Just a simple question, can this site not use a different sql server as the backend?
Eg postgre or similar? as their query optimizer is way superior, (and also we could materialize this query, so it does not need to be executed for every view)
@kwando said: have you ever looked at the wordpress code?
Of course not, why would one do that [sarcasm]? I never use Wordpress for myself or my clients to begin with. Last time I checked, I found it had a lot of bugs and it did not let me modify the stuff that really matters from within, so I always had to go in the FTP to edit files. Found the loop over-complicated and the overall system was WAY WAY WAY slower than any other website I could do in 1 day, even for online shopping sites… oh wait, isn’t that what exactly is happening here ONCE AGAIN? I guess WP will never change. Oh well.
I never thought I’d read this in my career: “YOU DO NOT WRITE YOUR QUERIES BY HAND”. WTF? OF COURSE YOU DO. Else, do you see what happens? It’s crap. I don’t see how such a sophisticated CMS couldn’t let us take care of the matter and fix it by hand… oh wait, it’s Wordpress, never mind, it’s probably impossible, unless we rewrite the whole thing now isn’t it? WTF!
AT THE VERY LEAST: All we have to do is to start from this theme, duplicate it and edit the CSS and probably a couple PHP files to make it look exactly like what we had before.
I really don’t understand what the problem is. This current theme is FUGLY and I don’t see how it can help attract newbies. I hate this theme. I’m considering becoming a plumber or something and never have to see this theme ever again in my life. UGH.
@kwando said: Mysql does not support indexing the one column that would make that particular query perform better.
Why? Is that a BLOB or something? Even strings are indexable.
We will most likely migrate from our current forum software pretty soon, that is why we have the default theme…
The previous one do not support the latest version of wordpress and noone wanna spend precious hours learning wordpress and tweaking a theme that will get thrown away in the near future.
If you wanna modify the theme we could probably arrange for that…
Yes, that column is a LONGTEXT/BLOB column… and wordpress needs to sort on that field in order to resolve the “latest posts”-query.
And mysql is unable to index those? wtf? Serious?
@Empire Phoenix said: And mysql is unable to index those? wtf? Serious?
Well… let’s just say that indexes beyond maybe 16 characters are just not worth it. BLOBS (also called LONGTEXT in some implementations) are some abberation that should not exist in web applications, unless it’s for storing a full page text or (never do that for god’s sake) a document like let’s say a Excel spreadsheet or a MP3 file or whatever. Basically, the term BLOB exactly explains in 4 letters what the problem is: it’s BLOATING the database, it’s like trying to fit something huge in a small car and then once you made it, realizing that you forgot your car keys behind on the rear seat… it’s just not something you want to do, ESPECIALLY on a large forum. It just doesn’t make sense. Indexing and normalizing the data is what you want to do with databases. You want to split every field of data possible into the smallest form possible and almost never repeat the data itself. This is accomplished by having indexes and join tables, BUT AGAIN, never join on huge data columns and NEVER EVER EVER try to join on textual cells. It just doesn’t make sense. You want to have a cronjob setup to crunch all the text and keywords into a “view” table or a table that continuously gets flushed and rebuilt. This table view is stripped to the maximum where you only keep the POST ID’s and the keywords, SEPARATED INTO different columns, NOT in a big BLOB. You keep like the 10 most relevant keywords or something in 10 different columns and you can search in that if you do not want to use Google’s in-site search widget (which beats anything else, because they have very powerful servers that constinuously index everything…)
Anyway, now that @kwando explained the situation, all this conversation is useless.
@kwando said:We will most likely migrate from our current forum software pretty soon, that is why we have the default theme…
The previous one do not support the latest version of wordpress and noone wanna spend precious hours learning wordpress and tweaking a theme that will get thrown away in the near future.If you wanna modify the theme we could probably arrange for that…
Yes, that column is a LONGTEXT/BLOB column… and wordpress needs to sort on that field in order to resolve the “latest posts”-query.
Holy F*** that’s one retarded theme. I would have never expected that from blog/forum software. Yes OK, I totally understand now that if you’re already planning on moving on to another version of Wordpress noone will invest their time, myself included. I hope the next platform will be better. Thx for the explanation, I won’t botter spreading more frustation on this matter here and leave everybody alone 
God my eyes are bleeding… But yes, I would like to contribute to whatever fits: I can offer cheap yet extremely fast hosting (for whoever lives in North America) and time to customize the next forum platform (or if you still go with Wordpress, then the theme). If I’m hosting it, I’d have to put it on another server than my company’s because I don’t want this sh*t to bomb down all my clients websites, but I could arrange something if anybody sees the need. If not then I can still help to customize the new site or whatever. I’ve got +10 years of professionnal experience in PHP/MYSQL websites.
The next server will not be wordpress-based… which is why tweaking this one is on no one’s ‘favorite thing to do’ list right now.
Yay! I’m glad I didn’t post before reading this. WordPress is so fail at conversation. I’ve looked into the discourse fourms and they look great. I can’t wait for the migration!
Use PostgreSQL as database and you are home safe. ;D
- ducks before the database flame wars *
Wordpress uses non standard and mysql specific “features”… so postgres is a no go =/
@kwando said: Wordpress uses non standard and mysql specific "features".. so postgres is a no go =/
I think he meant on the new site… ie: don’t use mysql on the new site.