RootsChat.Com
Beginners => How to Use RootsChat (Please don't post requests here) => Topic started by: Berlin-Bob on Saturday 06 January 07 14:37 GMT (UK)
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You've probably all noticed (and suffered :( ) when RootsChat has outages, "go slows" etc.
This is a typical response:
Has anyone else been having problems accessing RootsChat yesterday (31 December) and today (31 January)?
As you can guess, I've had problems - receiving the "try again in an hour" page, on both days. I have had no problems accessing other popular websites, eg BBC etc.
[...]
And, is there anything we should do as Rootschatters to reduce the risk of this "freeze out" occurring?
Annoying, but we all have to live with it :(
However . . .
And, is there anything we should do as Rootschatters to reduce the risk of this "freeze out" occurring ?
Yes, there is :)
1) Images on RootsChat
Those of us who use broadband tend to forget how many people there are, who still use slow dial-up connections.
So anything that speeds up page downloads is an improvement. Even on Broadband !
When we call up a page in the browser (i.e. click on a link) then the page, text and graphics, is downloaded to our computer, whereby "graphics" includes avatars, smileys (both in the text and in the signatur), and images attatched to the text
1) On 15 replies to a topic (maximum replies per page), up to 15 profile pics are downloaded.
(that's the worst case: if it's just two people, answering back and forth, then only two profile pics get downloaded)
I downloaded two RootsChat pages, one with just one avatar (profile pic) and one with 10:
The text part of each page was about 100 KB
The graphics part of the 1st. page was 60 KB
The graphics part of the 2nd. page was 250 KB
Doing the maths, nearly 200 KB of the 2nd. page was taken up with avatars and smileys.
Most people have an avatar/profile pic of 10 KB or less, which is reasonable,
but I have noticed some bigger avatars, one even going to 65KB.
(update: I've since seen two, over 150 KB !)
So please keep this in mind when choosing a profile pic, as we can all benefit from faster page loads.
2) Images attached to replies also need download time.
Obviously, for the Photo Restoration board, they need to be big,
so that the restorers have the best 'raw material" to work with,
and some of the "can someone recognise/decipher this ?" images may need to be big,
but images on other boards can be smaller, especially snap-shots
(see replies #2, and #3 about a voluntary code of conduct.
Please try to keep larger images to a maximum width of 600 - 700 pixels.
This reduces the overall size, improves download times, and also, very important,
avoids 'screen stretching', where we have to keep scrolling right and left to see a picture.
Remember that many of us use use laptops and notebooks with a screen width of 1024 pixels,
or even older computers with a screen width of 800 pixels.
Thanks, :) :)
Bob
see Topic: Adding images to Posting & Profiles
1) Resizing and cropping your image file:[/color]
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,130922.0.html
ps:
I've now edited my signature, as the two smileys there were nearly 10 KB (animated GIFs !!)
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Hear, hear!!
Having had to suffer the dreaded dial up a few times over the last couple of months, I know exactly how it feels. I remember that I gave up on many pages because of the problem of images. And those widies >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
My new avatar is half the file size of my old one :)
Also, for non-photo restoration images, it is possible to do jpeg compressions that reduce the overall file size substantially. The image still looks fine to view though.
Gadget :)
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I was wondering about image sizes myself this morning, seeing the thread about keeping some of the totally off topic stuff such as Our Ancestors.
Could we not have a voluntary code of conduct whereby images for threads for enjoyment other than photo restoration be reduced in size, where huge size is not absolutely necessary??
Kerry
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Could we not have a voluntary code of conduct whereby images for threads for enjoyment other than photo restoration be reduced in size, where huge size is not absolutely necessary??
Yes please, hence my suggestion for a maximum size:
Please try to keep larger images to a maximum width of 600 - 700 pixels.
but this is just for the maximum size - anything smaller is also acceptable ;D ;D
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Thanks, Bob, and for getting it stickied
[NB - No smileys!]
JULIAN
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And, is there anything we should do as Rootschatters to reduce the risk of this "freeze out" occurring ?
