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Peter J
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:44 am 
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Lance/Brock,

Any thoughts as yet in regards to forum membership for 2008 and what the pkg. will be? (My closet is getting full of various T-shirts and the cupboard is filled with coffee mugs.    )


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Brock Poling
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[QUOTE=Peter J] Lance/Brock,

Any thoughts as yet in regards to forum membership for 2008 and what the pkg. will be? (My closet is getting full of various T-shirts and the cupboard is filled with coffee mugs.    )

[/QUOTE]

So does that mean you DON'T want mugs and t's?   

Yes, we have a couple things cooking, we are trying to figure out better logistics for this year.

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Brock Poling
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Dave Rickard
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:19 am 
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Uhh... I got a pickup so can I have a t-shirt and mug?

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KenH
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I like the tees and cups too, but I understand the problem with mailing them all out to everyone.


 


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Brock Poling
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As you can imagine it gets a little harder every year with more and more members. We have been looking at some of the supply companies that can drop ship for us...

Also, we are thinking about completely revamping the offering. We have had the same stuff for 2 years and maybe it is time for some fresh products.

OLF Pot holders anyone?   


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Brock Poling
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Billy T
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Yes!!

Finally - the OLF Beer Belly!


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Billy Dean Thomas
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Billy T
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[quote]OLF Pot holders anyone? [/quote]

I have a better idea!

OLF letters spelled out in rubber dog poop! Great gift I think !!!!

Maybe we should have a poll?


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Hesh
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:38 am 
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I like the first one Billy but not the poop one.

Give-aways, be it at trade shows or as part of a membership package should above all be useful things.  The OLF beer Belly would be useful to many I am sure, the poop is kind of the same old crap if you ask me....

Where I live pot holders are called rolling papers........
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Howard Klepper
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:11 am 
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Hold the mugs and T-shirsts and just make the thing work as well as the average internet forum. Hasn't it been about to get upgraded for about the past year or two?

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Brock Poling
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:38 am 
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Well... let's see...

The forum software DOES work, it just can't handle the strain of this many members. As I am sure you remember when we made this switch we didn't even have 1/3 this many folks in our community.

And to make matters worse... The forum software we used was so heavily modified that it made migrating to the new versions impossible -- not to mention these modifications dramatically increase the load on the database.

We have MOUNTAINS of old messages that need to get moved which requires someone willing to package up our database and massage it into another system. In many ways this is like pounding round pegs in square holes since the database structures are really not compatible.

Getting the user database transferred has been the toughest challenge because our current system doesn't give us direct access to the current passwords. We can CHANGE them, but we can't READ them. Making automatically converting everyone's account a kluge.

Moving all the images over and getting them attached to old messages has been an ongoing struggle.

We are very close with the migration, but we continue to be bedeviled with "little" problems.

The guys we are working with are telling us that we might be ready to lock the forum and move everything "sometime this week". They really have been great. I don't think they really understood what they were getting into with this, but they have done a great job and have been very flexible about handling all of these things that come up.


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Brock Poling
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Larry Davis
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:09 am 
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People surfing by and registering as a member isn't the same thing as active posting members. I don't think there are much more than a hundred or so posters rotating around this place any given time and generally there's a core group of probably fifty regular posters. The OLF is a very small pond in reality.


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LanceK
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:31 am 
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[QUOTE=Larry Davis]   The OLF is a very small pond in reality. [/QUOTE]


Possible?

Although, the "hit to the DB" is not just by the "registered members" When you post you are adding to the DB, BUT when you simply "read" you are asking the
server to hand out and build the page you are viewing by pulling it from the master DB which is becoming a monster in size.

We have far more readers than members.

Our analytics tell us we had

for the month of November. Of which 7,012 were Absolute Unique Visitors,


Small pond? possibly, but its big enough for me

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Michael Dale Payne
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:52 am 
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Back to ideas premium for member sponsorship I personally think a shop apron would be a cool change of pace and useful as well. It does not have to be an expesive one. Just a simple 3/4 length 3 pocket leather one will do fine


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crich
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:59 am 
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Great Idea, a shop apron. I've been asking one for Christmas for three years. Clinton
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Steve Walden
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:12 am 
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A shop apron sounds really cool!  Would it include a respirator/dust mask or for South Texas a cool air blower.......?  Removeable belt to keep my 9-year-old son in line?????


