NGRM a/c suspended ??????,:???::???:
                       What the heck has happened to this site??????, bills not paid, or what, any one got the SP on this ???, it was active last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!……..:roll::???:
                                                         Best regards to all………………………Tom….;-):cool:

It appears they breached server limits causing problems so were shut down while the issue is being fixed

I hope it was not my Rainhill pictures, there were rather a lot of them.

Regards,

BrianT

Its a shame the server did not think to mention such when you go onto the site, a body could think all manner of things!!!!!
BTW, Ted Polet,  his layout, is it using DC or DCC, just wondering????……….
                                Best regards to all……………………Tom…..

Photos do take up an awful lot of forum bandwidth so that could have been the problem.The server would of probably shut down automatically when the limit was reached.

Hi Alan,


do we need to be a bit more frugal with our use of photos as well then. I know I am guilty of being photo heavy in my threads. I could soon cut that out or down a bit.


cheers


toto

I must admit Tom it would help.At the moment we are ok but we did go very close once in fact we did go offline for a few hours until i upped the limit.This forum is very photo heavy and always has been but we do like them.Some like Model Rail Forum for example hardly has any by comparison.Perhaps just cut down on the repeat shots but remember we must see the trains run.:thumbs

Would it help if I and others nuke some from our gallery? I have stuff going back to 2009.......or is it just the upload that causes the problem?

It's ok John,don't worry,what's in is ok.

Good question John , must asdmit I assumed it was the uploaded photos that would use up bandwidth , rather than the link to them, but then Sol and Max do mention that the preferred method is to upload and post photos rather than links to them ?  Maybe if Alan can do a brief scetch of how it works and what uses the most resources we can tailor our usage accordingly ?  Also Alan on a delicate subject , I know the forum is run on a free to use bases and I think you cover the running costs ? . Is there a way you could set up a method for members to make purely voluntary contributions if they so wished ?  I know I get a lot of enjoyment from the forum and would be pleased to contribute .

Just a thought

  Cheers

 Matt

For starters,

You can wipe out my first  R & GLR thread. It's dead anyway and there are a few photographs in there. I'll cut down going forward as well. Some of them are really not required.

Nae problem.

Thanks for the thoughts guys.Tom,i'll leave your first Rosebuddy thread in place as it's a learning curve for many and is a valuable part of the forum.At the moment the forum is in good health and nothing needs to change for now.

Matt,as far as bandwidth goes anything posted on the forum uses this up,photos being the killer but we have a way to go before this reaches the limit.I upload my photos to Photobucket and insert to a post from there.The gallery is something that was added before i even joined and is a valuable resource.I think the next step if and when the limit is reached is to either increase the limit or transfer to a dedicated server.There is a paypal button lurking in admin world but will only be used as a last resort.

At the moment i am more than happy to cover the costs

No probs Alan ,we do appreciate what you provide for us . Is there a way for members to tell which photos in their gallery are actually being used in a post ?   Just thought if there was then unused photos could be culled by members if they wished ,without cousing broken links in older posts ?

My next comment may cause controversy but hey ho.

Why not consider either an annual membership fee or some kind of voluntary donation.

Or,

Opening up the forum commercially. Not necessarily with those annoying pop ups and adverts but a low level presence. A bit of careful negotiation with a suitable sponsor with no commercial pressure to endorse as such. Could be worked on more an exclusivity basis. I'm sure the members are big boys and girls and can decide whether they want to pay any credence to the background advertisement. We can't have it all ways. I think as long as any commerciality is not attached to any bodies threads then nobody can really complain. You are providing a space which has to be paid for one way or another.

Cheers

Toto

I'm not too sure on that myself Matt.I would think that if a photo was deleted from the galley it would vanish from the post.I'll find out and get back to you.

Update……..  Any photo from the gallery used in a post will be deleted from that thread.

Tom,there is a Paypal button should we ever need it but the forum will never go down the advertising route.It will then cease to be what it started out to be.

I'm sorry if we have created the wrong impression, Matt.

There is no philosophical reason why photos should not go into the Gallery as a first choice.

Some people have problems due to their personal choices of computer, which can sometimes be overcome by using external links instead.

What we discourage is using Attachments to post photos, as it eats disc space.

Not the wrong impression at all Max, you guys always give good, clear advice and help . I was just trying to clarify what method was best for the forum bandwidth , Alan I thought it was the case that deleting from the gallery would remove the photo from a thread , you often see in older threads " photo removed by poster " so  I assumed the thread photo "link" could no longer find that photo in its gallery. My question was to see if it is possible to identify which photos in a members gallery were actually linked in a post ? I have very few photos in my gallery , but some are almost identical so I wouldn't know which ones to safely delete without breaking a link to a post . gawd knows how Tom ( Toto ) would manage !    Just thought it would be handy to clear unused photos that are not "keepers".  I understand its probably not easily doable as I assume  the link is back from the post to the photo, rather than from photo to post ?  Anyway no crisis for us at the moment, just thought as the topic had been raised it was an opportunity to discuss it


Cheers


Matt

A little while ago we were a bit concerned about the Gallery and Sol did an exercise, Matt - seeing if he could remove surplus photographs and from memory, it was too difficult.

We are fortunate that Alan has stepped up when the forum needed him; and we are also fortunate in having a host who is very easy to get on with, and who has tailored our package for us.

That is not to say that anyone who would like to, shouldn't use the Donate button.

Any funds will be gratefully received and faithfully applied.

Cheers

Sorry, folks.  The Donate button has yet to be released.  :oops:

Perhaps it might be opportune to do it at this juncture, Alan?