Please read- for the sake of bluelight

Hi all,
I have noticed again that Jase (bows deeply to the leader) has posted on the main board that our traffic is again reaching critical mass.
Having been a bluelight junkie for a while now, i know the pain of having a shit server, or not having bluelight at all for a period of time. Pretty crap-o. Well, we've finally got a decent server but with over 5000 register members and many more lurking, we place fairly severe demands on any server.
I think the step taken to recruit a grumpy bastard in johnboy (LOL )to moderate this forum has cut down on most of the fluff, but nonetheless we still contribute our fair share of overposting.
So please:
* try to keep posts on topic
* when your reply to a post, try to add something worthwhile
*do not keep your connection open all day, or keep hitting the reload button
* use the profile to get email addresses and ICQ numbers if you want to talk to someone
* if you are not sure, check it out before posting.
* use the search function on things you have questions about
* read the FAQS or the tips at the top of the forum
We've had this discussion before and I've been flamed for saying this before. The people who called me a grumpy old bastard obviously had inside information
But I don't really care. As a friend of mine says, "I'm honest with my addiction. And I'm addicted to bluelight."
cheers
pinger
[This message has been edited by pinger (edited 03 April 2000).]

*grump on*
yup, everything pinger said... and more
altho i gotta admit we are very well behaved in here compared to the main board... maybe 5% of our posts here are irrelevant or ad nothing to a thread... compared to about 60% of the main board and thats being optimistic...
but thats no reason to get complacent. i don't care who calls me a facist but there will be NO survey posts about fave binky colours or needless reposting of entire threads from other forums...
most of us know html fairly well, so if you think the rest of us would be interested in something then post a link, not the whole article or image or list of "you know you're annoy your moderator when..."
and if anyone doesnt know how to link then i'd be more than happy to explain it, and i'm sure others would to...
please fellow antipodeans, lets continue to set the example of what bluelight can and should be...
*grump ends*

Also try to open stuff into new windows as it will save bandwith when you end up back at the main page after reading the post

Heya,
I don't know how efficient this is - but how about online advertising to earn a bit of money to go towards the bluelight running costs? what do you guys think about that? I really doubt anyone would care if there were a couple of banners lying around knowing that they're helping to keep bluelight running, and everyone will give it a click once in a while knowing it'll make a difference (even if only very small) to bluelight.
Or are those banner ads bbuullsshhiiitt?
just an idea.. but I guess it would be a much better idea to follow what pinger and johnboy to cut down traffic.
cya
[This message has been edited by Raphsta (edited 03 April 2000).]

There were lots of complaints about the EZ test ads, coz heaps of people were checking bluelight at work and this toungue with 2 pills was the first thing to open on the screen.

Well its possible we could have different ads. Sites related to music would be good, plus anything else us bluelighters would be interested, maybe online pharmacies.
But also, could probably put the EZ Test banner back up, maybe with a less revealing logo.
buhbye.
[This message has been edited by Raphsta (edited 03 April 2000).]

I agree with Nat's suggestion. I don't know how many people use a single navigator. But I realised, after Nat said it, that if everyone was to use only one navigator window, the traffic would almost double (Assuming the file is requested again form server, not cache). I'm a big fan of 5+ windows being open at once. I think this a key point and would certainly help keep traffic low.
On the topic of the Ezy test banner, I had this idea come to me a few days ago. For a new banner, we could have a picture of a buddha doing his thing (sitting) with a huge grin on his face. Above him you could have written "The path to enlightment", or something similar. I don't know about you guys, but I like it.

um for hopefully the last time..... its not about the money!!
its about using bluelight sensibly... which i'm happy to say most of us aussies do... but still keep up the good work and don't get tempted to sumb down your contributions to our forum...
just think b4 you post.... that's all i ask
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.... he who makes a beast of himself, rids himself of the pain of being a man...

Well said Johnboy, I was actually going to post a similar message. As people get more familiar with UBB and html coding, it is quite easy to lost sight of what bluelight is about. It is an information board and we are all very lucky to have it. Dont abuse it. I was chatting with Johnboy on friday and here are a few giudelines which might be nice to follow.
- No huge pictures (those little naughty faces are alright which I have included in a couple of my posts.)
- Try not to go overboard on the cut-and-pastes, as Johnboy said: use links.
- No sounds (that is a must!!)
- Dont go overboard on the massive font (guilty as charged!!)
Just use common sense and be respectful.
btw Johnboy, perhaps there is a way deleting profiles who havent posted within 90 days or something like that. - hORSE
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I'm an idealist...
I dont know where im going but im on my way

deleting someone because they haven't posted? nope, coz maybe they didnt have anything to say... yet. there are some great lurkers out there who dont seem to contribute much except every now and again they pop up with that one bit of pertinent info that no one else knew...
these are the people that i have the most respect for. and as for those who, as the great james brown said, are "talking loud aint sayin nuthin"... well maybe its you we could do with out...
this is not a personal attack against anyone in our forum, it's a personal attack against people in other forums
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.... he who makes a beast of himself, rids himself of the pain of being a man...

