[Parallax]

Sorry, but that's just sour grapes.
That's like saying the various photo contests are unfair because some people have better cameras than others.

[LensBeginner]

So, I take it you are fine with complying with all the rules, being in place to try to get a "ticket" and in the time you hit the refresh button, the thread where you are to place your entry opens and closes before your computer/internet access has time to refresh the page. If you are fine with the process, that is ok by me. All I am trying to do is make a suggestion that is fair to everybody in the world.

If you don't like that, I'm sorry but people like me want to be able to have a chance to win, and not have that chance taken away just because 50 people out of the 1500 trying to get a "ticket" have a computer that has maxed out specs, or their internet connection is 10 GB instead of 10 MB. That was part of the reason there was two threads to enter in so people wouldn't have to stay up all night just to enter.

To Adam and the mods. If I have over stepped my bounds, please forgive me.

My ADSL is the cheapest you can buy here, just shy of 7 Mbps download, and about 0.32 Mbps download - notice the lower case "b" as in "bit", plus I dial from Italy... don't know the exact ping to the PF server in the US, but I don't think it's very good.
My PC is quite old, yet I managed to enter.

I guess luck had more part in it than anything... and if you give out 100 tickets to 1800 people, 1700 are bound not to get one. That seems logical to me.

[mee]

For the third go around today Adam set up the drawing so all accounts were treated the same by the software controlling th thread. Those of us who chose to make a third attempt at getting a raffle ticket saw exactly the same thing as regular members.

He also set it up to open and close automatically, with no human intervention.

That is the best option, since there can be no question about eligibility to claim a ticket, or whether or not the thread was actually open or not when the first posts were made.

The issue is, mods might see the same thing, but they can still enter posts into locked threads... so they unknowingly are submitting entries before the thread is opened. My point wasn't about mods seeing something different but that.. you have extra abilities due to your job here and thus can enter threads accidentally.

Mods having a separate 'common' account for contests would address this and require no extra work from Adam. I was thinking of Adam.. he already does so much.

Yet I don't particularly like your tone though.. 'for the third go around today' ?? That sounds a bit rude..

[mee]

My ADSL is the cheapest you can buy here, just shy of 7 Mbps download, and about 0.32 Mbps download - notice the lower case "b" as in "bit", plus I dial from Italy... don't know the exact ping to the PF server in the US, but I don't think it's very good.
My PC is quite old, yet I managed to enter.

I guess luck had more part in it than anything... and if you give out 100 tickets to 1800 people, 1700 are bound not to get one. That seems logical to me.

For those unaware..

'Speed' of a network connection is usually referring to the bandwidth.. or the width of the pipe of data.


Yet ping is referring more towards latency of the network.. or its response time.

While the two can be connected, as long as you aren't saturating your network connection then your latency should be minimal.


If you're on windows just type 'cmd' in a run box to open the command terminal window and then type

Code:

 ping www.pentaxforums.com

and press enter. That will give you ping statistics for your network connection including a round trip time.


The issue here isn't really your connection to PF, but PF's ability to handle massive amounts of requests at the same time. We essentially were collectively flooding the site when those contest threads opened and PF had a delay reading all of the requests and processing them.

[LensBeginner]

For those unaware..

'Speed' of a network connection is usually referring to the bandwidth.. or the width of the pipe of data.


Yet ping is referring more towards latency of the network.. or its response time.

*snip*

Well in my case it's quite easy to saturate 320 Kbps (or 40 KBps)... it's enough for one single piece of software to transmit something even small right at that moment.
I'm afraid I don't know how the QoS is setup in my router: I left it at the default values since if it ain't broke...

Ping is 150 ms on average, so not as bad as I thought.

[mee]

Sorry, but that's just sour grapes.
That's like saying the various photo contests are unfair because some people have better cameras than others.

While I got in, I can in general empathize with him (and think you should too). You needed quick reaction ability to respond within the single second or two window of time. Not exactly a game for everyone..


Your analogy doesn't really fit though because the technical specs of a camera don't generally negate the photographer's ability to take a quality photo with it. Yet if you're on dial-up or have a spotty connection off somewhere in timbuktu then you were at a distinct disadvantage here. It is what it is and that's the way it is, but I still understand his frustration.

[Racer X 69]

The issue is, mods might see the same thing, but they can still enter posts into locked threads... so they unknowingly are submitting entries before the thread is opened. My point wasn't about mods seeing something different but that.. you have extra abilities due to your job here and thus can enter threads accidentally.

