I think it would help the server if we could choose whether we wanted the zone chat or not.. I REALLY doubt all 75+ people want the chat on so an option to turn it off means it's not loading for every person.

from what I've seen comparing chat posts at least 10 of the people in the zone are in the chatroom anyways,not the zone chat.

I agree with this. I don't like using the zone chat and its a little distracting when I'm exploring. XD I'd like to be able to turn it off or close it or something.

I'm sure in the future we will provide a method to toggle it on and off. At this time though, it isn't really a priority.

While, yes, it does require http connections to function, its impact on server load is very minimal. The main reason the server's having load issues is due to the constant viewing and loading of pets. Our pet table in the database is poorly optimized (due to my inexperience when I made it well over a year ago). Unfortunately, a lot of systems tie into the table (which is part of the problem), so it's extremely difficult to fix. Sometime this week I will be attempting to splice the table into at least 3 separate tables which should greatly improve performance.

The Apache settings I changed to early this morning seem to be doing a tremendous job keeping the server functioning - it's just forcing it to function full steam nearly 24/7. I'll tweak the settings a bit further in a few hours to try and lighten the load a bit. But it survived an entire Saturday, so I'm going to focus back on getting the festival content finished out.

Anyway - sorry, small tangent lol - we will provide a way to toggle zone chat in the future. No ETA.

I had no idea it has a minor effect. On other sites I had been on that had chat often the chat was the first thing to go when there was heavy site lag....

I have no idea what you mean by "tables", Though I DO remember It being mentioned that was a problem earlier in the week. From what I can guess from what you've just said these "tables" are what randomly generate pets (or maybe it's pet pages...)and I suddenly understand why there's site lag. It also makes me wince and want to send cookies and aspirin imagining the work to be done with it as the randomizing factor...yikes. just yikes.