FYI- GALLERY ACCESS TO CHANGE NEXT WEEK

Hi All,

The gallery has been causing a huge load on this site transferring over 4 gigs of data per day. This is a direct correlation to the peak 6,000+ unique visitors to apug daily. It's a performance hit on the server and our hosting plan's data transfer allowance that we simply can't allow to continue. I have no choice but to make the gallery "Subscriber" only starting 1 week from today. The subscription service will remain the same as always with rates starting at $12 per year (paypal gets 65cents of that as handling fee). You can even subscribe for 3 month blocks if money is tight. If the gallery is important to you then the $1 a month should not be a big deal.

Some may have concerns about non-subscribers being unable to show any of their work, and we will figure out a way to address this (most likely 3 images allowed to be attached to their user profile page).

There may be concerns that the forum will be next as subscriber only, but this will not happen. Essentially the forum is juggling only text as data which produces very little load and bandwidth compared to images.

There will also be a daily upload limit of 4 images per day to the gallery. All of this combined will:
-reduce our load considerably
-prevent mass uploads that many find annoying, also preventing new users from registering and moments later uploading 2 megabytes of images to our server

I anticipated this might happen one day, but not so soon. I think the recent surge in traffic has left us with few alternatives in some areas of the site.

I hope everyone can understand stability and maintaining costs are key to the longevity of APUG.

If you use the gallery and do not plan to subscribe, you have 1 week to copy down your images from the gallery if neccessary.

Thanks!

Sean

Sounds reasonable, Sean. Thanks again for all your effort.

Sean - am I correct in believing that images linked from external sites within message threads don't create bandwidth overhead for your system? How about ones that are inserted into individual threads from an external source?

Hi Ralph, you are correct, external img tags are not an issue.

Keep up the good work, Sean! We appreciate having this haven to come to & this sounds pretty reasonable to me!

Sean said:

I anticipated this might happen one day, but not so soon. I think the recent surge in traffic has left us with few alternatives in some areas of the site.

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Sean-

I just wanted to say "Thank you" for the way you've handled APUG. Although I'm hardly an old-timer here, I can say that the site has grown dramatically since I first found it, and that you have always managed the growth wonderfully. The changes you've outlined above sound great, and should work out very well.

Again, thank you for everything that you've put into the site.

Be well.
Dave

I would rather pay then have to deal with banners and pop-ups or no gallery at all.

good job sean

Money *is* tight here, right now, but $12 is about what I pay to process a roll of 6x6 color with 5" prints, when I shoot color -- or half the price of a box of 9x12 cm film for my plate cameras.

I'm in.

Very fair and balanced approach, Sean. I am one subscriber who has no problem with any of the new policies or suggested future changes in your post.

Thanks for all the hard work and patience.

-KwM-

I can't imagine anyone with the wherewithall to be doing photography and using a computer could have a problem with so modest a subscription fee. Your changes sound fair and reasonable to me. Thanks for all you do, Sean.

Thank you, Sean! You are fabulous for everything you do for us.

Thnaks Sean, it's been great to have a place to show my work and get criticezied!

OK, if I'm going to pay $$ for access to the gallery, you guys better start uploading more nudes. Then Sean can charge $4.95 for 5 days access......Can we upload video clips?

-Mike

oriecat said:

Thank you, Sean! You are fabulous for everything you do for us.

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Hear hear.

Next time we pay our subscription I suggest we pay $13 instead of $12. Then Sean will have some money to take his wife and kid(s) out for at nice dinner. He deserves it!

As a non-subscriber I fully support your decision but IMHO, access tot the forums should remain free. It is the perfect way to attract new members / more subscribers.

G

Good work, Sean (as always!).

Another well thought out and sensible decision Sean. Thank you again for your time, expertise and understanding of the needs of APUGERS.

Les McLean said:

Another well thought out and sensible decision Sean. Thank you again for your time, expertise and understanding of the needs of APUGERS.

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As Les said, Thank you Sean.

Barry

Good Stuff !!!

Sean said:

Hi All,

I hope everyone can understand stability and maintaining costs are key to the longevity of APUG.

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Very common sense. This is one of those sites that is well and moderately moderated and controlled with a great variety of participants. That's why I became a subscriber right away. "If you want the store in your neighborhood - you've got to shop there"

regards

Did you post this somewhere in the gallery? There are many there who never come to this side of the forum. It might be a shock to those who are uploading a buch of shots a day and who have never posted.

I think this is a good idea and I agree that paying is better than dealing with a blinking banner that advertises something.

Hi Mark, tonight I will be placing a notice on the gallery page linking to this thread. I meant to do it yesterday but was kidnapped by a 2 yr old and forced to take part in a Teletubbie tea party..

Also, thanks for all the nice comments in this thread everyone!

Thanks a lot for all your effort, Sean. I totally agree with this new system.

Anne Marieke

Those two year olds weild a hell of a lot of power don't they? Teletubbies are evil. I had to play Pirate last night with my 2 yr old

Arrrrrrrgh...Avast ye scurvey dog.