The Topic of Great Randomness

[Agent M]

*sniff* Lee got rid of the War topic (it was getting too close to being fan fiction).... Just to let everyone know... We barely knew ye!!
You know we're having to many goodbyes here!! STOP THE MADNESS!!

*Agent~M*

"Thank you Jack" "Your welcome" "No not you, we named the monkey Jack" -Pirates of the Caribbean
"To youth and freedom!" A popular pirates toast.

[papercrane]

*kba goes into shock* What? *realization dawns on papercrane* NOOO! We do try...*sniff sniff* This makes me want to create a Misery topic. db and you and me and bc and everybody who got their topic axed can go and be unhappy. But I won't, because Lee would probably kill that one too.

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*

[Agent M]

Yeah... It's not fair... The War had a reason to be cut off, it was too close to fanfic, but what about the resturant and the mall??? They just disapeared for no reason!!!

*Agent~M*

"Thank you Jack" "Your welcome" "No not you, we named the monkey Jack" -Pirates of the Caribbean
"To youth and freedom!" A popular pirates toast.

[papercrane]

And they were flourishing! 2 pages in a day! *kba comes out of shock and throws a hissy fit*

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*

[Agent M]

I know!! I just checked the pruning topic and Lee said that she accidentaly got rid of those topics, The Mall and KBA's. *SOB*

*Agent~M*

"Thank you Jack" "Your welcome" "No not you, we named the monkey Jack" -Pirates of the Caribbean
"To youth and freedom!" A popular pirates toast.

[papercrane]

OK! THAT'S IT! THE PIRATE KBA WILL LIVE AGAIN!! Tui, Emilie, you're still waitresses! And for its reopening, we're having a brand new theme, complete with ridiculous costumes! Um...Japan sound good to you M?

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

Originally posted by marniebrown1:
Yeah... It's not fair... The War had a reason to be cut off, it was too close to fanfic, but what about the resturant and the mall??? They just disapeared for no reason!!!

The topics disappeared because less than 2% of the forum membership was reading them, and those relatively few people were generating thousands of pageviews. It was this kind of activity in many threads in "Chatter" this last month that pushed the whole website's bandwidth allocation to twice what DD's allowed, and therefore cost her twice as much as usual to run.

While this may sound horrifying when you're having fun, the forum's stats tell me that there are not that many of the forum's readers who're particularly interested in what goes on in "Chatter." Ninety percent of the three hundred or so people who visit the Forums regularly -- meaning at least once a week -- spend the vast majority of their time in the "Books" forums. There are, on the other hand, fewer than twenty posters who are responsible for the vast majority of messages in the forums...and those posters are also responsible for more than eighty percent of the pageviews, which are the major cause of the rise in bandwidth.

You do the math.

Lee / Forum Administrator

[papercrane]

Oh, I'm sorry! Should I delete my new topic?

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

Originally posted by papercrane:
Oh, I'm sorry! Should I delete my new topic?

That's up to you, bearing in mind that, if you leave it in place and in a month more than half its messages are "one-liners", it will vanish. It will also vanish if it generates an unusual number of pageviews without more than ten percent of the membership being involved.

It's okay to play...but don't expect the results of playtime to be permanent.

Lee / Forum Administrator

[papercrane]

All right...*gulps* Well, one can only do one's best. Forward, Pirate KBAers!

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*

[Sam]

OK, now I get why excitment went away, only emilie, db (I think, but mabey it was someone else,) and I posted in it.

~Hifun55~
Live in peace with each other. Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Don't think how smart you are.-Romans 12:16

[EWizard11]

Wow...really? It seems that because Chatter's so big, most people would spend most of their time in it, but that's not the case...hmmmm.

*sigh* Wouldn't it be so much easier if DD just paid a set monthly fee or something like that, and then we could just go crazy?

By the way, sorry about the Mall and the restaurant (although I must admit I never had time to look at them). I will miss the War topic though: I never had a chance to read the last few pages of it. I suppose any role-playing topic we put on here will eventually get deleted? It was fun with the math, though.

*Ella*

"'I wish none of this had happened.'
'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.'"
-The Fellowship of the Ring

[papercrane]

Ella: Actually, the War's still there! Go see! I think aphro had something to do with it!
Oh no, I really gtg all--bye!

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*
http://pub15.ezboard.com/ftimeheartf...opicID=3.topic

[Birdhead]

kil6: well, our own twisted version of it, yes. It's owned and operated by Meteorite and it's a moving branch which shows up at every fight. The name, I think, is really a homage, but you'd have to ask meteorite to be sure.

Dave: So I'm guessing you're a little bit excited there? *is laughing*

I'm surprised that most people don't come to Chatter- but now that I think about it, I shouldn't be. For one thing, unless you actually post in Chatter a fair bit, it's not particularly interesting: it's just a group of people swapping random in-jokes, which is fun for us but not for others. As for the War topic- if you guys really want to keep it up, why not go start a forum or free webbie of your own where you can play like that. The link at the bottom of papercrane's sig has one kli6 found or started or something for the Pirate KBA (Thanks by the way...) and you could do something like that. *shrugs* And then we can all go RP without bothering DD and Lee. I would- but I'm oo lazy and I really should be studying. But if there still isn't one by the end of November and someone asks me, I'll do one...
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

*sigh* Wouldn't it be so much easier if DD just paid a set monthly fee or something like that, and then we could just go crazy?

DD does pay a set monthly fee for an amount of bandwidth which, frankly, should be enough -- it's enough to support similar other UBB.x forums with a few thousand members rather than just under 700. But once usage (in the form of too many pageviews and so on) pushes the bandwidth above that amount, DD winds up paying "overage" penalties which can be up to double the usual amount. The only remedy for the problem as it stands would be to change "usage plans," which would give the forums more bandwidth, but also quadruple DD's basic monthly costs. She's doing okay, guys, but she's not a millionairess.

These forums are mostly here so that people can have a place to talk about the books. The stuff that takes place in "Chatter" is fun, but it takes second place to what goes on in the other forums, at least as far as DD's concerned.

And yes, all "Chatter" topics now will have a "half-life" of about a month unless more than 10% of the forum membership are routinely reading them (which the Forum stats will tell me). Once we get the number of messages down to about 5000, it's going to stay there: you put in a hundred new messages, a hundred older ones fall out. So make the new messages quality ones...

Lee / Forum Administrator