[Jameson Teqkilla]

Originally posted by iamvladd

that gif

It's fabulous, no?

[Cap10Planet]

Where do those gifs come from?

[iamvladd]

Originally posted by Jameson Teqkilla

It's fabulous, no?

LMAO.
Who is this chick?

[KitKat]

Originally posted by Jameson Teqkilla

It's fabulous, no?

Who is she and why is she in so many videos?

I get the feeling I'm going to die in seven days.

[Nicole]

Whatever you do, just leave my beloved SYG intact, in all of its 10053-page glory.

[josephs911]

The problem is not old thread, or really big threads, a proper server should be able to handle threads with very large topics just fine. The problem seems to be that our server just cant keep up with our ever increasing traffic (mind you more traffic means more memory usage, more hard drive writes, more database calls, more processor power used this all contributes to a slower server) so i am looking at what we can do right now.

The cost which we pay is per month, we currently pay around 150 a month for a server, software licensing and domains and other fees are not included in that and easily add to the bill. Per year yes we do spend in the thousands of dollars most of which comes right out of my pocket.

[Cap10Planet]

Originally posted by josephs911

The problem is not old thread, or really big threads, a proper server should be able to handle threads with very large topics just fine. The problem seems to be that our server just cant keep up with our ever increasing traffic (mind you more traffic means more memory usage, more hard drive writes, more database calls, more processor power used this all contributes to a slower server) so i am looking at what we can do right now.

The cost which we pay is per month, we currently pay around 150 a month for a server, software licensing and domains and other fees are not included in that and easily add to the bill. Per year yes we do spend in the thousands of dollars most of which comes right out of my pocket.

I think limiting certain topics/sections to outsiders/lurkers would do the deed, just in the meantime.

[Lipton]

Originally posted by josephs911

The cost which we pay is per month, we currently pay around 150 a month for a server, software licensing and domains and other fees are not included in that and easily add to the bill. Per year yes we do spend in the thousands of dollars most of which comes right out of my pocket.

Joe you already know what to do. Add an optional membership that allows for some extra forum features.

Be creative with the incentives. There are ways to gather the coins to maintain a good server. You know some of the tweens will pay if there are some incentives to make their account/posts stand out more than the normal non-subscriber.

[Drais.]

I'm glad this thread is active because this server is really giving me fever. What the hell do we have to do to get a better sever? Donate? What?

This is getting ridiculous.

[crumprKID]

I think if people stopped tweeting their threads to make it a hit then there would be significantly less traffic. And less new people would be joining.

But there really is no way to stop people from tweeting links to their threads.

[Jameson Teqkilla]

Close he forum to guests.

And only have registration once a month.

[Moonage Daydream]

Originally posted by Jameson Teqkilla

Close he forum to guests.

And only have registration once a month.

Agree with the first.

Do not agree so much with the second. Well it's a practical suggestion too, but I don't know of too many other forums that limit registration to just once a month, and it kinda seems unfair to have to wait a whole month to become a member.

But waiting that long would force a prospective member to lurk around and get a feel of how things go around here so they don't come into this forum as completely clueless newbies who may get themselves into unpleasant situations without realizing it. Of course, that would mean getting rid of suggestion #1, as they would have to be able to access the forum without registering.

[KitKat]

Originally posted by Lipton

Joe you already know what to do. Add an optional membership that allows for some extra forum features.

Be creative with the incentives. There are ways to gather the coins to maintain a good server. You know some of the tweens will pay if there are some incentives to make their account/posts stand out more than the normal non-subscriber.

I can't tell if you're joking or not, but I'd actually be down for this.

[Neptune]

Originally posted by josephs911

The cost which we pay is per month, we currently pay around 150 a month for a server, software licensing and domains and other fees are not included in that and easily add to the bill. Per year yes we do spend in the thousands of dollars most of which comes right out of my pocket.

I was going to say that's not much until I saw it comes out of your pocket

Could you not charge for some kind of special features? Or a one time payment for something like a name change

[Athens]

Originally posted by Cap10Planet

I think limiting certain topics/sections to outsiders/lurkers would do the deed, just in the meantime.

We've been looking into limiting non-essential areas for guests. If it turns out to be worth it, I think we'll do something there.

Originally posted by Lipton

Add an optional membership that allows for some extra forum features.

Bringing back ATRL Contributors as a donation feature has been looked into before, but the problem there is the limited amount of additional features we can offer to make it truly worthwhile and sustainable in the long run. We've got some neat features that are turned off like profile design customization, but that would probably surge bandwidth costs past any gains in revenue we got from making it a donation feature. We'll take a second look at this though.

Originally posted by MonsterUK

Or a one time payment for something like a name change

I like it, like it.

[HIM]

Leave Music News/Charts for guest, others closed off

[Lipton]

Originally posted by Athens

Bringing back ATRL Contributors as a donation feature has been looked into before, but the problem there is the limited amount of additional features we can offer to make it truly worthwhile and sustainable in the long run. We've got some neat features that are turned off like profile design customization, but that would probably surge bandwidth costs past any gains in revenue we got from making it a donation feature. We'll take a second look at this though.



I like it, like it.

You're on the right idea with these types of ideas. The coins will have to come from the members. It's just a matter of finding the best method of enticing them to pay.

What features are turned off on this vB version? Also, have you done an estimation of how many people would need to pay and how much they would need to pay to make the implementation worthwhile in terms of offsetting the extra bandwidth like you said.

Is the donation feature really bringing in coins?

[Peep]

Quit the Dirty Talk topic

[Athens]

I think it's all about being subtle in any approach to monetizing the forum. We'd love to give members an added boost with subscription based accounts, but we also don't want to depreciate the experience for regular members by giving too much to a special group. It's also not something that can be relied on long term, as a reduced interest in those special accounts would mean Joe has to go even further out of pocket to cover the extra costs.

Originally posted by Lipton

What features are turned off on this vB version?

I can't remember off-hand, but if you can find a list of vbulliten 3.8.5 features, you'd be able to see what we didn't add.

Also, have you done an estimation of how many people would need to pay and how much they would need to pay to make the implementation worthwhile in terms of offsetting the extra bandwidth like you said.

We're still looking into the costs of a new server, but to offset the costs for Joe would take about 50-60 people at $5 per month for a really good one. That's a hard # to reach, and even if we did, I doubt it would hold up long-term.

All that said, we're going to continue a full evaluation of the forum and I'll most likely be covering some of the cost on my end. That's the best option for Joe to take the leap into getting a new server. If we decide to implement additional things like subscription based accounts, it'll just be to ease things as much as possible.

[Celestial]

I just made a donation of $300. I hope it helps.