Yes, there is :)
2) E-Mail notifications
E-Mail notifications also use up RootsChat resources.
a) Notifications for topics
When you reply to a topic, or start a new topic, you can choose whether you want to be notified by e-mail.
On large topics many e-mail notifications may get sent out, which is a drain on the RootsChat resources.
Many members have reported that the Show new replies to your posts.
link is sufficient notification, so we would like to encourage you not to use the e-mail notification.
Here are three possibilities for turning it off:
1) When posting, click on "Additional Options" and you can uncheck the "Notify me of replies"
2) You can also click on the "Notify" button at the top/bottom of a topic at any time to turn e-mail notification off
3) you can enter in your profile, whether the default should be "notify"/"don't notify"
see Profile / Notifications and Email
You can also edit your current notifications here
Related Topics:
Topic: Please tell me what this means.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,165622.0.html
Topic: Topic reply notification
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,174535.0.html
By the way, if you received an e-mail notification and found no new replies, then see Reply #13
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,174535.msg882211.html#msg882211
Topic: Messages, Replies and E-mails
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,161799.0.html
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b) Notifications for PMs
You can also edit your profile to turn off e-mail notifications for Personal Messages (PM)
See Profile / Personal Message Options in your profile
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Ps. Nothing to do with RootsChat performance, but another aspect of the quantity of e-mails, is that some members have reported that their ISP and e-mail providers put RootsChat e-mails in the junk box, on the grounds that bulk mails are likely to be SPAM :o
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Bob -
FYI -
I have tried to "turn off" the e mail notification setting twice now. I still receive the notifications though. Does it take a few days for the notifications to stop?
Thanks.
yn9man
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yn9man,
I've had a look at your profile, and you have the first one not ticked, but the other two ticked:
Receive RootsChat announcements by email.
Receive reply notification only for the first unread reply.
Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic.
From that same page, you will need to remove notifications from other topics too.
Trystan
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Trystan -
Thanks for looking at my profile.
Guess I need to go back and untick the other two again.
yn9man
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Hi
Have other's noticed that Rootschat performance is getting sluggish again. At lunch time today it just slowed to a stop and it's now very slow again
is there anything we can do at all to help ???
Gadget
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I've found it very slow today, I can go off & do something else while I'm waiting, & I'm on broadband! It must be a real pain for those on dial-up.
Betty
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Gadget
I gave up trying to get onto the site twice today because I just got a page cannot be loaded page.
I've just waited a minute trying to look a PM, I know cause I timed it. ::) ::) ::)
I'll do anything I can to help!
Kerry
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I've just spent ages trying to modify a message, Kerry, and it wasn't my typing ::) ::) ::)
I'm off for now for a while :(
Sorry folks - no look ups, no restoration.......
Maybe it will pick up then :)
Gadget
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I'm sure you're not solely responsible for the problems Gadget. :P :P :P ;) ;) ;) But I'll let you know if it gets faster when you go. ::) ::) ::)
Kerry
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I'm sure you're not solely responsible for the problems Gadget. :P :P :P ;) ;) ;) But I'll let you know if it gets faster when you go. ::) ::) ::)
Kerry
Seems to be going quite swiftly right now ;)
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LOL ;D
Not for me it's not though! Perhaps it's me! :( :-\
Kerry
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I had to give up this morning because the site was so slow, and that was between 6.30 & & 7AM ;D The number of people on the board were less than half of what they are now :-\
Frances :)
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I'm watching :) I came in as a guest :D
However, it's still a bit slow. It's either those frames on photo restoration or it's to do with what we used to call paging. It's not the number of users but what they are doing. RC has been going now for 3-4 years. How many threads? How many are accessed at one time? The server is thrashing away trying to load a wider and wider range of threads by the minute.
A difficult problem :-\
Well that's what I think :(
Gadget
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So like if we were all looking at the same photo restoration thread at the same time, it would be slow??? even if as Frances says there are only a few people on and early in the morning, a problem I have noticed early in the week.
Kerry
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I think it's the variety that we're looking at - if it was all the same, it would be easier, I think :-\
Gadget
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From a tour of a few other sites (for research purposes - see the results at http://genbires-networking.blogspot.com/), it is apparent that message boards come under attack from spammers.
