View Full Version : WooHoo
Boohoo
02-01-2006, 6:00 AM
I was so happy to sit down with my morning coffee and find AC up and running. :dance2:
aquarob
02-01-2006, 6:10 AM
Me too! =P
Yipeeeee! Me too!
:)
Lila
themadblimper
02-01-2006, 6:50 AM
Yeah, what was going on? I couldn't log on for the past few days... :confused:
Debra Mark
02-01-2006, 8:03 AM
Yay!!! going through some serious AC withdrawl....;)
There's just too many of us. We're allowed only so much bandwidth (computer traffic) a month. Once we reach our quota, our hosting company cut us off. To avoid these sorts of outages in the future, the people running this forum would have to spend more money. This could easily be paid for by placing ads on the forum. I would definitely not mind seeing ads as long as no pop-ups where allowed if it would keep the site up all month.
During this website outage, I lost 25+ gallons on the floor when a siphon failed, a couple black mollies developed columnaris, and a pregnant molly died when she did not release her babies on time. I had to turn to other fish forums for advice and consolation.
SITE ADMINS: Please PM or email me about running ads. I've helped my middle school son develop enough income to pay for college though unobtrusive and ethical advertising on his website.
Dangerdoll
02-01-2006, 8:14 AM
ugh... talk about withdrawals..... Dirk, you take the cake....
I had no catastrophes other than phantom anxiety of the Bandwidth crack....
hurricanejedi
02-01-2006, 8:20 AM
I'm glad its back. I've had this happen to a personal web site before so I was waiting for Feb 1st to come around so the quota was reset.
In this time my cycle has gotten going and I'm dosing ammonia daily now (1.5 weeks in).
beviking
02-01-2006, 8:30 AM
Yuh...serious withdrawal! Just when I thought I could give back a little by posting ads...*poof*...not site :(
Met some awesome people at plantedtank.net and would like to thank them for "keeping the edge off"! :D
Wow Dirk, sounds great! Any idea how you opened a door to requests...? Uh, my daughter will be heading off to college in a couple years (hint hint) :D
wesleydnunder
02-01-2006, 8:33 AM
I wondered what happened. I'm pretty new to all this computer/internet stuff and thought I was doing something wrong. I missed my aquarium people.
Mark
nursie
02-01-2006, 8:34 AM
AAHHHHHH......feel much better now :D
Good luck Dirk...the adm has been resistant to this kind of thing so far..
To everyone...they do accept donations via paypal to help with site expenses. How much is youd daily AC fix worth??
I was assuming that there must have been some kind of attack that flooded servers and used up all the bandwidth. There are always some disgruntled idiots that are forced to leave the board and have just enough knowledge to cause damage.
Glad AC is back.
I wonder if the site owner or mods would be willing to set up a pay-pal donation system? I've seen this on many other sites, and it would be a good way to get some more bandwidth to prevent end of month 509's. I've always donated 5 or 10 bucks to a site I get alot of use or information out of, and this site would certianly qualify.
Roan Art
02-01-2006, 8:41 AM
Hrm, instead of ads, why not a "bake sale" to raise money?
We did this on Wet Canvas! to raise money for the tsunami victims. Not equating this with that type of disaster, of course! The premise works, though.
What we did was "donate" artwork in a thread, then sell that piece on eBay. The money from the sale, minus shipping if it was included in the purchase price, went into a fund for the victims.
It would take a lot more stuff to raise the kind of money we raised -- our stuff depreciates, artwork doesn't -- but it still might help. Especially if a few people have a lot of junk to get rid of or rare fish or eggs they can "donate".
It doesn't have to be aquaria related either. Just stuff "donated" to AC. I might have a couple of paintings kicking around that I could auction for funding.
I just hate advertising and it would be nice to get one "lump sum" to play with, y'know?
On the other hand we could do *both*. Use the money from the sale to upgrade or improve the forum and money from advertising to pay for bandwidth.
Just a thought,
Roan
Either way.....it sure is good to be back ! http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0206.gif
Dangerdoll
02-01-2006, 9:03 AM
I wonder if the site owner or mods would be willing to set up a pay-pal donation system? I've seen this on many other sites, and it would be a good way to get some more bandwidth to prevent end of month 509's. I've always donated 5 or 10 bucks to a site I get alot of use or information out of, and this site would certianly qualify.
they have this here already, enrom. I believe there's a note at the top of each forum....
