Maybe some of the old forum topics could be removed. its cool if you don't. its just an idea.

naw... I wouldn't want to "clean" it out too much because when I was new here, I surfed deeply into the past posts which really helped me. Although, if some of the areas get too long, it could always be Archived for further references which might save Nick bandwidth for the future.

Just a thought...

~always Maria.

Actually I am going to have to redesign the site to use less bandwidth soon because I am starting to really go over what I have. Which is great because it means this site is very popular but at the same time it costs money when you go over. This will be the second chnage made to the site to conserve bandwidth. The first one no one noticed because I lowered the quality of all the buttons which gave me a lot more room to work with. This time around I went way way over so my guess is I am going to have to redesign this site to use less bandwidth and possibly have to switch to another hosting company... which is a pain in the rear and will require the site to be down for a day or two but it will give use much more room to work with.

(((nodding understanding))))

Nick, why do you think we went way over the alloted bandwidth this time? Would archiving the older posts help? Perhaps every month we can start new and archive (or even throw away) last months posts. Although, I'd hate to throw away the old stuff in our lessons & harptalk sections, for we have some great tips and input for beginners & old timers alike.

Will creating a chat room use up too much bandwidth, do ya suppose? Because, if that's the case, we can probably live without a chat room, so long as we have this wonderful forum and of course our amazin' song list co-op. (smile))))

Whatever you decide Nick, is okay with me. You do a great job with this site already. I belong to a couple of other harmonica forums, but honestly, this feels like my "homebase." (grinning from ear to ear))))

~always Maria.

ok.

I am glad you like the site so much. Every month the number of hits this site receives goes up and up, and this past month it passed our allowed amount. The forum posts and the chartroom won't really affect our bandwidth. Bandwidth is mainly the amount of data viewed on the site. July 2005 had 331,686 pages viewed and August had 444,085 pages viewed. September already has 60,000 page views so you can see the number goes up quick. My plans are to remove the graphic links and replace them with text based links which will significantly lower the amount of data downloaded.