Forum Bandwidth

[Shawn Gossman]

How much bandwidth does your forum use each month?

Does it use about the same amount month by month? Do you ever try to decrease the usage?

 

[Cpvr]

My forum was using 30-40 gb of bandwidth on a monthly basis, but now it doesn't. I'm using Cloudflare on the backend for most of my attachments along with another caching system.

Currently, I'm using 1-2 gb of bandwidth.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

My forum was using 30-40 gb of bandwidth on a monthly basis, but now it doesn't. I'm using Cloudflare on the backend for most of my attachments along with another caching system.

Currently, I'm using 1-2 gb of bandwidth.

Cloudflare made it fall down to that? The free version?

 

[Cpvr]

Cloudflare made it fall down to that? The free version?

Yes, most of my images are now served from the cdn(cache) instead of always loading from the forum itself, so it cuts down the bandwidth usage. My forum images generally never changed, so i have the browser cache setting set to 1 month. Then, the cache will expire.

 

[Tracy]

I use CF also.. but for many of the files that are obtained from my site, they do not cache them on their free tier.



This is just in the last 24 hours... and realize.. that encompasses ZERO user posts on the site.



As you can see... the majority of my inbound traffic goes to resources (many hosted directly from my site since the original sources are no longer up).



Realize... I also block a lot of BS traffic via my CF WAF settings now. So most of those listed are real connections. In fact, ASN and similar blocks use up 3 of my 5 entries on the free tier, with many of those also being country entries that force challenges.






Also, unlike most, because of my niche, most of my visitors come in via desktop, which does put my niche outside the norm.



So, that should really tell you how much importance the "forum" is to my site... most of the traffic goes to 1st and 3rd party add-ons with very little on the forum itself. Kind of disproves the trope that Xenforo developers and their idiot sycophants want to push that it Xenforo is a "forum only" primary concern. Reality tends to show differently when offering more .... but they seem to not be able to realize that because their viewpoint(s) are so very limited.
But I do realize that many of the XF developers and their cult members have issues with dealing with reality and facts, preferring to live in a land of "what they believe/think" instead of what is easily documented.

I can see the issue when people limit themselves to only offering a forum site to post on... but then the more adult of us realize that the current client (our users) really desire more than that (especially for the younger crowd) and that the posting offering of most forum scripts lag well behind what they use on social media and similar so they avoid it when possible.
But folks continue to bury their head in the sand and hope that the early 2000's will come back to visit.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I can see the issue when people limit themselves to only offering a forum site to post on... but then the more adult of us realize that the current client (our users) really desire more than that (especially for the younger crowd) and that the posting offering of most forum scripts lag well behind what they use on social media and similar so they avoid it when possible.

Your Astro community does offer a lot of things.

But it's IMO going to boil down to your niche. Not all niches are going to give the same results. Some niches just need a forum while others may need all the extra stuff that you're offering.

 

[Tracy]

Your Astro community does offer a lot of things.

But it's IMO going to boil down to your niche. Not all niches are going to give the same results. Some niches just need a forum while others may need all the extra stuff that you're offering.

And those "forum only" sites are what are starting to struggle.
The current internet user wants more to consume on a site than just posts.
Granted.. they may not contribute much, but the tendency IS to take, take, take.
And that really applies to all niches, from vehicles, to camping/RV, to hiking, to biking and any niche topic you can imagine.
General chat sites are a breed to themselves and it is a breed that is dying.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

And those "forum only" sites are what are starting to struggle.
The current internet user wants more to consume on a site than just posts.

What would you suggest forums start with by default?

Granted.. they may not contribute much, but the tendency IS to take, take, take.

Which means that YOU have to work harder. That could make your fun hobby feel like an overwhelming job, especially since you have declines to monetize.

And that really applies to all niches, from vehicles, to camping/RV, to hiking, to biking and any niche topic you can imagine.
General chat sites are a breed to themselves and it is a breed that is dying.

I'll agree that general sites are a dying niche. I have one that isn't doing that good. Maybe it's because it's on vBulletin? I'm not sure but it's not doing that well.

 

[Tracy]

What would you suggest forums start with by default?

Depends on the niche.
Forum->Gallery
Forum->Resouces
Forum->Articles
Forum->Revews
Forum->Classifieds

The is no golden bullet to answer that question as it is specific to the site and niche.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Depends on the niche.
Forum->Gallery
Forum->Resouces
Forum->Articles
Forum->Revews
Forum->Classifieds

The is no golden bullet to answer that question as it is specific to the site and niche.

Aside from Gallery and maybe the Resources, with custom Thread Fields, you can do all of this with your forum.

To me, doing it with your forum is better for a few reasons:

(1) You utilize your forum, the core feature, and not adding distractions that may take away from the forum
(2) Adding additional components or addons to make this necessary is bloat. It's extra processes, more potential security backdoors, and just more bloat to slow things down or cause catastrophic errors in the database.

By all means, tell me why I'm wrong or missing something, though.

This is a great discussion!

 

[Tracy]

Aside from Gallery and maybe the Resources, with custom Thread Fields, you can do all of this with your forum.

Not really.. not to a quality level.
Yes, it's easy to make a node called Reviews. And even create custom fields for it... but sorry, that is a POOR comparison to RMS.
Same way with the Classifed add-on.
Or the link directly (can you instruct me on how exactly to make XF check a link and validate that it is still up and report it to me if it is not?).
You can either do something halfl-assed (forcing a forum node to try and work) or you can actually decide to use an add-on that allows a more full-featured option.
Hell... I would not even try again with Pages in Invision to duplicate the Xenaddons I use... as I cannot replicate many of those functions even with Pages without expending a LOT of time or a LOT of money.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

What percentage of your membership are using these extra features? I'm curious.

And how does it compare to the percentage of forum use?

I would imagine you're keeping track of that since you're preaching that it is important. Not trying to bite here, just honestly curious.

 

[Tracy]

What percentage of your membership are using these extra features? I'm curious

The majority of my site visitors. I think I posted some analytical data about that here already.
In fact, the forum itself gets minimal use.
EDIT:
The data was posted earlier int his thread.... so you can review them and easily see that the majority of tracked visitors do.

 

[Cpvr]

Depends on the niche.
Forum->Gallery
Forum->Resouces
Forum->Articles
Forum->Revews
Forum->Classifieds

The is no golden bullet to answer that question as it is specific to the site and niche.

I agree with this. Forums should have more than just the boards itself. Having more to offer actually sets us apart from other online communities that don’t offer much except for the boards.

As forum owners, we aren’t the only online communities around anymore and if we can offer more to our users & guests, it sustains our long term growth.

Some people prefer to see pictures and galleries, where others may love directories & easy to browse listings. If we offer them that, then we’re doing better than others that don’t. Every feature that boasts our structure and drives in new users, is a win at the end of the day.

Reddit has many subreddits that allow users to upload pictures, but they don’t have a set gallery for these type of photos. Which is something that makes us unique and better than them at the end of day.

Then, they also don’t offer directories, which is a core feature that we should provide when we can.

Every little thing, small feature adds up at the end of the day.

As long as traffic is coming in instead of going out, our boards will do just fine. It’s like a forest, we don’t ever see the same trees and plants in every single one. Each forest has its own unique set of things that make the forest awesome.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

For my Cycling Topics Forum, I'm experimenting. Already have 7 addons installed crazy LOL

User blogs, resources, media, credits, shop, and goals. And the video embed one. I might add a directory--I suppose I could make a big cycling links directory, kind of like DMOZ for bike sites.