I can't seem to use the search fuction

I just disabled it for basic members - it was bogging down the server. Get a gold membership and support the forums - you'll be able to search again after you are activated (when we get back from SHOT).
 
I certainly feel like I support these forums. I am tying up loose threads and then I'll be back when searching is re-enabled for basic members.
 
Making it more of a hassle to view the forums is a great way to garner support.......

I can understand things like buying and selling.....hosting pics....
and to a lesser degree being able to change user titles and your name...These things are privilages and can add some extra fun to the forums

But denial of a basic search function is a bad idea imo.....
 
Think of it as making your life easier by paying $2.50 a month.

As it is right now, we have 17,000+ basic members. This site is not cheap. When it comes down to it, if I have to disable features for you guys, to make sure my paying customers can still use the site as a whole, so be it.

Sorry if you feel it's a huge hassle, but not having the site at all would be a bigger one, and new servers are not inexpensive.

As for "supporting" the forums by being a basic member, I'm not a rich man. If you feel that the amount of time you spend here isn't worth a measely $2.5 a month to be able to search, sell knives, private message, etc, then I'd like to hear just how you are "supporting" this site. Attendance != helping this site survive. And this site certainly is a lot cheaper than one magazine a month, right?
 
In case you've forgotten, Kevin, I've tried on multiple occasions to pay for a gold membership. Out of the 200+ Internet purchases I've done in the last year, 1SKS is the only place to fail to process the transaction because of address verification problems.

I checked and I've purchased over 100 knives from Bladeforum members in the last year. On the occasion of my 500th post I donated a several hundred dollar knife to a Blade Forum member. In the last 3 months I've donated $1,500 to support other knife forums.

So, no, it isn't about the measly $2.50 per month.
 
Of course writing posts is contributing -- it's a valuable contribution -- we need posts or there would be no point to having Bladeforums. But unfortunately we need servers to hold the posts, too, or there would be no point to our writing them.

The place keeps growing. Somehow, we gotta pay for new servers. And when the place outgrows the servers we have and we don't have the money to upgrade right away -- like right now -- somehow, we gotta try to keep the place going the best we can for a while, until we can raise the money for the next upgrade.
 
Address verification is a fact of life in E-commerce, Gabe. If your bank doesn't have it enabled, or has the wrong information, don't blame us - blame your bank for not keeping your information up to date. FYI - money orders cost $.99 at most Quick marts; they are acceptable as well.
 
Seems like disabling the search function is just gonna force people to create loads of repetitive posts, asking the same questions over and over.
 
It happens. It's a trade off.
 
I am pretty annoyed, so I'm going to take a deep breath and try to be constructive.

As a user, having a critical feature of this forum disabled without warning is aggravating.

As a basic member, being characterized as a "freeloader" is insulting, and unrealistic. Do the thought experiment - where do all the dealers, knife makers, and gold members go if all of the basic members leave? They go as well.

As someone who runs an Internet service with 150,000 simultaneous users built on top of the same database vBulletin uses, I don't understand how 300 simultaneous users can be putting any sort of load on any sort of decent database server.

Capacity planning for BladeForums is trivial. You should be able to plan months and months ahead for when you will need increased capacity. Blaming "freeloaders" for poor capacity planning is nonsense.

So how can I help BladeForums? I could just get myself upgraded to gold status, but that would leave all of the other Basic Members in the same annoying situation I currently find myself in.

Instead, I am offering to buy BladeForums a new database server. It's not a long term solution to BladeForums capacity planning problems or scalability issues with vBulletin, but it seems like a reasonable way to show support to the Forums and my fellow community members.

I can turn this around pretty quickly, if you let me know the details of your current server and where you think it is bottle-necking.
 
I think I miss the option to 'view new posts' more than the search function...

Is is possible to keep just that option, while still disabling the 'search' button?

I don't mind doing a manual search for specific info I may want.

