[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Serenarules

Yeah, that's a valid approach. One could take that, and make that static conditions variables in order to make it more easily customized. The great thing about hacks is that there is no 'right' way to do things. Everybody's needs are different. I would like to see what you come up with.

One of the things here is that in todays world, there are very few vB forums which this is a problem for with consideration to the fact that servers are cheap - fast, big servers. I've been online with a site since January 1996 and while I'm not a pro, I've maintained it and and gone from static pages to a relatively active forum. It's a niche forum for quality assurance folks - definitely not like 800 people on at one time. 100 over 30 minutes when it's busy during weekdays.

Typical day:
Date - Unique visitors - Pages - Hits - Bandwidth
25 May 2004 - 3174 - 38485 - 267414 - 1.78 GB

I fought with all sorts of issues until last December when I finally got a dedicated server - and for about $75 less a month than when I had a Verio virtual server. I had to get help setting it up but that was less than US$200. Since then all has been heaven. Not a problem with the database once I got everything straight, response is great and with an 80 gig RAID, I only have 35% of the 80 in use which includes the forum database (I have a lot of other files).

Database Data Disk Usage 93.88 MB
Database Index Disk Usage 34.45 MB
Attachment Disk Usage 220.21 MB
Custom Profile Picture Disk Usage 0.16 MB
Custom Avatar Disk Usage 0.34 MB

My point is, as I have seen myself do, many times we opt for less server than we really need to do what we want to do based upon a financial decision. I do OK profit wise on my site - it well more than pays expenses - so US$175 a month isn't a real big deal.

This is not to say I don't enjoy the code optimization discussion or that I see it as unimportant. In fact, I really appreciate it. It is rare that threads get this much detail and thought. It is a real 'class' for me as you folks are discussing what's going on and I'm better understanding how all this works.

Just a thought because so many times we try to get more out of something than our tools can reasonably handle.

I installed the hack and there is absolutely no server load issue for me. It typically stays below 1. I've never seen it above 1.5 even when Google is attacking it as it does from time to time. I'm on a 10M connection - don't need 100 but I see 100's as more and more common and we all know server rental prices have been dropping for some time.

I also want to say thanks again because this hack really is something I had been wanting for a long time and it fit right in where I wanted it. I took out last poster and thread starter in part because I have a 'sidebar' and I wanted the room, but also because I saw it as another 'complicator' for search bots. I like search bots and don't see those fields as a big deal to users.

Like you say - we each want something different. And sometimes you have to have the proper tool to do the job which, in this 'business' includes software AND server.