That has certainly been the case at British-Genealogy.com - see http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19186
So it might not be us members, nor failings in the RootsChat servers, but dark external forces. And the light cavalry of those same dark external forces are filling up my FH website guest book with pharmaceutical and other unmentionable spam again. All rather depressing >:(
JULIAN
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Thanks for the explanation Julian, so it may not even be us anyway, that is somewhat reassuring.
Oh and by the way, I see you've been doing lots of updating to Genbires ready for me to add lots of comments to. :P :P ;) ;)
Kerry
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I'm going to disagree but I think it wouls be interesting to see if the Mods have noticed a slow down when spammers come on.
G (my name is too long ::) )
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Oh and by the way, I see you've been doing lots of updating to Genbires ready for me to add lots of comments to. :P :P ;) ;)
Kerry - be my guest. I'm sure you will have something to say about Genes Reunited ;D
I wonder if GR get spam attacks?
I'm going to disagree but I think it wouls be interesting to see if the Mods have noticed a slow down when spammers come on.
G (my name is too long ::) )
Any Mods wish to comment?
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We're monitoring things, and looking how we can squeeze out the last little bit of performance out of the main server. We may need ot throw more memory into it, but for the moment we are just trying to learn what causes the biggest performance hits and trying to iron them out.
One way to improve performace is if you do not need email notifications for your topics is to go to your profile and turn them off. The email server gets really battered.
Oh, and yes, as Julian mentioned, we do get an attack now and again, which slows the whole thing down too!
Trystan
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Julian, I wish GR would get attacked by something - death watch beetle would be a good one!!!!!!
6.40am, 91 users, 49 guests and it took ages to get on! I've turned off all my notifications. :)
Kerry
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Trystan/Moderators
Why do we need to have email notifications at all??
It is easy enough when you first login to check for:
new PMs,
then New Replies to your posts
then unread posts since last visit
Also, if you say that smilies/emoticons take up valuable resources, why not remove them too? I counted 82 on just 26 messages…. on this thread.
I would much rather have a basic webstie that still worked, rather than a swept-up version that no-one could access.
Bren
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If everyone was to comply with resizing their avatars that would help, we were asked some time ago on a thread to reduce them and there is no need for them to be very big.
Kerry
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Yes Kerry - I quite agree about the avatars! :)
Also, I seem to remember Gadget making a very valid suggestion with regard to the Photo Restoration board .. ..
Wouldn't it help, if after a certain amount of time and once the person had been given the opportunity to download, the photo's could all be resized to a manageable level?
I understand it would be a huge task for one person, also unfair on the moderators but couldn't the restorer's help out with this one? :-\
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I agree I am sure they must have more of an affect on the performance that smileys, surely. (Not that I'm technically minded of course!)
Some of the photos on the photo board are 500kb big and if you multiply that by 6 lovely new copies, quite a big thread.
And I've noticed just lately the photo restoration board seems to be getting busier and busier.
Kerry
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I have only just managed to post my avatar on the site. I assumed (I expect quite wrongly) that it would only allow me to post the correct size. Can someone tell me if there is anyway to check how big my avatar is?
Thanks
Cathy
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Hi Cathy
If you right click on your avatar and look at properties, it will tell you the size. yours is pretty good - 5.2kb. It's smaller than mine at 5.9kb. Some of the gif (moving ones) are 33kb and more.
Gadget
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Thank you Gadget. It has taken me 12 months of frustrating attempts to get it loaded so I am very glad it is the correct size. This is the first morning I have been on Rootschat where I am finding it very slow so would not want to be one of the 'causes' of this by too big a picture.
Cathy
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I remember Berlin Bob saying that it was the number of different posters on a page that had an effect - e.g. if you and I had a conversation which took up a page, it would only have to load our avatars once (similarly with smileys) but if 10 people each had a message, it would need to load all ten!
