STORM2K

There's a couple of things that we would like to discuss with the board. There are a couple of trends that we need to talk about and get a handle on things before things get out of hand.

The first thing is the Games Forum. It's a great place to rack up some quick posts and have some fun at the same time. Unfortunately, it also eats up a lot of disk space! :o To help with the space issue we are going to enable pruning on the Games Forum. What pruning does is remove up old posts. We are going to enable pruning tonight so you may see some of the old posts get deleted. Topics that haven't been used in 30 days will also disappear. This is just a way of getting rid of dead space on the board for more important stuff We don't think it will impact individual users post counts but as the saying goes... "Easy Come Easy Goes" if it does

The other things is a little item about post disipline in general. With so much emphasis on the "Post Club", there has been a tendancy for people to reply to some threads even when they aren't contributing to the actual discussion. That seems to distract from the overall quality of the board. If you have something to say then please say it but let's not put posting numbers above the overall quality of the board! The enthusiasm is great but we all want to keep this a great place to call home!

The Tips forum is a special place for people to go get help when they're having problems. It is always the first place Chad and I check for posts when we come up on the board. Please feel free to read this forum but please keep from posting in this forum unless you have a need for help. If you see a post in there and you have the answer then go ahead but please no extraneous posting in that forum.

Hope this hasn't sounded like complaining...it isn't meant to be! We just wanted to get some things out for discussion! We appreciate your feedback on these items

signed... The Storm2k Admin Team

Thank you for the information, Marshall.

My only issue with what you have said above is this... there are things that me and some members may feel are appropriate and you do not. Understanding most of what we shouldn't say and not understanding such things isn't easy, considering. I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

I see no problem in deleted old game threads, I am sure we aren't going back to see what was posted in most of them from the very beginning.

Thanks for the response Tom. I agree on the games stuff. I love to play them but there is no need to keep the dead Games Topics around. They just occupy space.

On the other subject, there has just been more and more of the "one line" or "one word" posts that don't really say anything. Once in a while that's enough but not all the time. I guess the real point is to participate but do so with purpose not just to make a post.

We have plenty of rom on the server right now but we still need to keep an eye on things. The board is just like a garage. Without attention it collects things. Evry now and then you need to go through and clean house a little bit

that's fine with me. Marshall, just do what you can to keep storm2k as a meeting place for people from all over the world.

Marshall, a couple of things:

1. I for one do not object to the pruning. I would even be ok with stuff older than say, 2 months automatically being removed. If anyone has something they must keep, it can be copied into a text file on your own computer.

2. Is this concern related to S2K going to a new server? Just for fun, how much disc space does S2K take up?

3. Membership seems to be mushrooming. That's a good thing, but growing pains are inevitable.

4. Do pictures take much space, or are they all linked in with the URL's?

We have plenty of disk space... At least another 500mb.. don't worry, we are just taking an extra step just to free up space when its just being used to store 3 month old word games etc... Just planning ahead, to insure storm2k can stay the incredable site that it is

NO objections from me here either, I enjoy being here and spending time here. But I don't go back any farther back than the last time I was on which is usually at most 4 days.

You're welcome for my response, Marshall.

There will be more 'thread' (for lack of a better word) of being 'looked down upon' (for lack of a better phrase) when making some "very few word posts." Part of the family atmosphere seems to be acknowledging peoples thoughts/posts.

If deleting posts that are so many days old is implemented... then "bumping" up posts will be more of a neccesity, so we don't lose what many of us feel are important issues.

We are currently using a little over 215MB of disk space. Not bad when you divide by 140,000 posts LOL. The actual Message Board database is about 91MB of that.

We don't plan on pruning any of the other Forums because there are things that are fun to go back and research. Sometimes necessary for Crow Bakes

As far as the pictures, most pictures are located on off-site servers and therefore don't impact our space usage. We do upload a few for people but it's not he norm.

Hope this helps answer your questions

Can you buy more space, if needed? Or would you start a supporting thing like Aaron did for WxChat?

Just wondering, thanks.

David.

I'm no server expert, so tell me to shut my mouth if what I'm about to say is completely wrong, but...

...only 500 MB? When we got a Packard Bell back in '95, there was 2 GB hard-drive and now it isn't uncommon for computers to have 20-40 GB of hard-drive space. Perhaps there are other issues I don't know about, but it seems a little low.

Yes wildremann.. 500mb for a computer would not be chit... Would be a waste of time... But 500mb of space for a web site is A LOT...... Like we said... Everything we have now is only taking up 215mb of space.. Thats all the weathercentral pages and the site.. Its programs that take up all the space on your puter....

The last thing you guys need to do is worry over this...

Yes I agree with Chad dont worrie about this because it will only make storm2k better than it has been.

Some day in the "not so near future" we may be able to afford our own dedicated server. I did some quick checking the other day and the best deal I could find was around $100.00/month. Since we pay around $100/yr now, that's a pretty big jump! Not in the budget for sure right now!

As far as some of the other questions. Chad is absolutely right about the disk space. We have a lot right now as long as we use it wisely! We can buy additional disk space but it costs $18.00/ 10MB. That's pretty expensive space!

The single biggest issue with a web site is not space but bandwidth. Bandwidth governs how much information we can move out to our users and how fast. We are currently allotted 30GB of bandwidth. Last month we used around 18GB. Every page view or post uses a little bit of bandwidth to move the data from the site to you. While we're over half of our available we still have plenty of growth room!

I hope this helps answer some of your question.

As the accountant of the group - we have enough money in the funds to cover the renewal of the site space and if the need arises we can add more....

If you would like to donate to the cause - either contact me at ticka1@storm2k.org or via PM.

Patricia

Thank you. I thought you had your own server for some reason, so I wondered what kind of computer it would be that only had 500 MB of disk space. Of course, now that it's not midnight, I can also see how ridiculous it is to think that you would have had your own. You would have to have a T1 line and a registered domain name, both of which are fairly expensive. Of course, you could always offer web-hosting to other sites to cover the cost, but, the whole point is not webhosting, but a weather site with a popular forum. So, rambling over, what I'm saying is, I was mistaken about the nature of the server. I think that's all.

Just don't resort to pop-up's or ad's on the site.

David, we have avoided pop-ups and ads like the plague! We will go to great lengths to avoid those in the future I can assure you. I see no reason for us to change the way the site is hosted in the foreseeable future. We have a good solid hosting company and reasonable rates. It's just up to the Admin staff to make sure we make the most of it and provide a solid home for all of us!

BRAVO!!!! Yes indeed, the Games forum was ONE of the huge problems over at TWC, that's the #1 reason for the Off Topic being shut down (there.....the truth FINALLY comes out, I was asked by TWC Admin team NOT to mention this but OH WELL "LOL!")

Dennis

LOL Dennis... You da man