I think it's time to start limiting "visitors" access

[Rayder]

I don't mean cut visitors off completely, but there needs to be something put in place to limit visitors and make them want to register as opposed to just bleeding all the bandwidth from the registered users enjoyment of the site. I've noticed that at almost ALL times, there are 4X the amount of visitors as there are registered users online and the site's bandwidth is suffering because of this.

My ideas for "bandwidth alleviation" are:

Visitors can only access the content of stickied posts, not the non-stickied post content. When they try to access non-stickied post content, the forum should redirect them to the register page. All they should be able to see is topic titles for non-stickied posts. If they want to see the content of non-stickied posts, they must register. This may also cut down on redundant posts in the long run.

They should not be allowed to download squat from GBAtemp (except maybe flashcart firmware's) without being registered. Attempting to do so would take them to the register page. Why should they be able to tap our download bandwidth without us knowing who they are?

The Official cheat database downloads should DEFINITELY be for registered members only, not for every schlep that wanders in our direction looking for cheats. Maybe only that "CheatUp" or other such programs could have such access without being registered....and that would have to be worked out with the app creator for it to reprogrammed to correctly access the cheat database.

Maybe even just prioritizing members over visitors when things start bogging. Like, if a visitor and a member both clicked on the same thing, the member gets there WAY before a visitor ever will. Don't know if that bandwidth priority ability already exists or not, but it sounds good to me.

Like I said, it's not to punish visitors, but to entice them to actually register and possibly become useful members of the community instead of just tapping the site's bandwidth all the time. At least if they were coerced to register to have access to things like downloads, they may just go somewhere else to continue their "free ride" at someone else's bandwidth expense if they don't want to register for whatever reason.

Just throwing some ideas out there. I realize those changes couldn't be implemented overnight, and lord knows I wouldn't have a clue how to implement such changes, but something like this needs to happen or the bandwidth issues will likely continue.

What do you guys think about these ideas? Good? Bad? Stupid? Brilliant? Mean? Inspiring? Tell me what you think.

 

[Minox]

While I do not agree with everything you said there I do think that downloading files from GBAtemp should be a member only thing.

 

[Sstew]

Agreed 100%. It'd be helpful to the members as well as entice the visitors to actually register. You got my vote.

 

[Szyslak]

I think that's a pretty good idea Rayder. As you said, there may be some things to work out on the implementation side, but the visitor to member ratio is far too high here, especially when considering site slowdowns.

The drawback, of course, is the one-time signups just to DL something. Creating an account and never coming back. Would there be negative effects on the server / database as a result?


...and of course, it took me 4 tries to post my response due to network timeouts.

 

[dobz]

do it!!!

everthing is so goddam slow

 

[Berthenk]

Yeah, I think this should be used. Espacially for the cheatdatabase! But for the onetime-registers, mabey delete accounts that don't do something (posting, etc.) for one week after registering.

 

[playallday]

I agree totally. GBAtemp is getting way too slow.

The drawback, of course, is the one-time signups just to DL something. Creating an account and never coming back. Would there be negative effects on the server / database as a result?

That's what I was thinking about.

Maybe make them wait for a week after they signup before being a member. And if they don't sign in after that one week, their user gets deleted.

 

[RT-9]

yeah they should limit it, i strongly agree with it

because you will get more members then because they want to download it
but they might get annoyed that they have to register first if they want to download something.

just my opinion....

 

[da_head]

agree 100%

 

[geedub]

hi Kosaic has personally posted a thread along these lines aswell !

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=148589


just my quote from that thread

Thanks ... I'm a 20+ year computer engineer, so please trust me when I say, it's not my connection

yeah connection been terrible for me aswell ,

i also think a VIP / PRIVATE section could be introduced or similar , i know this goes against the public forum a bit , but i feel some threads are pointlessly spammed and others are just pointless ! i think someone should be able to make their own thread private , and only allow peeps to post that are allowed / invited ! so thererfore you can still read up on the thread but dont have to read the piles of crap ! imo that can only benefit GBAtemp

 

[Berthenk]

Dude, this is lame: there are at least 4 times mroe visitors than users, check this:

... I think it's better if you guys would add a user registration required for downloading/ thingie...

 

[tj_cool]

I've seen on some other board that guests are limited to view only a certain amount of topics. Like: when you have clicked 15 topics, you'll go to the register screen. Stickies didn't seem to count.
Anyway, if this idea succeeds, there should be something that deletes members with 0 posts after a week or so. That will stop people from registering once and never coming back.

