Downloads section?

[peteracs]

Hi

A recent message from Stefano re a download from the forum, prompted me to consider a proper download section of the forum which could present articles in one place rather than having to search various posts. The forum has limited space, but can accommodate a modest amount of data. The question is, is it worth having?

Peter

[stableblock]

sounds like a great idea.

[HFStuart]

It does sound like a great idea but how much is 'modest' ? The parts books and manuals that I've got are about 4Gb in pdf form

[rossocorsa]

It's not a bad idea but I would suggest possibly restricting it to members who have made a donation or something similar?

[peteracs]

Hi

Currently we have a 10gb package, of which around 1.6Gb is used including images. Although Krystal do a daily backup according to the details, I also make a backup each evening of the full forum and save away to an iDrive. I have no reason to doubt their system, but having spent a lot of years going to customer sites who claim full backups and then being very disappointed when the reality hits, I prefer to err on the side of belt and braces approach, so if we assume that downloads can be backed up separate to the main forum, then probably around 5-6Gb with the current setup. There is an option to go to 25Gb of storage or even unlimited which is where the LMC forum is going to go over the next few weeks,

I was aiming to moderate what we allow to go in the downloads section at first, not sure how it will work yet.

Peter

[peteracs]

I think we may have a solution thanks to the LMC in part. They are looking to re-host their forum due to a 403 problem which we had here and the decision has been taken to use Krystal which we are on. In order to host the LMC forum they need ideally at least 50Gb space which means going for a package which includes unlimited space and website hosting and are happy to share the space/cost with us, so going to talk with Krystal tomorrow re upgrading out package.

[peteracs]

Hi

So it was agreed to share our package with the LMC forum and now we have pretty much unlimited space available. I will have look at the relevant add on and see if it would work for us.

Peter

[Nigel]

Hi Peter,
Will this new hosting along with unlimited space
create different costs for the Beta forum?

Nigel

[peteracs]

Hi Nigel

Krystal costs are somewhat lower than Zen, the equivalent original package was approx half the Zen cost. The package we are now on is in total around £240 per 2 years assuming we pay half, so quite reasonable for unlimited storage.

Peter

[HFStuart]

Sounds like another result  - thanks Peter.

[peteracs]

Hi

Had a play with the downloads add on to the forum which seems to do the job quite nicely and has various controls. For anyone wanting to have a look I have setup a test forum here

http://ashlyn.co.uk/forum/index.php

It should allow you to login as normal.

Ther are a few questions I would like comments on in order to configure it.

1) You have sections, so what sections would be useful, eg wiring, parts books etc?

2) Do we allow guests to access the downloads section, either to view and/or download?

3) currently it is set to moderate each file after it has been uploaded before it is available to download or should  any upload be auto approved by the user?

4) current setup is max file size of 500Mb which is pretty large, is this too large (we have the space)?

Peter

[HFStuart]

Just my opinion but:

1) You have sections, so what sections would be useful, eg wiring, parts books etc? Brochures, road tests & mag articles, wiring diagrams, parts books, technical data. I'm sure there could be more.

2) Do we allow guests to access the downloads section, either to view and/or download? No - we want the forum to thrive and putting resource behind a paywall (ableit a free one) is a good incetnive to join and take part.

3) currently it is set to moderate each file after it has been uploaded before it is available to download or should  any upload be auto approved by the user? Sadly I think they have to be moderated  - some groups have had some really innapropriate stuff uploaded.

4) current setup is max file size of 500Mb which is pretty large, is this too large (we have the space)? Sounds generous but if we have the space and we're moderating it should be fine.

[JohnFol]

point 1) is interesting as I think you need some curation, i.e. one person's view on the right folder structure not a mixture of how different people would like it organised

[peteracs]

Hi John

The folder structure would be set by admins and only modified by them, so would be controlled.

Peter