Hrm, instead of ads, why not a "bake sale" to raise money?
We did this on Wet Canvas! to raise money for the tsunami victims. Not equating this with that type of disaster, of course! The premise works, though.
What we did was "donate" artwork in a thread, then sell that piece on eBay. The money from the sale, minus shipping if it was included in the purchase price, went into a fund for the victims.
It would take a lot more stuff to raise the kind of money we raised -- our stuff depreciates, artwork doesn't -- but it still might help. Especially if a few people have a lot of junk to get rid of or rare fish or eggs they can "donate".
It doesn't have to be aquaria related either. Just stuff "donated" to AC. I might have a couple of paintings kicking around that I could auction for funding.
I just hate advertising and it would be nice to get one "lump sum" to play with, y'know?
On the other hand we could do *both*. Use the money from the sale to upgrade or improve the forum and money from advertising to pay for bandwidth.
Just a thought,
Roan
Roan, you always come up with the best ideas ;)
side note for all..... no one understands the Purple Thread like we do :D
make the twitching stop.......
gheez! i thought i was going to have to find another forum!
i had to put off a spending spree!
they have this here already, enrom. I believe there's a note at the top of each forum....
Roan, you always come up with the best ideas ;)
side note for all..... no one understands the Purple Thread like we do :D
mmmmmmmmm...purple thread....
kveeti
02-01-2006, 9:18 AM
Most users ever online on a day was 112 on Yesterday.
I know the "most users" line never works, it's ALWAYS yesterday and the number goes up and down, but this cracked me up. How'd those 112 people get on yesterday? Anyhow, glad to be back.
pedzola
02-01-2006, 9:26 AM
People don't seem to be too upset about this outage that lasted several days....
I tried looking for other fish forums and none seemed to be any good. They were all gaudy or poorly organized. So this outage was a real problem for me.
If the owner of the site is smart they will take care of their hosting problems instead of leaving the users dead in the water. No pun intended.
A web site like this with dedicated user base can certainly make enough $$ off advertising, referrals, or etc to pay for hosting and then some.
This type of outage is simply not acceptable, and I'd venture to bet that AC lost a lot of users, and a lot of potential users during this outage.
If this happens again, I'm gone.
TheMightyQueenPixie
02-01-2006, 9:40 AM
GREAT IDEA ROAN! I am sure I have something to sell...
DirkW
02-01-2006, 10:04 AM
Wow Dirk, sounds great! Any idea how you opened a door to requests...? Uh, my daughter will be heading off to college in a couple years (hint hint) :D
After I hit Submit, I realized I'll likely be flooded by requests by parents trying to pay for their kids' college. The bulk of the credit goes to my son for creating for a website that people want to visit and has a method that drives people to your site (he gets 15,000-30,000 unique visitors a day).
mishi8
02-01-2006, 10:15 AM
Yay! So glad AC is back! None of the other forums compare. Of course, it's always during an outage that I end up with problems with my tank that I need advice on. :rolleyes: I've been struggling with treating for ich since introducing a new fish that had it (not noticable until the next day!)
I went back to the store and found that the tank she came from, and many others, were suffering from ich! I had looked carefully for it the day I bought her, and avoided a tank that showed signs of it, and was assured that that tank was "offline" from the other tanks. I talked to the manager to find out what their policy is on selling from sick tanks, and was not happy to hear that they don't close off any tanks, but just let customers know on a case by case basis. Don't think I'll be buying from there again! OTOH, serves me right for not properly quarantining! :duh:
flyingfish
02-01-2006, 10:15 AM
I love your idea Roan Art! :cool: I too might be able to donate some art. I can't give cash, but I could use the supplies I have around to come up with whatever kind of art y'all think would raise the most money for AC. (And I learned a lot of new tricks in the art tutorials while waiting for AC to come back) :p:
Pedzola - harsh, yikes.
