![\":)\"](\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\")
<\/p>\nBack again with the 2nd bi-weekly report.<\/p>\n
These weeks were spent fixing the server, optimizing, and continuing to make things better. Try browsing around. The website should feel faster than it ever has. I\u2019ve only just started. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n Related<\/strong>: Digest Week 1<\/a>. Changing the Hashtag<\/a>. Of course I didn\u2019t install it myself, but it did take a couple days back and forth with our host to get it sorted out. We now have 12 GB of RAM, which used to be 8 GB. And at the same time, shaved $35 off our monthly cost for our dedicated server (now about $189<\/strong> \/mo, was $224<\/strong>). <\/p>\n I agree that we should be spending less, but remember we have 40,000 users and 7 years of data on WordPress, a piece of software designed for maybe a dozen users max. I\u2019m amazed it works at all. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n Apache 2.2, PHP 5.5 (was 5.2), and MySQL 5.6 (was 5.1), we\u2019re now running the latest stable version of each. Some folks may have noticed a bit of downtime last weekend. Turns out some of our WordPress plugins weren\u2019t compatible with PHP 5.5. If you\u2019re reading this, then it\u2019s fair to assume I fixed (or disabled) them. Nitty gritty: PHP introduced something called \u201cStrict Standards\u201d some versions ago. WordPress enables this by default, and in early PHPs wasn\u2019t an issue, but it is now. Something that happens over 7 years of running a WordPress blog, you pick up several plugins that are eventually abandoned by the authors.<\/p>\n More grit: I don\u2019t want to do anything drastic like switch to Nginx or MariaDB yet. I totally want to do it, but what\u2019s most important right now is that everything is still working. The PHP 5.5 and Apache upgrade was enough incompatibility for now.<\/p>\n One of the nicer optimizations, OPcache is bytecode cache now included with PHP 5.5+. Before, PHP scripts would have to compile every time before they ran. Now they only need to compile once. Ahh, so much less wasteful.<\/p>\n This is something I\u2019ve wanted for a long time (and sorry, I\u2019m gonna nerd out). By design, PHP scripts are isolated from each other. Typically, if you want to share data, you write it to a database (MySQL, etc). Talking to the database can be slow though. Indexing aside, communication with the database is done over a TCP connection, even if the database is on the same machine!! There\u2019s also software like Memcached that lets you store shared data, but you also talk to it via TCP. <\/p>\n As a gamedev, one that\u2019s done his fair share of low level assembly and graphics coding, I am not a fan of this slow way of thinking (variables over TCP). It makes total sense for scaling up to multiple servers, but is so wasteful on a one machine setup. Heck, it\u2019s wasteful on 2 machine setups too!<\/p>\n And that\u2019s where APCu comes in. APC used to be a popular OPcode and User Data Cache for PHP, but now that OPcache is bundled with PHP, it\u2019s less important\u2026 EXCEPT FOR THAT USER DATA CACHE! APCu is the now standalone User Data part of APC. And as it should be, APCu allocates and stores your shared data right on the Heap, and is directly accessible with just a PHP function call. No time wasted with encoding and sending request\/response packets, the data is right there.<\/p>\n That said it\u2019s not perfect. I\u2019ve filed a bug<\/a> regarding a poor uptime problem I\u2019m having (minutes to 2 hours before a reset). It\u2019s still ridiculously fast though. And if we can get this uptime bug resolved, it\u2019ll be perfect.<\/p>\n When I started looking in to it, ludumdare.com\/compo<\/a> was wasting a lot of time. Some bigger SQL queries, but more importantly a lot of queries: about 43 total<\/strong> (potentially 47, but WordPress does cache queries internally).<\/p>\n There were redundant queries. The website theme was based on a very old version of the default theme that shipped with WordPress (7 years ago). That stupid theme made 3 wasteful queries in the header. That code is soooo gone now.<\/p>\n Some of the bigger queries were my fault. The Steam Widget, I do an \u2018order by rand()\u2019 in my query, which has shockingly terrible performance. Also there\u2019s something wrong with the top-donors widget (lacking useful indexes maybe?). Either way, I made them store a cached copy of their outputs in the APCu storage. The cached data expires after a minute or five, so technically they\u2019re not fixed, but running a query once is far better than every time.<\/p>\n Also the black-header-bar at the top is now gone. It\u2019s convenient, but the absolute worst query of all has that to blame. Some stupid comment validation check, which might be fine for sites without 70,000 comments. I\u2019ve since created a replacement (see below).<\/p>\n And then we get to the meat. Remember when I said WordPress wasn\u2019t designed for communities as large as ours? Funny thing though, they almost got it right. The way it generates post lists and threaded comments, it uses a query to retrieve all posts and comments\u2026 but then if you want to know anything about the person that posted the comment, it\u2019s doing 2 requests per user! That\u2019s for all posts, and all comments! The part they got right is that there actually is an undocumented function available to pre-cache a list of users by ID in a single request. So if you crawl the lists of posts and comments, collect a list of IDs, feed it to that function, then it will cache all the user data for all the users quickly in just 2 queries. That way better than 28 queries. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n So on average, many pages require 14 (or fewer) queries<\/strong> to complete, but the root ludumdare.com\/compo page is still about 17 queries<\/strong>. Less than half of where we started.<\/p>\n There are several pages I still need to clean up, but under 15 queries is what I\u2019m aiming for. After that, it\u2019s going to require outright changes to WordPress to optimize more, and even then I think we\u2019re better off replacing it outright. We\u2019re still going to need WordPress for a while though.