vBulletin 6.0.8 is now available for download

[Gaz]

Since we've moved from VB4 to 6 we have had a few challenges with the system response and the CPU seems to be close to 100% so it's slow for everyone.
The concerning part is this is a very quiet part of the year for the site. Traffic picks up substantially from about March to October so there is a bit of time to explore other options.
Can anyone suggest there a more efficient option that we might not have utilized? Is there a more basic option in the set-up we should consider?
Failing that It looks like it will require a more expensive hosting plan to speed it up.

The other problem might be the amount of 'bot's' visiting the site. Previously we used to have around 400 to 800 guests on the site , now it's around 5,000 and 7,000+
We have turned on a few features to try and deal with the bots but it's not working like I thought it might.
Would something like IP filtering be worth looking at or is there something else to consider?

The site is woof.net.au if anyone wants to have a bit of a check and share some thoughts or advice

[Shawn Gossman]

Definitely start blocking bots.

I've noticed with my vBulletin forums, I'm getting a significant number of bot traffic versus other forums.

Your forum requires login from what I can see. Is that how it always is? I ask because if so, then do you rely that much on search engine ranking?

If you don't, block the bots. Bots are there to index your community for search engines, mainly. If you don't rely on search, then you don't really need it.

Since AI is here, everything is "scraping" your content.

Make sure you add something like Google Analytics to see where most of your traffic is finding you from. That can also help tell a story of where traffic sources are coming from.

I use a VPS myself. I pay around $200 a month for two servers (one web, one MySQL). I know shared hosting isn't the best option with forums. What kind of hosting do you have?

[Gaz]

Thanks for the response. The site has been around for years and is well know so search engines aren't that important at this stage.
We put in a few changes yesterday as recommended to us and there are a few more that I will try and work with the hosting company on.
it really did reduce the number of AiBots and Spiders from around 7,000 to just over 2,000 and the response time is working brilliantly today.
The CPU usage in down to 20% average not 90% as it was a day back.
I use a company called Crucial Paradigm for hosting who were Australian based for many years but might have joined with another company in the last few years. They still have their head office in Sydney
As a result they don't quite appear to be as responsive when there is a need to raise a support ticket or as helpful as they were previously.
It's Just $26 AUD a month to host the site and prior to the upgrade it's very rarely been slow. I can get the cost down to $22 per month if I pay annually.
There are a few more powerful options at $36 and $49 per month if needed.

I did have Google Analytics turned on years back so thanks for the suggestion I might give it another whirl.
What I do know is that I get a lot of new members from X but they traditionally only want to use the site like a Blog or News Service and not many of them add any value.
There is a main competitor called Big Footy who has something like 100K members. They cover a wide range of sports but are primarily an Australia Rules discussion forum
I get a some members from them but having/sharing members at two competing sites can be problematic for the smaller site.
As an example today some information I shared got quickly copied onto Big Footy although it was acknowledged my site as his source.
I contact the member and explained that wasn't the right thing to do and if he wanted to discuss it so much then why not do it WOOF.net.au. He quickly deleted it off the other site.

Overall I'm really happy we made the move, should have done it earlier, but we are going through some teething issues. This site has been terrific to get advice from so thank you to everyone here.

[Wayne]

Here is one little thing for one of my better members

I'm still not able to click on notifications/messages/username options at the top of page, when viewing on my Google pixel in portrait mode (Chrome browser and on the 'app'). If I rotate my screen to landscape I can click on them.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

I've tried replicating this on an iPhone and an Android and didn't run into that issue. I wonder what version of Chrome they're using?

[Gaz]

I've tried replicating this on an iPhone and an Android and didn't run into that issue. I wonder what version of Chrome they're using?

Thanks, I think it's been resolved. He's posting a lot more and hasn't mentioned it again.

[Shawn Gossman]

Thanks, I think it's been resolved. He's posting a lot more and hasn't mentioned it again.

That's always a plus when things "fix themselves" if you will haha