The less time someone takes to find the specific forums and then hunt up subforums and then find the posts would be worth it to keep the 'VNP' option I would think...

Not trying to be a butthead, just wondering.....I thought it was set up that way last time, search disablesd but you could use the new post feature...could be wrong...
:)
 
If you look carefully, I did not refer to basic members as freeloaders. I recognize that the vast basic membership does help with the core community. That doesn't fix the huge bills I have to contend with... and servers aren't cheap.

For the past 2 years, I've shelled out many many many thousands of dollars to keep this site going. Asking basic members to give something back for features that make life easier is not too much of a stretch, or undue burden in my opinion.

Thank you for your generous offer to help with configuration, let alone your offer for a database server. I will contact you shortly regarding configuration issues. Instead of throwing money at the problem, I'd rather draw upon your knowledge & expertise to make the most of what we have.

It's suprising to see who's a member here sometimes. We've had offers from Rackspace.com for free hosting, and now your offer - it does bolster my confidence that there are others out there who share my belief that a knife community like this is a good thing; and it's reassuring that others are willing to help me with the burden however they can.
 
I noticed the lack of search, so I came here to see what was happening. No big deal for me. I just can't justify paying to have these additional services, that's just my choice.

Hosting of a site/forum can't be all that expensive though? I work for an internet provider, we host numerous types of websites and forums. $44.00/month

I know there is even cheaper hosts out there too, we are considered on the "high end". Guess I found this strange, as I've never seen forum features disabled before on a site. Access to different areas maybe, never features like search or private messaging.

OTF
 
Kevin and I spoke on the phone.

I'm going to take a look at scalability issues with the current hardware.

I've purchased and installed my own copy of vBulletin, along with php and mysql. This is more for my own education, and to get access to the vbulletin support site.

The good news is that there are plenty of people running considerably larger forums than Blade Forums (as much as 10X larger). There's also a large body of information on scalability and tuning issues on the support site.

I've sent email to Kier at Jelsoft asking him some questions that will give me a better idea how to proceed.

As I learn more, I'll keep people posted.
 
I am not a great user of the search facility so I am not greatly disadvantaged by the changes. It seems to me that basic membership of this forum is a privalege not a right and that if you have to find ways and means to keep the forum going then so be it. As an owner of a "business" I know what it is like to keep your head above water. Anyway I don't want to escalate the debate as there seems to be points for and against on both sides. Just want to let you know that in my own small way I'll do my bit and take out Gold Membership and I urge those that can afford it to do the same. So look out for an application for Oz.
 
Originally posted by Gabe Newell
Kevin and I spoke on the phone.

I'm going to take a look at scalability issues with the current hardware.

I've purchased and installed my own copy of vBulletin, along with php and mysql. This is more for my own education, and to get access to the vbulletin support site.

The good news is that there are plenty of people running considerably larger forums than Blade Forums (as much as 10X larger). There's also a large body of information on scalability and tuning issues on the support site.

I've sent email to Kier at Jelsoft asking him some questions that will give me a better idea how to proceed.

As I learn more, I'll keep people posted.
Click to expand...

Gabe, try webBBS forum software with 1000+ posts a day, and you'll see what will put load on a server. :D

vBulletin, YaBB, phpBB, UltimateBB, all similar forum software, tend to run quite well on any platform. (ie. Windows IIS takes more of a hit, but Apache is great) I've run so many types of boards with full functionality and equal/greater user base. Maybe server host for bladeforums.com just can't handle it, or their server is old/decrepid.

OTF
 
The database server is less than 10 months old and has dual processors with over a gig of RAM. We run a seperate webserver that more than handle's it's own load with ease - but the db server is getting killed. I think it's more configuration than anything else - but I'm no guru. Gabe has generously offered his company's technical knowhow to get this resolved, and failing that, his monetary resources to get things going in the right direction. This offer is very much appreciated by me (and hopefully everyone else).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top