<\/p>\n I think this one\u2019s fixed, but do let me know if you see any more permission issues cropping up. Some of the security stuff I set up with Apache made things more strict.<\/p>\n Just a minor tweak. Rather than fix the hub website, since all the work is going in to the compo website anyway (the goal of making it easier for everyone), why not just go direct?<\/p>\n Again, moving everything in \/compo\/ to root will break the internet. A lot of links will just stop working. Yes I could do some Apache rewrite rule wackyness, but I\u2019d rather keep all the \u201cold website\u201d stuff in \/compo\/. That way, when we do migrate over, I can better track URLs that need to be send elsewhere on the site.<\/p>\n Like this post says<\/a>, I\u2019ve gone ahead and changed the default hashtag to #LDJAM<\/strong>. All official tweets will now use #LDJAM<\/strong>, and #LDJAM<\/strong> will be the tag we recommend.<\/p>\n That said, the Twitter Widget actually supports multiple hashtags: #LDJAM<\/strong>, #LDCompo<\/strong>, #LD48<\/strong>, #LD72<\/strong>, #LDtv<\/strong>, #LudumDare<\/strong>, #LDGame<\/strong>, and #MiniLD<\/strong>. It also supports some silly ones: #LDJelly<\/strong>, #LDKittens<\/strong>, #LDPotato<\/strong>, and #towlr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In the future I\u2019d like to do more with Twitter and social media support. I\u2019m glad I could do at least this one little improvement.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve wanted to do this for a VERY long time.<\/p>\n The colors still need work, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be forever tweaking it, but I hope you agree even in its current rough state it\u2019s an improvement. Let\u2019s compare:<\/p>\n Tell me, do you miss the old header? (I might, a little\u2026 but just a little)<\/p>\n These replace a lot of the information scattered across the header. Gone are the ugly red rows of 63 days, 13 hours, 24 minutes, and 18 seconds<\/strong><\/span>, replaced with a nice compact digital\u2019ish countdown clock contained within an informative box. <\/p>\n And just to be crazy, I\u2019ve included an actual start-time guide in Ludum Dare 31 box. This also meant I *cough* had to learn a thing or two about UTC time. You lazy fake-\u2018merican Mike. \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n The clock code I rewrote from scratch, so please let me know if you see anything weird.<\/p>\n When I disabled the WordPress Login bar (due to it being HORRIBLY designed, see above), that meant we needed a replacement RIGHT AWAY! <\/p>\n So, I took the opportunity to kill a flock of birds with an awesome rock (wuht). Welcome to the future, where the website can detect if you\u2019re logged in or not! Instead of the \u201cSign in\/Create Account\u201d<\/strong> link constantly found in the header bar, welcome to the future: Context Sensitivity.<\/strong><\/p>\n And then when you\u2019re logged in\u2026<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s the stupidest thing, but it just goes to show how little time I had to work on Ludum Dare before this crazy project of mine. The little things get neglected\u2026 for YEARS.<\/p>\n Clicking on your name takes you to your profile page, and +New Post does something (what could it be *shrug*). Finally, clicking your avatar takes you to gravatar.com<\/strong>, something we used to link way down in the sidebar (where nobody saw it). Hopefully this means we\u2019ll see more avatars and less blank faces.<\/p>\n I\u2019m trying out the navigation bubbles. I\u2019m not entirely happy with the color scheme yet, but at the same time I don\u2019t want them to overpower things.<\/p>\n The \u201cWhat is Ludum Dare\u201d (about page) and \u201cRules \/ Guide\u201d buttons, I want them to be obvious, but I\u2019m still not happy with them. Not to mention the content they link to still needs work.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still working on this, but I think it\u2019s a good start.<\/p>\n Post minimizing is a feature I did add earlier this year. One of the more frustrating parts of the site is the clutter that builds-up in this part of the site. But when there\u2019s important things to say, it has to go somewhere (here or in the header\u2026 annoyingly). Anyways, minimized posts look a little nicer now.<\/p>\n A visual thing: I\u2019m no longer using pure white on regular posts backgrounds. Special posts have always had their off colors, but now regular posts have a slight grey color to them. And had I not pointed it out, many people wouldn\u2019t have noticed. That\u2019s the magic of color. And now that we\u2019re off white, white things in posts will stand out better. That, and I can do the subtle shine seen along the top of all posts now.<\/p>\n Also gradients. I like gradients. \ud83d\ude00 The #LD48<\/a> website\u2026 Oh, sorry. The #LDJAM<\/a> website is looking a look curvier.<\/p>\n \u2014 Alex Taylor (@tayl1r) October 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nServer RAM Upgrade, lower monthly cost<\/h2>\n
Big Software Updates, Fixed Legacy Plugins<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nZend OPcache Installed (PHP)<\/h2>\n
APCu User Data Cache Installed (i.e. Shared PHP Memory)<\/h2>\n
Page Query Optimizations<\/h2>\n
File Permissions Bug<\/h2>\n
ludumdare.com redirects to \/compo\/ now<\/h2>\n
New Hastag #LDJAM, more supported<\/h2>\n
Page Header Cleanup<\/h2>\n
![\"titlebar\"](\"\/data\/posts\/2014\/10\/c445071decefbc87997d581ec61d4eca.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"fathead\"](\"\/data\/posts\/2014\/10\/214cece840a5f0177caa59382757dbda.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEvent Boxes<\/h2>\n
The Login Box<\/h2>\n
![\"logincreate\"](\"\/data\/posts\/2014\/10\/39abee99f85e739edd6fde609dfcd8ab.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"imloggedin\"](\"\/data\/posts\/2014\/10\/27487566e5f889cc7850036021867ffb.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe rest of the header<\/h2>\n
Posts and Activity<\/h2>\n
![\"Activity\"](\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Activity-550x258.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n