That is correct - I won't accept donations nor will I institute any sort of fee for using this site. Please don't send anything - that will save me the time and postage of returning it to you. Thanks.

I also respect the right of those who feel the site is too slow, to go elsewhere. I don't hold it against anyone that chooses not to use this site - I put up it here for people to use if they want, but have no hard feelings towards anyone that doesn't want to use it. A lot of people already don't use it. It's a resource that people can use, or not, it doesn't affect me one way or the other. I never expected everyone in the rod building world to use it. Heck, if they did it would be even slower than it is now.

There is no reason why someone else couldn't put up a similar site. But they would eventually run into the same problems - paying to set up a site with this many resources, paying for hosting a site that gets this much traffic, paying for software updates, paying or compensating moderators, paying to research and add new articles/features, maintain old ones, etc., just adds up. Unless they have an angle on how to make a profit off of it, they're going to have a tough row to hoe. But if someone does start a similar site, I wish them the best of luck. I fully understand what they're up against.

The site is getting slower. Our archive database is huge, so is the database for all the other resources provided here. But something will turn up. Hopefully towards the Spring I can put together the resources to buy a dedicated server just for this site and its related resources. Until then, it's just going to be slow. I don't enjoy waiting for pages to load anymore than anyone else, but that's the reality for the time being.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2005 10:47AM by Tom Kirkman.

I know you don't want to but at least raise the price of the mag and back issues so you can get some of the money you need. people will gladly pay it.

I think it's time to put this issue to rest. Tom has made his feelings clear, more than once.

I don't want the RodMaker subscribers to have to shoulder the load for this site - most of those who subscribe to the magazine don't use this site and most of those who use this site don't subscribe to the magazine. Even though there is a small amount of cross-over, by and large they are two entirely different markets.

RodMaker has subsidized this site at times, but it can no longer afford to do that.

As I said, something will turn up in a few months.

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Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> The site is getting slower. Our archive database is huge

Tom, is there a way you can see how many people are actually accessing the archived database? If you have plans for the Spring, it may be worth it if the traffic on the archives is low - to remove the archived database temporarily, back it up somewhere else offline (I am a Mainframe Programmer, not PC, so excuse me if I do not know where to back something up outside of a "disk") - thus freeing up space for the next frew months. When you get whatever you get, restore the archives database to the new server, and nobody will even notice.

I promise if you do this, the restore will not work. The backup failed, corrupt disk, invalid formats, etc, etc, etc. I hate backing stuff up.

Don't send a check--send cash in small amounts in several different envelopes. No return address and Tom can't return to sender.

Don't send a check--send cash in small amounts in several different envelopes. No return address and Tom can't return to sender.

Sam Douglas Wrote:
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> Don't send a check--send cash in small amounts in
> several different envelopes. No return address
> and Tom can't return to sender.


That's just silly. Tom already said about 49 times not to send money. Sending money with no return isn't going to force him to spend the money on the site anyway, regardless of what you would like him to do.

Tom is it the size of the database or is the bandwidth? I work with computers for a living, I am not a database programmer actually be I do help support some. One of the things that may help is a more efficient back end to run the database. We have some odd off the wall database engines at work that are just plain junk and run slow no matter what hardware they are running on. That and it may be a good move to move the older entries off the server, I know some people(Billy Vivona) advocate searching the archives, but I tend to think more people are using mostly just the current info. Most databases have the ability to archive data and move elsewhere, depending on the size of the archive it can be moved to a CD, DVD etc.

I don't know how many times this dead horse will be beat. I guess till all the flies are beat too.

It is all of the above. We have nearly 4000 registered users, plus probably twice that many more than access the site from time to time. And, the database is indeed huge, not to mention that fact that I added the new photo site last year. That one takes up room and bandwidth as well.

I have considered just dumping the first couple years of archives, or saving them somewhere else. But it would still just be a temporary solution - things would back up again in a few months. The best thing is to purchase new equipment and get everything needed to keep things running first class for a long time to come. That costs money which I can't afford right now, but as I said, something will turn up and hopefully in a few months I can get what we need to restore the speed and smoothness to the site.

Any cash that comes in through the mail is going to be spent on beer and lottery tickets, or maybe I'll donate it to the Hari Krishnas... provided they promise to stay out of the airports.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2005 02:37PM by Tom Kirkman.

Here comes ten bucks to keep 'em outa the airports!! LOL Good one, Tom!!

Putter
Williston, ND

I kind of like the speed....click a question (go do an underwrap).... read the question and responses, hit back button... (grind guide feet, smooth guide feet, tape down guide and check alignment) go to the next question and read, hit back button ( wrap both guide feet and burnish) etc....

Tom..how about.bringing back the option for a user to "delete" photos on the photo page themselves....no sense having old pictures eat up space hampering the speed of the site.....put a time frame on photos? why should the site archive photos when the user can do that themselves? (I say this because I have too many photos, that are VERY large in bytes, not necessarily in quality)

You should try a "recycling gigabyte" program....and leave cash out of the picture.

I can offer you cash that you won't accept.......but would you take the "bytes" offered by myself and maybe others?

(photo files must be space @#$%& pigs)

I'm sure there is some newer used servers/equipment available from some other site that went kaboom? Ed



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2005 09:06PM by Ed Grella.

Come on Guy's, I'm with you I'd pay, but you know Tom's not going to go for that he's made that clear several times when this subject has come up. I do have a suggestion Tom, if you'll consider it. At the Charlotte show, during the party you sponsor, put out a donation jar for those of us who would like to donate for a new server or whatever update you need. I'd be willing to bet you'd get more than enough to do whatever upgrades you need to do. It would be anonomous so no one could take credit, and you do so much for this craft, YOU DESERVE A LITTLE HELP!!! Every time I've seen your posts on this subject, you've said that the site is OURS, so why not let us help out a little. Just a suggestion, take for what it is worth!!!!

Bill in WV

Maybe a bunch of rod makers get together and buy a server, and bring it to Charlotte and visit the RM booth and put it down for a minute ....and just happen to forget to take it with them when they leave.

Money for beer and chips sound good to me!

Lou

Not too sure what kind of database software you are using, but something you may or may not be aware of is that many databases get out of whack and need to be re-organized, compacted or defraged to run properly. Might be worth looking into to if this applies to your type of database software, we wind up doing this on a couple of our larger databases regularly. Not trying to be a know it all, just throwing out an idea.

Thanks, we do this on a monthly basis. I'm pretty much up to speed on how the database runs and what has to be done to keep it optimized. We're just beyond the point where our present equipment can do what needs to be done.

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