Uploading images to a forum the easy way.

[Guest Kheldar]

Craig you are of course correct.

 

However  do you know (or could you find out) how much SGL are paying  and what they get for that - at least it would give everyone an idea of the approx costs. 

 

 

I'm pretty certain that information won't be given out

[Craig]

I don't know them well enough to ask and I imagine they'll tell me to mind my own business, but I can tell who they are hosted with.

 

They are hosted by a company called TSOHost. Their forum hosting packages, if SGL use the obvious package, start at £5 for a diddy one (technical term ) which, initially, would handle EMS, but they're more likely on the large package at approx £70 a month or a large VPS at circa £40 - £70 per month. If they're on any less than that I would be surprised.

 

If we exceeded the small package we face a jump in costs to move to a VPS which is what we didn't want to entertain before. It would need to be a managed service since we don't need the overhead of server maintenance as well.

 

We opted instead to pay for premium hosting with increased reliability, better response times and, most importantly, daily backups included. The backups were felt to be important following a database issue in which we lost almost a day's worth of activity (new members, posts, shouts, etc., all gone). Currently we have the forum hosted with the developer of our software, which is not as cheap as the above but it includes the software licenses and daily backups, which are extremely important given the above point. We could enable the gallery any time we want but the moment we do we know we're on a road to an increase in costs.

 

The thing is, I fail to see why we would pay for image hosting when everybody can get it for free. I use Flickr daily, it really is easy once you get into a rhythm with it.

 

For info, we currently pay approx £220 a year after the exchange rate (we're actually hosted in the US) which includes the software license. That's about £18 a month.

 

I can get far cheaper hosting elsewhere and still use this cheaper hosting for other sites, but they are nowhere near as good as EMS.

[Craig]

I'm pretty certain that information won't be given out

 

Cross post.

[glider]

Photobucket is free...........

Edited June 4, 2014 by glider

[stash]

A chance of clear sky tomorrow night, but I'm not holding my breath!!

Me too - I just check the radar over a period of time and see which way the cloud/rain is going and take a guess if it likely to hit Cranwell or not - hey I could be a weather person - notice the political correct ref to person. 

 

But I can see your point about Obsys - closing any roof (manual or otherwise) is faster and less of a chore than setting up and down your hardware - especially when your window of opp is small.

[Sheila]

i suppose SGL have the advantage of being sponsored?? so i would think FLO are very nice about the costs of their hosting.

 

will continue to stick to astrobin and tapatalk then, although i did prefer the gallery  never mind

[Craig]

How to use Flickr:

 

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/adhoc_uploads/craig/flickr.swf

 

[Sheila]

How to use Flickr:

 

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/adhoc_uploads/craig/flickr.swf

 

 

 

thanks craig i have used it but prefer the ones i use now, but thanks anyhow

[stash]

I don't know them well enough to ask and I imagine they'll tell me to mind my own business, but I can tell who they are hosted with.

 

They are hosted by a company called TSOHost. Their forum hosting packages, if SGL use the obvious package, start at £5 for a diddy one (technical term ) which, initially, would handle EMS, but they're more likely on the large package at approx £70 a month or a large VPS at circa £40 - £70 per month. If they're on any less than that I would be surprised.

 

If we exceeded the small package we face a jump in costs to move to a VPS which is what we didn't want to entertain before. It would need to be a managed service since we don't need the overhead of server maintenance as well.

 

We opted instead to pay for premium hosting with increased reliability, better response times and, most importantly, daily backups included. The backups were felt to be important following a database issue in which we lost almost a day's worth of activity (new members, posts, shouts, etc., all gone). Currently we have the forum hosted with the developer of our software, which is not as cheap as the above but it includes the software licenses and daily backups, which are extremely important given the above point. We could enable the gallery any time we want but the moment we do we know we're on a road to an increase in costs.

 

The thing is, I fail to see why we would pay for image hosting when everybody can get it for free. I use Flickr daily, it really is easy once you get into a rhythm with it.

