CathInfo is getting too big (almost) for a typical "shared" hosting account. Shared hosting is your typical web hosting, which costs around $10 a month.
The next step up, unfortunately, is a dedicated server which costs around $150 - $180 a month. No thanks.
But I have a few more options than that. Since I'm a programmer, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to minimize accesses to the database (which is the only problem, by the way). I can rewrite the site to only show thumbs up/thumbs down count to logged-in members, for example. I allow members to see 5 posts per page, but guests can only see 3 posts per page. Every little bit helps.
Anyhow, PMs are not the kind of thing I want to archive. Private correspondence from many weeks or months ago? Content that no one sees anyhow? That's why I just tell people -- if someone sent you an interesting article, or anything else you want to save, just save it off to your PC (text file, word docuŠ¼ent, etc.)
Because I can't afford to be your Gmail :) I don't have that kind of server resources.
I DO however let people post large files, etc. on the forum, and I host those indefinitely. Storage space is NOT a problem. Just database traffic.
The posts database is enormous -- but those are worth it. They're the primary content CathInfo has to offer. I don't want to trim those (for the most part). So they get priority.
But the whole site is database-driven. Most "features" such as Ignore involve looking up database records. When you have 60 users doing that, it can add up to quite a load on the server.
I've also mentioned -- I know that trad Catholics aren't a rich sort. I'd rather have CathInfo do the "voluntary simplicity" thing so I don't have to pass the hat. Everyone needs your money these days -- I'd like for CathInfo to not be one of them.
Topic: Private Messages (Read 1360 times)