Since I'm struggling with bandwidth issues at this time, I have decided to turn off the Chat feature...not that it was getting much use anyway, but every little bit helps at this point.

In the future, I may use it for scheduled chat events.

Thanks for your understanding,
Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Allingham:
Since I'm struggling with bandwidth issues at this time, I have decided to turn off the Chat feature...not that it was getting much use anyway, but every little bit helps at this point.

In the future, I may use it for scheduled chat events.

Thanks for your understanding,
Chris

Chris, Picture posting on the forum has got to be really eating up your banwidth, yes? If needed we can go back to linking to them.

The only bandwidth used in pic posting is the bandwidth for the characters for the link. All the rest comes from the hosting site and in no way is charged to Chris' site.

Bill

Chris,

No problem with your decision...What can "we" do to help ? I know you've gotten a flood of "new members" lately Any suggestions ? Most of us love this place, and we don't want to see you drown in a sea of expenses or bandwith issues !

Thanks for the work you do !

Dean...

Bill is correct. It has more to do with just the overall amount of traffic and page views, plus e-mail notifications and the TVWBB "most popular" post list that is pulled into the TVWB homepage.

I am exploring some options.

Thanks,
Chris

Ok, I would have no problem at all, or with paying a yearly fee to be a member here.

ide pay a yearly fee as well, dude im sorry my donation wasn't a pile, thats why im sitting here online cause i cant afford nothin else right now. i'de be more then happy to be as much assistance to this site as possible though. i'll keep a eye on things keep this in mind amigo. lots of good people here on this site. make everything in black and white. that would be fine! what do you suppose other sites including forums do as far as costs? I have noted that a lot of forums are jumbled and silly and sort of hard to follow and find your way around compared to this one. Is this one of the reasons why we have a "bandwidth" issue? im sorry i don't have a clue what im saying, the word bandwidth to me is like any other word more then seven letters... i cant read it.

I have been going through some of my posts in the recipes forum and the just conversation forum, deleting posts that had no responses to. Not sure if it will help but there's many posts in just conversation that are 30 + days old with no replies. Anybody have some around, clean em up if you would please.

I don't think the answer lies in going back and deleting old posts; it lies in not making posts that make no meaningful contribution to the discussion to begin with. It's all about self-control. The Reply button is an option, not an imperative.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
The Reply button is an option, not an imperative.

My above post Is not about the reply button. It's about posting recipes and crap that you know has no revelance here, on a smoker/smoking forum. I didn't hit the reply button when I posted recipes here, knowing full well that they really didn't fit in here. I hit the New button.

If you post crap, and you know it, and no one replies to it, feel free to delete it.

(And just don't post crap in the future.)

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
If you post crap, and no one replies to it, feel free to delete it.

Whatever..., You know what I mean, and I'm on Chris A's side, and all for this forum. But still after all these years, you still fight me? What gives Doug?

No one's fighting you. I just don't think Chris is raising a red flag and asking anyone to go back and delete old posts as some cost-saving measure. It's just my impression that, in recent months, things have deviated from the old norm, and there's a lot more BS, for lack of a better term, than there used to be. It's to be expected with increased traffic. Not singling anyone out, just my observation.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
No one's fighting you. I just don't think Chris is raising a red flag and asking anyone to go back and delete old posts as some cost-saving measure.

As a long time member of this forum, I can read between the lines.

I am not asking that anyone go back and clean up their old post history. That helps with storage, but not with bandwidth, and bandwidth is the real issue.

Bandwidth is consumed when posting messages (because your message is displayed back to you afterwards), when reading the forum homepages and the message thread therein, when using the search function, when using the chat function...basically anytime content is being displayed into your browser from the BB hosting service. Also, I pull the most popular bulletin board topics into the TVWB homepage anytime someone visits www.virtualweberbullet.com, and that cost me bandwidth, too...something I may stop doing soon.

To a certain extent, this is a great problem to have because it means membership is up and more people are enjoying the content. What makes it a little bit challenging is that the service plan I'm on ramps up the charges for bandwidth at a very steep rate once I exceed certain levels. It was never a problem until this year because we have a lot more members posting and reading a lot more messages.

So I am exploring other hosting options, and also exploring other software options because I don't really like that the software we're using has not evolved over time with new features.

Back to the original question...what can you do to help? Just follow the posting guidelines from the bulletin board terms of service:

• Keep your posts concise.
  
• Keep your replies on-topic.
  
• If reading a message thread causes you to come up with an unrelated question, start another message thread.
  
• Resist the temptation to hit the "Reply" button unless you've got something meaningful to add.
  
• Remember, the bulletin board is basically about posting questions and answers. It is not a chat forum.

I know it's sometimes hard to resist posting a "me, too" message, but maybe it would help to think about it this way...if you had to reach into your pocket and pull out 25 cents and stick it into your computer to post your reply, would you do it? Just a thought.

Thanks for you help,
Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
Ok, I would have no problem at all, or with paying a yearly fee to be a member here.

I appreciate comments like this, but I resist going this route. I am grateful for whatever people are able and willing to do to support the site, whether it's a little bit of Amazon shopping, a small (or large!) PayPal donation, or a TVWB logo t-shirt. It all helps, and it's worked well for the last 10 years.

Regards,
Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:

quote:

Originally posted by Doug D:
No one's fighting you. I just don't think Chris is raising a red flag and asking anyone to go back and delete old posts as some cost-saving measure.

As a long time member of this forum, I can read between the lines.

I'm going to bed now...I suggest you boys shake hands and get a good night's rest, too.