Gallery troubles

[Instar]

This thread has been moved & edited by Chris

A very large increase in our consumed bandwidth has caused our hosting account to exceed it's monthly allotment. The members Image Gallery will be temporarily removed (password protected) until March 1st.

The Board is currently in discussion of ways to avoid this from occuring in the future. In the mean time, if you would like to show off your images through the website, you can utilize a free image hosting service such as ImageShack (http://imageshack.us/).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

~Chris
admin@maast.org





That link is restricted and takes a password to see it? Whats up with that?

[::pete::]

Its one of these ... X ;)

[Instar]

Hey come on, I paid the membership dude!

[Tim Marvin]

Ram, you just won yourself a frag next time your up. I know it sounded like a joke post, but I was wondering who would name it. That is a shot of the gigas. Thanks for the tip on the camera.

[brewercm]

I'm getting a lot of restricted requiring passwords. Something must be up with the site.

[Tim Marvin]

Double check to see if your logged in...?

[Jenn]

I'm logged in and tried to check out this link earlier this morning. Told me to type in a password and then would not let me cancel or "X" out of it. I had to go to my task manager to end the process - it was a pain!!!
Not sure what is wrong with the site, but pics from posts yesterday are gone too.

[C.Mydas]

I have the same problem, I can not access any gallery

[NaCl_H2O]

Ram, you just won yourself a frag next time your up. I know it sounded like a joke post, but I was wondering who would name it. That is a shot of the gigas. Thanks for the tip on the camera.

Hey! I knew that when I said "Somebody got a new lens for his camera"
No fair :(

- Fragless in San Antonio :cry

[Shark_Bait]

A qoute from Chris


The Image Gallery section of the site is temporarily password protected, rendering it inaccessible.

This is due to bandwidth issues which I suspect is mainly caused by increased and abusive use of the gallery (There are a few 1MB sized pictures for example).

I'll have to confer with the Board on creating guidelines to limit this from happening in the future. Our site has normally averaged between 25-30 GB transfer/month, but has managed to exceeded 45 GB this month. This type of bandwidth consumption is not acceptable

[GaryP]

The Galleries are temporarily closed because we have exceeded our band width for the month. In order to keep the rest of the site up Chris had to do this.

The BOD recently voted to increase the amount of Bandwidth we purchase from the hosting company. We are already exceeding the increased amount.
This is one of the costs of keeping this club running that our membership fees go towards. Unfortunately, in most cases its a matter of lack of membership fees. Non paying members still incur costs on the club through their bandwidth useage. This has not been a major issue until now. If this trend continues we may have to take another look at "web member" privileges on the site. I'm sure I speak for the rest of the BOD in saying that we rather not have to do that.

[JimD]

So at this point, I could be a "web member" and have equal privilages? I would say that the whole system needs to be re-evaluated. I cant imagine the cost being so outrageous we cant afford it. Half of the galleries are empty for cryin out loud!

[Richard]

This is one of the costs of keeping this club running that our membership fees go towards. Unfortunately, in most cases its a matter of lack of membership fees.


If you don't mind some constructive criticism....I think Maast really needs a more organized method of issuing membership cards for paying members. I originally offered a 10% MAAST discount for paying members only to encourage people to help the organization by paying the measely $25. For even an average hobbyist the 10% discount will easily result in savings well over the $25 membership fee especially considering the discount applies to anything in the store (not just fishy stuff). However, many people were not receiving cards for a while and the cards basically have no info on them other than a name so to avoid the hassle now I just give the discount to maast members (paying or not).
How about a card with more info (expiration date, an account number of some type, maybe a picture).
How about putting a list of stores which offer discounts to paying members on the card.
How about having a checkbox that people could check when becoming an official member that would allow their contact info(address, email) to be provided to maast sponsors. So that sponsors could send out special coupons or deals just for paying maast members.
How about limiting group buys to paying members only.

There are alot of ways to increase the value of maast both to members and sponsors. Everyone should realize that the better funded Maast is the better this site will be and the better special Maast events can be.


Ok back to Tim's original post. Tim, you should be afraid of that thing in your tank. It is VERY toxic and dangerous. My time is limited but since you are a paying maast member, I would be willing to take it and dispose of it safely.

[GaryP]

Richard,

That is in the process of being re-evaluated as we speak.

[JimD]

It would also be nice if more sponsors had a bigger voice in the topics around here, like Richard, instead of posting occasionally only to promote their wares... That really annoys me. Thanks Richard!
I know, hi-jack-ola...

[brewercm]

OK, you guys shamed me into updating my dues since I keep forgetting. :unsure
Paypal is a great thing by the way.

Here is an idea that could work also, make a special selling/trading area for MAAST charter members seperate from a regular selling/trading forum. That way if you want to sell specifically to a paying member or offer up to them first that could be an option.

OK everyone beat up on me now, I'm waiting. :P

[MikeDeL]

Sounds like alot of you have some good ideas for increasing MAASTs income and making the membership more valuable to its members. Can the powers that be move all of these suggestions to a seperate thread so we can add more suggestions without hi-jacking Tims Little Shop of Horror thread. :D

[Pacman]

Not sure why, but my status has been changed from charter to web member. (And yes, it says through 2005 on my MAAST member card!) I signed up in November.

Also, the intro page is around 600k to download. It seems like just reducing the resolution of some of the pictures you could save a lot of bandwidth, as this is probably the page that gets by far the greatest # of hits. Or just having some of these pictures appear after you link to them. I dunno, just an idea.

[MikeDeL]

Here is an idea that could work also, make a special selling/trading area for MAAST charter members seperate from a regular selling/trading forum. That way if you want to sell specifically to a paying member or offer up to them first that could be an option.


Maybe it can be made to were only charter members can create new topics in the for sale section. Allow it to where anyone can respond to the thread. This way another perk of membership would be free classifieds. This will also prevent inccedints with people registering just so they can sell there dog houses, and end up bashing other members on here. Im not trying to imply that everyone that is not a charter member is like this, I have just noticed lately that we get alot of people registering posting items for sale then never hearing from them again. It could be one more incentive for paying dues. Selling something from one post on here can save you the price of a classified ad which Im sure cost atleast $25.

Just a thought.


Mike

[brewercm]

I say let them sell there stuff to us for cheap. I was just thinking of an area where "charter members" only can post and see, this would give the same charter members first dibs on things. If you want to place it wide open you can also do that, not to mention I've benefited from many people selling on here whether they be charter members or not.

By the way, what happened earlier. I go to pay my dues on paypal then come back and the site was completely inaccesible. :P

[Tim Marvin]

I had in my mind to give a frag to the first person to actually say the name.....Sorry.