IMPORTANT: LETTER FROM OUR HOST

[furst]

We are growing a bit too fast for our own good. The shared hosting plan is no longer realistic for us and a dedicated server costs about $120.00/month (in comparison to the $5.00/month shared hosting we are with now).

The main issue seems to be with the images that our forum holds such as avatars and a few of the icons. There needs to be a solution to this and quickly.


The following is really the only thing I can come up with right now.

First of all, I could disable avatars for all but subscribed members. This would definitely help with the issue, but it would not be a complete solution. The subscription fee would be $5.00-$10.00/month. I could set up a way to accept credit card payments and perhaps more of you could put in and keep this place alive.

Ads will be placed in more places. There will be an ad after each first post in a thread and one above the shoutbox. Subscribed members would not see the ads.

Alternatively, about a dozen of you could donate about $10.00 monthly and that way everything would be kept as is for everyone.

Considering the amount of people that use this site on a daily basis, I do not think that this is too much to ask for.

This is really the choice of all the members here. I cannot have a $120.00/month out of pocket expense right now. If it was less than that I would not be making this thread.

I really hope that no one starts thinking that I am just looking for a quick way to make a buck. So far I have spent money on software, custom scripts, advertising, and all of the server fees. There have been subscribers and other contributors and I thank you all for it.



If you have any other thoughts I want to hear them.


Here are the e-mails that I received today.

Dear Customer: Your account for bowrd.com (http://bowrd.com/) is being sent this warning: To Whom It May Concern: As of this notice, you have 31 concurrent connections to the web server, which is too many for a shared hosting environment. This appears to be caused by the number of images that are being used on your forums. (Every visitor to your forums loads each image on the page every time they load the page unless they have it cached.) Please reduce the number of images on your forums to continue using the shared hosting resources. Thank you for your prompt attention in this matter. To resolve this as soon as possible, a trouble ticket regarding this warning has already been opened for you, and you can reply back to it immediately by replying to this email.


Hello,

The problem isn\'t with the size of the images, its with the number of images being loaded at once by a number of people at once. The
underlying issue is the number of Apache connections being
made to the server at once, and there is one for each
non-cached copy of each image. If you have 30 people
visiting the site at a time (even if only at peak times),
then your site may be too popular for a shared hosting
account, as we generally allow 20 concurrent connections to
the server before the account in question begins to impact
the other accounts on the same server.

Thank you for your prompt response
:doubt:



Update:

I got at them again to tried and prolong our time on the shared hosting plan since I'm not able to accept credit card payments just yet.

Hello,

Could you tell me if my site is still causing problems for you? It's just
that I haven't had any extreme traffic spikes lately (especially not
yesterday), but all of a sudden you're telling me I have too many concurrent
connections. Was it really my site that was causing the problem on this
server?
Their response:

While the traffic to your site and the number of
Apache processes being consumed does represent an
ongoing problem we've been keeping a close eye on
the server and the load your site is placing on
the server hasn't been such that we've needed to
suspend service. If that changes we'll let you
know. Thank you for your cooperation, and thank
you for using HostRocket!

So it seems like everything is all good, right? Not really.. today I get this:

Dear Customer: Your account for bowrd.com (http://bowrd.com/) is being sent this warning: Hello. It has come to our attention that your website, bowrd.com (http://bowrd.com/) accounts for 33.73% of server traffic. Currently you are on a shared hosting server. In shared hosting, multiple sites are hosted on a single server, so each site \"shares\" server space and resources with other customers. However, to be fair to the other sites on the server there are limitations with shared hosting. This email is to inform you that your domain is receiving too much traffic to remain in a shared hosting environment. Excessive traffic can lead to causing downtime, and slower response times for the other sites on the server. You may want to consider upgrading your account to a dedicated server to avoid problems in the future. A Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server devoted solely to you. You do not share the server with other customers as with shared hosting. This freedom allows you to have total control over what is on your website, the number of websites or domain names hosted on the server, disk space usage, and complete freedom to install whatever you desire such as the latest versions of PHP and MySQL. Dedicated servers also come with their own email systems. For more information feel free to call our dedicated support department

Until we get approved by a CC billing company and they install their software on our server I am going to have to cut out avatars (and maybe some other things) to cut down on server load because I don't want them suspending our account. It shouldn't be later than the end of this month, so the change is temporary.

[leaninoffsprite]

furst im scared...

[Jim Blastingame]

ifi pay for a member ship then u have to listen to suggesttions about rep and let me upload atttachments in ym graff thread other wise i hope thtis site does dissapear.

if u agree ill sign up tomorow

[furst]

With dedicated hosting we would have almost 100gigs of storage space, so yes... subbed members will be able to add attachments. The subbed members could also get more repping freedom.

