Elitism on SC?

[boowat]

We're only affording the £200 a month at the minute from donations and we'll keep needing more donations just to keep it at the level it's at now.

i have no idea how things like advertising works but couldnt you just spam a shit load of ads everywhere? lol


i would like to reiterate i have no knowledge of these things so please be gentle, i just know that some people use ads to pay for their site or something.:shrug:

 

[taidgh]

whats the story with donating if out of the uk? it seems like the paypal page doesn't offer an option for that.

 

[DoublePivot]

I think we all need to take time to appreciate Boaman's contribution. He basically paid for a month. That's not to say he's better or worse than anyone, but fuck that's like 500 USD. Thanks dude.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

whats the story with donating if out of the uk? it seems like the paypal page doesn't offer an option for that.

And there are those of us where PayPal or the credit card thingy is not allowed in our resident country. :-(

Rob is seriously taking all these type of things into account. He frequently comments that he wishes there was a way to keep the site open to all. It is a 'community' after all. It's good to see that most posters get this and understand that something has to be done and we're open to all ideas to make it as painless and universally acceptable as possible.

In the meantime, I have a cunning plan that I'm going to propose in the Mod Forum, which could solve both issues of eagerness to access the site and raise funds. It is, quite simply, the best idea by anyone, ever.

However, I also said that about my idea for robot blow-job machines and when I switched the 'salivate' button on, well, let's just say a lesson was learned about mechanics and water.

In conclusion, watch this space.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

In the meantime, I have a cunning plan that I'm going to propose in the Mod Forum, which could solve both issues of eagerness to access the site and raise funds. It is, quite simply, the best idea by anyone, ever.

You expect us to entertain an idea about combatting elitism from someone with under 10k posts? :razz:

However, I also said that about my idea for robot blow-job machines and when I switched the 'salivate' button on, well, let's just say a lesson was learned about mechanics and water.

Thanks for reminding me. My hampton still bears the scars :evil:

 

[sloth]

Anyone tried turning off some of the gizmos on this site. It's probably irrelevant but don't all these graphic sigs and extra bits and bobs put a strain on the server?

 

[yawa]

Anyone tried turning off some of the gizmos on this site. It's probably irrelevant but don't all these graphic sigs and extra bits and bobs put a strain on the server?

Depends which ones as the adverts are generally hosted on other servers and so wouldnt affect this.

However large avatars and signatures would. Maybe turning them off for a bit would help. I know we had to do a similar thing a few years back on the gamespy forums.

 

[Mr Gamgee]

I dont think it has anything to do with eliteism? In my opinion if people have donated they should have a priority over non donating members during peak times. The same goes for the guys who help this site run smoothly, i'd imagine a lot of work goes into this and no-one gets paid for it. I cant believe people are moaning that they have a priority over everybody else.

Remember if no-one donated or put the time and effort in this site wouldnt be here now for everybody to enjoy, so quit your moaning.

P.S - I havent had a server message all day (touch wood) so great work with the changes.

 

[Rob]

All avatars, sigs, etc have been moved from the database to the filestore to reduce the server load. I did this a month or two ago but it didn't make a huge difference.

Also someone commented above and I just wanted to point out, the donation list includes the amount that people spent on the memorabilia that A&C auctioned off so a big thanks to them for buying it and to A&C for offering it up in the first place

 

[Azrael]

Ok, I've read through this thread I'm I'm still not convinced that I've read a satisfactory reason for the lack of access. I've been a members for a good number of years now and in recent times Ilve looked to increase my posting, but I have struggled to do it based on the access problems. With a huge mortgage around my neck I just cannot afford to donate money to the site, but I frankly don't think it up to the membership to fund the boards continued existance. If the board's owner/s can't afford to run it efficiently by themselves is it now time to consider shutting the place down? I know that seems a bit drastic, but what is the point in operating the board at all if only the most frequent or most donated posters can (1) get on the board at all and (2) survive an access period long enough that their posts make it onto the board.

I appreciate all that is being done to continue the board, and I accept that I may sound rather harsh, but there is little point in running a broken machine in my book.

 

[Mr Gamgee]

Ok, I've read through this thread I'm I'm still not convinced that I've read a satisfactory reason for the lack of access. I've been a members for a good number of years now and in recent times Ilve looked to increase my posting, but I have struggled to do it based on the access problems. With a huge mortgage around my neck I just cannot afford to donate money to the site, but I frankly don't think it up to the membership to fund the boards continued existance. If the board's owner/s can't afford to run it efficiently by themselves is it now time to consider shutting the place down? I know that seems a bit drastic, but what is the point in operating the board at all if only the most frequent or most donated posters can (1) get on the board at all and (2) survive an access period long enough that their posts make it onto the board.

I appreciate all that is being done to continue the board, and I accept that I may sound rather harsh, but there is little point in running a broken machine in my book.

Yeah bollocks to it, lets just shut it down :bang:

 

[Mr Gamgee]

The spurs site was down the other day for some reason, think it was whilst the Keane saga/norwich game was on. Fuck it lets shut that down too, it that also a broken machine ?:shrug:

 

[Azrael]

You make it sound like I actually want the board to shut down, which is utterly idiotic. I'm obviously here because I want it to service.