DirkW
02-01-2006, 10:25 AM
Another idea is to ask everyone to donate 10% of anything they sell in the classified ads.
kyle3
02-01-2006, 10:42 AM
geez did i miss this place whle it was down- i went to the planted tank and plant geek for help on my issues but it is NOT the same.
as far as advertising is concerned- no thanks i'll just send a bigger check- if there's that many of us on here why don't we all chip in. it'll be like NPR we can have pledge email chains instead of pledge week. he he he :)
anyway sooooooooo sooooooooooooo soooooooooo happy to have AC back
thanks you guys who keep it going. don't know what i'd do w/o you!
-Kyle
tomdkat
02-01-2006, 10:47 AM
I was assuming that there must have been some kind of attack that flooded servers and used up all the bandwidth. There are always some disgruntled idiots that are forced to leave the board and have just enough knowledge to cause damage.
I'm thinking it was the image attachments (vs links to images on external sites) combined with sheer volume of users that caused the overage.
Looks like it's time to donate to the "increase the Aquaria Central bandwith" fund. :)
Peace...
tomdkat
02-01-2006, 10:50 AM
Another idea is to ask everyone to donate 10% of anything they sell in the classified ads.Sounds fair to me. If not 10%, some percentage.
Peace...
ashlyjames
02-01-2006, 11:05 AM
:dance: Pheeew.......thanks AC! .......
no more " fish out of water" syndrome !
Roan Art
02-01-2006, 11:10 AM
I'm going to start a new thread for the eBay idea. I will need someone to help organize it and permission from the site owners to do this.
I'll also pull the information on Wet Canvas! on how they did their auction.
Roan
PS
Thanks for liking my idea -- but I did steal it from WC! ;)
Roan Art
02-01-2006, 11:25 AM
Here's the WC! Thread on what we did:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239698
I had a thought -- how about we make and sell Rocks with Purple String in the Classifieds area here? Official Aquaria Central Rocks with Purple String :) All proceeds go to AC :)
Roan
Hannys_Papa
02-01-2006, 1:30 PM
I just posted into a different thread before i found this one.
Anyways...
A large technology oriented forum where i am part of the staff gives you 100PMs for a 1 time donation of 5$. Your name shows up in a different colour so everyone can see you supported the page. There are a few little other privilidges aswell.
Additional they have yearly subscriptions. You get 250 PMs for 5$ yearly subscription and 500 for 10$ 1-year subscription plus other things like custom avatar (larger files), other ways to customize your profile, name, info etc.
Now it might not be necessary to go that far - but do the one time 5$ donation for a bigger PM folder and a nice colourful name - and i pay tomorrow. Just an idea....
lokisbuddy
02-01-2006, 1:33 PM
i am really glad the site is up and running again!
patoloco
02-01-2006, 1:42 PM
i'm so glad to have AC back and running. For some reason, I knew it would start working again and Feb 1st.
:=)
A few years ago, another forum I used to visit had the same problem, so the Admin threw out some rules to reduce bandwith. Some recomendations:
1- Don't use AC as your home page. This way, you'll not be sucking up bandwidth everytime you atart your browser.
2- Reduce avatars size. Since that was an artistic forum, almost all the poeple used animated GIF's as avatars, cometimes reqachin up to 250kb each. We were askd to reduce our avatar size to 10kb.
3- Post Pictures only as links, not embedded into the post.
4- Donate $$ to the site.
pedzola
02-01-2006, 1:46 PM
A variation on the theme:
Car forums often have something called "sponsor members." A sponsor member is somebody who donates to the site. It can be a donation of any size, but is typically $25 for sponsor status.
This membership could give you a myriad of benefits: Access to a special sponsor members forum, a custom signature, more PMs, a quote or nickname under your avatar, a free sticker/mouspad/mug/t-shirt/whatever (maybe based on how much you donate).
This seems to work very well for car forums.
1) You don't have to be a sponsor member to use the forum, but many of those who use the site a lot will feel charitable enough to donate. (which, with the price of bandwidth these days [cheap], should be enough to keep the site running.)
2) It is a one-time fee, so there is no monthly or weekly or yearly tracking to worry about.
3) The site can give away a sponsor membership as a prize in contests or etc, and it costs nothing.
Another $$ generation technique along the same lines is to invite vendors to the forum. There would be a vendor forum where they can post sales, respond to questions about their products, etc. The vendor would pay a monthly or yearly membership fee to the web site for the priveledge of being able to advertise and interact w/their customers.
