Open for the moment ...

[french frank]

Sorry about the very abrupt closure. Not many people seemed to see my first warning, and when I tries to post the closing time - 10pm - the forum was running so slowly I cancelled the message and just closed it. Work has started on freeing up disk space, but it will have to continue when someone can work out a more efficient way than I was using.

Basically, we've lost all members who had never posted and who had not logged on for a year. And Platform 3 is losing its earliest posts - threads that have not been 'live' for nearly three years. I think the rest can probably be done without closing tomorrow.

Apologies again for the lack of warning.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks ff. Everyone's probably busy addressing their Xmas cards at the mo.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

no worries ff she'll be right as they say in Oz

[Old Grumpy]

Sorry about the very abrupt closure. Not many people seemed to see my first warning, and when I tries to post the closing time - 10pm - the forum was running so slowly I cancelled the message and just closed it. Work has started on freeing up disk space, but it will have to continue when someone can work out a more efficient way than I was using.

Basically, we've lost all members who had never posted and who had not logged on for a year. And Platform 3 is losing its earliest posts - threads that have not been 'live' for nearly three years. I think the rest can probably be done without closing tomorrow.

Apologies again for the lack of warning.

I saw the original message, but was offline by 10pm and so did not notice. Is there any way of making the closure advice thread sticky at the top of the New Posts - this would ensure maximum exposure? Your strategy seems (as would be expected) sensible to me ff.

OG

[amateur51]

Thanks for the earlier warning, french frank.

Do whatever you have to do, I'm sure you'll do the right thing

[french frank]

I saw the original message, but was offline by 10pm and so did not notice. Is there any way of making the closure advice thread sticky at the top of the New Posts - this would ensure maximum exposure? Your strategy seems (as would be expected) sensible to me ff.

OG

I could make it an Announcement, but I think stickies only stay at the top of a forum list, not the main What's New? list, so in an emergency it's hard to get the word to everyone logging in and out if they ONLY look at What's New?.

Main problem was that Techie No 3 was alerted to a possible emergency and didn't know what to do . When in doubt - close the forum and leave a message for those who get the 'Closed' page.

More later.

[Mahler's3rd]

Good Luck French Frank,

[french frank]

Good Luck French Frank,

Ta - No 3 techie needs it!

Just a word to say this is a different problem from the earlier one - we are well within our bandwidth limit as we solved the problem of the determined assault from aliens. Disk space is eaten up by the now huge volume of threads and posts. In future, I don't think people should rely on the fact that the entire archive will survive. Mark said there was not even enough space to make the usual back-up, so the earliest threads of Platform 3 have gone; and later threads will probably have to be pruned too - I remember that the BBC boards had a problem with overlong threads. I believe the thread files can be saved if individuals want to download them.

Consultation with Andrew later.

[Flay]

Would it help if people refrained from replying "with quote" then repeating the whole of the previous message before replying? Could posters be urged to simply quote the message number they are referring to?

[vinteuil]

Would it help if people refrained from replying "with quote" then repeating the whole of the previous message before replying? Could posters be urged to simply quote the message number they are referring to?

... surely it's things like photos and imported fancy emoticons that eat up space??

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not necessarily if the photo is merely linked to in its original web location the only requirement is for the url which is tiny in terms of disc space ..

[french frank]

Would it help if people refrained from replying "with quote" then repeating the whole of the previous message before replying? Could posters be urged to simply quote the message number they are referring to?

I wish they would anyway! - or just edit to the exact point they're responding to. There is hardly ever a need to quote long messages in their entirety.

Re graphics: As calum says, pictures are only linked to outside websites - actual downloads are disabled.

[Old Grumpy]

- or just edit to the exact point they're responding to. Re graphics: As calum says, pictures are only linked to outside websites - actual downloads are disabled.

What about the pictorial YouTube links - how much space do they use? They take ages to load - well at least on my steam computer!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ditto that is why they take so long each time, linking through ...

[EdgeleyRob]

Thanks ff and helpers for all your hard work in keeping this wonderful forum going.