| Author | Subject: Please Read... |
| Tim McGrath | Posted At 11:39:30 07/12/2001
I think we should all give a thank's to the wemaster for providing us with this awesome site and it is FREE!!! He/she works hard to keep up with the rules of the Forum and he dosent see a "Red Cent" for his work. Thanks whoever you are, Tim McGrath Cape Cod Herps |
| Ian Dungan |
Re: Please Read...
5706.html Posted At 14:53:48 07/12/2001 If the webmaster will give out his address we could all send him some cash for his time and efforts. :) |
| Webmaster |
Re: Please Read...
5708.html Posted At 16:13:22 07/12/2001 Tim - thanks! But I have the feeling you are testing me here. You violated one of the rules by not properly labeling the topic line. So now everyone is waiting to see if the Webslave will delete this thread even though it's a pat on the back for him. ;) Ian - to be perfectly honest, the time is coming when I may have to hold my hand out to maintain this board. The stats are showing an average of 500 meg of data transfers per day. My current plan only allows for a max of 10 gig of transfers per month. Some simple math here shows an impending problem looming on the horizon (again!) At the current rates (which seem to increase every month) it looks like this site may hit 15 gigs by the end of the month. Even though I chopped out as many graphics images as I could and stripped out the text at the into of the page, it is still growing by leaps and bounds. At present there is just no feasible way to archive older posts here to cut down the size of the board itself. This is fun (in a sick kind of way) and all, but I can't keep looking at it as a bottomless pit for me to throw money into every month, with the likelihood that it's going to get deeper all of the time. So sooner or later I am going to have to do something about this. I certainly don't look at this as being a money-making opportunity, because my attitude is that I make my money from orders to my SerpenCo site from people buying animals, and in some way I feel obligated to give something back in return. But pretty soon, this is going to be a substantial chunk of change per month to keep it operational and I needn't be silly about taking on the burden all on my own shoulders. With snakes beginning to hatch out, this won't happen soon, but eventually I will have to set up some sort of subscription system. Probably for the entire HerpWantAds site, which will include access to the For Sale, Wanteds, and Board of Inquiry all combined. Since I fully expect that a lot of people will just stop coming here rather than pay a subscription fee, I will be able to charge a minimal amount (probably $10 per year) and that will cover my costs as traffic drops off from lost visitors. Of course, then I have to maintain the subscription list. Knowing how I forget about things like this, that $10 per year will probably be more like for 3 years instead of for just 1 year. ;) I really do hate the thought of doing this, because the real power in this forum is by the number of people taking part in it. If anyone has any suggestions about how I could better handle this expense part of it, I'm open for suggestions. Except I do not want to accept banner ads. I hate them myself and resent being bombarded by advertising everywhere I go on the net (or TV, Radio, magazines, newspapers, billboards, ad nauseum). Darn! Now that I've went and typed all of this in, I certainly don't want to delete this thread. Hoist by my own petard (whatever a 'petard' really is - some private part of my anatomy, I'll bet)! |
| Danny Russell |
Re: Please Read...
5709.html Posted At 16:15:13 07/12/2001 Yup. I think the webmaster definitely deserve some kind of reward from the public. Guys just think that how much he had helped u to save by not buying bad dealers. |
| Ritchie Luna |
Re: Please Read...
5710.html Posted At 16:40:34 07/12/2001 $10 per year sounds good. I would pay it....just to avoid getting scammed. Also maybe you can start doing advertising....like banners and stuff. People pay to advertise on your site. Just a thought. |
| steve barringer |
Re: Please Read...
5711.html Posted At 16:51:59 07/12/2001 alright, i'm gonna get ripped to shreds for this one but i feel it's a definate way out. webmaster if you wanna cut a helluva lot of traffic down without hurting the board of inquiry, why don't ya get rid of the herps for sale and herps wanted sections. there's plenty of places to buy and sell animals, but your board of inquiry is simply untouchable. alright guys, time to tear me a new one. steve |
| Kat Hall |
Re: Please Read...
