102 replies to this topic

[E-Day]

Slowly but surely, magazines are coming back online. The first issue of Nintendo Power is available, as are Issues 23 and 25 of Sega Visions (those are new scans).

The entire section of Game Players is now online and available for downloading.

Because all the downloads will be directly from the server, I have reinstated the download limits that used to exist before everything was moved to MegaUpload. This is to prevent people from downloading 20 issues at a time, and having 50 members doing that at once. Overloading the site's servers will draw unwanted attention to us and what we are doing. And if we put too much strain on the system, Dreamhost might temporarily take the site offline to alleviate things. So here are the download limits:

Guests, Validating Members, Banned Members: 0 per day
Inactive Members: 1 per day
Newcomers: 1 per day
Everyone else: 5 per day

Inactive Members and Newcomers also need to have at least one post before they can download anything.

Members, Team Members, Moderators and Super Moderators are also able to download two files simutaneously.

Up next I will work on getting the Nintendo Power issues back online.

If any of the links are broken or go to the wrong file, let me know so that I can fix it. We'll get there eventually!

[badinsults]

Good to hear that you found a solution, E-day!

[KiwiArcader]

I'll continue to host Nintendo Powers, Gamepro and eventually EGM's over at OGM as well so people have options when they hit their daily limit etc. Provides a backup as well in the event something crops up. Never be too careful right?


Cheers ... Kiwi

[E-Day]

Right now I am trying to upload the rest of the Nintendo Powers. Then it will be GamePro, EGM, EGM2, Sega Visions, and so on, possibly in that order.

[terpsfan101]

I'm uploading stuff to Mediafire. Free account, unlimited storage, and they won't delete my files, assuming I keep my account active. Are you okay with this E-Day? I can post the download links in the download manager or I could list them in the forums.

[E-Day]

It's up to you. Eventually all the links will be replaced with local files.

[terpsfan101]

What forum should I post the links in? And what should I name the thread title?

[E-Day]

Just stick it in Magazine Talk, and call it something like External Links to Scans or something.

[adelomida]

Great news and a good step toward a solution.

[maniacmario]

Good stuff. What OGM?

[KiwiArcader]

Good stuff. What OGM?

OGM = my website OldGameMags. Link is also in the 'Downloads" link at the top of this website.

[E-Day]

The first 90 issues of Nintendo Power are back online.

If any of the links are broken or go to the wrong file, just let me know.

[Jake]

At this rate the web server will feed 75 to 90 Gigabytes a month if the total data usage was between 2.5 and 3 Gigs a day.
Where exactly is the team uploading all these files? I just snagged an Official Dreamcast Magazine that Team Member Wonderman uploaded. In the process I discovered a long list of files he has been uploading lately yet he has no posts and has been around a hand-full of years.

[E-Day]

I am the only one uploading to the server. They all go in a specific folder in the Retromags domain that I created. I am not worried about 75-90 gigs a month as the bandwidth with Dreamhost is unlimited, as is the storage space.

And after approving Wonderman's stuff for a while, I moved him up from Newcomer so that I would not have to approve everything anymore.

[E-Day]

All Nintendo Power issues are now online. Next to come back will be EGM2.

[ajmetz]

Just wanted to give a huge thanks to ya' for the GamesPlayers stuff! Downloading now, can't wait to have a peruse! =)

[E-Day]

EGM2 is now back online.

[E-Day]

GamePro issues 1 to 25 are now online. The rest will be coming shortly.

[Phillyman]

I am the only one uploading to the server. They all go in a specific folder in the Retromags domain that I created. I am not worried about 75-90 gigs a month as the bandwidth with Dreamhost is unlimited, as is the storage space.

While Dreamhost and many of the other "shared" hosting companies say "Unlimited Bandwidth" and "Unlimited Space".....they are all full of shit!

What’s not allowed in “Unlimited”?

Basically, sites whose essential purpose is to use disk or bandwidth.

When making a website, you should be thinking about “How can I make an interesting site for my visitors while minimizing my server storage, bandwidth, file system, memory, and cpu impact as much as possible?”

The result will be a better experience for your visitors, your web host, and yourself!
Here are some specific examples of things not allowed:

Copyrighted content to which you do not hold usage or distribution rights.
File upload / sharing / archive / backup / mirroring / distribution sites.
A site created primarily to drive traffic to another site.
Making your account resources available (whether for free or pay) to the general public.

http://dreamhost.com/unlimited-policy/

This is the same crap I went through with HostGator. They said UNLIMITED in the sales pitch, and then later made me read the fine print that said Retromags could not use more than 25% of "any" system resource (cpu, ram, hd) for longer than 90 seconds. That pissed me off, and I canned them as a service the following week. Most website hosting companies try to operate like your local gym. They want you to pay a fee each month, and they hope you don't show up. Their goal is to cram as many amateurish websites onto a server as possible. They like the grand-mom's who have a blog that only gets 50 visits a month, but forks over $9.99 every 30 days. Its really a piss poor model for people who are trying to build up a website as a business. You start off with no traffic at all, and then the first time your website makes the front page of Digg, or Reddit......the hosting company says you were pulling too much bandwidth. This prevents websites from being able to grow, because every time you get any kind of spike, your hosting company pulls the rug out from under you.

No matter what, each hosting company can tell exactly how much disk space and bandwidth their customers use. Then some pencil pusher looks at the monthly reports for each server and looks for 'oddities" in the numbers. If they see that Retromags last month used 4GB of disk space, and now is using 600GB, they will go through the directories of this website and track down what is going on. If I were you, just as a precaution, I would back up the databases and most critical files pertaining to this site.....because if they lower the hammer....you might not be able to get back in and retrieve a current backup.

[E-Day]

If they drop the hammer, then I will delete the files like you had to with HostGator, and then either speed up the process of handing the site over to someone else (no one has stepped up so far: lucky you! ), or, barring that, move it elsewhere and become a cookie-cutter site that doesn't host anything, or shut it down completely. I think the site would look nice as an information site running on a CMS, with all sorts of info on all the magazines, but I don't really have the time for that right now, and the amount of work that would take is discouraging. At that point, it seems like that would be a better fit as a sub-section of an existing retro gaming site.

In any case, I am not that worried about DreamHost lowering the boom. I've got a backup of the site from last month, and I'll grab another one in the next couple of weeks.