This topic can be retired. We have been running TWiki.org on its own server (TheNewTWikiDotOrgServer) for a few months now....

Does anybody know the reason for the twiki.org slow performance / 500 errors?

Quite simple really: SourceForge itself is overextended.

"There will be a SourceForge crisis in 2003. SourceForge is operated by a company which is still bleeding cash, and which no longer has any real interest in free software. VA Software's investors and board are bound to question the value of the free SourceForge service. That service may well be cut back - or start demanding some sort of payment - in the coming year." -- http://lwn.net/Articles/18651/

Even going to the main sourceforge site I often have to reload pages to get the whole content. As I write this (end of March 2003) there are 58,885 projects and 592,025 registered users. Linux Weekly News predicts (see sidebar) a major sourceforge breakdown this year and I'm inclined to agree.

There is no doubt about it, SF is a wonderful service, and we owe them a great deal of gratitude -- Thank you SourceForge! -- however there are simply too many eggs in one basket.

-- MattWilkie - 25 Mar 2003

mod_perl?

Asides:

1. I've developed a sort of workaround for performance today -- I start a page loading, previewing, saving (or whatever), after a few seconds I hit escape (IE6) to stop it, then re-request it. Quite often the desired result is achieved, and faster than any other way (and fewer 500 errors). Does this provide a clue? (Clearly, to re-request a page, sometimes I can hit edit, preview, or save again, other times I must copy and repaste the URL into the browser address bar.)
   
   
2. The only page that worked decent today (came up on the first try) was Support.SlowPage -- is this a coincidence or a clue?

-- RandyKramer - 24 Mar 2003

Seems Peter Thoeny wants to move

I still did not find time to move the TWiki.org to another server. Will be done "real soon". This is only for the web server, we will continue to use SF's cvs and mailing list service.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Mar 2003

Thanks for the responses! Moving sounds like a good idea!

To expand on my previous statements, I'm sure slowness leads to the timeouts on my (browser's) end, and my workaround of stopping and restarting the transfer I suspect resets the timeout. I wonder if the browser end timeout is typically accessible -- is there someplace I can go to set my browser's timeout to a higher value?

Then I'm wondering if some or all of the 500 Internal Errors are due to timeouts on the server end, and then if there is a place where the timeout on the server end can be set to a higher value?

BTW: Things seem somewhat better starting last night (US EST).

-- RandyKramer - 26 Mar 2003

How to speed up the move?

Perhaps we need an installer - this would reduce the amount of time required (6 months?) to move TWikiDotOrg to another server.

-- MartinCleaver - 25 Sep 2003

Given that this problem persists and that is not fair to leave it all up to PeterThoeny to deal with it, I think the community should help. In that light, I hereby pledge $20 towards covering the fee of hosting twiki.org on a new server. The choice of which company to use I leave up to Peter, though I note that RichardDonkin of the CoreTeam has used Dreamhost.com for several years and is very happy with it.

-- MattWilkie - 25 Sep 2003

I appreciate Matt you want to contribute, but it might not be needed. IIRC ColasNahaboo repeateddly proposed to host twiki.org for free on his server. What is needed is decision of PeterThoeny to accept proposal (or not) - which might take many months as we've seen in the past

For me such a proposal would be no brainer - but I can only suggest

-- PeterMasiar - 25 Sep 2003

Moved RSS discussion to CacheWebRssFeedForSpeed

On moving TWiki.org away from SF: This is in talk for a long time and was planned to do finally this summer. I have a dedicated server ready on a high speed link since spring, but could not allocate the time to move TWiki.org due to other high priority items like bringing the community together after the GPL violation claims and accelerating the core code improvements as outlined in AppealToCodevCommunityByCoreTeam.

TWiki on TWiki.org is currently almost unusable due to slow response (5-10 sec) and non-functioning WebNotify. So, the move has now high priority. Stay tuned!

I appreciate the financial offer, is not critical now. Lets follow up when the move has been completed.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Sep 2003

I too eagerly await the move to a fully functional (appropriately hosted) TWiki.org. We all need efficient access to TWiki.org -- to read about Skins, Templates, Calendar and, quite important to me, to figure out an implementation of ShorterURLs that not only accepts shorter URLs but will CreateShorterURSs, too.

I am tuned to this page. Peter, thanks in advance.

Time and tide wait for no man. But we all do here.

Thanks

-- RogerChrisman - 03 Nov 2003

I found this page on 09 Apr 2004. And as I type, I see it hosted (apparently) at twiki.org, and the speed is just fine!

Did this all happen and everyone is living happily ever after?

-- MartinGregory - 09 Apr 2004

No, the performance of SF varies tremendously: sometimes it is hideous bad other times it works fine.

I'd still prefer to see a move, and have pledged towards this goal.

-- MartinCleaver - 11 Sept 2004

I have never ever seen TWiki.org perform "fine". It is either slow, very slow, extremely slow or it times out all the time. It is true that the time varies a lot. Sometimes the response time is 4 seconds. Sometimes (quite often) 30 seconds (no searching - just viewing). When I demonstrate TWiki I never show TWiki.org because that is not exactly the best advocacy for TWiki. I demonstrate it at my office on either the internal server or my private public TWiki or I demonstrate Wikipedia to show the king of Wikis. I never show them TWiki.org because during a demo I will get 30 seconds response times or time ours at least once.

It is clear that plugins slow down TWiki. I am saying no at the office to add more plugins because each plugin cost 0.1 second extra response time. This is an issue and I am happy to see that the next release is targeting performance instead of features.

There are TWO problems here.

• TWiki.org is an embarrassing and a not at all fair display of TWiki. TWiki may be a middle age man with a too heavy belly. But on TWiki.org it is a snail with severe rheumatism and heart problems.
• TWiki itself needs to speed up which you are addressing with the Dakar release. That is great news!

I don't know if the financing of alternative hosting is still an issue. But just in case I added my modest contribution to the list below.

-- KennethLavrsen - 07 Oct 2004

Would you like to see TWiki.org hosted on its own server

Collect for hosting fee

I appreciate the financial offer, is not critical now.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Sep 2003

what's the cheapest/best host these days for hosting twiki? i'm sure the TWikiOnSourceForge script can be easily updated. in fact, it's already pretty close to a TWikiWebBasedInstaller

-- WillNorris - 07 Oct 2004

it seems there has been a desire to move from souceforge for a long time, but not the logistical ability and/or time. so, i really don't understand what this poll (yet another one MartinCleaver [ hey, don't blame Martin, I'm the one that put the poll here after a rather vociferous complaint about twiki.org performance in IRC. Just be glad that PainMeter has been retired -- SamHasler - 08 Oct 2004 ] Blame me all you like - as far as I am concerned the more polls the better! After all, people don't write if what they would way has been said, but they will vote... -- MartinCleaver - 08 Oct 2004.) is supposed to accomplish.

there is a real possibility of synergy between this and RefactorMirrorSupport (or MirrorSupport, depending on how you look at it). perhaps after (re-)implementation, the load on sourceforge can be lightened, and people could setup local mirrors (whether on their local machines at home or work, or on some isp). additionally, when completed, this would be another great way to demonstrate TWiki itself.

-- WillNorris - 08 Oct 2004