I like this message board very much. I intend to continue to resubscribe for as long as it exists. That said, jadavis’s comment in this recent ATMB thread annoyed the crap out of me and reminded me of an incident from earlier this year.
On April 14th of this year, right before the deadline for Charter Members to re-up, there was a thread about the banning of a troll named drmark2000. The thread was quickly hijacked to a discussion about the SDMB in general. In this post, TubaDiva made the following claim:
When pressed for details she made the further comment (Post #146, same thread)
Having heard this tune before, a number of people called bullshit, most notably catsix. (Post #180)
TubaDiva’s response to that was legendary:
We are now halfway through the subscription year for us Charter Members so let’s recap.
*We may have a new server on-line at some unspecified time in the future.
*No new features.
*Old threads can no longer be accessed and may never be able to be accessed again.
*Slower board speed in general (but with the new server and lost threads we could get back to where we were six months ago.)
That looks to me like a net loss. Is this new stuff still on tab or are we owed an apology?
From what I’ve seen, you are owed an apology for an outright lie, but will never get one, instead will be chastised and doubletalk will ensue.
Why on earth is this a pay board? I’ve never seen any board that cost before.
I hope those posters in the thread putting forth the possibility that he meant a 50/50 chance of archiving the deleted posts during the switchover are right, but if they’re not and he did mean a total 50/50 chance of archiving, I’d just like to say:
Jesus Christ, don’t fucking whine at him about it. If it’s a 50/50 chance based on his decision, whining is gonna make it less likely to happen. Heaven knows that I tend not to go above and beyond the job requirements for people who whine at me before I’ve made the decision about what to do about a situation, and why should I expect other people to do so? Whining is irritating and insulting, and unlikely to inspire people to take on extra work. (Only directed towards the people actually whining. Please reread anything you’ve (generic “you”) posted to see if you’re whining before taking offense.)
vBulletin is at version 3.6.2 now. The SDMB is two generations behind. Upgrading, though, involves a lot of changes to the underlying database. With the size of the database, there’s robably more that could go wrong, but testing an upgrade in a non-production environment on a copy of the database shouldn’t be out of the question.
There’s many other vBulletin-based sites that have more posts than the SDMB. I don’t think there’s a theoretical limit to the size of the board; the only limits are probably hardware-related.
I have to admit that as a paying member I’m not really the slightest bit interested in more features. It’s a message board; the features I want are the abilities to post and read messages, plus a good search function. I like it simple. I would much rather not have my money spent on bells and whistles that serve no purpose.
I WOULD, however, love to have it (a) faster, and (b) to retain a full message history. So I’d like to know where the new server. I want my money spent on better hardware. If they have 3000-4000 paying members, that’s plenty of money to buy better hardware.
C’mon, hajario, this complaint is totally out of line. After all, if you read TubaDiva’s comments carefully, you’ll note that she doesn’t ever say which year was going to be an exciting one.
As for me, I’m about at the point where I’d be thrilled if I could connect to the board on the first try most of the time.
Let’s assume there’s 3,000 paying members; half paying $7.50, and the other half $15.00. Not counting Google ads, that means the annual revenue of the SDMB would be $45,000.
A high-end server from ev1servers runs for $399 a month. The specs:
Dual Processor, Dual Core Opteron 265
(2) 73GB SCSI Hard Drives
2 GB Memory (16GB Max)
2500 GB Monthly transfer
Beats the Packard Bell 486 that the SDMB is running on now.
That’s $4,800 for the server and bandwidth, and the rest as well-deserved profit for the Reader.
My feelings exactly. The whole issue of new, whizz-bang features is of no interest to me. I like the no-nonsense, workmanlike look and feel of the boards.
I do think, though, that having access to all previous threads is essential. As others have pointed out, there are plenty of other message boards with larger active databases. With the low cost of hard drive space, and the ability of modern servers and software to deal with large databases, there really is no excuse for being limited to a paltry 2.4 Gb, or whatever the number was.
And the speed is just so inconsistent; perfect one minute, impossible to connect the next.
I, like RickJay just want the basics. “The basics” means fixing the search feature and making the server and its connection fast enough that I don’t get timeouts.
I would enjoy seeing any new features that make the SDMB faster and easier to use. I would not enjoy seeing distractions like animated smileys, icons, and embedded graphics.
At first, I was annoyed that I couldn’t edit my own posts, but I’ve come to agree strongly with the board policy against it. It would be just too easy for someone to go back and edit an old post when they’re losing an argument and say, “I never said that!”
If the cat is the same color as the pieces it’s playing (e.g. black cat playing black), then people will stop going to the theaters to watch them, but sales of DVDs will double. If it’s a calico, then Peter Jackson will produce a movie version of The Silmarillion. If it’s any other color, then sales of old Desi Arnaz CDs will experience an unexplained spike.
And herein lies the rub: All the staff has to do is keep the place running, and the subscription fees keep rolling in. It’s a cash cow, really; where’s the incentive to change?