5713.html Posted At 17:29:49 07/12/2001 Suggestion: In order to decrease the amount of data downloaded each time the site is accessed, perhaps split the board of inquiry up into three sections: Good guys, Bad guys, and Info. I don't know if that'd help or not with the total amount of data downloaded, but it's a thought. -Kat |
| JERRY TRESSER |
A SOLUTION
5719.html Posted At 19:38:45 07/12/2001 Dear Rich, you may want to consider some form of advertising section to help defray the cost that you are incurring. By the looks of all the links that people are placing on the forum, a banner ad with a yearly fee is not a bad idea. |
| Darin Chappell |
Re: Please Read...
5720.html Posted At 20:02:14 07/12/2001 Rich, I know that we all like to see what has transpired with old threads as they turn into new ones, but couldn't you simply delete all threads after they are a month old or something? It seems as if they get worn out in a few days as rapidly as we all respond anyway. Would that help the total amount being downloaded each time someone logs on? Just a thought. Dain |
| Ryan Johnson |
Re: Please Read...
5723.html Posted At 20:45:14 07/12/2001 Well, what if everyuone can have one account, and minimize it to where they can only post a certain number of listings per week, or month. Maybe that would help a little bit. |
| Webmaster |
Re: Please Read...
5735.html Posted At 23:50:16 07/12/2001 Everyone, Banner ads take up bandwidth. Plain and simple. People paying for such things want them prominently displayed, and that means they get displayed every time someone loads the page. I had one myself here for a short time, but it was adding up far too much on the transfer totals each month and I took it down. Deleting old threads has been discussed before. Consider the situation where you were raked over the coals by someone 6 months ago and posted about it then. Nothing new has transpired about it, but it is still a sore spot for you and you want to keep the warning for all to read. Now suppose I delete this thread every month. How long are you going to keep coming back to repost it every month? You'll certainly get tired of doing that, and meantime, that someone that screwed you is on the loose with nothing to point the finger at him/her. Unfortunately, most old threads don't lose their validity just because a certain period of time has elapsed. As for having accounts for people with limited numbers of postings, just whom is going to monitor that? It's either monitor each and every post, keeping tabs on whom has posted what, or writing a new system that would do it automatically. It's not likely I will ever have time to do either one, and each one could easily be circumvented with a minimum of effort. As for the idea about splitting the board into three sections, I'll bet you $1 that I would be forever policing ALL of the boards deleting inappropriately placed messages or messages that were being placed in all three forums. You would be appalled at the number of times I have to do this each day just for the Herps For Sale and the Herps Wanted boards. Thanks, but no thanks. Now for Steve's suggestion about dropping the sales and wanted ads sections completely. I already have the domain name BoardOfInquiry.com reserved with this possibly in mind, but the problem would be transferring this board to it. Whomever wrote the software for this message board system made a fatal error in coding for anyone whom would want to transfer it to another server, or even to another directory on the same server. All of the links are fixed (absolute) addresses. In other words, when you click on a link to a message, it is written into the html code for the message board the full and complete URL of the message. This is set in concrete, and the only way the message board could be moved is by MANUALLY editing every file and every link pointing to another file to reflect the new server being used. Obviously, that would be a BIG PAIN in the patootie. If the programmer has used relative addressing, all of the addresses would be relative to the main message board and the whole system could be moved with only a few minor changes in the setup scripts. Unfortunately, the programmer didn't come to me for advice before the coding started..... Of course I could just keep it on HerpWantAds.com, but the name just is not appropriate then for the information it is providing. Perhaps a minor point for most people, but details like that can drive me up a wall. Sorry to sound so negative as I shoot down all of the suggestions, but if the solution were an easy one, I probably would have thought of it already. But thanks for the thoughts. |
| steve barringer |
Re: Please Read...
5740.html Posted At 00:41:25 07/13/2001 webslave, an idea: maybe you could go ahead and start the new board of inquiry and post a link to it. everyone (who comes back atleast) could go there and repost their posts that they had posted here and if/when the time comes that this board has to be abandoned, the new board will contain the same info having been running for however long. this of coarse would make your slavery even harder for a while trying to monitor both boards, but just an idea. steve |
| Bob Fisher |
Re: Please Read...