Your avatar is lovely :)
Gadget
Added - i've just been looking at what people are/were doing during this slow down. it seems to me that there is a lot of variety and most people are 'active' rather than just looking at the Index Board
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I was going to say at 11 am ish that the problems always seem to be (at least today) at the top of the hour, perhaps when people are logging on, but considering I have been pushed off the site for the last hour and 20 mins I revise that. >:( >:(
Kerry
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Guest 12:13:38 Viewing the board index of RootsChat.Com.
AN Other 12:13:31 Sending a message.
Guest 11:54:57 Viewing the board Devon.
How strange - like you Kerry I've been locked out for over an hour, but according to the online board, it appears RootsChat was only actually offline for approx 19 minutes? ???
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I somehow got back in at 11.47 am and then there were 39 guests and 47 users. I don't think we could do anything though. As soon as I tried to post on this thread I had a message saying something like 'Database error. If you see this message report to Moderator' but I couldn't because the next thing I knew I got the 'Rootschat is busy' message.
Gadget
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The recent message board at the moment is showing no posts between 11.02 made by Janan and 12.18 made by paulr_1
Frances
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I am glad I found this thread, because I thought it was my new computer!
I find it strange that it gets really slow - difficult to access in the evenings in my world - which is days 9-12 noon over there. I would have thought everyone was busy working. Do you all go to work and instantly log on to RC ;D
I also wondered if the level of PMs would have anything to do with performance? I have hundreds - every so often I delete heaps and then I stop - in case I need them!
Trish
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Trish
I'm sure someone has told me in the past that PMs do cause problems but I can't remember.
Anyway you can always copy and paste them into Word which is what I do with important ones, then all the chatter I just delete regularly and remember to delete your sent ones too.
Kerry
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Hi Kerry
You sound so organised to my disorganisation - I will try :)
Trish
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Incidentally if you are using Firefox as your browser you can save the whole page by going to File and Save page as
Give it a name, save it in your files and it saves an html copy of the page with the messages, you can then delete them.
Kerry ;D Who you calling organised, ::) I just learnt because I deleted the whole lot by mistake once!!!!!!! ::) ::) ::)
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I've been having problems for a couple of weeks, either mid morning or mid evening usually. Everything slows down and then stops, so I decide to log out and do something else and I can't even do that. Yesterday and today when I tried to log out I got the Rootschat is busy message like Gadget.
I've just come in from the garden and had no problems accessing Rootschat. I reckon, like Trish, that everyone goes to work and then instantly logs on. I know loads of people who do that (not necessarily to Rootschat though). I wonder when they do any work?
Liz
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Trish
I'm sure someone has told me in the past that PMs do cause problems but I can't remember.
Anyway you can always copy and paste them into Word which is what I do with important ones, then all the chatter I just delete regularly and remember to delete your sent ones too.
Kerry
Storing Personal Messages is no great problem at all. Pasting them into Word though is not a bad idea for the ones that you want to keep a record of.
We had a lot of problems with the server this morning. We are monitoring it to see if the changes we have made will improved things over the next few hours. We actually need more memory in our server, but we are delaying it because our resources are limited.
I can only aplogise for the outages this morning.
Trystan
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It is such a relief to find that it is not my computer! My technical expert (eldest son) is water fighting in Thailand at the moment and is not due back until mid summer. If this blessed machine collapses then I will be in a heap of trouble, and I would really miss Rootschat.
Cathy :)
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Hi Trystan
many thanks for letting us know (& I will try to clean up my pms )
Trish
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I didn't take the time to read everyone's comments, so maybe this is repetition, but what I would like is somewhere to store links to the various threads on which I have received useful information. Sometimes I lose them, and can't find them again, or forget they were there. I'm so eager to read them, and then they vanish from my sight, and it sometimes takes forever to find them again, or not at all.
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P.S. I will happily turn off the notification system, if I can figure out how. If I fail, please feel free to shut it off for me!
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Hi Trystan
Nice to hear from you again! Thanks for the update and I hope the server feels better soon! :D
It is nice to know it's not my computer also.