But, are you honestly telling me that you are happy to continue to get a "sorry we're busy" page 9 time out of 10 loads? If you're hapy for it to continue that way then fine, but for me personally its affecting my enjoymet of the board.

 

[Rob]

Ok, I've read through this thread I'm I'm still not convinced that I've read a satisfactory reason for the lack of access. I've been a members for a good number of years now and in recent times Ilve looked to increase my posting, but I have struggled to do it based on the access problems. With a huge mortgage around my neck I just cannot afford to donate money to the site, but I frankly don't think it up to the membership to fund the boards continued existance. If the board's owner/s can't afford to run it efficiently by themselves is it now time to consider shutting the place down? I know that seems a bit drastic, but what is the point in operating the board at all if only the most frequent or most donated posters can (1) get on the board at all and (2) survive an access period long enough that their posts make it onto the board.

I appreciate all that is being done to continue the board, and I accept that I may sound rather harsh, but there is little point in running a broken machine in my book.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

We've had a few whiney emails like the above but this one is clearly the winner.

Read this http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=982982&postcount=12

Keep reading it until you understand.

You have a huge mortage around your neck? Lucky you. I'm a student "earning" nothing and paying £200 a month just so you can come on here and complain. Not to mention the huge amount of time that myself and the mods put in for free.

That's a service which it seems many people would be happy to pay for but instead we're doing it for free and refusing to make it "members only" so that people like you who "can't afford" to donate (the equivalent of the price of a pint of beer every couple of months) can still come on here for free.

Luckily this is a really great community with a lot of great members who are happy to help out and even those who really can't afford to can at least accept what's happening and that we're definitely not removing their access at all, just making the server run more smoothly.

Sorry to everyone else for the rant but that one deserved it ;-)

 

[Rob]

You make it sound like I actually want the board to shut down, which is utterly idiotic. I'm obviously here because I want it to service.

But, are you honestly telling me that you are happy to continue to get a "sorry we're busy" page 9 time out of 10 loads? If you're hapy for it to continue that way then fine, but for me personally its affecting my enjoymet of the board.

How about in context:

Over a month or so in the summer, people who can't afford to donate will get the server busy message. Yes this is frustrating bit it certainly isn't 9 times out of 10 unless you mean you're getting the error, instantly hitting refresh and doing so until it goes away.

Even then, we've set up additonal stuff (including a blog containing all the ITK info) and a chatroom, both of which can handle thousands and thousands of users.

At the very very worse, stop using the site for a few weeks until the end of August if it's ever so bad. Suggesting we shut it down when there's still so many people using it fine is ridiculous.

 

[RussellYid]

Only read first couple of pages and then page 7 of this thread. And I know the posts on here that Rob has posted have been for sympathy or praise, but just thought I'd give him a bit of both.

SC is my home-page at home and at work. I spend as much time on this site as any other. Actually, much more. Would I pay to use it? Certainly.

I think the 'job' Rob and his merry band of men do should be applauded and they should be thanked.

 

[Bonjour]

I am l337.

 

[Rob]

For what it's worth, here's a nice little graph I just knocked up.

I was planning to do this properly when I get time and do some proper analysis on it to see if there's anything we do learn from it but this is a quick one for the "can't access the site 9 times out of 10 comment".

Click
HERE to open in new window

The graph starts on the 7th June and shows the server load every 10 minutes up until midnight last night.

Features of note:

Over the last week or two is the first time it's got so bad that no one can access the site at all and even then, they are relatively thin spikes (not shown up that well by the plot as the plot lines are too thick for the high temporal resolution we have).

For the whole of June and the first half of July, EVERYONE has been able to access the site fine and it's been very rare to get a server error message (nearly all the peaks are BELOW the bottom red line) and it's only happened a few times.

The last two weeks have been a LOT busier than any time we've seen before in Spurscommunity history. By any metric we record, we're busier than ever before and we just couldn't anticpate that. Even so, over 75% of the time, everyone has been able to access the site fine. It's only in the big spikes that last for an hour or so at lunch time/home time where people donating have got any benefit at all and even then it doesn't last for long (as that's the whole point, it's to give the server a chance to recover and let everyone else on as quickly as possible) and non-donators can access again soon after.

There's the facts. Hope it was enlightening.

 

[KentuckyYid]

I just don't get some people. I'd hazard a guess that most of us spend more time on this site than any other. How many other things in life that we enjoy are free? Other than a jolly good crap and a good pick of the nose everything else costs money.

If the site cannot secure its running costs through 3rd party means then of course we should cough up a little. That is if you enjoy it... I opened a Paypal a/c just so that I could donate which I have closed again since. Next time there is a donation drive I'll reopen it. SC aren't asking for a lot money, I only gave around 10 quid which I figured what was everyone was giving. It's the best 10 quid I've spent all year.

Anyways I think I'm done with the squeaky bum thread. As many laughs as I've had with it misers are still one of my biggest gripes.

 

[taidgh]

rob: anything you can do for those who want to donate but are out of the uk?