5742.html Posted At 01:12:24 07/13/2001 Why don't you just set up an address or a PO box and anyone who wants to can send in "donations", to keep this thing running?? With the services that all of the boards you offer provide, not one single person that uses it should have any problems giving what they can. Hell, if 1 out of 5 people that use this site would send in 5 or 10 dollars, it would probably carry it a while. I myself would not have a problem with this, just thinking of the money saved from getting ripped off from some of the idiots out there. Also, with all the money being made on the herps for sale page, Why couldn't everyone who posts send in a one time fee for the service? I don't know if any of this is possible, but I know there's many of us out here that would definately give their share. Anyways, everybody post their ideas to keep this good thing going!!! Thumbs up for the webmaster for a job well done!!! |
| Andrea Alexander |
Re: Please Read...
5747.html Posted At 03:17:15 07/13/2001 What about closing this board to new posts (leaving the ability to read what's already here) while starting a new board - set up for maximum convenience such as relative addresses - for all NEW posts? Granted this wouldn't be as nice as continuing the current board forever, but it might be a practical way to do it. There will be a period of a few weeks or even months where folks check both boards (which will be a good idea) -- but it will hit a point where most people check the 'active' board rather than this archive board. At least it will ease the bandwidth a bit. Where money is concerned, I'm pretty picky where mine goes. That said, knowing what a tremendous service you are providing -- and knowing that it DOES make a difference to you, I would be delighted to click a paypal link and send you $10. Thanks for all your work! |
| Susan Willis |
Re: Please Read...
5861.html Posted At 16:10:57 07/16/2001 Webmaster, you may hate me for this, and even delete this post, but this information is easily obtained by anyone who has ever even visited your booth at an expo: SerpenCo P.O. Box 7547 Tallahassee, Florida 32314 Now let the support start flowing! |
| Webslave |
Re: Please Read...
5867.html Posted At 17:19:09 07/16/2001 Well, I thought this would happen: "Hello, Our systems have detected that your domain herpwantads.com might exceed the allottedtraffic/bandwidth limits for your account type. The domain herpwantads.com is over pace for web/ftp traffic in the month of Jul. The total traffic for the month so far is: 6.275 GB. The traffic projection for this month is: 13.446 GB. Your account type has a limit of: 10 GB. We understand that as websites get more popular and expand, your traffic needs may increase. We make it easy for you to upgrade, which should prevent your account from being disabled if it goes over the specified limits. Please visit your member's page website for bandwidth upgrade options or to change the account type. Upgrading your plan with a higher limit might be more cost effective for you. We want to keep your website successful and growing. Thank you for your attention, OLM.net" I really don't have the time to fuss with this stuff right now.... The snakes are hatching. |
| Debora Chandler |
Re: Please Read...
5914.html Posted At 11:57:37 07/17/2001 I'm sending my donation to the webmaster tomorrow. Thanks so much for the Board of Inquiry Forum!! ~~Debbie |
| Barry Deak |
please read
5951.html Posted At 22:28:26 07/17/2001 I tend to agree with Mr.Barringer. Okay, it's my turn to get ripped apart! But instead of deleting everything, why not take off the herps wanted portion. I mean really, if you want an animal search the herps for sale section! Hmm, wait that sounds too easy. What was that address for donation's again? Barry |
| Nick Thomas |
Re: Please Read...
6011.html Posted At 18:28:57 07/18/2001 Why not just ask people to only read posts of those they are going to/thinking of doing business with. I, as I'm sure many others read several posts of people we haven't heard about and have no interest in doing business with. You seem to have a pretty strong following, and I'm sure several people would stop if you'd just ask them? Not even sure if this'll work, but it's an idea. I admit, I'm probably one of the people that wouldn't pay for a membership fee. I have too many subscriptions and memberships to renew every year alread. Just an idea, hope this helps. NT |