How to cut down on bandwidth usages

[karlsen]

I have been on this forum for some weeks now and I have noticed several things that might be the reason for Lukes high bandwidth use.

Maybee if people just remembered these few points when posting, everything would be much better:

* Do not post large pictures. Pictures can be great, but not to big.

* When replying to a post do not include the whole message that you are replying too (just include the part that you will be answering). Never include pictures in the quotes. That just doubles the usage of bandwidth.

* Never start a new topic when there already are one that fitts your post.

* Never write posts just to get your topic up on the forum again. Many people goes thru all new topics and you therefore use a lot of bandwidth just surfing thru topics that does not contain anything new.


People should remember that this website, and the forum is a paid for service. If it use to much bandwidth the webmaster has to pay for it out of his own pocets. Many people just own a free website, and do not pay anything for their serivices, but then they look that way as well.

[Jens]

Also a good suggestion is that you can configure the forum in a way that guests can't see the avatar and therefore can not use the bandwidth of those avatars on the server. For images, you can use free services that support image upload

[Uncle Remus]

i'll try to remember those.

[Luke]

Some helpful tips there, and I don't know how much of an effect they individually have, but the forum seems to take up a lot of bandwidth. Since we moved to a higher level, bandwidth has seemed to soar to meet what we're paying for, at times exceeding a GB a day.

Still, things like posting the Alice in Wonderland artwork and the Holiday Gift Guide increase bandwidth, and Alice of course made the rounds on the Internet. I could disable hot linking, I suppose, and that might help...I'd just feel comfortable not having to let limitations affect content. Of course, if we keep growing and it turns out we have to pay for more GBs certain months, there are ways to help cover that (the support links appear below). Non-media purchases from Amazon this quarter would be hugely helpful, too.

I'm not sure how externally-hosted pictures affect bandwidth; not as considerably as pics hosted on the site, surely, but still more code means bigger page size which multiplies times page visits and refreshes.

For the time being, I want you to be concerned with not wasting bandwidth, but you shouldn't worry about it too much, to the point where it's affecting your enjoyment of the site and forum.

There is a point you can cross where "more is less", but I think we've only had a few instances of that, so to quote Bobby McFerrin, "don't worry, be happy."

Thanks for posting this, karlsen. Awareness is important.

[Mermaid Kelly]

I am so confused with all this bandwidth stuff. I thouhgt bandwidth was just pictures, so I've been using links instead, but it seems like karlsen said that everything we type is wasting bandwidth!!!!

[Luke]

You really don't have to worry about it too much, Kelly. Text takes up very little bandwidth, compared to graphics.

[Mermaid Kelly]

Oh, ok thanks Luke. I was just concerned because you said in another thread that Tangela uses a lot of bandwidth, and I didn't think he uses many pictures.

[Luke]

Oh, ok thanks Luke. I was just concerned because you said in another thread that Tangela uses a lot of bandwidth, and I didn't think he uses many pictures.

Well, things like PMs use a good bit of bandwidth too. It's usually better to send e-mails than PMs unless it's something small and forum-related.

[Prince Adam]

E-mailing is also kinda confusing, though. I got an e-mail from a Mia Riccardi (don't exactly remember the last name) and had no idea who she was. Only later did I find out she was from the forum.

But will you continue to have the full-sized upcoming cover art? I really like that feature, as Disney rarely advertises the art until later.

[Luke]

But will you continue to have the full-sized upcoming cover art? I really like that feature, as Disney rarely advertises the art until later.

That's important content, and I don't foresee it going away...even as if we flirt with our new increased bandwidth limits.