Kerry
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I didn't take the time to read everyone's comments, so maybe this is repetition, but what I would like is somewhere to store links to the various threads on which I have received useful information. Sometimes I lose them, and can't find them again, or forget they were there. I'm so eager to read them, and then they vanish from my sight, and it sometimes takes forever to find them again, or not at all.
Set up a special folder in your browser favorites, and save them inthere. That's what I've done for those scholarly explanations of the IGI and other wonderful snippets.
P.S. I will happily turn off the notification system, if I can figure out how. If I fail, please feel free to shut it off for me!
In your profile, go to "Notifications and e-mail". Uncheck the second and third boxes at the top of the page. This will stop any new notifications coming to you by e-mail.
JULIAN
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Certainly back to its old instant self. 8) 8) 8)
Kerry
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Hi Gadget
Question - If we as restorers go into our old restores and make them smaller (after the poster has downloaded) how far back should we go? I am happy to make my restores little but I would like to know how far back to go, will the very old ones make a difference or is it only the ones being downloaded now that are of concern? Sorry to be a dill, but I have no idea about servers and space etc.
Let me know and I will happily comply
Cheers
Lones
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It was just an idea on a thread that Glen posted a while ago, Lones. Nothing definite was decided but I would offer 12 weeks (as ToT board) but I think it would have to be discussed further.
We could either make them smaller dimension wise, or do jpg compresssions.
Any comments advice from Trystan/Mods?
gadget
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Thanks Gadget
I will wait to see what the mods decide
Cheers
Lones
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Good suggestions, Julian.
I was afraid I might lose the "new replies to your posts" if I shut everything off. Without that, there'd be no hope for keeping track of anything!
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Just a thought - is there any way of getting a more specific search on RootsChat? I transcribed a 17th century Will for someone today, I found her posts by accident in the Common Room - afterwards, I thought my ability to read cruddy old handwriting might be of use to others, but it's no use my searching the site for "Will" to see who needs it - it's going to take all night! as it will find every instance of William on the entire site, and as we all know, most of us have more Williams in our family tree than we could shake a stick at...
...how about being able to search for whole word or part of a word? that would cut out the William factor - and a boolean search would be even better, so we could exclude terms as well.
How about it, guys - any chance?
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Hi Brambletye :)
You could post an offer in the common room, then people who need your assistance could contact you. It might be easier and give more people a chance to see your offer ;D. Just a thought :-\
Cheers
Lones
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Good idea, Lones, I can offer my services that way - but if I wanted to do a search on my own account, for, say, Dorset and Will, or Kent and Will, to see if anyone has any old Dorset or Kent Wills that might help me, if the owner has not yet transcribed them to extract any names of possible use or has examined them and found them not worth posting a full transcript, I'm stuck unless I can track them down - and I'm still going to get all the men in Dorset or Kent called William, and all the people with the surname Dorset or Kent on their tree with a William in the family...
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Some good ideas - we all get a bit complacent these days if we have broadband, forgetting the diminishing number who still don't. And it's a combination of your internet connection as well as the load on the RC servers of course that slows things down.
Maybe we should post (or already have) ways to decrease the size of a picture/avatar. That will help a bit.
Definitely I found the email notification just annoying. Either you get nothing or on a busy thread you just keep getting 1 message after another. It's so easy to just log in and see if you have new responses to your threads or new PM's - like others have mentioned.
I don't think there is a single solution for speeding things up - it's very much as Berlin Bob said a matter of etiquette that we all should stick to. But etiquette is only ok for the more experienced user - like everything else, it take time to learn.
Hopefully things settle down again... It's fine right now... Just perfick..
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Hi
the "search" facility on RootsChat is not the best,
and this is one reason why I started the "RootsChat Topics: ......" Series,
and later, the RootsChat Lexicon.
The thought was, that many people have similar queries, so if we gather together links to the most informative postings on any subject, then members can look here first, thereby cutting down the load on the "Search RootsChat" routine, which is very resource hungry.
I've now moved the lexicon and the "*** A Catalogue of RootsChat Topics ***" to
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/index.php
to make them easier to use.
If you have any ideas, how to improve these, there is a link for suggestions on the lexicon 'home-page'. :)
Bob