[Jim Blastingame]

hmmm now your talking

[Morbid the Unknown]

Lets see... To many pics you say... Does this have to do with how many pics have been posted or that to many people are viewing pics in threads ( at one time). If it's to many pics then I think threads on the sex bowrd should be deleted after a cetain mmmount of time. We have so many leaches on the sex bowrd which means many of them might be viewing the same thread. Most threads on the Sex Bowrd have a good deal of pics. Mabey you should make this site invite only or make the Sex Bowrd Exclusive to members over 250 posts.

Im not even sure if I really know what the problem is and all that I mention may have nothing to do with it. Though I hope it helped anyway.

[furst]

No, the pics in the threads on the sex bowrd are hosting on other servers like imagevenue. That has nothing to do with us.

[TROY]

so we should limit picture posting?

[furst]

No, when you post pictures you use an outside host like imagevenue or imageshack. Those pictures do not take up any of our resources and do not effect us. It's pics like the avatars and icons which are hosted on our server that are bogging us down.

[Morbid the Unknown]

allow avatars to people with a 1000 posts or more and Sigs to cats with 200 posts or more. Cut out smiles if they have anythign to do with it.

[ChristCrusher]

Why not just make it mandatory for avatars to be hosted on outside servers? The option is there so why not use it. I know this would not be a complete solution but it would help without getting rid of avatars completely wouldn't it?

[Dane]

CC is very wise and smart. I would listen to him

[ChristCrusher]

Yeah.... I may not be that wise... I just went to go change my avatar to a outside server but even when you choose to use a url for your avatar not upload I'm pretty sure it still uploads the picture... so much for that idea...

[furst]

Why not just make it mandatory for avatars to be hosted on outside servers? The option is there so why not use it. I know this would not be a complete solution but it would help without getting rid of avatars completely wouldn't it?
No, the option is not there. When you enter an url of a picture to act as your avatar that image gets transloaded to our servers and hosted here.

[Digital Christ]

I need something other than PayPal to help,,,,

PS
Digi is back state side and can network home PC stee,hahahahahhaha,

[ChristCrusher]

No, the option is not there. When you enter an url of a picture to act as your avatar that image gets transloaded to our servers and hosted here.

Guess I'm gonna be sendin some money your way.

[Talleyrand]

I don't have PayPal but if you can accept CC payments I'll contribute.

[furst]

I will look for the cheapest dedicated hosting that isn't complete crap this week.. there's also a small bowrd upgrade coming up which will allow CC processing.

The question remains though, would you like to have about a dozen people contributing $10.00/month or would you like to have it based on subscriptions and subscribed members would get way more permissions than non-subbed members?

[Talleyrand]

Do it by subs.

[Streetie]

i say you just ban the leachers and nere do wells

that solves the problem... right?

[Horus]

Furst, I appreciate all the help, and hella resources...While it wouldnt be above me to occasionally drop 10 bucks to a good cause..Im afraid, that this forum, has waaaay too much shit talking to really make me want to pay to be a part of that. Considering that most of the music (which is why I came -FREE music) comes from that other spot I frequent(you know which one Im talking about), and that other spot is still free, I think it would be wisest of me to just let my time here end. it'd be nice to drop in once in a while to see just how demented this place is, cuz its certainly been worth a laugh or three. I'll stick it out until the time to pony up comes(or I get banned for posting this) really its not that i dont like it here, but as i said, Im just morally opposed to paying to hear rants about how acidhouse needs a good rectal probing....anyhoo, that's my three cents worth
. good luck to all

[acidhouse]

...

I'm gettin' a new credit card soon, an happy to help the bowrd out.
Subs idea sounds cool.

:gnd:

[mindfork]

furst, the solution to your problem does not lie in subscriptions. can you really rely on all these deadbeats to support the forum? no. the answer lies in advertising. you can get a dedicated host for about $50/month and easily make that up and more with advertising. you should have one banner on the top of each page and one banner on the bottom. I suggest a porn banner and a poker banner. i'm not an expert on poker banners but it seems at first glance that party poker might be good. porn on the other hand, is a different story. i can tell you that the banners that make the most money are the ones of sexy young girls with high quality photography. MET-Art is a good example of this. you may consider switching the ad on a regular basis and recording how well each did each time.

[furst]

The biggest forums I've ever seen relied on subscriptions (forums that almost always have 1000 people online). Ads will be in place as well, but subbed members won't see them.

Show me a dedicated server for $50.00/month and make sure it's not a VPS.

[Misanthrope]

this news is no fun.