I think either of the above situations would create a win-win situation for the forum patrons.
flyingfish
02-01-2006, 2:51 PM
I kind of like the vendor forum idea too - as long as it didn't leak into other forums. I don't need someone telling me to buy this or that to solve my problem just because they sell it.
Donation of anything other than art just isn't an option for me.
DeVitaf
02-01-2006, 3:17 PM
GREAT IDEA ROAN! I am sure I have something to sell...
Hash Brownies might be difficult to ship....
:laugh:
graphicdesign_r
02-01-2006, 3:22 PM
Good to be back...
I am in the same boat. Th only thing I could donate would be time etc. $ is tight and looking to get tighter...
tomdkat
02-01-2006, 4:25 PM
A variation on the theme:
Car forums often have something called "sponsor members." A sponsor member is somebody who donates to the site. It can be a donation of any size, but is typically $25 for sponsor status.
Home Theater SPot (http://www.hometheaterspot.com/) does this and it was great until they moved more of the popular forums into the paid area. :(
If we could strike a good balance between free areas and paid areas, I think this could work out well for all.
How many here would be willing to spend any money to support the site, either through PayPal donations or a paid area?
Peace...
Hannys_Papa
02-01-2006, 4:33 PM
In connection with my first post in this thread - i dont really like the idea of paid areas. I also believe $25 is way too much.
The other forum i mentioned has almost 100000 members with usually 1000 people on at any given time and the suggested $5 one time fee works out more than well. Even if just 5% of the members pay this it easily covers bandwidth costs and server storage (which i am certain is much more intensive there than it is here).
I am sure with such a system here on AC the page would easily have 10 people a month paing 5$ - and 50$ should easily buy enough bandwidth to keep the page going past the 26th of the month.
Once you start with paid areas or $25 fees the free community becomes a business for the site owner. Of course its up to the owner if thats the way he/ she wants to go - but i didnt have the idea AC was about that at all.
Boohoo
02-01-2006, 5:03 PM
With all the members that AC has, even a small donation may be all thats needed.
Now of course the Administrater would have to be responsible for this, but what if...
A 1-2 dollar donation each month, entered you into a monthly drawing for a small prize.(T-shirt, mug or whatever).
And if you donated every month, you were entered into a yearly draw for something bigger.
Just a thought, but that should bring in enough $$ to help pay the expenses as well as pay for the prizes.
UncaBret
02-01-2006, 5:19 PM
I like that idea!
budrecki
02-01-2006, 5:31 PM
Great Idea boohoo.
Hope the admin is watching/listening.
tomdkat
02-01-2006, 5:46 PM
The other forum i mentioned has almost 100000 members with usually 1000 people on at any given time and the suggested $5 one time fee works out more than well. Even if just 5% of the members pay this it easily covers bandwidth costs and server storage (which i am certain is much more intensive there than it is here).
I am sure with such a system here on AC the page would easily have 10 people a month paing 5$ - and 50$ should easily buy enough bandwidth to keep the page going past the 26th of the month.I haven't been a member here for very long (relatively speaking) and this is the first time I've encountered a bandwidth overage. Has this been a common occurence in the past? If not, this is a new issue which could be fairly easy to resolve. I don't know any of the costs of running this site but if those "in the know" could suggest a number that could cover the additional bandwidth, disk space (both for database and support files), and possibly servers (not sure if this site is on a single box or not), then maybe we could get this ball rolling now. Would $500 or $1000 be sufficient to purchase additional bandwidth (and/or other resource increases)? Would $5/mo be better?
How many here would be willing to contribute something?
Peace...
NotGumbel
02-01-2006, 5:48 PM
I don't know what current statistics the site has in terms of bandwidth and storage, but the company thru whom I host my business site just doubled a lot of their capacity and I have found them to be reliable and flexible. Info available if desired.
they have this here already, enrom. I believe there's a note at the top of each forum....
I noticed that after I posted actually. I guess I never saw it before because it was right in front of me. :duh:
TheMightyQueenPixie
02-01-2006, 7:19 PM
Im getting some "snail lots" together...Gorgeous Brigs in colours you cannot find anywhere...I will stick them in the classified section when they are large enough...About a month or so...My friends on AC will get first choice, the rest will go on aquabid...