I've already commented on the events during the second drawing. I waited until the thread appeared to be open. The closed sign was gone.

Still it is done, and will not be changed.

Mods having a separate 'common' account for contests would address this and require no extra work from Adam.

Again, you keep insisting that we break the very rules we are empowered to enforce.

I, and my fellow moderators, are all opposed to that.

We are expected to set the example.

Yet I don't particularly like your tone though.. 'for the third go around today' ?? That sounds a bit rude..

You can take it any way you choose.

I was merely stating the facts.

Now why don't we all let this go and move on?

[aslyfox]

. . . Why we all let this go and move on?

I agree

[Racer X 69]

Well in my case it's quite easy to saturate 320 Kbps (or 40 KBps)... it's enough for one single piece of software to transmit something even small right at that moment.
I'm afraid I don't know how the QoS is setup in my router: I left it at the default values since if it ain't broke...

Ping is 150 ms on average, so not as bad as I thought.

My ping stats:


Pinging Pentax Forums - The Ultimate Resource for Everything Pentax [66.147.237.63] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=149ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=200ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=155ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 66.147.237.63:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 95ms, Maximum = 200ms, Average = 149ms

[mee]

My ping stats:


Pinging Pentax Forums - The Ultimate Resource for Everything Pentax [66.147.237.63] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=149ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=200ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.147.237.63: bytes=32 time=155ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 66.147.237.63:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 95ms, Maximum = 200ms, Average = 149ms

A bit high.. you could try 'tracert 66.147.237.63' so you can see the hops your connection takes.. there might be a slower node in there that your ISP could resolve.

Mine goes through 8 hops (7 technically since the first is router). It is kind of interesting to see how the data flows...

[fsge]

I guess it is time to close the June book and congratulate the lucky winner.
July is in front of us with a target of 60k messages and the K1 II that goes along!

[reh321]

A bit high.. you could try 'tracert 66.147.237.63' so you can see the hops your connection takes.. there might be a slower node in there that your ISP could resolve.

Mine goes through 8 hops (7 technically since the first is router). It is kind of interesting to see how the data flows...

He is pinging from Italy.
Ping tells how "current" your page will be.
The people with shorter ping times will have a few more milliseconds to press the "post" button.

[onlineflyer]

I guess it is time to close the June book and congratulate the lucky winner.
July is in front of us with a target of 60k messages and the K1 II that goes along!

Where do you see 60K? From the header of the page

Pentax K-1 Triple Summer Giveaway


In July, when we reach 40,000 posts, we will give away a Pentax K-1 body, raffle style! 38,629 posts to go— get involved in the community by clicking below, or learn more.

Edit: Corrected, I see the K-1 II, my bad.

---------- Post added 07-01-18 at 12:08 PM ----------

At least I added to the count target.

[Racer X 69]

He is pinging from Italy.

Italy?

I'm in Washington state.

About 2,400 miles from the servers in New York state.


The trace route ping:

Tracing route to pentaxforums.com [66.147.237.63]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dslrouter.netgear.com [***.***.***.***]
2 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms 50.34.96.1
3 8 ms 8 ms 7 ms ae2---0.car01.evrt.wa.frontiernet.net [74.40.70.
1]
4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ae3---0.cor02.sttl.wa.frontiernet.net [74.40.1.1
01]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms ae1---0.cbr01.sttl.wa.frontiernet.net [74.40.5.1
26]
6 8 ms 10 ms 14 ms 10gigabitethernet9-9.core1.sea1.he.net [198.32.1
34.52]
7 54 ms 54 ms 54 ms 100ge4-2.core1.msp1.he.net [184.105.223.194]
8 54 ms 53 ms 53 ms 100ge13-1.core2.chi1.he.net [184.105.223.177]
9 73 ms 73 ms 73 ms 100ge16-1.core1.nyc4.he.net [184.105.223.162]
10 77 ms 76 ms 76 ms hostrocket-com-inc.10gigabitethernet9-3.core1.ny
c4.he.net [216.66.3.110]
11 76 ms 76 ms 77 ms pentaxforums.com [66.147.237.63]

Trace complete.



Looks like the bottleneck is at the server end.

[LensBeginner]

He is pinging from Italy.
Piing tells how "current" your page will be.
The people with shorter ping times will have a few more milliseconds to press the "post" button.

Yup, it was Racer not me
It's curious how similar it is to open a site from the other side of the Atlantic and from the other coast of the USA... very similar average ping, and I have 11 nodes as well.
I won't complain anymore about "my connection"