possible. That saves time of course. Just a simple example: the 'last activity' part on the forum index is stored directly in the database table for the forum, i.e. it can be accessed directly with the forum id. In most scripts, this is always determined 'on the fly', i.e. the topics are searched where the latest post was. And that every time someone accesses the forum listing. Like this, there are several examples.


I agree about the 'community', but not the way you define it. A community is to me - again - something about communication. Community does not mean having flashy graphics, that's what I call 'showing off'. And no matter what you try (because that was apparantely the point of this topic), you will not be able to convince me of a background image! In addition, even if you could convince me of that (which you can't), at least NetDanzr would immediately use his veto against it. Face it, you have no chance on that count

This board is much faster than any of the others I visit, I wonder how much of that is due to server speed and how much is due to the simplicity of the script/layout?


btw MC, I disagree about a comment you made in some thread. You said that a forum is about communication (the thread where we were talking about a bg image for the board). I say that forums are about creating a sense of community, which means that having bg images, a friendlier or more interesting layout, incoperating it into the site more, etc is a good thing even though it may slow the board somewhat. Also, having a bg image on the page while leaving the msg tables plain actually gives greater focus to the posts.
The flipside of this (and the reason I'm including it in this post) is if the majority of the speed difference between this board and the others i visit is due to the simplistic layout (most of the features are the same, it's just the layout that's different), then that much of a speed difference may not be worth the more attractive layout. (The bg image would have little effect on speed though since A) a good bg image is very small and B) none of the slow boards I'm referring to have bg images.)