Neil Harris wrote:
Perhaps the rating code could be turned on only
for admins, or users
with usernames beginning with 'E' to 'J', or only during non-busy
hours... or automatically turned off if load rises over a pre-set limit?
Or perhaps just turned on for a few hours one weekend, to see what the
effect on load really is?
Jimbo's plan calls for everyone being able to rate, including
not-logged-in users. This will be for test purposes only; the ratings
from the test phase will be deleted again, once the statistics people
got their hands on it and can hopefully tell us how to fine-tune the
rating process.
The "performance hog myth" dates back to the very first version. I have
worked on the problematic parts and IMHO they should be good. I can't be
certain without real testing, though. However, I doubt it will degrade
performance in the initial phase; if there's a problem, it will most
likely show once there are at least a few hundred thousand ratings.
There will be many write/delete queries on the table, which might lead
to table locks; this might be countered with low priority queries, though.
Magnus
For vote acquisition, the entries might as well be split across multiple
tables to spread the locking load, if locking is a real problem, and the
votes then merged in (daily?) batch operations. There's no real need for
the system to give real-time results.
-- Neil