Bandwidth Exceeded messages...

[savage]

Hi guys,
Just to let you know, we are experiencing unusually high bandwidth uptake this month due to the competition coming to an end. We seem to be slashdotted from a site called http://indygamer.blogspot.com/ and the download of most of the games. Just yesterday the site consumed 2GB worth of data in just one day. I have just paid for an additional 15GB in the hope that it will get us to the end of the month.

[jasonf]

Dom, let me know where the penny jar is so I can put 50p in the slot.

[Robert Kosek]

Wow, looks like PGD is getting attention and growing pains. :D

Savage, have you considered selling Text-Link-Ads (http://tinyurl.com/377bz8) to support the site? They're pretty unintrusive and can really help keep it afloat.

[savage]

I've always said I don't want intrusive adverts on a site that I own and I don't plan on starting now. I think having the Amazon links are enough for now.

I'll monitor how the bandwidth goes next month and re-assess then. I may put up a PayPal donation link, but I'm reluctant to do that either.

[savage]

Btw, the wierd thing is that we increased out bandwidth to 60GB a month about 4 months ago, and this is the first time we've surpassed it. At the time we were just hitting 24GB per month.

[Legolas]

Have you considered to put the competition's downloads on a file storage host, like bigupload.com and so on?

[Robert Kosek]

If you looked instead of jumped to a conclusion, you would find that TLA is completely non-intrusive. You pick the pages, the link offers, and the topic area for the site. If you want them only on the front page, then fine they'll buy as many as you pick for the front page.

For goodness sake, three links on the front page to help pay for bandwidth is nothing in my opinion. It's more questionable, to me, that you deny their use more than keep it one hundred percent ad free (beyond Amazon). I find Amazon ads more intrusive than relevant text ads.

[savage]

Robert how have I jumped to conclusions? I looked at the link you provided and didn't feel that it would fit in with this site? Provide me with some URLs that "shows off" the Text-Link-Ads stuff and I may change my mind, but from what I read on the site itself, I'm not sold on the idea.

[Robert Kosek]

http://www.mybboard.net/ (bottom left, front page)
http://www.coolestech.com/Main_Page ($50 USD a Month)

Those are two. And they're less intrusive then, say, the "PGD Annual Sponsors" list. They appear however you make them to.

[arthurprs]

:?

[tux]

savage, it will probably be cheaper to drop the main site back down a package and use the smallest ASO Extreme package for the downloads etc http://asmallorange.com/services/hosting/extreme.php

[noeska]

Is it just the forum that makes the bandwidth go away? Or are there downloads somewhere here?

If it is the downloads could a mirror download situation be setup. I would be willing to mirror some files with my current websitehoster i have an 100gb bandwidth a month and i have some gb to spare. Maybe there are more people here willing to be a mirror site for the downloads. e.g. the more mirrors the less bandwidth is spend per mirror site.

[Traveler]

Sure, I've got 50gb/month that I hardly use myself, so I dont mind mirroring a few files.

[WILL]

As I understood from what Dom told me earlier today, it was due to the increase of downloads of the 2007 PGD Annual content. More specifically from the direct links from 2 reviews of Crash Block and Dungeon Looter.

Mirroring isn't a bad idea. This sort of thing is done via sourceforge for sub-sites like the New DelphiX, JEDI-SDL, FPC4GBA, etc...

The only issue is guarantee of how long you can provide this and it's dependability.

A fixed amount of GB each month seems like a fair plan to me, but it just needs to be coordinated with Dom and what he wants/can to do.

[savage]

I've just excluded all bots from scanning PGD as that was eating up quite a few GB.

[dmantione]

It's better to do it a bit more controlled. You want PGD to appear in Google, but you don't want it to browse all user profiles or browse the reply page for each topic.

[savage]

It's better to do it a bit more controlled. You want PGD to appear in Google, but you don't want it to browse all user profiles or browse the reply page for each topic.

I'm only blocking it temporarily, until I have time to sit down and decide which sub-directories and pages it can access. Before today it and other bots had access to everything, which literally consumer GBs of usage.

[wodzu]

I am glad that you solved the bandwidth problem and we are back on track, good job! :)

[Firlefanz]

There are enough hosts today with unlimited bandwidth.

Our homepage www.magicstorm.de has unlimited download traffic (3,99 Euro per month).

www.alfahosting.de for example is such a host.

Firle