Reset account settings

[Steve]

I have just made some policy changes regarding some of the features of this forum and how they relate to non-supporting members. Effective immediately, non-supporting (or "regular") members will no longer be able to access their advanced profile settings (avatar picture, additional email addresses, website address, etc.), as well as numerous other premium features that the forum offers.

Because of this change, in one week I will be resetting to default the profiles of all non-supporting members. In other words, if you're a "regular" non-supporting member, your avatar picture and other account settings will be cleared in one week unless you choose to become a Supporting Member.

This website (and forum) will continue to remain free and open to everyone, but certain premium features will only be available if you choose to help support the site.

Steve

[Ronzo]

Why the changes? Are we chewing up a lot of bandwidth? Or...?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving you a hard time. I'm just wondering what prompted the decision.

[Steve]

Why the changes? Are we chewing up a lot of bandwidth? Or?

It's an incentive for people to support this website.

Free (non-paying) membership = basic features.
Supporting membership = premium features.

It costs me over $100/month to keep this website running. I pay the operating expenses out of my personal funds (i.e., this website is not owned or run by a business or corporate entity, rather it's owned and operated by me, myself, and I. 

I don't think it's too much to ask that people help support this place... especially the ones who've directly benefited from it. 

[Ronzo]

I don't think it's too much to ask that people help support this place... especially the ones who've directly benefited from it. 

I didn't say it was too much. I simply asked a question.


I'm an admin/site owner myself, so I understand where you're coming from. My questions were to solicit more detail so folks who don't know now understand where you are coming from.

If you're paying that much a month, you must be on a dedicated server. I pay a little over that in a year for the site I run (7GB of space/ Unmetered bandwidth).

Thanks


(Next pay check, I'll drop some cash in the bucket)

[Steve]

I didn't say it was too much. I simply asked a question.


I'm an admin/site owner myself, so I understand where you're coming from. My questions were to solicit more detail so folks who don't know now understand where you are coming from.

If you're paying that much a month, you must be on a dedicated server. I pay a little over that in a year for the site I run.

Thanks

This site burns through MySQL resources and shared hosting is no longer an option. 

And, no offense taken. I'm glad you asked why I was making the changes. 

[Ronzo]

This site burns through MySQL resources and shared hosting is no longer an option. 

I totally understand. You get a lot of traffic here.

And, no offense taken. I'm glad you asked why I was making the changes. 

I just wanted to make sure you understood I wasn't trying to cause a ruckus.

[Perk]

I gave a small donation, all I can afford right now 
But I will say if you are spending $100 a month for a site
Then that is WAY too much!! run as fast as you can from the ISP
You are using a free message board, I actually like SMF. Definately good.
I've used boards like Vbulletin that can cost a penny and the SMF is just as good.

I have a graphic site thundercrush.com and it cost me $100 for 2 years.
Has unlimited mysql databases and I guarantee you won't use the bandwith here.
It's now around $120 for 2 years. It's probably time for me to renew too. bummer!

[Steve]

I gave a small donation, all I can afford right now 

Thank you!! 

But I will say if you are spending $100 a month for a site
Then that is WAY too much!! run as fast as you can from the ISP
You are using a free message board, I actually like SMF. Definately good.
I've used boards like Vbulletin that can cost a penny and the SMF is just as good.

I have a graphic site thundercrush.com and it cost me $100 for 2 years.
Has unlimited mysql databases and I guarantee you won't use the bandwith here.
It's now around $120 for 2 years. It's probably time for me to renew too. bummer!

Been there, done that! 

When this website was born (several years ago), I too was using shared ($5/month) hosting plans with virtualy unlimited bandwidth and MySQL databases. But, as the site grew, so did its appetite for resources. After switching web hosting providers numerous times, it was determined that it wasn't the number of databases offered, but the number of concurrent connections to the database that was killing the site. And I mean that literally. With all of the users accessing the database, plus all of the spiders and bots crawling the forum, the database would crash. It wasn't until I moved to my current web hosting provider that things began working smoothly again. 

So, those inexpensive shared hosting plans are great for average websites, but as soon as you start taxing the server, well, that's when things start to get ugly. And I'm not spending $100/month on just the hosting package, that figure also includes other expenses associated with running this site.

So, while I appreciate everyone suggesting that I can save a lot of money by switching to a different host, I've already been there and done that! 

And regarding forum software, I think I'm going to stick with SMF. Version 1.1 looks very promising! 

[itsinthesauce]

Steve, I just made my donation....keep up the good work!

[Steve]

I have decided not to proceed with my plans to restrict the advanced profile settings (and reset the accounts) for non-supporting members.

[mmarston]

I'm in for a small donation. Sometimes you just need to nudge people a bit.
This is a great forum, and I really appreciate the lack of vibrating ads.

[Steve]

I'm in for a small donation. Sometimes you just need to nudge people a bit.
This is a great forum, and I really appreciate the lack of vibrating ads.

The ads are pretty low-key for regular members... since you're now a Supporting Member (thank you!) you should see no ads! 

[Glutenboy]

Steve --

I just made a long-overdue donation.  Do I now get access to supersecret resources?

-- Glutenboy 

[Steve]

Steve --

I just made a long-overdue donation.  Do I now get access to supersecret resources?

-- Glutenboy 

You do now! Thanks!