Error 500 (bandwidth issues), users moving to other forums

[toastoftriumph]

Hey there.

Increasingly, I've noticed the issue of "Error 500" messages recurring (which, correct me if I'm wrong, are due to bandwidth issues). Several users on the forum have decided to move to other sites, including those in LST. I'm not here to condemn their behavior or anything; it certainly is frustrating to put up with these issues.
However, what if we took the initiative to solve these problems and prevent unnecessary splits in the Brawl Hacking community?

Assuming that the Error 500 issues can be resolved by paying for higher bandwidth, we could all "chip-in" and donate a bit of money to keep the site running smoothly.

The purpose of this thread: is it worth donating towards, and would you yourself donate? If so, how much?

Whether or not this idea becomes received well is not my concern; I'm more here to get opinions and responses on this idea.
Additionally, I don't know much about the finances of the site, so if Picano or someone else central to kc-mm could comment concerning these, to put things in perspective, it would help a lot.

[Miacis]

I wouldn't mind spending between 20 and 30 dollars a month to keep a new server running, honestly. Until now, I've been spending it on something that I really don't need, and if it could keep this site healthy, I'd love to help like that.

Also, moving to LST probably isn't going to be the best idea. And I'm not saying that because of petty competition.
They are hosted on Proboards. We were hosted by these guys 2 years ago, when our traffic was about a tenth of our current traffic. And they kicked us for taking too much bandwidth. That is obviously much worse than 500 errors.

We're currently trying to look for way to reduce queries and the number of Errors 500. Like, now, Guests won't be able to access anything but the most basic Hacking boards, and BV.
But it's not enough, and we have to keep finding more and more ideas.

[dRage]

They are hosted on Proboards. We were hosted by these guys 2 years ago, when our traffic was about a tenth of our current traffic. And they kicked us for taking too much bandwidth. That is obviously much worse than 500 errors.

This, so many times this. Most people haven't been around long enough to realize this and instead [censored] about how crappy our server is. In fact I saw people spouting nonsense like "This never happened on a proboards forum for me."

Back then the entire bloody forum went down because we were taking up too much bandwith for proboards. The situation now might blow but it's still way better than what we had before.

As for people moving to LST, well for a while I thought splitting the traffic might help in the long run. But in reality, all hacks still get uploaded to BV which means our traffic won't change all that much. Though as Miacis stated, if moving to LST becomes a trend then that forum will soon share the same fate KC:MM did 2 years ago.

The thing about donations is, that it's a bit risky. I can see that we probably wouldn't have trouble getting the requied money now that the topic is hot but what will be in a few months after the hostchange? People will start to forget about the Error 500 ordeal and their eagerness to donate will dimnish. Next we know we can't meet the monthly fee and poof goes the forum.

[StarWaffle]

Are you saying it will be 20-30 a month in total  to get more bandwidth.  Or is that what you are willing to donate and really it costs a lot more?    I currently do not have a job, but if its only 20-30 a month i'm sure i could donate like what... 5 bucks a month?  

Moving to LST could help you guys out a bit though. taking a fraction of the traffic elsewhere.... idk. I don't feel its competition. We are basically the same thing >.>


Edit: how about we get rid of BRTSM entries in the vault?

Edit: also I completly agree with black boo on the whole family thread.  Why not just make a new threac, lock it, and add an embeded IRC chat in the main post. It will still feel like you are on KC:MM, just without all the f5's.... or maybe a Xat chat, so people can still have their avies n stuff.

[dRage]

Edit: also I completly agree with black boo on the whole family thread.  Why not just make a new threac, lock it, and add an embeded IRC chat in the main post. It will still feel like you are on KC:MM, just without all the f5's

I'll quote my reply from the admin section

How is that going to fix the insane amount of guest views we get?

Your "solution" is nothing but a drop of water on a hot stone.

[StarWaffle]

It wouldn't help in the slightest?  I'm not an expert on bandwidth D=  but wouldn't you save a lot refreshes/page views and posts?  

Just restrict guests from viewing the family thread and make it an IRC?  i mean it is the most viewed thread by a longshot with "511527" views. It is also the #2 posted in topic (and i'm sure its been restarted a bunch)  i think it would help out a bit...   And with beyonds thread being the 2nd most viewed and having moved to LST...   Are you saying this won't help at all?  D=



idk ... just trying to throw out ideas here.


edit:  Again I'm willing to help out with funds. I should be getting a "job" soon. Atm I am only paying $40 a year for LST related stuff.

[Vyse]

Guests outnumber registered members at almost any given point of time.

IIRC, when we left Proboards, stage hacking was barely even a thing. The SD Loader hadn't been around for very long. I dunno, it's hard to remember that far back. But if I'm right, Miacis saying we had a tenth of our current traffic is probably being too generous.

