Early last week the team began rolling out our new Chat Manager v4 code; a substantial upgrade compared to the previous version!

Starting with one server on Tuesday, April 19th we tested the waters and kept a close eye on things for a few days. Throughout the week we incrementally increased the number of servers running the new code and let the system run with 50% of the servers upgrade over the weekend ... no problems.

A few minor tweaks and improvements were made this past Monday and by Wednesday we had upgraded 100% of the servers to the new code. Now with nearly two full days under our belts we are extremely happy with the performance of the new system!

I doubt many (if any) if you noticed the upgrade directly; the main benefits are hard to spot if you aren�t looking:

- Can handle substantially more customers per room and per server.

- Nearly eliminated 909 and 903 errors, although we still have about 100 a day that need to be quashed.

- Substantial improvements to the speed of all communication (logins, room switching, show starting, etc.)

The final bell and whistle is a big one: prioritization. The v4 code intelligently prioritizes the requests it receives such that paid shows and requests from existing customers are handled before requests from guest users. This allows the system to scale much better when we receive a huge influx of traffic and ensures that the money-generating aspects of the chat system always come first.

These changes may seem obvious when you see them written down, but all of the improvements are part of the continued evolution of our system. As our daily traffic numbers continue to rise so do the strains placed on the system. Someday we�ll probably go to version 5, but I have a feeling that v4 will suit us well for quite some time to come.

Sincerely,

Brad
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As a huge fan of Flirt4Free can I say first of all that I am delighted to hear of these latest improvements.

It looks as if you and your team have spent a fair amount of time on recent improvements to site capacity, efficiency, reliability and security, and agree that they must have your top priority. Thanks all round.

However, now that those high priority improvements are in place, can I ask that you look at some of the other issues which your paying customers have raised in the forums. Latterly there has been very little response from VS to suggestions and requests for information in the forums, and I hope that is just a temporary omission due to higher priority commitments.

My current concern is about the large emoticons which are destroying Party Chat. I asked for some quick action in the F4F wish list thread (started by VS themselves) in the General Discussion forum for VIPs. I may as well have been talking to the wall. As a result I have just raised the topic in the Straight Fantasy and Gay Fantasy forums.

You will see that in 24 hours there is a 14:1 majority in favour of getting rid of the large emoticons. There is also some cynicism that VS will do anything about it. I hope that we might all be pleasantly surprised.

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Ron darling.. relax a little.. your particular drum has been beaten before.. and eventually VS will decide what they wish to do.. i can tell you from personal experience.. the drudgery of altering the emoticon arrays has little to no priority.. and the louder you squeek about it in every forum you can.. the more irritating you will become.. and from my experience.. being the noiseiest (oh dear sp there i KNOW lol) wheel will get you greased in a manner not to your liking.... hmmm good luck and have a lovely evening.. have a pint with Suggs if you can find him... Quote

eventually VS will decide what they wish to do..

That is what worries me. In the last 2 days, 21 of Flirt4Free's paying customers have voted on the large emoticons, and they would all like the large emoticons removed now.

I do hope that VS will now give some more attention to the forums. Apart from letting down customers, their lack of responses can reflect badly on their business image and comparisons with other sites.

As I am typing this, there are 2 threads at the top of this forum which announce "future" feature shows which actually took place 5 months ago. These announcements had higher billing than Flirt4Free's announcements of their highly commendable "Lets Flirt 4 A Cause" weekend in support of Aids charities. That cannot be right.

Just my
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Ron darling.. have a lovely evening.. have a pint with Suggs if you can find him...



I deliberately make myself scarce on May 3rd to remember the most important and special woman I have ever known.

Mom Suggs
13 Jan 1933 - 03 May 2008
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That is what worries me. In the last 2 days, 21 of Flirt4Free's paying customers have voted on the large emoticons, and they would all like the large emoticons removed now.

I do hope that VS will now give some more attention to the forums. Apart from letting down customers, their lack of responses can reflect badly on their business image and comparisons with other sites.

As I am typing this, there are 2 threads at the top of this forum which announce "future" feature shows which actually took place 5 months ago. These announcements had higher billing than Flirt4Free's announcements of their highly commendable "Lets Flirt 4 A Cause" weekend in support of Aids charities. That cannot be right.

Just my




ronnie ronnie ronnie.. okay.. mostly the threads are ignored.. but seriously.. 5 entire human(chat) individuals voted to KEEP the icons, ONE obstained (emo.hairtoss) and one voted NO but then admitted abusing the orgasmic male emoticon repeatedly!!!! Don't you think.. trusting as you are in VS paying attention to your democratic efforts.. that they might just COUNT and find your reportag� a bit awry?

*still lusting over ronnies (glowing.gob.of.balloon) chat icon*

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The 21 out of 21 paying customers figure all voting NO was correct when I wrote it, op.roo. At that stage there were 2 YES votes from models. None of the models in the Straight Forum have yet voted, which I am a bit disappointed about, and my last post there encouraged them to vote.
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I simply click the emotocons off, and the problems of exploding animations disappears.
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I simply click the emotocons off, and the problems of exploding animations disappears.


Thanks for that suggestion, spar. Interested in all solutions to the problem. My quick reaction is that this might involve disabling the smaller emoticons as well (which I like very much - and I think most other users do too).

If you think this will be helpful you might want to raise it in one of the current threads specifically about the large emoticons:


General Discussions (VIP): Thought i'd voice my opinion

http://www.flirt4free.com/forums/threads.php?forum_id=1&thread_id=1883&num_posts=44


General Discussions (VIP): Large emoticons: YES or NO

http://www.flirt4free.com/forums/threads.php?forum_id=1&thread_id=1977&num_posts=7



Gay Fantasy Board: Large emoticons: YES or NO

http://www.flirt4free.com/forums/threads.php?forum_id=5&thread_id=11865&num_posts=23



St raight Fantasies: Large emoticons: YES or NO

http://www.flirt4free.com/forums/threads.php?forum_id=4&thread_id=13627&num_posts=33

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