Disk Space Being Chewed Up

[S Allen]

I am rapidly running out of disk space on the VPS server. We are already twice what we used to use on the old server. I am going to have to limit the upload sizes beginning today. The current settings were unlimited. I cannot afford to leave it that way as disk space is expensive. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause but the reality is space costs money. You will have to resize your mega-pixel pictures or host them else where and put a link to them. We all know what happens when you do that-potential broken links. Thanks.

Steve

[Curtis]

What size limit are we going to? Want to set the camera.

[S Allen]

They need to be under 500 KB. 640x480 is an optimum size for viewing on the web. They can be a bit bigger but no more than 500 KB. I just tested and the new settings work. I am sure there will be some grumbling. Thanks.

Steve

[notoptoy]

This is a good time to remind people to donate. This stuff does not come free! There is a donate button at the top of every page.
I highly recommend to all to set up an automatic payment for some small amount monthly to this site - or just donate, but to please do it consistently! I set up through PayPal and don't even think about it anymore, other than I probably should increase the amount!

[Gregs672000]

Would it be helpful to delete some of the pictures no longer needed? For example, I would have no problem if my items for sale pics were to be deleted after some time period. I could also go through old PMs and delete those I no longer need or care about...? Any other housekeeping things we could do as users of the site?

[S Allen]

Greg,

That might help some but getting everyone to do that would not be very realistic. I am still trying to sort out the issue but allowing mega-pixel pictures has not been the correct path. If I had unlimited disk space that would be fine. That is not the case. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Steve

[Linda]

Too bad there isn’t a way the BBS automatically limits the size.
Also a program that could go thru and resize all photos to a specific size would be great.
Maybe someone knows how to do it.
Linda

[Gregs672000]

Greg,

That might help some but getting everyone to do that would not be very realistic. I am still trying to sort out the issue but allowing mega-pixel pictures has not been the correct path. If I had unlimited disk space that would be fine. That is not the case. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Steve

I hear ya Steve, and I very much appreciate that you make this all happen and so easily. All of this computer stuff is black box for me, and I don't know what could be set to occur automatically. Maybe there are some categories that could have rules that let people know the pics and perhaps all of the narrative would be deleted... like my for sale posts. Once the sale is over and it's been bumped a time or two, it could automatically be deleted with the knowledge that it's up to the seller to work with their buyers on follow up etc after say, two weeks (?). I know I enjoy seeing pics of drives, or track time videos, but I rarely go back very far... they're really nice to see and part of the 311s experience, but are they critical after a year? Tech questions and solutions are important long term for many, so could there be rules depending upon the category? Just spit balling here, and I don't want to take away anything from experiencing the site or offend anyone, but maybe this is something, if helpful, to discuss amongst the users of this wonderful site... pros and cons.

I too have been remiss in my support... if it's via PayPal I'll have to log in and see if I even exist anymore, but if so, donation on its way, and if not, then some other way.

[S Allen]

I can limit the size of the pictures and just did that last night. I was trying to be nice to the mega-pixel crowd but it bit me in the -ss. As far as the classifieds they are purged after a set period of time and/or zero posts(no interest). There are multiple categories that get purged automatically on schedule. This has no impact on YouTube videos or pictures hosted else where other than 311s.org. As far as resizing pictures in threads I do not have the time to do that and there is no automatic way to make that happen. Ask the folks whom lost their picture hosting service in the past and have taken the time to go back and add missing pictures to older threads. It is painful. Going forward the picture attachment size will be limited to 500 KB. Folks will just need to learn how to resize their cell phone pictures so they can upload them. I will have to add more disk space in the long run or just say the hell with it and pull the plug. I have a bunch of manuals that were given to me that I need to upload into the tech wiki but again that takes disk space.

Steve

[S Allen]

Due to the disk space issues I have reduced the size of the pictures allowed to be uploaded into the user gallery area. It went from 2 MB's to 500 KiB which equals a 640x480 pixel format. That is just fine for viewing on the web. Not that many folks use the Gallery so it should not be a big deal. I just wanted to give the few that do use it a heads up. I noticed a new user trying to link his Gallery photos in a post but since they were bigger than the allowed format he could not add them. This will eliminate that problem. Thanks.
Steve