Umm i am pretty sure the pics don't affect bluelights bandwidth at all, as they are linked directly from the sites and are not actually stored on bluelight ... ie all that is sent is the html link which your browser automatically translates and goes to the link for the pic....if you right click on the pics and click properties you'll see the pics are actually stored elsewhere.....

Hey maybe to free up server bandwidth Jase could get rid of all those bible-basher freaks from the Chill Out Room.

come on, it's fun to bag out the god-boys.
Drave, you are a mean and hurtful person, and you smell bad.
hey, do you think this discussion could be wasting bandwidth?

Gee Hippy, with pointless narrow-minded attacks on my person such as above, you could almost qualify as a hardcore christian.
Oh yeah, a useful suggestion (amazing as it may seem coming from me), instead of the "Show topics from..." dialog defaulting to 10 days, you should make it 1 day. Anyone who wants more than the most recent threads can search or manually select.
If money is actually a factor, why not just ask for a small donation. Everyone on this board obviously has access to a computer and internet connection, suggesting that none of us live in a ditch, (btw i have nothing against people who can't afford structured housing) so i am sure we could all afford even a $2 donation per year, which is nothing significant to each person considering the useful information available, but could be up to $10,000 in total to u admin peoples. Anyway just a suggestion....

ok a couple of things... this discussion is not a waste of bandwidth, we gotta talk about this stuff or else you end up like the main board with noone knowing what the hell is going on...
as for the linking of pictures or other html, that's not a bandwidth issue, its just be careful with html code in this forum, as people can get carried away and embed stuff that can screw up the board and cuase all sorts of problems... links are fine, just don't try and do anything real fancy with html or java or whatever..
hmmm the show topics thing worries me, as people keep asking questions that were asked a week ago, beciause they (obviously) havent searched but also coz the post is on page 2 or 3 and they cant even be bothered looking there... just search... please just search
and as for the money thing... well go right ahead and donate money... the thing is that every keeps asaying that, but like i said in the thread called "everyone read" exactly 41 people out of 5000 registered members actually have donated.
everyone is very quick to say "lets donate money' but very, very few ever put there wallet where their mouth is...
only send money if you want to, its still not the problem, just think before you post and everyting will be fine...

Lurkers are fine johnboy, and I admit that most of the lurkers post great info, but why keep these profiles? The only point would be for reputation sake, and while I will often read posts by people who write good as opposed to people who write crap posts is reputation really important when member numbers are rediculous. 5000 members with about 200 art the very most posting?? Anyway, gotta go quickly but will add later!

I reckon Mr Horse could have a point, u really don't need a profile if u rarely post. Maybe 90 days is too short, but there should be some limit.

but whats wrong with keeping all those profiles? it takes up almost no hard drive space and we've got acres to play with now....
oh and i only just found out (by reading another post. no-one actually tells me anything directly ) that our anonymous patron is happy to pay the extra for the high traffic... so no need to worry anymore...
but dont get sloppy peoples... we got a high standard to keep up... noticed how more and more americans are visiting us?
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.... he who makes a beast of himself, rids himself of the pain of being a man...

Umm, don't know if this is anything, but would deleting old topics, and closing others help at all?
If there were less topics/threads to click on wouldn't that also reduce bandwidth as people wouldn't be opening this and opening that??
I'm refering to threads that waste space such as personal sledges (which are funny) and double posts about pills and meetups for past events and the like?
And lets not forget the 1000's of threads about 5htp and the like. Cleaning up the mess should help shouldn't it?
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Religious?? Then you have reason to be paranoid. God is watching you!!
[This message has been edited by cosmic_seadog (edited 05 April 2000).]

Oh my god!!! Don't delete profiles!!! From a purely selfish point of view, I'm going to be travelling for the majority of this year and I won't be able to post much at all. There may come a time when I won't be able to post for 2 months or more but I will always come back here. To think that my profile might be deleted in that time makes for a very stressed and ready-to-jump-on-her-soapbox apples. And no one wants a screaming apples now do they Let me warn you it's a very scary thing.
So yeah....don't you dare start deleting profiles johnboy or I won't let you borrow my gerbil ever again. (not that I think you ever would but I had to throw the gerbil somewhere in there...so to speak )
miss apple