Technobabble
Added 2021-08-31 18:53:41 +0000 UTCHi folks,
In the recent months, there has been an ever-increasing number of guide downloads on Mudspike. As some of you may have noticed, the website has suffered some technical issues, mainly due to the server getting hammered with downloads. I didn't think I'd ever have to deal with these sorts of issues, but here we are.
The numbers don't lie. Some of the biggest up-ticks in traffic on Mudspike reached unprecedented bandwidth demands. There was a three-week stretch in last May where roughly 11 TB worth of stuff was downloaded. For the Hornet guide alone, there are approximately 10,000+ downloads per month. With some guides being more than 100 MB, it adds up rapidly. Mudspike was never designed to handle that amount of traffic, and I've had to sit down with the owner and tech gurus of the Mudspike website to figure out a way to allow the guides to remain on the site while not bringing the website to its knees every time there is a DCS sale or Free-to-Play event.
After trying out a few things, we came up with a solution; using an external hosting service. I created a Digital Ocean account and transferred some of the most popular guides on there. This gave Mudspike some much needed breathing room, improved guide availability and minimized the amount of time spent on site maintenance. Of course, there is a cost associated to that. This cost increases with bandwidth overage, which sometimes happens when a guide is really popular and the bandwidth limits are exceeded.
Your valuable support via Patreon allows me to pay for it, and I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you to help me bear these unforeseen expenses. The community as a whole benefits from your commitment, and it makes a big difference. I foresee that the needs in bandwidth will likely increase as flight simulator popularity gains momentum and new planes, modules and guides join the fray, so I'll keep an eye open and see how things go in the upcoming months.
It must also be noted that the staff at Hoggit has generously allowed me to temporarily host the F/A-18C Hornet guide on their own server to help me reduce hosting costs. They deserve my heartfelt thanks as well.
So, that's it! I just thought I'd remind you that your trust and contributions are not only appreciated and valued, but also put to good use.
Chuck
Comments
Why not use gdrive/onedrive and keep money for your hard work!
Michał Plichta
2021-09-05 19:50:07 +0000 UTCThat spot goes to the I-16.
Chuck's Guides
2021-09-02 14:11:28 +0000 UTCIt’s so awesome to see such an unexpected up tick in the community I love it! Out of curiosity what’s your LEAST downloaded guide during all this? Yak-52? If you even have a guide on it lol
2021-09-01 23:08:59 +0000 UTCI understand completely. I hate ads, I hate slow downloads and I’m happy with my job 😄. It just makes me sad that you are the one that has to find a solution and has to come up with the financial means while everybody else just enjoys your guides. I just would prefer if the DCS community would start to give something back, like on Patreon.
2021-09-01 16:23:46 +0000 UTC1) I really, really don't want to have ads. 2) A slow download is also out of the question. 3) I'm not interested in working for ED.
Chuck's Guides
2021-09-01 14:46:25 +0000 UTCMaybe you should consider using some kind of "one-click-hosting" service. They usually offer some kind of free, but slow download with adds, or paid premium download. I believe the uploader (you) gets some kind of cash-out per download. I never actually used one of these but I feel that you should somehow benefit from all this. Considering the amount of work you invest in your guides and that they are already a major part of the DCS experience, you shouldn't have to worry about bandwith! Maybe ED wants to host them and hire you along the way...
2021-09-01 14:27:12 +0000 UTCI'm sure this has probably already come up at some point, but a lot of people don't think to actually download a copy, rather they just view it online via the CDN link, which on your end will be the same as a download. If the links on mudspike downloaded rather than opened a new tab, you might find some relief
Jake Lewis
2021-08-31 20:40:33 +0000 UTC
