Thought you might like to see these charts showing how we're growing.

Users (good for seeing how many people are coming in):


Active Users (good for seeing how many are staying and taking part):


Discussions (not a high value stat):


Comments (good for indicating how busy the site is):


Sometime a couple of weeks ago, I no longer had to push the site... the momentum has picked up enough for it to take off on it's own.

I'll still do little awareness things on other forums from time to time, but the site is basically running on it's own now.

velocity boy: Any chance of email notifications when a reply is posted to a thread you've marked? Like C+ or cyclingforums.com??
With no boss around I'm a fgss heavy user.. when boss returns I'd like a reminder that someone's responded.
Is this possible or a total no-go zone?

You've taken me away from C+.. Not so bad.. wading through RLJ arguments was getting tiring :P

There's a notification link under the Who's Online on every page.

If you click it on a discussion, you're subscribing to that discussion.
If you click it on a category, you're subscribing to all discussions in that category.
If you click it on the top forum page, you subscribe to every discussion.

I did that last one... and it's a bit noisy. So many freaking emails now. Going to unsub from the top level soon and just put subs on the discussions or categories I want to track.

As a maths guys I love graphs, not as much as a politician minde you.

Well done velocity boy Even though I keep on missing the long rides (such a hetic calender sigh;)) I have enjoied the meeting up with people that I have done it's nice to be able to get a little bike culture / scene going.

Once again well done mate.

DK: Nice one, I'll give that a shot. Cheers!

yeah, i would like to show my appreciation for this magnificent site even if i did waste all day on it yesterday,never mind.....thanks!

it's a passing fad, it will be electric scooters next year, just you wait and see.

Nuh ah! Space Hopper is the thang!

Shoppers!
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/fixies-are-sooooo-like-over

Those bikes just look so aesthetically pleasing the rust the squeaks the wobbles the 5mph top speed the underinflated tyres the rear rack

Whose riding one to Southend on Sunday

haha, i was about to say that

put that on yer watch list..

Wow, if if ride one of those can I be emo/punk too? Plz??

i'm gonna steal my sisters off her

Dammit, the herd are catching up... time to ditch the Moulton!

David: time to put some advertising lol

Nah, no need to.

If we get so busy that the server is under strain, I'll just get a bigger server.

is it likley that would happen??

Not really.

This server also has the Chicago Fixed Gear forum on it and that isn't a strain at all. The Bowlie forum is the real strain on this server and the reason for it existing. These bike forums are nothing in comparison. Hell this forum barely takes up 10MB of disk space... Bowlie is close to 4GB with several hundred simultaneous users.

But, in reality if the cycling forums represented anything more than a very low load and required that I move server, then I wouldn't put adverts on the forum I'd simply ask that those who felt that they got something from the forum considered donating. I don't like adverts, and I like to have this belief that people do pay for that which they like and use... though I would never charge a fee because not everyone could afford to give. It'd be an honour system.

We're a real fucking long way from anything like that though. Very small we are.

Is that just sitting on a lab bench?

yep it's not actually a server it's a high performace cluster but it just looks home brew and like compters should look. slighlt crazy.

Can I make a Beowulf cluster joke here? I know it's not slashdot... but I never get the chance usually.

i think we should get a 70s punch card system, that would be as reto as our shoppers!

why not?

Yeah man I love the old pianos that run off punch cards or roles making music with a hole punch.

geeeeeez, that went for over 120 quid..

Just in case anyone is wondering. I do realise the server keeps crashing, and we are getting a new one very shortly.

Is it due to hight use or something else?

Back in the olden days, when computer-programmer types were all men, and the only way to meet women was to hang out in the punch room.

My dad was a programmer for sainsburys in the '60s and claims to be the only person in his office who didn't marry a punch girl.

It's that hippy fscker refreshing too often :)

Yes.

But not just on here.

The server hosts:
http://www.bowlie.com/
http://chifg.com/
http://www.londonfgss.com/

All are busy and increasing in business.

Bowlie pays for the server, but the two cycling forums are factors in the load that the server is under.

The big problem is that the hard drive on the server is a single SATA drive. It's basically a desktop drive and is running Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP, etc. It's not bearing up very well. It's also been in use for almost 4 years and is starting to report an increasing number of bad sectors and faults.

So I'm going to get a new server, it will cost an additional $100 per month, and the new server will have 3 SCSI discs in RAID5. I'll also bump the RAM to 4GB just because I can.

And the new server will solve the bottle neck issues and faults that the current server has. It will happen within a month hopefully.

That's good about the new server.

It'd be a pain in the arse if a lot of the data was lost! All our insightful and meaningful musings as to the meaning of life would be lost forever...

shit i'll buy a shopper when i see one. every single one of them. sit them on my terrace for a year i'll be a fookin' rich man by then. time to get on the saddle and out hunting!

Sometime a few days ago we went past 500 members.

That's kinda cool, no?

We're averaging around 100 per month.

We should establish a monthly meet/ride or something perhaps, to welcome people. Say, first Saturday of each month do a loop of Central London and stop at a bar to talk shit or something?