[One_Twisted_Fuck]

Fuck ads and banners. I hate them on forums. Do it without the ads, Im too stoned to comment any more on this matter. I just wanted to let you know that you should not put banners and ads on the sanctum. Just pollute sex.bowrd with banners and no one will care cause they still get free porn. fuck the wankers

[Bigradgeandy]

furst, i will pay for mine and talleyrands subscriptions if you up a picture of your little brothers balls, i will need proof though that they are indeed his balls, ie write furst on a bit paper and stick it next to his sack and take a snapshot

[TROY]

i live paycheck to paycheck.
there's no way i'd ever pay for being on a internet message board.

nigga, is you crazy?

[Bigradgeandy]

i was considering paying the dollar a month until you started censoring my posts about metal chefs horrible son

[furst]

Fuck ads and banners. I hate them on forums. Do it without the ads, Im too stoned to comment any more on this matter. I just wanted to let you know that you should not put banners and ads on the sanctum. Just pollute sex.bowrd with banners and no one will care cause they still get free porn. fuck the wankers
Don't know if you've noticed, but that's pretty much what has been done so far. I wanted to use the sex bowrd to pay for this place completely but unfortantely it hasn't worked out like that. Until our Alexa rating (http://sanctum.bowrd.com/www.alexa.com/search?q=bowrd.com) is much higher, ads will not bring in enough money to cover the server costs.

[uk goon]

i will pay for a sub as long as its not stupid bucks, paypal would be helpful

[PU$$YCONTIN]

who gives a shit about ads... put ads on here... wtf is the big deal if there are ads on here?? just don't click them. they just sit there who gives a fuck? why on earth would ads bother someone? if you don't click on them then they just sit there in the background... what the fuck does it matter? how can that bother people?

[Travesty]

i could put up with a ton of ads

[Catfish Hunter]

It's a shame my twelve dollars wasn't enough to keep this place afloat.

If people want to suscribe then go ahead, but don't make excuses why you won't. Excuses are worthless.

Edit- Yeah put in ads too and make us host our avatars on imageshack if possible. Big deal.

[PU$$YCONTIN]

i seriously want to know what is such a big deal about ads?? am i missing something? do they acually do something to effect the bowrd?

if the only reason for people not wanting them is "oh man we hafta look at them" then i'm seriously going to punch a tree into the air... there better be a good fucking reason why ads on the sanctum would suck..



LaLa

[furst]

Ads alone will not be enough to cover server fees once we transfer to a dedicated server.

[PU$$YCONTIN]

thank you for clearing that up for me furst seriously haha

i was about to explode in rage

[Doc B]

SHIT!!!!! i thought all this was free

[furst]

SHIT!!!!! i thought all this was free
It is while I'm paying the bills, but when the bills increase ten fold it'll be too much for me to cover on my own.

[leaninoffsprite]

it was fun while it lasted furst

[Digital Christ]

who gives a shit about ads... put ads on here... wtf is the big deal if there are ads on here?? just don't click them. they just sit there who gives a fuck? why on earth would ads bother someone? if you don't click on them then they just sit there in the background... what the fuck does it matter? how can that bother people?
Co-signed.
And Furst I could most def send U some dough like a money order because my vacation only being 4-5 days instead of weeks saved me some major cream I'd saved for a while for that shit too.

[Doc B]

It is while I'm paying the bills, but when the bills increase ten fold it'll be too much for me to cover on my own.

money out ur pocket?? not good i thought this was a free board that you set up cause ur a cool guy...boy i have alot to learn!!!!

[Talleyrand]

I don't care at all about ads. We're surrounded by them everyday anyway, so what's the big deal? I will pay for a sub and you should make a public sub drive/telethon so we all know when we've reached the goal.

[furst]

you should make a public sub drive/telethon so we all know when we've reached the goal.
Yes, I was thinking about putting a meter somewhere on the site that would show how much more we have till we reach our monthly goal.

[PU$$YCONTIN]

furst tomorrow im going to meet up with my lawyer about a settlement with the brunswick bowling alley.. if all goes well i will seriously give u a hundred dollars like i promised a couple months ago

[Travesty]

i will try and set up a telethon program on the PBS

[Streetie]

the one and only, p b s

[Jim Blastingame]

furst im gonna somehow find a waay for the bowrd to be shhut down so i wouldnt invest another penny in this shithole.

[Jay Weishaupt]

SAVE THE GODDAMN BOWRD ALEX.

and no, you can not have my money you filthy russian jew.

[DarthChef]

Ads wouldn't be a bad idea, otherwise I'd toss in some dimes to keep this place afloat.

[Morbid the Unknown]

I will send a monthly dollar because my Jew blood wont allow more than that. If you never get a cent from me it's because the "Jew Blood" over powered the giving Christian blood.

PS: I would have to do money order and you most likely would never get a cent. Though i would try.

[furst]

I got at them again to tried and prolong our time on the shared hosting plan since I'm not able to accept credit card payments just yet.

