General Conference Web site draws record number of visitors

Here's a full story about the records the GC2004.org site has set.

General Conference 2004 Web Site's Problems

If you have tried to access the UMC.org or UMNS web sites during the day, you have noticed that it responds very slowly if at all. Chris Smith, IT Director for UM Communications has written about the problem.

He explains that requests for pages from the site from hundreds of interested folks at the same time is "sometimes causing difficulty in getting to the General Conference Web site, www.GC2004.org. We're sorry if you're experiencing any problems. We are working quickly to try to resolve these issues." He further explains that "the site is not down; it is just serving hundreds of other users at this time.

"The real issue is the one most of us in IT face every day; that is, trying to anticipate an unknown audience base with limited dollars.

"Please try accessing the Web site during off-hours (early in the morning and late in the evening)."

Chris Smith
IT Director
United Methodist Communications