Forget the belt for the kid......the wife and I have agreed to not whoop up on him!


Seriously, I don't know if we need a gift/rebate at all.  I know that I really enjoy the forum and I haven't even subscribed yet.  Can we just support the forum and then if we want to buy a trinket or tool then we can do it on our own?  I realize there are economies of scale if the stuff is all bought at the same time and Lance and Brock don't need to be in the catalogue business..... Just thinkin.....


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Michael Dale Payne
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:26 am 
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Brock/Lance I hope you did understand I was kidding about the leather right


Steve,
That is nice of you to say but in practicality premiums are worth their wait in support for the forum. Keep in mind that no member is required to financially support the forum. So providing a moderate premium to those that are willing to open up their wallet each year is appropreate and at the same time encourages new investors in to the fold. I of course speaking my point of view on this and not necessarily that of the forums or Lance's or Brock's.
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Brock Poling
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:02 am 
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The point of the premiums were to generate a win, win, win for everyone.

1. Make it something valueable (in its own right) to the members.

2. Make it something the sponsors can benefit from (incentives and coupons)

3. and make it something the OLF benefits from.

I think so far that has worked out well. We are more than happy to provide this ... I really do think it works well for all involved.

Our struggle has been to figure out a good system to scale these offers and get everybody there stuff in a reasonable period of time.

Both Lance and I have other jobs, guitars to build, small kids, etc. What worked operationally when we just had a few hundred members is much harder at a couple thousand.

This really isn't THAT big of an issue, but it is a glimpse of the behind the scenes stuff that we are trying to sort out as we position the community for the next level.

The shop apron is a good idea. I will see if I can find someone to source them from.

:)


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Brock Poling
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BobK
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How about some OLF "time out" timers.



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Steve Walden
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:42 am 
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Ok, I'll take the hint and go have my TIME OUT!

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Steve Walden
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blindreality
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I'd say the problem has more to do with the amount of data being used to generate a page than the number of page views. The first page Main Discussion Forum has a rediculous amount of data on it from the Javascript alt like boxes that come up when you mouse over a thread and from commented out formatting data. The first page was 374kb in just raw HTML, no graphics or otherwise.



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LanceK
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:15 am 
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[QUOTE=blindreality]

I'd say the problem has more to do with the amount of data being used to generate a page

[/QUOTE]

Indeed, that is what Brock was referring to with the customization of the current software.
BUT, it use to run much faster. When we made the switch to this version there were 250 registered members.

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Brock Poling
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[QUOTE=blindreality]

I'd say the problem has more to do with the amount of data being used to generate a page than the number of page views. The first page Main Discussion Forum has a rediculous amount of data on it from the Javascript alt like boxes that come up when you mouse over a thread and from commented out formatting data. The first page was 374kb in just raw HTML, no graphics or otherwise.

[/QUOTE]

No, that isn't the problem. The issue isn't bandwidth. It is strain on the db.

Each time there is a page load the cascading threads create a recursive SQL call to the database generating literally hundreds of database calls to generate a single page. Multiply that by 30 or 40 concurrent users, and multiply that by the number of pages everybody looks at in a single session and you can see that this is a serious issue.

We were warned when we elected to implement the cascading threads, but that was part of the culture from the previous software and everyone felt like it was a "must have" (much like the edit button issue in this round).

... that is why things are the way they are. It really is just a situation where we have outgrown this shell and need a new one.




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blindreality
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[QUOTE]

Each time there is a page load the cascading threads create a recursive SQL call to the database generating literally hundreds of database calls to generate a single page. Multiply that by 30 or 40 concurrent users, and multiply that by the number of pages everybody looks at in a single session and you can see that this is a serious issue.

[/QUOTE]


I do understand the kind of load that would be on a DB. I'd have to beat anyone that did something like that to one of mine and I would be yelled at and then mocked for an untold number of years if I did it. 
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Jim Kirby
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:28 am 
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Just what Lance and Brock need - more pings on this at this point. :lol:

I was pinged today about Fretboard Journal renewal, so it's time to ask - what will be included in OLF memberships this year?

Jim

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