Advance warning

You guys are killing me!!! Chances are bandwidth will hit the 60gb mark near the end of the month, so this is just advance warning. We've got really popular recently for some reason... (thanks to these websites)

I would like to refer back to an earlier joke I made about this and reiterate: haha, I told you so!

Crap, I'd better start digging my bunker again, so I'll have somewhere to cower when theres no Snarkpit around... again.

aww :sad: . You'll have to increase the bandwidth again lep :wink:

Site's business is booming. Seeing new records for users online up in the 30s and whatnot now. :smile: /me congratulates the consoles lep over the success and upcoming bill, respectively :biggrin:

Its the magic of the HL2.

Get more bandwidth, add a Paypal button. Well, Im broke, but Im quite sure some with a more steady economic situation is willing to help out.

When a Snarkpit server is finalised (I got my new PC at last so expect to see some movenent soon..) we were discussing having a paypal account for that, so they could perhaps be conjoined. Either way nice to see the traffic boominbg, HL2 + winter = carnage, tbh!

I offer all the time but the fair haired leper doth refuse in his modesty :razz: Crazy foo!

If you want to host some larger files on my site, I know we have the bandwidth to spare.

/me still remembers when the site lived through to 1/4 million hits in one week

Lemme know if you have any larger files you would want to throw over.

I concur. Once I get my employment situation nailed down, I'd be happy to help out.

I'll help any way I can, Lep.

All my download links refer to external (i.e. my site's) downloads. :smile:

I did that a while ago, but... ah... I'm doing my part! :biggrin:

Oh dear, we need to chase some of the people away...

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Pvt.Scythe</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Oh dear, we need to chase some of the people away... </DIV></DIV>
Lol, I think most of you already do that pretty well.

Careful what you say there Scythe. I think most of us would consider you pretty new around here. Heck, by some standards I'm damn new around here. :biggrin: I don't think getting rid of the n00bs is really the solution we are looking for.

I don't think that the members cause all the traffic TB... and sorry for forgetting the *Sarcasm colour...

I know you were joking. Maybe I ought to have used lightblue as well.

If I may help out, I notice there are still quite a few optimisations that could save bandwith. Small things like the new topic icon is 5.9k, I managed to compress it to 2.9k as a gif, and visually no loss in quality.

You could also revert to <div> tags, and xhtml, there is a LOT of page source just going into very messy tables at the moment.

Just a hint :wink:

We could also buy Russia and then we'll have control of all the hackers computers their and we can use them as servers. Now all we need is 800 billion dollars and where in business.

I heard something about how a long time ago, you deleted "idleling" users? Supposedly this helped bandwith?

And out of curiousity, how much does more bandwith cost?! :O

avoid Every so often users who haven't logged in for a long time were cleared out of the database, or there was criteria.

It wasnt/isnt to help avoiding breaking bandwidth limit, moreso general spring cleaning as far as i'm aware...

Bandwidth is usually done per gb, and isnt too expensive. I imagine the
costs can still be fairly easily managed by one person (ie Leperous)

Or we put a block on all members from #575 on back. Then we hold secret meetings for ourselves and create a cult that will someday rule Mars. Muahhaha it's all as I have planned.

I think #500 would be better, gotta keep it to a nice round number :razz:

500? Wha? But...

Oh, mine is 323. Good idea. Let's rule Mars. And while we're on it, lets rule the moon too.

If it does die this time and next month looks bad, I will come begging Gwil, don't you worry :wink: Ta for all the nice words though; I don't really want to have to resort to a Paypal box (not because of pride, just because they look naff!) and yeah I know a lot of site code is messy and crap but it's slowly changing over to the world of CSS.

Oh and by the way the recent site-deaths have been caused by people DDoSing my hosts, apparently (don't think it's this site though, unless our past enemies have now grown brain cells!)

Hmm I saw this comming, ever since css came out there has been a rash breakout of noob mappers. I remember seeing that the member number jumped from 800 to 1000 in just 3 days!

Give me a pay pal link and ill donte some, and If I win the valve mapping contest ill donate even more:D

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Captain P</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>500? Wha? But...

Oh, mine is 323. Good idea. Let's rule Mars. And while we're on it, lets rule the moon too.
</DIV></DIV>

493 :biggrin: go for it
I agree for a paypal linkeh and maybe deleting users who haven't been active for about 3 months or something.

PayPal is the best option. You don't even need to use a link on the main site, just place it in the forums somewhere, people will stumble upon it. PayPal is a good idea, I might add one to my site as I'm "branching out", so to speak. I've got to buy webspace if I want to do anymore with the site. RENEGATUS DOT COM has sold out! :O

We signed up for a little banner add on certain high-traffic areas at one point. That's another option for you. Find out if lots of people are hotlinking to the tutorials, and if they are, throw a banner add up on those pages. That way, the banners aren't always sitting around looking ugly, but you still get the benefeit of possible clicks.

Although it wasn't very profitable. But it's cool, I have a credit on the card I signed up with for 18 cents. That's comedy, right there.

That's a good idea, something like Google ads on pages when people have come in from somewhere else or aren't registered... might be worth 18 cents of my time to build And thanks again for the PayPal support, like I said I won't bug you unless things go bad!

i dont want adverts...

why not stop offsite linking to tutorials, so you have to go to the homepage of the snarkpit and gol from there?