[StarWaffle]

I doubt we'll get more than we can handle over at LSTeam Forums >.>  but I'm sure it'll help you guys with people checking out the vertex section a bit, knowing beyonds thread isnt there. 

We'll see what happens... No one anwered my question about how much it will cost to get rid of the "500 errors"

[Miacis]

I'll just quote my post from the admin section, about the Family Thread :

I honestly kinda doubt it's going to have any effect. The Thread is already dying down, and I'm not sure if the number of Errors 500 is caused by the Family anyways. They just have the same cause, which is the overall increase of traffic on the boards (and BV) as a whole, so of course if one of them goes up, the other does as well.

When we hit page 10.000 with the current Family thread and have to create a new one, I guess we could wait for a week before making a new one, as an experiment, but I doubt it's going to make much difference. People will just get in other Forum Games threads. Or Off-Topic, or anywhere else, really.
Error 500 = Too many queries. If people don't make queries in the Fam thread, they'll go and make queries elswhere.
We can't keep a constant activity on the boards and reduce traffic/queries at the same time, they are both side of the same coin. So either we find a way to turn people away from the website (which is dumb), or we pay for a better server (which costs money).

http://kittyleaksleaksleaks.blogspot.com/2011/08/episode-48.html
SJS's comics may be funny, but I wouldn't refer to them as an accurate analysis of the boards.
Even though he ingrained in a lot of people's minds that it was the Family that was the cause of the Error 500s.
It's about as accurate as saying that Las Vegas is the major cause of why there are social inequalities in the USA.

Just restrict guests from viewing the family thread and make it an IRC?

As I said above, Guests do not have access to it anymore. In fact, they can now only visit the most basic of hacking boards. And BV.

I doubt we'll get more than we can handle over at LSTeam Forums >.>  but I'm sure it'll help you guys with people checking out the vertex section a bit, knowing beyonds thread isnt there. 

We'll see what happens... No one anwered my question about how much it will cost to get rid of the "500 errors"

Reason is : I don't know. We'd have to ask Dantarion or a professionnal for that. And Dantarion is a bit hard to catch.

And when I mentionned $20-$30, I was of course talking about how much I could invest in the website. I have no idea if it's even remotely close from the actual price.

[StarWaffle]

TBH, I never even saw that comic D=

I was just looking at stats

You guys doing the whole guests have limited viewing abilities thing is a good idea.  But man look at thems forum games.

And I still think turning it into an irc thread might help a little... look at all thems views. people wouldn't be constantly refreshing to see new posts. If it were a chat box of some sort, its likely people will just keep that 1 page open.

I dunno what you should do about forum games though...  Maybe only have like a page of games approved by moderators to post in >.>   that would seem a little limited idk.


And would song entries being taken away from the vault help in any way?   theres just so  many of them =|  and they each only have like 10 or so downloads.

and this may sound absurd as well because i have no idea what i'm talking about.  What if you put a quality filter on the vault?  like if something gets under 5-10 downloads in a 3 moth span it gets removed?

edit: I worded that wrong... If they don't acheive 5-10 downloads within their first 2 or 3 months it gets removed...

[Miacis]

Well, these are ideas. But most are ideas that all have the inconvenience of bothering our users beyond what the 500 Error actually does. =/ It's difficult to please everyone, but what's what we've gotta do.

The IRC idea has already been considered. But for once, it's not the same as a thread, and has both good things and bad things about it (so obviously, some users would be left out in the end). Also the fact that we have no control over the IRC whatsoever. The people "administrating" that IRC aren't linked to the staff in any way and from past experience, it's pretty obvious that they do not share our methods of moderating discussions.
So I honestly do not think that it would end up nice with so many people around.

As for "quality filters" ... I don't know, I really don't know. We've always made sure that BV was open to every hack, for everyone.
And I'm pretty sure bandwidth is not affected by the "disk-space" they occupy, but I wouldn't bet my hand on that, so it's kinda difficult to know without the advice of someone knowledgeable.

We've really gotta contact our host Dantarion ... ._.

[ピカノ]

And I'm pretty sure bandwidth is not affected by the "disk-space" they occupy, but I wouldn't bet my hand on that, so it's kinda difficult to know without the advice of someone knowledgeable.

This.

We've really gotta contact our host Dantarion ... ._.

This, harder.

As far as quick fixes go... disabling guest access to the vault would work... for a bit... But, back when we did that while the vault was still the gallery... we just got a huge amount of new registrants.

And implemented.

[GameWatching]

KC MM wouldn't have that error 500 without the 'role players' in the forum games section.

[the98pika]

I've seen like 218 guests once and 64 users i think that the guests are causing the problem (This is what i think)

[Vyse]

KC MM wouldn't have that error 500 without the 'role players' in the forum games section.

pffffthahahaha

No, I don't think so.