Is Voo2do Slow?
Voo2do has been growing fast lately, and more people are writing to me with suggestions and requests. One request is getting more and more common: could you make it faster?
In my personal use of voo2do, I haven’t found it too annoyingly slow, except when saving changes to a large list of tasks. But of course as many new people sign up, my simple, cheap server is getting more loaded. It has generally been fine, getting slower under load but not crashing and burning. Still, as several users have pointed out, speed makes a big difference in this kind of web app. It’s not just aesthetic; if it takes you 1 minute to figure out what you should do during a five minute break, voo2do is charging quite a premium for whatever benefits it offers. This might well push voo2do out of the zone of being worth your while.
So I’m wondering: do you want voo2do to be faster? And for the techies out there: can you recommend (or offer?) a dedicated server hosting plan that features a fast computer and Internet uplink at a reasonable price?
Entries (RSS)
December 29th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
Yes, I notice voo2do slow lately.
I have 2 dedicated servers, one in Liquidweb and the another in BurstNet.
LiquidWeb is quite better over burstnet, at least their uptime is almost 100% monthly, but the prices on burstnet are cheaper with low computer hardware.
I recommend LiquidWeb, also their support is great.
Thanks for voo2do
December 29th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
I also noticed that it has been slow – not just when saving, but also when I’m opening up my dashboard. I’ve been clicking my V2D bookmark then checking my email in another tab while I wait for V2D to open.
Congrats on your new popularity – I’ve been spreading the voo2do word as far as I can! Maybe I’m to blame for the slowness…
December 30th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
Hmmm… I too have noticed it slowing down. I wish I had a good solution for you. I was on http://www.webhostingtalk.com and saw some people recommend http://www.layeredtech.com. They have some pretty good prices.
December 30th, 2005 at 7:59 pm
As a follow-up… I bet you can find a dedicated server company that would be willing to trade a server for a small banner ad on your homepage. Very small. Something that just says, “Server and Bandwidth supplied by http://www.XYZServers.com“.
Especially considering how popular your tool is becoming.
December 31st, 2005 at 1:02 am
I notice the slowness, and sympathize with your plight. Popularity gets expensive!
I wonder about a way to support your hosting costs, say with a PayPal link? I, for one, would happily pony up $10. If many users donate small amounts your costs should be covered. Compared with the pay alternatives a small donation is a bargain!
December 31st, 2005 at 8:11 pm
I’d be happy to pony up via paypal as well!
January 2nd, 2006 at 12:10 am
I would be up for a once in a while small donation. I would also suggest looking at dreamhost.com. I don’t have a virtual dedicated account, but everything I have seen about the company is awesome.
J
January 2nd, 2006 at 1:06 am
I don’t know what are you’re future intentions for voo2do are, but would it be possible for you to consider releasing voo2do as an (open-source) application rather than a webservice. I don’t know how many of your users are savvy enough to set it up on their own servers (or what would be the server requirements for that matter), but I know that if a few users were able to do that, it could reduce some of your server load.
I know that this isn’t the solution you are looking for, but it is an alternative.
And I agree with above posts about a donation.
January 2nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
I have to agree about the speed. Just started using it and my only complaint is how slow the updates are. Will be happy to pony up a little cash once I’m sure I’m going to use this for a while.
Any idea where the bottleneck is? (Bandwidth, DB, webserver?) How much disk space does it require? I agree with Derrick – you should be able to convince someone to give you space for only minor advertising.
Corey does have a good point – you could offset a lot of the load by letting people host their own – but then again that likely isn’t likely the answer you were looking for.
January 2nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
If you’re feeling generous, you can donate to voo2do at: http://blog.voo2do.com/donate
I think some of the slowness is the fault of another application I have running on this server, and I’ll work on speeding it up. I’ve temporarily disabled it, so I think voo2do might be a little faster now.
I am not ready to make voo2do open source at present, but I will continue to consider that option as my plans develop.
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I have been extremely satisfied with the support and performance of ICD Soft.
You may want to update your save logic to avoid saving multiple records at once and instead save by leaving focus from a task.
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Shimon, I’m still seeing the slowness, I have what might be a large number of tasks in some views, and those pages are even harder to work with than others. The result is that even switching between tabs, generates an error message (Javascript is not responsive, do you wish to continue?)
Bob
January 5th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Hi Shimon:
Your tool has been really great in organizing my tasks, BUT I came to this blog today trying to figure out why it took over a minute this morning to log into the dashboard. I see that this is an issue you are addressing. We are running Moodle with Dreamhost and they seem to be very reliable though the speed isn’t exceptional.
I hope you can find a solution soon. Please let us know if and when you move to a different server – that would motivate me to make a donation as well!
Dan
January 7th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Hi Shimon:
I’m not a techie, I’m a CPA with an accounting firm in Long Beach, CA. So far I love your stuff … I’m testing it before I share it with our clients and staff. I’ve been the guy who has been working on our project management and collaborative/distributive work issues.
Having worked with tech companies for many years, it appears you’ve reached the most common bottleneck. You need cash to keep your project afloat – or it will be sunk by it’s own success (I found you off the writeups in early December) All the purity of your intentions in sharing your work will be wasted if you can’t clear the bottleneck.
I suggest … much as a regurgitation of above:
1. Consider some banner adds … start with trying to get an adequate server company to donate. Look for a couple other sponsors that might want to reach your audience.
2. Keep beating on users to donate.
2. Consider a second tier of service … one that there is a madatory charge
3. Look at establishing an enterprise version that can command a reasonable price (many project management “open” products do this).
4. Find a “godfather” (I abhore the terms “angel” and “”VC) that’s willing to fund some development. You probably need a summary business plan … even if it’s on the back of a napkin.
Good Luck! (my 10 bucks is on the way … for you having to put up with my verbosity!)
Kim
January 13th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Shimon, I haven’t seen the slowness this past week. Congratulations!
Bob
January 14th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Back to full speed! Best 10 bucks I ever spent!
January 15th, 2006 at 12:55 am
I agree, it’s snappy and fun to use again! Thanks for working on this issue, Shimon.
January 18th, 2006 at 1:55 am
This is a good web app. I like it and am finding it quite useful. One feature I particularly like is being able to e-mail tasks into the web site. In fact, because of the slow speed of the site, I find this the fastest way to enter new tasks, rather than waiting for reloads.
Speed is a critical issue. Are you using Ajax?
All success, and I hope you keep going as I’d like to this convenient and well conceived app to be always available.
January 18th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Ken,
I am working on speeding up voo2do. Part of that will be thanks to better/more pervasive use of Ajax; part will be due to general software optimizations; and part will be thanks to a better, faster server. I’m working on the last two things right now.
Thanks everyone for your helpful feedback!