If he were to do that, instead of just hotlinking to the tutorial, the people would hotlink to the tutorial, have it redirect them to the frontpage, and have them wander around the site looking for the tutorials, netting more bandwidth loss, no matter how small it seems at the time.

Make it so only unregistered users see the banners :smile:

Actually, a PayPal link would be cool. You could even mess with snarkmarks if someone donates. The link could be there with IRC and search links (which need to be moved to a more noticable location, by the way)

I'd donate something (if it was needed), but I can't even pay for school :sad:

banner adds for the unregistered sounds about the best idea, short of a paypal button.

Crono said:
You could even mess with snarkmarks if someone donates.

and put a little star or a snark or something next to the nick or under the stats or something

or the nick in a different color.

hmm, thou shall never run mars, not as long as my almighty snarks are
diggin the martian mud for me. it shall make me the biggest mud company
in teh whole universe!!!!

Snarkpit rules:D It has much more of a community spirit than some of the bigger sites out there. Hope it stays around a while:D

? quoting Crono
You could even mess with snarkmarks if someone donates.

and put a little star or a snark or something next to the nick or under the stats or something

or the nick in a different color.

...No.

my eyes hurt, so i am not up to reading all 4 pages at this point but i would like to say that i would rather see outside linking disabled, with only inside linking possible over any options that consider banners and whatnot.

snarkpit is one of the few completely clean sites when it comes to boorish adverts and popups.

i have been to sites where its virtually impossible to even acquire a link address to any images and such to prevent others from hotlinking to them, i see no reason why we cannot do the same.

if you have your tutorials and such be only viewed as a java window, and remove the link so no one can access it, it should eliminate all bandwidth issues from that source.

right now, all tutorials are contained within a normal page, which is easy to obtain a web address from, if all our pages were java popups exactly like the member/whos online, that would remove all problems.

/2cents

That would throw up huge compatibility problems, Orpheus, viewing everything in java(script).

And outside linking is what makes snarkpit so well-known for its
quality tutorials. I'd rather see some large files moved over to other
webspaces.

^agreed^

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Forceflow</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>That would throw up huge compatibility problems, Orpheus, viewing everything in java(script).

</DIV></DIV>

a fair percentage of the pit is already viewed in a java window, and i detect no issues at all.

the window is resizable, and can accommodate rather large pages, how would it effect us to move all tutorials and reviews to a similar system?
i am dumb, but willing to listen, please explain this "problem" thing.

I really think the main problem with that idea is that no-body could get into the website. Perhaps Lep could "allow" only specific websites to link us?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting G.Ballblue</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I really think the main problem with that idea is that no-body could get into the website. Perhaps Lep could "allow" only specific websites to link us? </DIV></DIV>

i still do not understand, why can nobody "get in?"

either i am the dumb one, or someone else is, cause i am confused.. how can removing "hot linking" prevent anyone from "getting in?"

look at the link of sites lep posted, a large percentage was "Tut's" i assume it was to read them, but if it was to only link "TO" them, that stupid, let the acquire their own copies.
explain this prevention notion please.

By preventing hot linking, then you basically need to know the name of the Site, or the URL to get in. I suppose you could get in through MSN, or google, but not through any other sites.

Hmmm, I feel a little in the dark myself as well. Someone add on to this?

Orph is only suggesting removing the ability to hot link to tutorial
pages Ballblue, not removing the ability to hot link to the site front
or anything. I'm not sure its a good idea anyway though, I like the
ability to point people from other forums directly to people's
tutorials, as well as map pages and profiles.

Hotlinking is if you take someone elses address and post a link to it. Blocking it doesn't effect browser bookmarks though.

[edit]

maybe I misunderstood what someone was asking ...

remind yourselves that i can only suggest, when it comes to webpages and their mechanics.

i was only suggesting to prevent anything as drastic as pop-ups or banners being considered.

i already told lep ages ago, that i would help in a monetary way, if i could.. no strings attached of course.

i do not want this site to degrade for something as minor as bandwidth shortages.

i am dumb, but i do know that hotlinking is a vast bandwidth user.

in all fairness, there may be better suggestions contained in these pages.. i will shut up now, since my idea has little or no merit. :/

remind yourselves that i can only suggest, when it comes to webpages and their mechanics.

i was only suggesting to prevent anything as drastic as pop-ups or banners being considered.

i already told lep ages ago, that i would help in a monetary way, if i could.. no strings attached of course.

i do not want this site to degrade for something as minor as bandwidth shortages.

i am dumb, but i do know that hotlinking is a vast bandwidth user.

in all fairness, there may be better suggestions contained in these
pages.. i will shut up now, since my idea has little or no merit. :/

I think hotlinking to map downloads should be disabled for sure. They're the largest thing on this site.

Displaying ads is a good solution IMO. Especially if the ads are gaming related, which would probably be the case; they might even be useful. Without pop ups of course, maybe a little banner about the latest releases... Just my own input about the issue.. :smile:

How about... banner ads for unregistered users, and a paypal button for all users. Popup ads... well... noone would come here anymore, so i guess the bandwidth issue would be solved...