Hello,

Could you tell me if my site is still causing problems for you? It's just
that I haven't had any extreme traffic spikes lately (especially not
yesterday), but all of a sudden you're telling me I have too many concurrent
connections. Was it really my site that was causing the problem on this
server?
Their response:

While the traffic to your site and the number of
Apache processes being consumed does represent an
ongoing problem we've been keeping a close eye on
the server and the load your site is placing on
the server hasn't been such that we've needed to
suspend service. If that changes we'll let you
know. Thank you for your cooperation, and thank
you for using HostRocket!

So it seems like everything is all good, right? Not really.. today I get this:

Dear Customer: Your account for bowrd.com (http://bowrd.com/) is being sent this warning: Hello. It has come to our attention that your website, bowrd.com (http://bowrd.com/) accounts for 33.73% of server traffic. Currently you are on a shared hosting server. In shared hosting, multiple sites are hosted on a single server, so each site \"shares\" server space and resources with other customers. However, to be fair to the other sites on the server there are limitations with shared hosting. This email is to inform you that your domain is receiving too much traffic to remain in a shared hosting environment. Excessive traffic can lead to causing downtime, and slower response times for the other sites on the server. You may want to consider upgrading your account to a dedicated server to avoid problems in the future. A Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server devoted solely to you. You do not share the server with other customers as with shared hosting. This freedom allows you to have total control over what is on your website, the number of websites or domain names hosted on the server, disk space usage, and complete freedom to install whatever you desire such as the latest versions of PHP and MySQL. Dedicated servers also come with their own email systems. For more information feel free to call our dedicated support department

Until we get approved by a CC billing company and they install their software on our server I am going to have to cut out avatars (and maybe some other things) to cut down on server load because I don't want them suspending our account. It shouldn't be later than the end of this month, so the change is temporary.

[Travesty]

STOP THAT ACIDHOUSE please, please dont edit again!!!

I said politely : So long fellow Sanctumers I will always cherish our time together when the ship goes down

[The Power Glove]

This is the furst time I have read this entire thread and I can say that the only way I will pay furst is if I get to hand deliver him a sack of money to his front door and shake his hand for his good services to the world.

[PU$$YCONTIN]

This is the furst time I have read this entire thread and I can say that the only way I will pay furst is if I get to hand deliver him a sack of money to his front door and shake his hand for his good services to the world.

fuck you pal

[The Power Glove]

you watch yourself young man

[VegaTheChosen]

i just paid for 5 years of hosting today
unlimted bandwidth and transfer right now there in the middle of transferring servers but i have so much shit on there that its taking quite a bit of time
i wish you the best and hope your problems get solved quick
sounds like youre hosts are clowns and are trying to scam you into getting a more expensive hosting deal
because they kinda contradicted themselves
you should ask for these records and numbers compared to other sites say you wanna see the info for youreself so you can fully understand and see what the problem is
to save space id delete every member who has 0 posts and been here over a month

[Travesty]

goddamnit acidhouse, how dare you change my post

[furst]

It's an issue of concurrent connections and apache resources being used at all times, not an issue of space or bandwidth. Most hosts will only let you maintain a forum up to the point of 30-50 concurrent connections.. this isn't a scam, it's something that I expected, just not so soon.

Once a forum reaches that size you can't remain on a shared server with other sites because it creates a big load and has a negative effect on all the sites on that server, that's when you have to get either a virtual private server or a dedicated host.

[PU$$YCONTIN]

http://img437.imageshack.us/img437/6049/pianowl2.jpg

[Misanthrope]

dont feel bad travesty
he completely deleted mine :(

[Travesty]

people shouldnt be treated thsi way, this is a society weher we are all supposed to get along, whya cidhouse why? why would you do such a sick and twisted thing?

[The Power Glove]

You can't fuck with the current post count leader...he will edit whatever he wants to and he will get away with it, for he and furst have a strong bond.....porn means bond and bond they have.

Edit...I disagree with the editing of travesty's post

Post Edit...I disagree with my own editing of this post

Post Post Edit....Edit

[VegaTheChosen]

ahh gotcha furst i get it
still weak shit either way

[PU$$YCONTIN]

http://img437.imageshack.us/img437/6049/pianowl2.jpg

PU$$YCONTIN says:
look in this thread and tell me if u see anything funny
PU$$YCONTIN says:
glvoe

[Talleyrand]

PU$$YCONTIN says:
look in this thread and tell me if u see anything funny
PU$$YCONTIN says:
glvoe


I wish I could have been there for that.

:(

- Rand

[DarthChef]

extra hand in that picture.........

[Flagged]

Stains on the keys??

[BigVern]

The key next to his finger on his right hand is pressed down, but nothing is pressing it down! ooooo......... Spooky!