ok nevermind, i found it.

what did you do jennine?

i disabled the error logs in the php.ini file there is a tutorial here:

http://blog.arvixe.com/how-to-create-and-edit-php-ini-from-your-cpanel/

i turned it off on the bottom... which I wish they suggested to do that in the installation documentation because this is exactly what got me kicked off bluehost.

display errors is turned off automatically by Elgg.

You should look for the error log parameter. The most common setup is to comment out the error log parameter so that the information is written to Apache's error log. Almost all servers are setup to automatically rotate the Apache error log. With rotation, no more concern over huge log files.

@Cim - yes

@cash yes i am using elgg's default ajax loader for the widgets. is that what's causing the problem?

they sent me an email about cpu usage and they said this

The scripts /home/manacim/public_html/engine/handlers/pagehandler.php and /home/manacim/public_html/mod/tidypics/thumbnail.php together take 70% CPU.

this is just right now with 2-3 people! idk what's going on because it wasn't acting up like this for the past 7 days or so

@ Cash: you said - "Also, you are using the vanilla Elgg widget loading code? It is extremely inefficient and many sites rip out the lazy loading."

And replace it with?  I'd rather not have to reinvent the wheel if someone's already got code to replace it with...

I intend to release a plugin with different widget loading code.

Excellent. Any timeframe?