 

For info, we currently pay approx £220 a year after the exchange rate (we're actually hosted in the US) which includes the software license. That's about £18 a month.

 

I can get far cheaper hosting elsewhere and still use this cheaper hosting for other sites, but they are nowhere near as good as EMS.

Thanks Craig for the info and I didn't think the info about SGL were be freely given just hoped someone here controlled both sites .

 

"The thing is, I fail to see why we would pay for image hosting when everybody can get it for free. I use Flickr daily, it really is easy once you get into a rhythm with it. :)"

 

As I said at the outset I don't use it (not AP you see ) and when I have its straight forward if a bit cumbersome . But it seemed that some people were having problems so I thought I would ask the questions being slightly techie. You have taken the time to explain clearly why,what and where for's - thanks for that. 

 

"For info, we currently pay approx £220 a year after the exchange rate (we're actually hosted in the US) which includes the software license. That's about £18 a month."  - Good value considering your goals -  that's less than Ron pays for his dog food  (sorry Ron done it again and I don't know how much Ron spends on dog food !)

 

As I am not a dark site member it means its free to me so I do feel a bit ashamed at not contributing to the costs but that is another issue for another rainy day/night.

 

So at least people can now see the goals and current costs and make their own minds up etc etc etc

 

Maybe some more coaching is needed for those who are having problems - but count me out as I am a c**p teacher.

 

 

[Craig]

Nobody should ever feel the need to contribute. At least, not in my opinion.

 

If we decided to re-add the gallery then I could do it, it's not an issue to do, it's purely a book balancing issue.

 

See my video above though if you have problems with Flickr.

 

Also feel free to PM me if you are having difficulties. I am somewhat inactive at the moment, but always happy to help.

[stash]

Nobody should ever feel the need to contribute. At least, not in my opinion.

 

If we decided to re-add the gallery then I could do it, it's not an issue to do, it's purely a book balancing issue.

 

See my video above though if you have problems with Flickr.

 

Also feel free to PM me if you are having difficulties. I am somewhat inactive at the moment, but always happy to help.

Liked the video but spent to much time looking at the picture which was very good 

[Craig]

Thanks

 

I have been spending a lot of time at Attenborough Nature Reserve. To demonstrate Flickr (*cough*) I shall link a few.

 

Hover Fly (Edit) by The_Boot, on Flickr

 

Great Crested Grebe by The_Boot, on Flickr

 

Ladybird by The_Boot, on Flickr

 

This is what's been keeping me away from astronomy gear. I can't get kit for both at once (well not the kit I want, anyway).

[stash]

Very nice pics - if I could just "point and click" for AP I would be all this computing (sorry processing) is   to me. Love paintings but sadly can't paint.

 

See you even caught the rain drops or are they flies on the Grebe

[Guest StevenWhatley]

The problem is when you start running out of space. Then the costs start to go up. What was £10 to begin with becomes £15, then £20, etc. The more we store the more the cost escalates. Eventually we'll be back to square 1 and we'll have to remove it all.

I use Flickr all the time and it really is easy. There's no need to pay for storage or maintain additional functionality when there are free alternatives available.

I agree that once you start having a gallery you will at somepoint again run out of space, but there are ways to restrict the amount everyone takes up.. Simply capping image sizes like ABS does will help a lot, annually deleting the gallery ect, I would also happily pay to help maintain the site and help in anyway I can with an annual clear up, there is enough of us on here working in I.T to have the best forum in the world!!!

Just my 2 pence worth

[Craig]

Those two approaches were considered but they both have downsides:

1. Capping the usage means people delete images that were linked in posts to make room for new ones, leading to random threads with broken images.
   
2. Clearing out on an annual basis also means that we end up with threads full of broken images, only they're now by age.
   

I would honestly encourage the use of free alternatives. The likes of Flickr, AstroBin, etc., all allow easy linking straight to the forum. The procedure really isn't any slicker with the gallery installed here. The interface was actually quite cumbersome.