OAS Website content review

[Rick]

Ok, it looks like there are a few things we'll need to do with the OAS website soonish. The current issues are:

• Storage space. (I have 20Mb on my ISP, and the OAS site is now using half of that. I'll maybe find some more, but it can't grow forever.)
  
• Bandwidth. (Some of the site might be hosted on home ADSL systems, but they'll be slower.)
  

Things I think we'll need to address soon are:

• The gallery page. There are about as many thumbnails as is practical. Any much more and it'll be too slow to load. We could split it into categories, or we could use it to host the latest pictures (and pictures from folks without their own websites) and add links to gallery pages belonging to members who do have websites. I think having entire pages (with the same look-and-feel?) on other members' websites would be better than just hosting the full size images elsewhere...
  
• Links to members' websites. I'd like to see more of these, and not just in the gallery page either.
  
• News. A more dynamic page to which members could add links when they find stories of interest, perhaps?
  

Comments, suggestions, and appropriate pages for me to add links to, please.

[ This Message was edited by: Rick on 2002-10-16 11:01 ]

[Mike]

Storage Space - I have 55Mb and won't be using all of it. I am happy to donate as much as the Society likes.

Bandwidth - I'm not sure what you mean when you say it will be slower on an ADSL machine ?

I agree that the Gallery should be split into sections, i.e. :-

Planets
The Moon
Solar
Deep Sky
Comets
Misc

or something like that.

I am working on my own website, but i'm in no hurry so it may be a while.
_________________
Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?  

[ This Message was edited by: Mike on 2002-10-16 15:41 ]

[Rick]

Bandwidth relates to the volume of data that can be shoved down the pipe. Most ISPs have limits on how much data can be transferred from a website. At the moment the OAS site runs at about 8Mb/day. Demon actually spell out their limits. They are happy to allow up to 60Mb/day for each host from their homepages servers. Sites staying below that get standard service. Sites exceeding that for more than 6 days per month get downgraded performance, and sites that exceed 150Mb/day on 3 or more days in a month get cut off. (Gory details at http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/products/homepages/bwusage.shtml ) Other ISPs do similar things, but may not be as up-front about it.

Home ADSL may have bandwidth limits imposed too, either by the ISP or by BT. BTOpenWorld have had some bad press recently for emails they sent to customers whom they considered "excessive users"...

One of my reasons for saying we need to trim the gallery is because I'd like to encourage members to build up their own galleries of their own pictures to complement the OAS one.

I'm not that keen on split-site serving (pages here, images there), because if one site is down you effectively lose the other as well, and it's much more difficult to co-ordinate and maintain the site too. Better to have complete pages on multiple sites.

[ This Message was edited by: Rick on 2002-10-16 22:36 ]

[Mike]

OK, i'm on NTL so no BT involvement and not one problem in 8 months.

Yes, point noted on the split site option. Members individual galleries sound good to me, most peopple have some webspace with their ISP.