AddThis SmartLayers

Hyperlocal website crashes due to high demand

A hyperlocal news website in Wales had to apologise to readers after so many people logged on to the site that it continuously crashed.

Mywelshpool.co.uk, which launched in August 2010, published the statement after the site went down for five days in a row.

Co-founder David Williams said statistics showed around 7,000 page requests per hour.

The statement published on the site on Wednesday read: “Your response to our service has been incredible and has far exceeded even our wildest expectations when we went live just 18 months ago. We are fast approaching two million page views and our number of unique visitors continues to grow month-on-month.

It went on: “The number of daily visitors since the end of last week is staggering.

“We can only apologise for being offline but hope you will understand. We will do our utmost to ensure we have more ‘coal in the engine’ as soon as possible to prevent this from happening again.

“We are humbled by the support we receive from the area and hope you will appreciate the investment we are making on your behalf to provide the fast, reliable service that you have come to expect from us.”

To prevent it from happening again £2,000 is being invested in additional server space.

The team, which also run mynewtown.co.uk, plan on launching more sites.