I don't want to bore you with this technical stuff but maybe a quick outline will benefit some.
Most sites sit on a server that is usually provided by a host. These hosts charge you a fee to use their server. Just like anything computer related, you can pay for more power, but it can get costly.
I have seen many websites go under just because they could not keep up with the server costs. Their sites were eating up a lot of server resources and in some cases, the host would shut them down unless they paid for the upgrade to a higher performing server. A lot of webmasters can't afford the upgrade and shut down.
Our sites are fairly feature rich and the more users that are on the site at any given time using those features, the more resources are being used. Some features are more resource intensive than others.
I hope a day will come when I can upgrade to a faster and better performing server. I talk to my host on a weekly basis to help me tweak its performance, but each time I'm reminded that I may have to upgrade. At this time I could not afford such an expense as a free site.
Here are some stats that my give you an idea of how are server resources are being used:
- at any give time, we can have 50 to 60 members on the site with 100 at peek hours. Remember, I'm talking about logged in members. Besides members we may have as many as 100 visitors on the site checking it out. Even though most visitors can not use all the features, just browsing the site eats up some resources.
- on a daily basis members update their profiles, add new images, add friends, create or update blogs, send out messages, etc, etc, etc. How much of that activity goes on, depends on how many members are on the site. If we have 50 members on the site, some are networking while some are just browsing. Resource use can vary widely depending on what members are doing.
- spammers, robots, etc. There are all types of spammers. The ones most members have to deal with are those who send out emails asking for money, but wembasters have a whole different category of spammers that members may never see. In some cases, these spammers are nothing more than robots eating up resources. I'm reluctant to discuss their activity, not wanting to give anyone any ideas, but believe me they exists.
Lets hope that future revenue increases so we can keep our sites running as a free site for a long, long time.
Cheers.
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