Query About Number of Poll Options

[Khantalas]

Dear Forum Staff;

Today, when I decided to post a poll on an existing thread, I realised the maximum number of poll options was reduced to 5. I thought it might be something with old threads, but when I wanted to test that theory by trying to post a new poll, I realized that it was the same.

Is it an error? A temporary thing? A decision made by the Footprint to avoid the silly polls around? Do we increase the number of options after the poll is posted?

I'd like to be able to post polls with more options, and so will Nazzo, whose polls often include ten options.

Thank you in advance,

Khantalas.

[Rawhide]

Maximum poll options are currently set to 5. I don't know if this will be permanent or temporary.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Can it still be adjusted by request? I run a monthly contest which requires me in the end to put as many poll options as entries. This rarely goes above 20 or so, but always above 5.

[Nazzo, the 102nd]

Can it still be adjusted by request? I run a monthly contest which requires me in the end to put as many poll options as entries. This rarely goes above 20 or so, but always above 5.

That's my case with The Sticks Awards (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33958). However, I always run 10-option polls.

Could you please set it to 10, at least? :smallbiggrin: Preety please with sugar on top? :smallwink:

[Setra]

That's my case with The Sticks Awards (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33958). However, I always run 10-option polls.

Could you please set it to 10, at least? :smallbiggrin: Preety please with sugar on top? :smallwink:

I'd like to second this

I love the Stick Awards, and would like to see them continue as they have been.

[Mr Teufel]

Unless the poll option reduction is necessary to stop the boards melting, I also second this request.

[Logic]

I like keeping it at 10. It seems the most fair option IMHO.

[Greebo]

The number of poll options impact on board performax is going to be so minimal as to be inconsequential. I'm intimately familiar with how vBulletin manages polls, and no matter how big the poll, the processing logic is the same - all that changes is the number of results that come back.

Some of these changes seem rather arbitrary in nature - if they're intended to be performance enhancers then there are much better options to tune.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

The number of poll options impact on board performax is going to be so minimal as to be inconsequential.
The way Rawhide and others have described the changes, a lot of these "inconsequential" feature cuts have added up enough to be noticeable—at least on their end where they can keep an eye on things. It's not just the poll options, but also the drop-down forum select menu, the who's online, the calendar, and probably several other items we haven't really noticed yet.

If the members of the site staff say the total sum of feature suspensions is helping with site performance while they work on the bugs, I'm inclined to believe them. They're the ones with access to the actual hard numbers, after all.

They've made it clear that these are just temporary inconveniences anyway.

[Greebo]

My experience with vBulletin (which is not insubstantial) differs with their assessment, but its their forum, so I'm not going to argue the point.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

My experience with vBulletin (which is not insubstantial) differs with their assessment, but its their forum, so I'm not going to argue the point.
Well, just remember that your experience likely used different hardware and system software. You're right that a lot of this stuff is pretty small and generally cost next to nothing in speed and other performance issues. But the folks here are getting something out of disabling them for the time being.

[Nazzo, the 102nd]

Yes. I think that the polls were limited because of something else than performance. But I don't know what it could be.

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

I say we change it to one. It will stop the suspense working up the older members of our forum to much.

[Rawhide]

I say we change it to one. It will stop the suspense working up the older members of our forum to much.
You know, thats actually a very good idea...

[Charity]

Before you do Raw, could you tell me how to edit poll options
specifically here

How do I edit this Darn poll to include Katonta's sorcerer? anyone know?

[Greebo]

Well, just remember that your experience likely used different hardware and system software. You're right that a lot of this stuff is pretty small and generally cost next to nothing in speed and other performance issues. But the folks here are getting something out of disabling them for the time being.
No, just hardware. I run and have vBulletin on several locations with a variety of hardware platforms from shared hosting to dedicated boxes. I've implemented more hacks than I like to remember and even designed a few small ones. I have a pretty good idea of how this software works, and know how to check the code in the areas where I'm not sure.

It seems to me that the major issue, based on some of RawBear's other comments, is when a new comic goes up, the server gets crushed. The server is going to get hammered, HARD, because everyone's pulling the comic (thanks to the RSS feeds). The changes made take away from the forum users but it would take a lot to convince me that taking from the users is giving any real power back to the processor or bandwith back to their provider for those crushing blows of new comics. It just doesn't quite seem like the ROI (Return on inconvenience) is pretty low. I'd like to hear from them how successful the changes have been, and how they can tell for certain which are actually having an impact if a number of the variables affecting performance were changed at the same time.

[RawBearNYC]

It seems to me that the major issue, based on some of RawBear's other comments, is when a new comic goes up, the server gets crushed. The server is going to get hammered, HARD, because everyone's pulling the comic (thanks to the RSS feeds).

Nope. You're missing a step. They come read the comic, then head straight to the boards to post. The PHP interpreter and the mySQL queries are too much of a strain, so server load was climbing through the roof.

We won't have any statistics for you as we've made several changes at once, including some changes directly to the web server daemon. Moreover, Rich hasn't posted a comic during the day since we've made those changes, so conditions haven't been right to check.

[Rawhide]

Several of the changes have been extremely marginal at best, but when you are dealing with thousands or millions of transactions, $0.001 starts to add up. Banks make a lot of money this way.

The intent is to make the server completely accessable for everyone during the heavy hitting times, when we have that sorted I will start changing some (not all) options back to the way they were or similar. That is when we will start identifying what has the most effect with 1200 people at once on a board the size of this.

[Greebo]

I do understand what you're trying to do, and yeah, I know, it all adds up. Its just frustrating that some very nice benefits of the boards have to go *all the time* because of periodic surges.