BT bandwidth?

Vance Wood

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For you BTers out there. Do any of you have any idea why Bonsai Talk seems to have such a serious band width problem that it puts the site down, at least my access to it, twice a week?
 

meushi

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Vance,

It could be linked to the rule saying that you have to host the pictures on BT itself. That eats up bandwidth fast enough that most forums I know have the exact opposite policy, no local attachments and put everything on a free image host.

Michael
 
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Actually, as a founder and editor on a couple forums, I prefer that all images be uploaded directly to the sites, mainly because this assures that the images will be available for future readers. When they are hot-linked in from another server, that server may change, the user may delete the pictures in the future, or change hosts. When this happens, the post on the forum is then useless, no pictures anymore.

As to BT's bandwidth usage limits, I find it hard to believe that it happens every month, for crying out loud, up your limit then. Of course, it also is a good ploy to solicit donations. ;)

The truth is that there are programs offered that will assure that the site is not shut down, in fact BT is the only site which seems to have a shut off limit. It is a simple thing to correct, if one wants to.

One would think with all the ads there from porta johns to compost, not to mention the auction area, and the donations, you wouldn't think there was a cash flow problem.



Will
 

meushi

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Actually on some of the forums I frequent, the uploaded pictures are automatically offloaded to free hosters transparently. That reduces the bandwidth problems a lot while keeping everything sorted.
 

Ozzy

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Too many pictures and posts about crappy twigs that aren't even fit for firewood hogging all the bandwidth I'd say. :rolleyes:
 

anttal63

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Too many pictures and posts about crappy twigs that aren't even fit for firewood hogging all the bandwidth I'd say. :rolleyes:

no doubt about ya oz you speak ya mind but givem a break everybody wants to play. as we all know bt is a very high traffic site but yes i agree they need to deal with this fast it is becoming very annoying. as soon as they are back up again i will put my funds in to show my appreciation for this year.
 

Vance Wood

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Look, I don't know anymore about this issue than anyone else who has had a comment. However; I have been around this site a long time and I have never seen this kind of thing before. If it is a ploy, as some would suggest, just to get more money out of its members that's a sad state of affairs.
 

Ozzy

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Well some people start these things for love and some for money, obviously the guy doesn't want to chip in any more of his own dough so its not for love is it. :D
I think the message is send funds NOW. ;)
 

Smoke

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Matt Chroust, the administrator, has not frequented the site much in the past two years. In fact the moderators have not had to so much as warn anyone about anything for as many years. There is not alot of usefull content going on at many of the forums now. I have not seen anything from Carl Bergstrom for years, Tony fell off the Earth, Behr has been pretty silent. Havn't heard a peep from John Dixon lately nor much from Mark Rockwell.

Back in the day when Matt was on the net much more due to employment woes in a Silicon Valley meltdown, he kept up with affairs and had much more to do with the site. Like many of us bonsai has changed very much in the past 10 years. I am not so sure all of it has been good, but I know some of it has been very good.

I do know I tire of the endless barage of pointless posts that could be answered with a trip to the search function and read up on a myriad of posts on the same subject for at least 7 years at BT.

I come to this site daily, like many others and sometimes in a 24 hour period a "new posts" search will come up nothing. I find that on a few other forums also. Bt is always busy. I find that a user search for the day at a couple other forums show that maybe 3 or 5 users were there for the entire day while I can see that when I get home from work there may be as many as 50 or 60 users looking at files at BT at that moment. It is a very active site and by far the most widely used forum on the net.

cheers, Al
 
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JTGJr25

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I too would like to know why it's down all the time. I agree that it is clogged up with pointless posts but those are for the most part contained in certain forums. Normally the show and tell and General sections are free of that stuff. Those are the only two I really look at for those reasons.

Tom
 
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... I have not seen anything from Carl Bergstrom for years, Tony fell off the Earth, Behr has been pretty silent. Havn't heard a peep from John Dixon lately nor much from Mark Rockwell.
Carl (AoB founder and editor) checks in at AoB from time to time, he is quite busy with the WHO, a new baby, and he got tenure at the university. He has always been at AoB when needed and his advice and guidance has been invaluable. Behr (AoB and KoB editor) had some computer issues but has been a major asset at KoB and AoB, his talents are many and greatly valued and appreciated. John (AoB editor) has been at AoB regularly, but not steadily, lately he has been deleted spam there like it had a bounty on it. I have no clue about Tony and Mark.

I come to this site daily, like many others and sometimes in a 24 hour period a "new posts" search will come up nothing. I find that on a few other forums also. Bt is always busy. I find that a user search for the day at a couple other forums show that maybe 3 or 5 users were there for the entire day while I can see that when I get home from work there may be as many as 50 or 60 users looking at files at BT at that moment. It is a very active site and by far the most widely used forum on the net.
Quality vs Quantity is an old debate that I think we all know too well.....
 
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Vance Wood

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Carl (AoB founder and editor) checks in at AoB from time to time, he is quite busy with the WHO, a new baby, and he got tenure at the university. He has always been at AoB when needed and his advice and guidance has been invaluable. Behr (AoB and KoB editor) had some computer issues but has been a major asset at KoB and AoB, his talents are many and greatly valued and appreciated. John (AoB editor) has been at AoB regularly, but not steadily, lately he has been deleted spam there like it had a bounty on it. I have no clue about Tony and Mark.


Quality vs Quantity is an old debate that I think we all know too well.....

Off subject as to BT problem but related to individuals identified in other places in this post. I suspect that many avoid some of the Forum input because it seems any attempt to reply with something more than basic going nowhere fast suggestions can be met with hostility and personal attack. Just a personal observation which along with four dollars might get you a cup of coffee at Star Bucks.
 

Pine Barron

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I can tell you two are just eating this up.
 

subnet_rx

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If I had to to guess, it'd be a couple of things. First, they might allow hot-linking, which can eat up bandwidth on a site that has a lot of images. Second, they haven't changed hosting plans in a while. All new hosting plants will give you much more bandwidth than you need, it's usually server resources that a forum spends first.

While BT is a fairly busy forum in bonsai terms, it's not in wide world of forums. If they are using over 50GB of bandwidth a month, then something is wrong.
 

Bonsai Nut

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it's usually server resources that a forum spends first.

While BT is a fairly busy forum in bonsai terms, it's not in wide world of forums. If they are using over 50GB of bandwidth a month, then something is wrong.

I agree with you (without knowing any specifics). About 50% of the time that I have site problems (on this or other sites) it is due to something my host did or did NOT do. However half of the time it is my fault. Sometimes it is related to site maintenance chores that have gone untended (on forums this often has to do with database maintenance) but it can also be something wierd like personal icon use.
 
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Vance Wood

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I stand corrected. I remember several years ago when there was a lot of activity on the site with flame wars, photos and a lot of posts; the site only went down when it was supposedly hacked. Since then a number of very active members have been baned or bailed and generally silent and now it is out of bandwidth. That shows you how much I know about computers, servers and cows feeding flowers.
 

anttal63

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Quality vs Quantity is an old debate that I think we all know too well.....[/QUOTE]

there is no debate!

If it is a ploy, as some would suggest, just to get more money out of its members that's a sad state of affairs......[/QUOTE]

as you can see the family over at bt is already pulling together to help out.no ploys,games or master plans as such.

thanks for the interest fella's.
 
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