But most shared hosts will not let you access SSH ;).

so i contacted them and they said that mysql is consuming the bulk of the cpu and most of the queries running currently are from my account. this is what they posted to me (i didnt see ne sensitive material to edit out of this)

| Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info
+------+-----------------+-----------+----------------+---------+------+--------------+------------------------
| 8325 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 17 | Sending data | SELECT
thread.threadid
FROM footballthread AS thread
INNER JOIN footballpost AS p |
| 8355 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 8 | Locked | UPDATE footballpost SET
showsignature = 1,
allowsmilie = 1,
title = 'Re: People from www.SPORT |
| 8370 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 2 | Locked | SELECT postid
FROM footballpost AS post

WHERE threadid = 67161
AND visible = 1

|
| 8377 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 3 | Locked | SELECT postid
FROM footballpost AS post

WHERE threadid = 67712
AND visible = 1

|
| 8379 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 2 | Locked | SELECT post.*,
IF(visible = 2, 1, 0) AS isdeleted,


editlog.userid AS edit_userid, editlog |
| 8383 | fvsports_Focker | localhost | fvsports_forum | Query | 1 | Locked | SELECT post.*,
IF(visible = 2, 1, 0) AS isdeleted,


editlog.userid AS edit_userid, editlog |
| 8386 | root | localhost | | Query | 0 | | show processlist

You're going to want to switch to a dedicated server if you are topping the Shared Hosts MySQL resources list. Same thing happened with me, running a forum/site that will query every single time someone accesses a page will kill a shared server with hundreds of other accounts on the server.

P.S: Your site looks fantastic!

Thanks for the compliment :)

Ya, we are supposed to be on a semi-dedicated account so there should be less users on the server, but we seem to top the resources consistently. I have looked over the options to reduce server load and the only thing I haven't changed was "show users online" on the main forum page. outside of that I have changed all the others to be off. will not showing the online users really make that much of a difference? It is just hard for me to justify jumping from 30 dollars a month to 80+ dollars a month when we are running around 30-40 users online at a given time.