Tropical Fish Forums

[Marcos Avila]

Dear members,

I'd like to tell you about something that's been on my mind lately. Those who've been around for a few years know that the days of crashes and total losses seem to have ended when we finally found a board script and a hosting plan that allowed this board here to be running pretty well for the past 2 years. As a consequence, we've reached almost 100,000 posts, 4000+ members in this version, and the board's database is close to 100 MegaBytes.

Although everything seems to be running adequately, it worries me just how long the board can continue growing without becoming so large that serious problems will begin to arise. So before that happens, I've been considering the idea of archiving the board at the turn of the year.

The idea is that for 2005 we install a new board and transfer everyone's accounts over there, but keep the 2003/2004 messages archived in a different place to be accessed as read-only for consulting, through a link from the 2005 board. This would become a standard procedure, I.e., in 2006 we restart the board and archive the posts from 2005, and so on...

What do you think?
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Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[FishyMitch]

Great idea you could get people to vote for their favourite posts and stuff along with eliminating some people who haven't logged on in the past six months...?
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[Trill the man]

"If you want more detailed information, check out the topic in 'Plants and planted tanks' in last years board, topic named 'blue-green algae'. There was some top class information there for you"

Hm, yeah, would seem like a great idea. Would each years board stay for ever, or would you only keep the year before's board?

Hopefully this will encourage people to search previous posts instead of posting the same every year.

Phil
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"Donald duck never wore pants, but when he gets out of a bath, he covers his waist with a towel...."

[Cyradia]

Is it possible to archive 2003 and leave us with 2004+ to start the new year? I'm guessing with the "new board" thing it's not. I think archiving is good and if we have to do a "clean" slate then it's still worth it. If possible though, I think it'd be great to leave us some working posts so we don't have everyone needing to "start over" posts that were still active.
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[nonamethefish]

I think perhaps mods should go through and select topics that are useful. Thes could then be grouped and made into archives. I do wonder how many people will actually browse or refer to the archives however.

[Huntress]

Probably about the same amount that actually look to see if there are any topics already started on what they want to know.....


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"Feminae bene moratea historiam raro faciunt"

[Taratron]

What other cicklids can I keep with my oscar? He's in a 10 gallon tank with two bumblee cicklids I got today and they're all doing great.




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But if you tame me, then we shall need each other....You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[Cichlid Man.]

Can a shrimp be kept with a shark?

[Huntress]

I'vegot a 1g bowl with 3 goldfish. Is that OK, everyone is doing fine and the water is crystal clear.
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"Feminae bene moratea historiam raro faciunt"

[Psyfalcon]

Are you sure you want/ need a new board?

While I'm really no expert at these things, couldnt you just split the database into 04/05 and 03? I too like the idea of 04/05 together. By starting over, it makes it much harder to search the forums, for those of us who do.