Our live files are a massive part of who we are, who we’ve been and, we hope, who we’ll be.

For anyone new to DK Pittsburgh Sports, our live files are the ones marked in red in any of our Steelers, Penguins or Pirates feeds that, once a game or other event begins, a reporter updates as quickly as possible, bullet by bullet. Just as quickly, our subscribers keep pace with their own parallel discussion. It ends up feeling a lot like experiencing the whole thing with friends.

They’ve always been very popular, accounting for our most-viewed, most-used pages.

Two problems with them, both recent:

1. They can crash the app/site.

I’m betting you’ve noticed. It’s usually on a live file for a Steelers game, but it’s happened when the Penguins are playing, too. Things slow and, soon, everything comes to a crawl. Including for us on the back end, meaning we can’t report what we’re supposed to report.

Here’s what happens: There’s too much traffic that arrives too quickly and, making matters far worse, there’s all kinds of other cyber-crap — for lack of a more delicate term — that can follow and crowd things further. It’s a massive mess that can take several minutes to reboot.

Why not just scale up the servers around the clock?

That can be done but at considerable cost, with all of that currently falling on the developer.

Why not just scale up for a known event?

Well … I’ll get to that.

2. The live files don’t really make us money.

They really don’t. Not in and of themselves.

As I’ve often shared over the years, we don’t chase clicks, largely because clicks don’t do much for us. Our priority’s always our subscribers, so, even though we have a free option — filled with ads, no comments, etc. — the free users wouldn’t have much use for our live files, since so much of that experience is contained to the comments.

Which means, as one might then guess, if there are no free users using the live files, then there are no ads, and there’s no extra revenue. 

Whereas, there’s a sizable extra cost.

And someone has to bear that extra cost, either us or our developers at BoomPress, who own and operate the platform as a whole.

Following me so far?

OK, cool, and before I proceed: Heck, no, we’re not getting rid of the live files. Expunge that thought at once. Again, they’re a massive part of who we are.

At the same time, what we’re doing clearly isn’t working and, worse, it isn’t benefiting the business. So we’ve got to find some other way.

As I promised you I would from Chicago, I met with the developers and had an extended conversation this week on all kinds of issues, headlined by the live files. And the resolution, at the risk of oversimplifying it, likely will lead to an arrangement where we can scale up in advance of Steelers and Penguins games, as needed, and pay for that. Which, if it’s a fair price, we’d obviously be happy to do.

We’re trying. On this front and several others, but very much with the performance and functionality atop the list, for us and for the developers.

I’ll keep you updated.

COME SEE US!

Big weekend here, with Penguins vs. Maple Leafs tonight, Steelers vs. Bills tomorrow, and we’ll have bonus hours both days at our HQ/shop: 12-7 p.m. today, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday!

DOUBLE SHOT OF … PENGUINS!

It’s certainly been demanded often enough, and now, we’ll be offering a Double Shot of Penguins live video every weekday at 4:30 p.m., debuting Monday, Dec. 8. It’ll be found on our YouTube channel and, of course, right here on this app.

INSIDE THE WORKS

• I’m stoked about this one: All three of our teams’ schedules are now available with a simple tap right atop their respective feeds. You’ll see them up there. Give it a try. Each schedule includes an option to tap any result for our complete coverage, boxscore, etc.

• Paying subscribers live here ad-free. If you aren’t subscribed yet or if your subscription’s expired: This is our Subscribe page. From there, make sure you’re logged in, tap on the link, and thumb down to the bottom for the SUBSCRIBE button to buy/restart at the monthly or annual level. We also offer mega-discounts for students, seniors and special workers.

• Feel free to add a generous review on our Google business listing, our Apple and Spotify podcast channels and, most important, our own official app pages, whether it’s the Apple or Android version.

BACK TO BUSINESS

• Our page-view numbers were 671,206, with 24,594 unique users over the most recent full seven-day span, Nov. 21-27. Our most-read original piece was my Tuesday Grind on Mike Tomlin’s job performance, at 17,440.

• Our video views for the past week, also Nov. 21-27, were 200,527. Our most-watched program was the Sunday night Live Shot of Steelers from Chicago, at 16,153.

• Our company social media: 70,939 followers on Facebook, 59,337 on X, 55,107 on YouTube, 17,499 on Instagram, 7,856 on TikTok, 6,598 on Threads.

• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com

• The Downtown HQ/shop’s always open Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m., while our company merch can all be had in our online store.

• We also offer gift subscriptions! ‘Tis the season ‘n’ at!

• Anything you need, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com

• Thanks for reading, watching, listening and, above all, for supporting this proud venture.