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

[Albafika]

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.

Seems like things have changed...

I mean, KC-MM gets how many people/guests online at the same time? Top 400, right? Then how come this forum can hold this massive amount of Guests while Proboards is hosting? Or this? Or this one?

I also looked around to see if I found some people complaining about Proboards' bandwitch, and only found this and mistakes like this

Point is, no one seems to be having problems with their forums being kicked for what I've looked.

Also, seems like bandwitch is unlimited for everyone, as paid services don't include them, as well as it mentions it on the general "Features".

EDIT: The irony, I got Error 500 twice while posting this. <_< (And just had a 8 minutes freeze while fixing some miss spelt words. <_<)

[Miacis]

Then what do you think is the reason we got kicked out ? >_>

We had the Texture Gallery, and now we have BV. And both of them gather a huge amount of queries.

[Vyse]

I'm pretty sure we left Proboards because everyone hated it, not because of bandwidth concerns.

The free bandwidth was probably the one reason we stayed as long as we did.

[Miacis]

Okay, I said nothing. ~

On a side-note, I've just asked someone pretty competent in the domain.
Count around $60 A MONTH for hosting the boards+BV somewhere.

How many people are ready to pump the $30 EVERY MONTH that I won't be able to pay myself ? Not many, I guess ...

[mnsg]

The Error 500 messages can be a pain when you're trying to update a post that you've made.  If only this place can expand its bandwidth even further than it is now.

[JBG]

This is all incredibly irritating. Personally, I say we move to ProBoards and try to recreate this forum the best that we can, but then if also possible, leave BrawlVault here and leave a link to it at the top of the forums like we have now.

My idea in short

-Recreate the KCMM forums on Proboards to the best of our ability
-Leave BrawlVault on forums.kc-mm.com linking to it from the proboards forum and the blog
-see what happens.

[SJS]

Let me start off by spouting some nonsense. LST Forums will not have bandwidth issues. Also, I beta tested the Proboards V5. Epic stuff there. Really makes me glad I decided to make the LST forum on Proboards (which I've seen support communities as large as this one).

And our hacks still taking up BrawlVault traffic? No problemo, I'll gladly take all of mine down.

And I got three Error 500s as I was trying to post this super srs post.

Oh, here's an idea. Try removing your forums games section for a week and see how that jives with your bandwidth. You know, for science.

[SiLeNtDo0m]

I just got six, yes SIX Error 500s and Error 503s IN A ROW

Somebody just freakin fix this

[JBG]

Again I present the idea of moving to proboards, or, well I'm also partly on board with SJS's idea of the forum games removal. It's by far the area that gets the most traffic, you can see it in the statistics.

[ピカノ]

Moving forums (again) would mean abandoning (again) everything we have.
-Topics
-Posts
-Usernames
-Awards

Also, Brawl Vault is heavily integrated into the forum. It could be a stand alone entity (using this forum's login features)... but that is also a hassle.

I have said for a long time that Brawl Vault was resource intensive and that it needs to be optimized. But, as the sole programmer... I have no time to make such an extensive fix.

Also, some features are naturally resource intensive... such as all the safety measures I've had to implement due to people whining about download count abuse and the like.

I'm sure that in the short run I can disable many features (download count / abuse prevention, action logging, sig generator, statistics page) to speed things up... but I really just need someone who can code something better than the vault.

Anyway... when did the issues start getting really bad anyway? We've had tons of people at other times with a bit less issue... maybe some recent change to the forum itself screwed things up?

[Miacis]

On a side note, we've almost hit a new record in our Most People Online Ever today, and I don't even understand why. Even Guests have been flooding in.

That's a terrible timing, but there's nothing we can do about that.  

Again I present the idea of moving to proboards, or, well I'm also partly on board with SJS's idea of the forum games removal. It's by far the area that gets the most traffic, you can see it in the statistics.

We'll be adding advertisements to pay for a new server host before you see us taking down a section that's used so much. If people post there, it's because they want to. Removing a whole part of the boards that users enjoy so much is the last of our options here.

Besides, are you guys blind or what ? If people don't post in Forum Games, they'll post elsewhere. I don't see what's so difficult to understand.
I've never seen a forum section causing bandwidth issue all by itself, and I don't see why it would start now. >_>

[SJS]

Before calling people dumb and making assumptions, why not try it so you can back yourself with actual evidence?

[SiLeNtDo0m]

On a side note, we've almost hit a new record in our Most People Online Ever today, and I don't even understand why. Even Guests have been flooding in.

Maybe it was Waluigi?  You know that whole incident with Conan?  Maybe it's like that, but with Waluigi since he's been featured on a number of sites recently.

[Miacis]

Before calling people dumb and making assumptions, why not try it so you can back yourself with actual evidence?

It's simple: because I don't plan on removing huge chunks of the boards unless someone gives me EVIDENCE that it's going to be any bit useful. And not "for science" and/or because some users like to put the blame on the Family and Forum Games for every issue that comes up on this [censored]ing board.

Maybe it was Waluigi?  You know that whole incident with Conan?  Maybe it&#039;s like that, but with Waluigi since he&#039;s been featured on a number of sites recently.

Indeed it is. Wow, what a pretty awful timing indeed. Everyone, I ask you to be patient, there are hundreds of visitors coming from outside. Don't talk to dem strangers Please bear with it until the boards become calmer. There's nothing we can do but wait. ._.

*******************************************************

Now, let's be clear, I've contacted Dantarion, who's hosting us for free, (when something like our website could be charged for $40 a month) and asked him about our situation, and our possible ways out of this.

We will not, I repeat WE WILL NOT make any move until we know where we are going. That is, when Dantarion replies to us.
So don't ask, don't complain, don't try to rush us, we won't do anything until we know where we're going.

PS : And heck no we're not going to move back to those crappy ProBoards and lose all our data + all our mods.

[JBG]

Before calling people dumb and making assumptions, why not try it so you can back yourself with actual evidence?

Quoted fof truth.

And Picano, I can understand the hassle with Brawlvault, that to me seems like the only real thing "keeping" KCMM here. The topics, posts, awards, etc? Oh baww, cry me a river. People can start over, it's like moving out of a neighborhood to a new city.

Perhaps we're integrating a little to much into the forums though. The awards system is a possible good example. They have one on Minus world and it's not causing problems, but they're not as large of a community.

Also, just a thought, but perhaps it's Brawlvault's deep integration into these forums that's causing the issue as well? Again, if we split the forums off of Brawlvault, we would most likely cut the traffic on the server in half, which would be diverted to the proboards server.

And Miacis, how do you know this? Some people just come here FOR the forum games. Not gonna lie, when I'm on my breaks from hacking, it's the only thing that's kept me here until i decide to come back to hacking. You assume way too much.