Mick! Fur **** sake . The mashup of wares you're using needs sorted. PRIMARY PROBLEM: MySql is an excellent DB if use it correctly. You aren't. Do not use default table types for anything other than idiocy. Think ACID/SCRUM. Am not convinced about the other wares being used on this site either, but let's leave that to another day.
Mick is incapable of understanding the basics. He is using MySql as a backend database. This is good. It is a quality database underpinning the lions share of all web queries. He is not using it correctly. He is relying on 3rd party scripts (mashup) to do what he does not understand how to do. Therein is the problem. He cannot therefore understand why these scripts fail or where their flaws are under load. It's also clear that he does not understand the locking level capabilities of the database and worse the impact it has on the web application making the calls to the database. The web app this forum is built on will wait and timeout on the backend calls to the database. That's where we git all the crap and failures. Gambol. Ah'll gie ye NOT606 mates rates at £55 per hour.
I'm too tired and not drunk enough to argue with you Gambol - you thought the site was running on Visual Basic a few minutes ago, which means you don't really know what you are talking about.
This is all going rather swimmingly at the moment. It is probably going to **** up again in about an hour.
You all sound like failed politicians who argue that the public is responsible for not understanding your message
I thought the problem was more likely a combination of some sticky honey on my keyboard, a council workman standing on the wire between the isle of man and australia and micks hamsters not running fast enough on their little hamster wheels.
I've coded extensively in php and whilst some of its 'text code' can be as complex and eclectic-looking as pearl, it's largely a straightforward procedural language that can have robust design structures. It's popularity as a coding language for forums like this are largely due to its relative simplicity and therefore it ought to be easy to maintain. I suspect its an issue of the security functions or classes or 3rd party add-ons or patches creating compatibility problems that are preventing access to the back end - either way, the design stucture is clearly flawed and probably needs a complete overhaul. I'll fix it