fyi- Update on where we are with the Gallery..

Ok...

After some code changes this morning the current state of the gallery is..

-all visitors and registered members can view thumbnails and categories only
-subscribers have full access

I am leaning strongly towards keeping it this way because since the lockdown on the gallery the server has never been in such good shape. Performance is way up, and our bandwidth use is way down. With the lockdown in place we should be able to maintain things on our semi-dedicated server plan for quite a while.

It is hard to give non-subscribers access to upload a few images because that sets us back to square 1 with 100's of non-subscribers uploading a few images and 100's of people viewing those images.

My main concern now are those who geographically have major problems subscribing. For example one user would have to pay $15 just to create a check to mail me. I need to find something to do for these people, but at the same time keep others from abusing what I decide to do. It will probably come down to a case by case basis.

The lockdown has caused some strife, and a few people have either left or asked their old images to be removed. At first this was worrying to see, but now it seems it was only isolated to a few. I say this because most feedback has been supportive, and subscribtion numbers are rising. Generally people are happy with paying $1 a month to have 4megs of personal gallery space, and the ability to participate in the gallery system.

The book is not closed on this, but for now it seems we've found a good solution to curb our out of control server usage..

Thanks, Sean

Thanks for the update and all the hard work Sean, sounds like we're on the right track again

Thanks Sean. As much as I like the gallery, for me the "meat" in APUG is the forums. I enjoy chatting with others and I feel that I have met people here that I would enjoy meeting in real life; I've already met Kevin and Nige from Melbourne.

Sounds good. Let us know how it is working out over the next couple of weeks. I'd be interested in hearing whether you have found a solution.

Sorry Sean is my Firewall being over protective again or is there no way to comment on pictures in the galleries at the moment?

TPPhotog said:

Sorry Sean is my Firewall being over protective again or is there no way to comment on pictures in the galleries at the moment?

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Nope, not your firewall - same here.

Poor old Sean must be rushing about like a blue-arsed fly sorting this lot out...

Sean said:

.............snipped.............. Generally people are happy with paying $1 a month to have 4megs of personal gallery space, and the ability to participate in the gallery system...............snipped........

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Ummmm - yup!! I for one will continue to be happy with paying for this subscription. Today I picked up a copy of B&W magazine at the local smoke shop and it was $10.00. I put it back down A full year here is $12.00.........I can count!

the comments issue is fixed now

roteague said:

Thanks Sean. As much as I like the gallery, for me the "meat" in APUG is the forums.

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I agree with Robert. There are some APUG users who are really just using the gallery as another exposure/online critique site. I see the gallery as useful for some purposes, but peripheral to the real value of the site, which is in the discussion, print exchanges, and personal contacts that people make.

I can get to the thumbnails but can't see the full scans, is there still a bug in the gallery?

Thanks again Sean , works for me! Even at double the price it is absolutely worth it.

Mateo said:

I can get to the thumbnails but can't see the full scans, is there still a bug in the gallery?

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Mateo, I checked your account and it should be working ok. It's possible you are having some cookie issues. If you are using IE try tools->internet options->privacy tab, allow all cookies, just to see if it works

I can't get the thumnails to load. Well, the first thumbnail loads in the standard gallery...

Hi Jon, what happens, are you saying 1 loads on the page then the others are red x's? What about the other galleries? Thanks

Hi Sean, well the first one loads fine and the status bar says (11 items remaining)..., but they don't load. In the critique gallery it now loads the first 2 and says (12 items remaining)... and then nothing happens. This is in IE.

Just tried Netscape and gallery works fine as usual, but I don't usually use Netscape.

Hi Jon, try installing IE service pack1

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.mspx

This seems to help people having similar issues here and on other sites..

Sean, first Thanks for everything....want to let you know I am seeing results like those above..waiting on things to load, but nothing happens. Noticed that it started yesterday (Friday). Have loaded sp1 for IE6 and checked to make sure allow cookies. Any other ideas? Oh, yeah did do a fresh boot after loading the sp just to make sure everything was current.

Sean you are really starting to tick me off.


All I here from my wife is "why can't you make such smart and rational decisions as that Sean Ross guy?"

To those having page loading problems in the gallery. It's possible we had a corrupt database table. I have run a repair utility against the tables, let me know if that helps. Thanks

Yep, fixed it for me. Thanks Sean for all the hard work.

mine works now too good job

lee\c

Thanks Sean. Works fine now.