 

[purplesludge]

Limitations would be great if they help speed the site up. Downloads should definitely be blocked for nonmembers. Everything except gbatemp magazine should have limited access.

 

[Santee]

I agree with you about the download and cheats restriction but as other people have said that would leave alot of empty accounts which I think that if they don't post in a month and have below 30 post there accounts should be deleted.

 

[Arm73]

I also agree to make downloads available only for registered users, it makes totally sense.

Also for new users there should be something implemented like in the WTB/WTS section, where users should post a certain number of posts before being able to download anything, not 100 maybe but something like 10, or 15 posts to make sure that hit and runs are avoided.

Also it seems like a good idea to limit the forums access, so that unregistered users can only see topics titles and if they click on it they'd be redirected to the registration page.

Recently because of work I can only check gbatemp on Sundays, and that is the worse day to log on, the servers are so slow that 90% of the time my browser fails to show me a page due to connection timeout, and I have an excellent connection.

So definitely I agree that something should be done about it, because even though the servers have been upgraded several times in the past couple of years, it always comes down to too many people browsing the site.

 

[Costello]

As much as we appreciate your suggestions, the slowdowns actually have nothing to do with bandwidth.
There are simply too many visitors, which means too many pages to load, too much data to handle for the database server (MySQL server).
There is nothing we can do about it for now, so we are working on a long term solution, but be patient as it will take some time to prepare.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

I absolutely agree that most of the downloads section should be relegated to "members only" status.

A few exceptions could be made, such as GBAtemp's user-created skins and themes for certain flashcarts. (ie: Sakuratronic) but for the most part, the downloads that are provided here need to be limited in some way.

There will be ramifications for any limits we set, but something needs to be done.
The 'Temp we know and love is becoming far too 'popular'.



EDIT: And just how in the smeg did I get spontaniously logged out while I was typing this the first time?

 

[Joey Ravn]

Visitors can only access the content of stickied posts, not the non-stickied post content. When they try to access non-stickied post content, the forum should redirect them to the register page. All they should be able to see is topic titles for non-stickied posts. If they want to see the content of non-stickied posts, they must register. This may also cut down on redundant posts in the long run.

Since you mention this, Rayder, I've always thought that not allowing new members to create topics is a good idea. How many "i just bogt the R$ and i dont no wat to doo" threads by new members we have? Maybe making them post 10 times or so in other threads would help. That way they will be forced to read other topics, maybe even find the answer they are looking for, and will considerably cut down redundant topics.

Other than that, I agree with you. It's not punishing visitors, but we old users should be able to navigate the site freely without needing to worry about connection time outs.

 

[kobykaan]

LOL @ time of this post 4 members and 2 GUESTS reading!

I think that ALL GUIDES/STICKIES/DOWNLOADS/FIRMWARE THREADS/RELEASE THREADS should been made member only!

This would increase the user base and stop the ones just hanging around to grab the freebie links that are in useful threads and not the download sections!

Maby over the top but maby also think about making people have at least 10 useful posts before allowing more access to the sections closed off... and not spamming the hell out of the forum for no good reason ...been a lot of pointless nonsense posting lately

MAKE A BIGGER SEARCH BUTTON!!! ..So people can see it and a guide how to use it to avoid the same kinda posts over and over and over again!

edit: lol de ja vu at the same comment by Joey Ravn of the 10 post ruling !!!

 

[p1ngpong]

Although when first reading Rayders suggestion I though it would be a good idea, on further thought I think it may have the opposite effect and increase server load.

Firstly all the guest browsing the site cant view sigs, avatars and other things. If half the guests here register for instance just being able to view those alone would increase the load a great deal. Also if they upload their own sigs avas and whatever thats a further unnecessary strain. Theres also the issue of the flood of noobs posting, further increasing the strain on the board, and making it messy and hard to mod.

Basically what Im getting at is an unregistered guest browsing probably uses much less bandwidth then a registered one, whether he be active or not.

Also in regards to limiting download access to only registered users, sounds like a good idea yes. But if a lurker sees a "downloads only available to members" message Im pretty certain they are going to think "Oh I need to sign up to get the roms". So instead of the downloads section being open to guests, and them seeing whats available, its going to be this hidden thing, and Im certain they would jump to the roms conclusion. Then we would get the flood of "I cant find the roms.... blah blah blah." Posts and threads.

And lastly to be completely honest, I think guests being able to view the forums makes the site look friendlier, and in fact cuts down on the n00b floods by a significant amount, those floods being an annoying issue already here.