Topic awaiting preservation: A Question of Ethics : sigSTOCK (Page 1 of 1)

Hey, folks, it's me again. I have an interesting question for you all, and I'd like honest answers.

Right now, I'm pulling about 20,000 requests a month for something out of sigSTOCK, whether it's loading the page to upload one, or pulling an image out of the directory. That sounds like a lot, but of course some of the folks that are using the system (there are, right now, 2,425 sigs in that directory, if the list of files is any clue to me) on busy boards, such as this one, proboards, a vteen, and they get many, many hits day.

The question is whether or not I should have on-months and off-months. If it were only a matter of Asylum folks, I wouldn't question it at all. But, by having on-months and off-months, I might be more capable of finding which sigs are dead, and which ones are still in use. I might be able to speed up the system a bit (as it is lagging, sometimes) by lowering the amount of files in the directory tree.

Just wanted some feedback on that, if you would be so kind.

I think on-months and off-months may be too long. If you tried say a week or two it would work better. Now, you may have a few disgruntled people on your hand, but sometimes site maintenance is a fact of life, and if it involves downtime then so be it.

Usually, people will grumble for a bit, but once the service is back and works just a little bit better they'll quiet down.

My 2 cents, anyway.

I'm not too familiar with running that sort of service, and I'm not sure about how having an off month in between would help you figure out which sigs are dead and which sigs aren't--but I'll take your word on that. Yes, a month does seem like a long time, but I guess the way I feel about it is this: it's a free service, so you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, within reason. It would be nice to notify people in advance, but I imagine a large number of people toss a sig up and then just forget about it, only visiting the site if something goes wrong with the sig.

Would having an off day be as effective, or maybe an off week? Ultimately, though, you've got to do what you need to do. It's a free service, and if people aren't happy with it they can always take their sigs to another free service. I know that sounds a tad harsh, and I understand that you feel an obligation to your users (which is a good thing), but I guess you have to put the greater good first.

So, did that make any sense?

I am sort of confused. I read the topic twice and I am not sure what you mean by an on month and off month. If you are concerned about dead sigs and such, you could easily check the referer logs to see which ones are being used.

If you have a good logging service you could pull out all those that have been hit over the past month and run a perl script to dump those that are not being used, or whatever other scripting language you use. I am sure there could be a really elegent solution to this. Like setting up a cron tab to run such script once a month to kill those that are not being used.

You could even put the dead sigs into a kill directory. When users try to access a file that doesn't exist you instead give them an image that is simply an image that is a written link to a dead image page, that would allow them to try and find the dead image. They could then opt to make it live again. After a month of the sigs being in the dead directory with no activation, you purge this directory and fill it with the new dead sigs.

This might be what you mean by an on month off month thing. If it isn't could you explain what on and off means, since I figure it should be something I should probabally know but don't?


Me

Personally I don't see the point in up and down months. You should be able to either look at your logs or write something into your script that tracks hits and such.

However, I also know that you do this for free and no one pays for the service. Because of that, I would say you have the right to do whatever you see fit to run sigStock efficiently.

Then, if they complain too much, tell 'em to buy their own damned domain!

Gotta go with Master Suho on this...you offer a free service, so...IMHO, it's your right to do with it, what you will...


WebShaman

*Nods head aprovingly*

Do what it takes.
If anyone gets upset, remind them of the big favour you're doing in the first place, and that by optimising the service, you're ultimately doing them an even bigger favour.

I'd just track the file downloads in your logs...but then I'm not one for simple answers, so.


FECK 'EM!!! MAKE THE BASTARDS SUFFER!


or some shit.

I don't think downtime is going to kill the poor children.

well, really I didn't think too hard while writing all of that, so I apologize for the tiny-brained.

*cough*

I know which sigs are and which are not being used. That's not at issue. At issue is slowing the surge of near-constant uploads to that thing. Maybe a week would be better.

But you guys should see some of these sigs. Some of them are really....really...really terrible. I mean, really terrible. Exceptionally terrible. I'm more than half-tempted to put up a page with the worst ones.

twitch^:

quote:

---

I'm more than half-tempted to put up a page with the worst ones.

---

and we'd be more than half-tempted to have a look at such a page

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

o goodie a "worst sigs of the web" page
you could even put a contest on it every month the worst sig off the month will be given a nice and cool sig made by one off the masters aroun here..post the worst here and we will vote.... oops i was just rambling.

"Freedom of speech is by no means freedom to insult others" from the Razorart goodbye letter.

twitch, just a suggestion, delete the whole lot, anyone taking pride in their creations will surely have a local copy of it (won't they, ya know backups of ya work) then they can always upload it again

that way no need to sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak, then maybe come up with another way of uploading the sigs, maybe password protect the page and give it to asylum members only on request.???

anyway, its a free service do what ya want with it, no one has the right to tell you what to do, if they are worried about downtime they can pay for their own damn host !!!!!

tom

p.s.thanks for the service ya provide



[This message has been edited by tomeaglescz (edited 02-26-2003).]

There is this one sig...it's the jolly green giant. oh lord...I gotta build a page for this. Too funny.

my ideas:

1) set a file size limit, if you have not already. i'm sure you have tho, being the cookie that you are.

2) lose the browse button. if someone is serious about uploading, they can type the file path in. generally, absolute technical ineptitude can be a good indicator of graphical inability also.

3) set up an "sigVote" page - your own personal version of amihotornot. then, after an image has 100 votes, delete it if the average score is less than 7.0 Now, although this would be fun, it is also a serious suggestion. You, stephen, have dedicated your online (and large amounts of your offline) life to making the www a better place. How can you look yourself in the mirror each morning, when you know that you are harbouring sigs of mass destruction?

4) have a disclaimer, stating that for at least 3 hours out of every 24, their image will be replaced with a random profanity, insulting the owner of the sig. That will lessen usage a little, one would hope. (on second thoughts, that would be pretty cool, i would pay money to have you insult me randomly, van doren.)

5) use monkeys.



[This message has been edited by reitsma (edited 02-27-2003).]

Your service intrigues me, twItch. Can I subscribe to your newletter?

I like #3 there reitsma.

I also notice that www.amiSIGornot.com is available for registration.

krets: I like the idea but amiSOMETHINGornot domains are so 2002!!

How about:

shitsigornot.com

or just shitsig.com

I have a PHP script around here that would pretty much run it out of the box and it could be our strike against the awful sigs out there!!!

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor