Real Bad News...

Real Bad News... (Full Version)

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Fabio Prado -> Real Bad News... (7/6/2002 2:56:52 AM)
ATTENTION! The ARMOR Site's Steel Panthers Section is Temporarily Closed. :( Due to a dramatic increase in bandwidth usage (from 14,286 MB in January, 2002 to 31,760.47 MB in March, 43,670.89 MB in April, 27,425.19 in May and 20,791.23 in June 2002 - for a maximum allowed within my plan of 15,000 MB (which is not a small bandwidth, anyway), I unfortunately have no option unless to close temporarily the Steel Panthers World at War Section, as the costs of maintaining this web site increased 10 times, and I cannot support it at this cost. However, in the next 15 days or so, I will be reevaluating the whole SPWaW web site and will reopen it again, but severe cuts in downloads can be expected, since it is the download volume, not the visits number, what is causing this explosion in cost. Moreover, I will try to find alternative solutions to this situation, so that you fellow SPWaW fans will have the least possible discomfort during this forced transition. I am terribly sorry for this inconvenience, and emphasize that I am doing this because I have no other alternative at the moment. Fabio Prado. :( :( :(

Supervisor -> Understandable (7/6/2002 3:10:52 AM)
This is understandable Fabio, don't sweat it. We all thank you for the unsurpassed dedication and support. I guess it stinks having such a popular site. We will all be here when it returns. Maybe if remove the old version upgrade paths and archive them this might help. ALso if you remove the downloads that already on the Matrix site this will also lower bandwidth usage. If an old upgrade is needed I know were to find them and link them to the Edome.net FTP In the future with Tankhead back up, with both sites operating this will also remove some of the heavy traffic.:) I will remove the link in my signature until you bring the site back up.:cool:

Tankhead -> (7/6/2002 3:23:06 AM)
Hello Fabio! Yes I can relate to your problem :( . I was facing this on my old site and was beginning to cost a lot. That is why I choose to only support Ver.7.1 on the new site cut down on cost. Maybe we can come up with something to minimize the cost to both of us. Take care my friend

Figmo -> (7/6/2002 3:41:38 AM)
Fabio, This is terrible - I hope it can be worked out. Like Tankhead says, maybe cutting back on the services, although, I must admit I've used them many times but to keep you up and running is the most important thing. Let me know if I can help!!! Figmo

Fabio Prado -> Thank you for your support! (7/6/2002 4:21:18 AM)
Thank you for your kind words, gentlemen! I already sent private messages to you, Tankhead, and to Redleg, to see where and how we can work together, so that SPWAW fans have as little discomfort as possible with this modifications. I am sure we will work out a satisfactory solutution!:) Thank you all, have faith in the old Tiger boy, I'm not going to let you down.;) Fab

Fabio Prado -> Re: Understandable (7/6/2002 4:41:59 AM)
[QUOTE]Originally posted by gmenfan [B]This is understandable Fabio, don't sweat it. We all thank you for the unsurpassed dedication and support. I guess it stinks having such a popular site. We will all be here when it returns. Maybe if remove the old version upgrade paths and archive them this might help. ALso if you remove the downloads that already on the Matrix site this will also lower bandwidth usage. If an old upgrade is needed I know were to find them and link them to the Edome.net FTP In the future with Tankhead back up, with both sites operating this will also remove some of the heavy traffic.:) I will remove the link in my signature until you bring the site back up.:cool: [/B][/QUOTE] It's the download volume that's awesome. I have a disproportional download volume relative to the visits number. I will have to reduce the downloads available, and it is a pain. Also, I will take the opportunity to do an "uplift" on the entire site and will scrap old scenarios, but first will get in touch with the designers, to give'em all a chance to update their scenarios. The plan is to establish better coodination with Tankhead and Redleg, so we can all get a good number of visits and a supportable volume of downloads. Serving the SPWAW fans is our common objective. So, I believe that if we work together, everybody gains! It will take a little time, but in the end, a better web site will result, that's for sure! :) Thank you, gmenfan! Fab

Resisti -> (7/6/2002 5:02:12 AM)
Hi Fabio. Bad to hear it.But more than understandable, too. I do believe it is a matter related to downloads, and namely the the patches from the old versions of Spwaw up to 7.1. It seems infact you're the only one around having these stuffs still available. I, too, pointed several newbies looking for this kind of patches to yr site, during last few days. Probably only real solution to the problem is, as somebody else said already, to eliminate all the downloads of old versions as well as other old stuffs, and keep only the 7.1, .

tracer -> (7/6/2002 9:08:23 AM)
This is just an idea, but what if some fans agree to donate a MB or two of our webpage space? I know certain providers have restrictions on file sizes and download bandwidth, but maybe by spreading it across numerous sites we can get around this. Is this do-able? :confused:

Goblin -> (7/6/2002 9:10:03 AM)
Fabio! Best wishes buddy! You have nothing to apologize for! Tigers kick serious A$$!:D

BryanMelvin -> (7/6/2002 8:44:06 PM)
Fab - let me know if we can be of any help to you at the Arsenal :)

Panzer Leo -> (7/6/2002 10:05:34 PM)
Sorry to hear that, Fabio ! yeah...my link in the signature does not work anymore... As I'm one of so many SPWAW fans who benfitted from your great website, I really hope you'll find a solution that does not cost you a fortune...thanks for everything you've done sofar for us and I hope to see you with the SPWAW pages back soon... good luck !

darroch -> (7/7/2002 9:41:38 AM)
Fabio, You were kind enought o host Russian Steel. Thank you again. If there is anything I can do to help please let me know. Brad

ZeroAntipop -> (7/7/2002 12:56:32 PM)
And The Wargamers' having a bad time too. . .looks like a lot of big gaming sites are getting flushed.

KG Erwin -> OH, SH IT, Fabio. (7/7/2002 1:37:55 PM)
I really hate to hear this, because I needed to reload the SPWaW stereo sound patch, which you were the ONLY site to get it from. I hope you sort things out soon, Fabs. Good luck.

Fabio Prado -> Thank you guys" (7/7/2002 2:52:27 PM)
Thank you guys for your kind words and specially to those that stepped out and offered help. Your kindness and atitude is what gives me the strenght to keep going.:) I really can't find the words to express my feelings... Thank you so much! Fab

Bing -> (7/7/2002 10:20:32 PM)
Fabio - Thank you for everything you have done for the SPWAW community. We are all in debt to you - there were times when you were the only beacon in the dead of night - when the only place a gamer could get certain WAW files was Fabio's site. With the exception of a short period of down time - due to server problems beyond your control - you were always there. A suggestion - and merely that because I haven't seen it in the above - is to do what Nels Anderson has done at Train-Sim. Now, I know SPWAW is nowhere near to MS Train Sim in terms of massive user scale. Nels' server became so crowded he decided to go to a subscription basis, for those who wanted access on a 24 hour basis and rather quick downloads (many of the TS files run 10 and 20 Megs). Nels charges $30. a year and it is well worth it. There are complaints about this, which I answered by saying you can't tell me the youngster (they are always fifteen years old and their parents won't give them the $30.) cannot find thrity dollars for a pair of designer jeans - to which which I have never seen a coherent reply. I am not at all sure this would work for WAW, if the idea doesn't seem workable, then just drop it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The other way, of course, is to accept all sorts of banner and flashing ads - one TS site I frequent now deatures an automatic full page "pop-up" - and there are some which unfortunately engage in spyware. Part of the problem, of course, is that we (WAW users) are spoiled: We have been getting everything gratis, free, no charge - for a long time. Changing this will I am sure meet with a good deal of resistance. Per above, its just a thought. In any event, I wish you the best and I will always have fond memories of Fabio - without question one of the truly great gamers I have known. Bing

Goblin -> (7/7/2002 10:23:40 PM)
I was thinking along similar lines, but keeping the gratris part. What if we all pitched in what we could? Five bucks, ten, whatever. Certainly that would help? I would send something. Fabio?

Fabio Prado -> (7/8/2002 12:51:01 AM)
Thank you guys for your suggestions, but I don't think it would be practical in my case. First, because I want my Wargame website to remain a free one. Second, because even if I did want to make money out of it the basic conditions aren't there. Why? Because I have a limited number of visits and a humungous download volume, due to the size of the downloaded files. So, the eventual interest of someone in paying for ads there is very limited. And then there is the navigational burden to the visitors that many ads and pop-up windows represent. Personally I hate it, and would not inflict that on anyone. I upgraded my hosting program recently, to get more disk space usage and more bandwidth (15,000 MB monthly). However, that was not enough, and even if I adopted the "super king size option", I still would be in trouble, because the bandwidth usage limit is 30,000 MB monthly, and I reached 43,670.89 MB in a month, so it wouldn't solve my problem anyway. I am trying to find some other web sites to help with those bigger downloads, but, as painful as it is, I will have to stop being a "download" site. Thank you from my heart for your kindness at the point of willing to give me money, but this is not a practical way of managing a web site. Either it supports itself, or it is supported by someone. To support itself, a very large and consistent number of visitors is necessary, and even this way it is not guaranteed to survive. If it is to be supported by someone, I prefer to do it by paying from my own pocket (even if my last monthly invoice was over US$ 300.00), bacause if I accepted any money from other people, I would have an obligation of justify where this money were going, and make all the finance demonstrations public, etc., and I think it's easy to understand it would complicate things beyond what it is acceptable for the type of web site I built in the first place. Fab

Bing -> (7/8/2002 2:51:43 AM)
Fabio - I do understand your point of view. But I don't think you would be as subject to criticism for charging a fee for the download service as you might think. You can explain the terms of the agreement up front and in detail to those who wish to subscribe. If they don't like it, they don't have to pay, they can get the files elsewhere. Maybe. The decision is yours, naturally, however it might be that a good number of users understand you already have contributed much more in the way of time, effort and financial considerations than anyone could reasonably have expected. Time to share the burden. Nothing wrong with that. The free lunch is long gone in America (you had to buy the beer anyway, so it wasn't really free). Maybe you can't do this alone - there is nothing wrong with asking for help. I wouldn't be able to handle that monthly fee you quoted, I am sure most of us wouldn't. Find a way to make the service pay most of its own way - or discontinue the service entirely - seem to be the two options. You've been tremendously good to all of us. Time we helped you, not the other way around. That's the way I see it. Bing

Mojo -> (7/8/2002 4:22:44 AM)
Fabs you have a great site and I have used it shamelessly. If it comes to the point that you need me to kick in a few ducats a year so you can continue to provide the service I'd consider it money well spent;)

Fabio Prado -> New SPWAW page posted. (7/8/2002 6:37:57 AM)
OK, Fellows; I have uploaded the new (provisory) SPWAW page. There are the last Scenarios for version 7.1, as well as campaigns. It will be like that for a while. Thank you all for your support. Fab

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