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Underground > Policy & Help >

The Board is getting flaky

11:38 / 31.03.05

I'm sorry to anyone who noticed the outage at lunchtime today. Pair.com shut down the database server because Barbelith was bringing down other sites using the same database... The board is now getting very very flaky because of the weight of old posts and the sizes of the database and I'm probably going to have to think about new ways of handlnig / managing it. I just thought I should warn you guys about this stuff.

I'm beginning to think that I might have to put Google Ads or something on the site for people who aren't logged in - hopefully the revenue we could get from that could mean a moer stable server. This is only speculative at the moment though...

12:54 / 31.03.05

And remember folks, you can always donate money via paypal to help out with hosting costs...

13:10 / 31.03.05

For details...check here.

Tryphena Absent

13:48 / 31.03.05

Sleaze, have you ever thought about a career in game shows? In my imagination you're so much better and crueler than Chris Tarrant.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:09 / 31.03.05

But is this a problem that is solved by money? I mean, Tom pays a pair subscription already...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:28 / 31.03.05

I know nothing about this computery stuff, but from the sounds of:

I'm beginning to think that I might have to put Google Ads or something on the site for people who aren't logged in - hopefully the revenue we could get from that could mean a moer stable server.

it sounds it could be a problem that could be solved by money.

16:49 / 31.03.05

As I understand it, this is a problem that requires further expenditure to fix and as the board is already costing Tom money out of his own pocket, now might well be a good time to donate funds to help cover the costs. There are no obligations to do so, but it could well be helpful.

All Acting Regiment

18:43 / 31.03.05

Would it be possible/plausible to take the oldest 50% of the material on the site, and zip it away somewhere where it wasn't taking up bandwidth/costing money, but be able to ask for a copy via email or something? Therefore the current site only takes up half as much space as it does now? Obviously that's not a permanent solution,but...

19:57 / 31.03.05

How much are Amazon links worth? Is there much value in encouraging people generally to turn Amazon links into Barbefunding versions before posting, and perhaps even asking mods to go through active threads and modify existing links?

20:11 / 31.03.05

Basically I get very conflicted around the whole thing. In a way ANY problem can be fixed with enough money, cos then you can get some expert to fix it for you. One issue is whether we move to a dedicated server, which is a bit of a palaver but I guess it's manageable. If we did that things wouldn't be so bad, but it would cost a little extra.

The other question is the perennial one - how do we develop the site software further - particularly since it's not reasonable of us to keep expecting Cal to bail us out (as he's just about to do again). Part of me wants to know whether or not Google ads or whatever could bring in enough money to help that happen - or to allow me to spend more time on the site. But of course it's all a bit complicated because I don't know how I feel about having advertising on the site at all and I don't know how you guys feel about it, or whether - in the most ludicrously unlikely circumstances - if I were to start profiting from the site. It's all a bit complicated, really.

21:33 / 31.03.05

Is this the time when it becomes more reasonable to delete old Conversation topics?

22:30 / 31.03.05

Problem is that basically I should keep them for legal reasons anyway, and if you deleted them from the board then they'd still be in the database, so it wouldn't make much difference. BAsically there's not an enormous amount you guys can do about this stuff really, except tell me what you're comfortable with. And I'll just try and keep you informed about what Cal and I end up deciding at this stage.

22:42 / 31.03.05

For what it's worth, I'd rather see Google ads than half of the Conversation expunged. There's a lot of crap in the Convo but there's enough quality lurking in there to make me think it's often disparaged rather unfairly. And personally, I would have no problem if the board started running a profit, particularly if the money could be ploughed into enhancements.

08:53 / 01.04.05

I think it's a shame that more members don't contribute to the site's running costs, but I'm not sure I'd object to Google ads for the unlogged in.

Tryphena Absent

11:50 / 01.04.05

I don't know how you guys feel about it, or whether - in the most ludicrously unlikely circumstances - if I were to start profiting from the site

You've been paying for this site for years, I don't think any of us would resent you getting that money back.

15:59 / 02.04.05

Agreed. I think it would be lovely if you made a couple bucks... er... quid... whatever... off the board.

18:04 / 02.04.05

Hell, give us Google. It's always an extra entertainment on any site to see what they think suits the audience. Can you imagine what they'd try and plug in Headshop?
[Hmmm... thread coming on...]

13:16 / 03.04.05

I should just tell everyone that Cal's been doing some work on the board in the background and has managed to sort out some of the issues. THe board should now be running much faster than before and should flake out less often. Hopefully this will mean that Pair won't get so irritatble too.

13:19 / 03.04.05

Oh and I"m going to look into two things - moving to a dedicated server and putting up Google ads. The latter will be an experiment to see how much money it generates. If it's enough for me to consider using it to develop Barbelith further then I may keep it up for a while.

08:48 / 04.04.05

I had a thought while driving home yesterday: We could try to raise some cash through a bring-n-buy type sale. Get members of the board to donate items and auction them off through EBay or some similar system with the proceeds going to the board. It works for schools trying to raise money for a new computer and for churches raising money for a roof, why shouldn't it work for the board to fund a server, at least for a while? If there's an issue with people not having EBay accounts, I'd gladly do the listing...

05:36 / 05.04.05

Nice idea Grey Area.

If the non-members get ads, members don't plan doesn't bring in enough revenue, perhpas you could set up a system where making a certain size donation gets the ads removed for a couple months. That may be objected to and/or a pain to implement code-wise.