bettwice2
9th August 2011, 10:09.25 AM
Just wanted to provide a quick update on HorseTourneys.com:
As you may have read in an email I sent to registered players yesterday, we have elected to push back the re-scheduled free-roll to September 24, and have also added some additional prizes to it. We've done this for a few reasons:
-Thought it was too quick to re-schedule for this weekend, if people may be tied up. Easier for them to make plans for a later date.
-There is another free event run by the NTRA on the 13th.
-Proceeding with the original schedule keeps us on track for the total NHC spot commitment for 2011
-Proceeding with some of the smaller max entry contests allows us to build confidence back slowly, in a manner where we know there we be no issues.
-Gives us a chance to ensure absolutely no issues for that level of participation again when we run Sept 24.
Let me be clear: despite what happened on Sunday, this system is perfectly capable of running contests under typical conditions and has been utilized in a live environment for over a year. For you techies out there (and I am not one of them), what caused the problem was the way the leaderboard generation had been designed. The details of that aren't important, but basically the leaderboard generation, with nearly 1,000 players, drew a spike in processing that caused the database to temporarily fail. It had been tested before under simulated loads of this size, so obviously we were shocked when it happened. Normally that is not a huge problem as you can always get the database back up, which we did. Unfortunately, it took about 40 minutes to do so, and at that point, another two races had run. Since this was a day-long event advertised whereby you could change throughout the day, I had no choice but to cancel the contest at that point.
The leaderboard generation has been re-written so that this problem could never happen again.
The first two paid contests (this weekend, Aug 13 and 14) at the site are limited to 100 entries each, and no contest scheduled for the rest of the year will carry more than 200 entries. At those levels, it's practically impossible (since one can never say impossible) for there to be issues of the kind that we encountered Sunday.
We completely understand that people will have trepidation, and with good reason, about buying entries into paid events after what transpired Sunday. I want to allay those fears as much as I possibly can. Your entry fees would absolutely be guaranteed against any kinds of technical issues like those that occurred on Sunday. And after what we've done these last two days, I can honestly say that I think it would take something like the server getting struck by lightning for something like that to happen again.
I realize that while one can guarantee someone's money, one can't guarantee someone's time, and that a number of people's afternoons were ruined on Sunday. The ache is still there about that. We hope that you'll give us the chance again to prove the kind of program we can provide.
Please email me directly at support@horsetourneys.com with any questions or otherwise.
Regards,
McKay
As you may have read in an email I sent to registered players yesterday, we have elected to push back the re-scheduled free-roll to September 24, and have also added some additional prizes to it. We've done this for a few reasons:
-Thought it was too quick to re-schedule for this weekend, if people may be tied up. Easier for them to make plans for a later date.
-There is another free event run by the NTRA on the 13th.
-Proceeding with the original schedule keeps us on track for the total NHC spot commitment for 2011
-Proceeding with some of the smaller max entry contests allows us to build confidence back slowly, in a manner where we know there we be no issues.
-Gives us a chance to ensure absolutely no issues for that level of participation again when we run Sept 24.
Let me be clear: despite what happened on Sunday, this system is perfectly capable of running contests under typical conditions and has been utilized in a live environment for over a year. For you techies out there (and I am not one of them), what caused the problem was the way the leaderboard generation had been designed. The details of that aren't important, but basically the leaderboard generation, with nearly 1,000 players, drew a spike in processing that caused the database to temporarily fail. It had been tested before under simulated loads of this size, so obviously we were shocked when it happened. Normally that is not a huge problem as you can always get the database back up, which we did. Unfortunately, it took about 40 minutes to do so, and at that point, another two races had run. Since this was a day-long event advertised whereby you could change throughout the day, I had no choice but to cancel the contest at that point.
The leaderboard generation has been re-written so that this problem could never happen again.
The first two paid contests (this weekend, Aug 13 and 14) at the site are limited to 100 entries each, and no contest scheduled for the rest of the year will carry more than 200 entries. At those levels, it's practically impossible (since one can never say impossible) for there to be issues of the kind that we encountered Sunday.
We completely understand that people will have trepidation, and with good reason, about buying entries into paid events after what transpired Sunday. I want to allay those fears as much as I possibly can. Your entry fees would absolutely be guaranteed against any kinds of technical issues like those that occurred on Sunday. And after what we've done these last two days, I can honestly say that I think it would take something like the server getting struck by lightning for something like that to happen again.
I realize that while one can guarantee someone's money, one can't guarantee someone's time, and that a number of people's afternoons were ruined on Sunday. The ache is still there about that. We hope that you'll give us the chance again to prove the kind of program we can provide.
Please email me directly at support@horsetourneys.com with any questions or otherwise.
Regards,
McKay