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Thread Admin: AA-bob (3-0-0) (Last 10 Posts) Posted: 02/01/2010 at 15:14:38
Total Posts: 34
Thread Title: "AuctionArms Popularity...double edged sword??"
AA-bob

Like the old saw goes, "Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it..."

Well, AuctionArms has been working hard to increase our popularity and new customer base through several marketing efforts including On-line Advertising and Search Engine Optimizations.

As a result of these efforts and our increasing popularity, during our highest load period yesterday afternoon/evening(Sunday afternoon is traditionally our highest use period), for about 20 minutes, we had an unusually high number of concurrent users. This situation overloaded our servers and actually created a situation similar to when the phone company sends you the message on an uncompleted call "all circuits are busy, please try your call again later."

While our servers were not technically "down" (They were churning at 100%), some users experienced a situation that made AuctionArms appear to be "down" since they could not make a connection.

Long term this is "good" thing (more bidders, more sellers). It sucked in the short term yesterday for users who were trying to get a connection during that short period.

As a result, we apologize to anyone who experienced this problem. We are currently adding additional servers today to increase our ability to handle concurrent users by 30% and will be monitoring closely for any indications that additional server space is needed before it becomes a problem.

Thanks to one and all for your cooperation and understanding of this "good to have/bad to experience" situation while we beef up the site's abilities to handle everyone who wants to use AuctionArms.
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Seller: AuctionArmsCeo(7-0-0) Post#1 - Posted: 02/02/2010 at 16:16:22
AuctionArmsCeo Here's some information to keep the speculation to a minimum. Yes, we had a slow down of sorts on Sunday evening - for about 20 minutes. The slowdown was caused by a sudden influx of users looking at items - nothing more. We had about 4000 people concurrently looking at Auction Arms items, and we thought we had the capacity to handle it - apparently we did not. We had been monitoring the site closely on Sunday nights, because we were concerned about the huge amount of traffic we've been getting lately. This is also why we were able to quickly bring more assets online as soon as we knew there was a problem.

We're currently in the process of adding another 30% of capacity immediately, and still more capacity long-term. We've been growing lately, making Auction Arms more friendly to search engines, marketing through a variety of outlets, and generally making ourselves more popular. I apologize for any trouble this unforseen outage may have caused, and am happy to issue relist credits to anyone who was sellng an item that closed between 5pm and 6pm pacific time, on Sunday 1/31/2010. Just give us a call and we'll make it happen.

Manny DelaCruz
CEO/AuctionArms.com, Inc.

Former Seller: Hagrid(52-0-0) Post#2 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 08:11:27
Hagrid Manny, How about eliminating the need to post your password every time you bid. Pisses the snipers off and it seems redundant. Once in the bidding system one time should suffice. IMHO. trapper

Buyer: brainaxe(14-0-0) Post#3 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 11:44:51
brainaxe AA-bob- I don't think the affected members are finding this thread due to the 'title' lacking any reference to the SUNDAY NIGHT MASSACRE!! Just a thought.

Former Seller: Bubba J(105-0-0) Post#4 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 15:11:07
Bubba J When refreshing a bid page a you must re-enter your password. Once that a member has logged in and entered their password it would be a big improvement, in my humble opinion, if it were not required again until the member logs out.

FR&G

Thread Admin: AA-bob(3-0-0) Post#5 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 16:35:18
AA-bob Hagrid and BubbaJ, after several complaints of "unauthorized bids" from winners, we began requiring each bid to be password protected. Seems some folks have a weird sense of humor when they find an unattended PC logged into AuctionArms.

Former Seller: Hagrid(52-0-0) Post#6 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 17:06:04
Hagrid Didn't see that side of it. Seems reasonable. trapper

Former Seller: Bubba J(105-0-0) Post#7 - Posted: 02/03/2010 at 19:33:23
Bubba J I figured that there was a reason. But as normal, all seem to have to atone for a few other's transgressions. It is still a pain at tense moments, especially for the "Snipers". ;O|

FR&G

Former Seller: Petesguns(1158-0-1) Post#8 - Posted: 02/07/2010 at 09:46:40
Petesguns You guys are gonna just have to find a more efficient way of snipin'! It's there, you just gotta look fer it!

Former Seller: Bubba J(106-0-0) Post#9 - Posted: 02/07/2010 at 11:06:10
Bubba J OK, all hints are welcomed. ;OD

FR&G

Former Seller: OLD RATTLER(203-0-0) Post#10 - Posted: 02/07/2010 at 14:21:37
(no avatar) Snipin is easy.

Just be the last bidder.

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