Rail-Simulator.org

[drwho200]

No, I mean a donation system whereby you can donate some money if you download a file. By all means it is for free Download. Sorry if I confused anyone about it but every file will be freely downloadable even if it is 1GB! You may donate however.

[bigvern]

I think you will find that an erratic system at best. A number of people in the past have asked for donations to cover costs of hosting/developing utilities and the uptake has been a very small proportion of those downloading the files.

So essentially, you either have a system like UKTS, Auran DLS or Flightsim.com where you charge for premium access, with a limited free download availability, or you find some means of paying for the site independent of those who upload/download - like some of the European sites (and goodness knows how they pay for it).

Either way it needs to be a dependable long term service where the uploaders know their work will be preserved and available to all and not suddenly disappear, as happened with a number of well intentioned MSTS sites where the webmasters were suddenly presented with £150 a month bills for excessive bandwidth.

[drwho200]

I know exactly what you mean and I agree. You see, where my site is different is that I am not simply hosted by a hosting company. I am hosted by someone who I talk to often and who has helped me develop other sites, they are not in it for any profit from my site. Therefore I know that the service will not go down without prior warning and he gets his profit from other sources. I will have premium access as I think I can offer a little more than just standard features for a small price to cover the costs of it but this will be made later. He owns EU Servers which I am using for the site and he can offer unlimited B/W and space so the can grow for ever! I will have maybe one or two ads on the site but not many as I don't like the look of them. I intend to charge around £5 for a banner a month on the home page (this may go up as the site grows) and I have seen that work well on places such as FlightSim.com.

Thanks.

[seagulls2000]

Just a word of advice from someone who offers server space off his own server and also runs web sites. If your site was hosted on my server and started to pull a constant heavy stream of data I would get complaints from other sites hosted on the same server as you are on as their sites will slow down because yours is hogging the bandwidth. I know you say the server is a good friend but if his business relies on the server you will be using and its being affected by your site then you will either be asked to find your own server or have bandwidth throttling implemented which will mean downloads will take longer, more users will end up downloading at the same time and what little bandwidth you have will soon be eaten up with file downloads and you wont be able to even serve the webpages.

Im not trying to put you off, just passing on some of the knowledge I have learnt in the last year or so in the hope that you dont fall into the same pitfalls I have. I am now on a dedicated server of my own costing about £130 a month with a 100mb connection 500gb hard drive space and unlimited data transfer but the company I use have a lot cheaper packages.

And as for Matt saying this site turns around 6TB of data a month, I am amazed there are not more problems and its a tribute to his organization of the data to keep things running smooth

Gary

[drwho200]

Yes, thanks for your advice! My hoster is well aware of the amount of B/W and Space taken up and he has been clear since the start. He has said that he will provide a Dedicated Server if everything gets too much for the shared space. However I have some ground rules which I am sticking to in terms of CPU and RAM usage. I try to keep resource usage to an absoulute minimum, thats why the Downloads area isn't particulary flashy yet. The servers are high spec; Intel Xeon Dual-Core 3050 2.13 Ghz 2GB of RAM, 100Mbit connection, Windows 2003, 2x160GB HDD. They will manage up until a point. Also if I get that many users downloaders and uploads I should be able to pay for a Server or Upgrades to the shared one myself.

[MaxFreak]

I should be able to pay for a Server

colocation is the better option imho , root access on your own hardware is pretty much essential and makes for an easier life , should be easy if you can cut a good b/w deal with your hosting friend ( maybe you can get 1,000mbps )

stick with it

~A~

[drwho200]

Yes I think I can. On a File Note, if anyone has a Custom Route thats nearly done, part way done please PM me and I can help you upload it to my site, it would be great to have some Custom Routes.

[petermakosch]

Yes, thats why I am inisting on .zip files only. I will be putting a few banner spaces on the new site design to bring in some cash to support the B/W. Also, users may donate as well in order to keep the site up.
A new design is on the way.

Good, the old design is very bad.
I also think you have gone into this with all guns blazing. I know, it is exciting having a little bit of space on the internet and being "famous" around the world wide web, but really, it aint gonna happen. I thought about this long and hard when Rail Simulator came out, oo, to be the first to re-skin something or to be the first to do something new, it would be great, yes it would, but it aint gonna happen.

Zip files are trash. Try compressing something like a movie or a sound and you get perhaps only a few MB knocked off. They also make me think of downloading viruses. Saying that, I am glad you have the BIN on your site as I am in two minds about donating here as my like for train simulation isn't really as much as it was, yet, i dont want to be stuck in a queue.

[drwho200]

Ok, I am using .rar as well. If you look around the web like I did before the site was up you will find nearly every File for Simulators comes in a .zip or .rar with a Readme.txt and some info and the files themselves. I hope you do enjoy the site, a develop specific Forum is coming soon as well.

[petermakosch]

Hmm, I do commend your drive to make this work, but surely all that is happening is you are making a clone of this site?
Perhaps not in the UI sense, but the basic one? Maybe look at what UKTS doesn't offer and try it out, see what the community does.

[drwho200]

I have done, specific Project Hosting and Development. I am making a special Forum for keen developers to discuss their Routes and Editing them specificly. No where else on the internet offers Rail Simulator Project Hosting, web hosting, designing, Files Area, Forums and more. I am also focusing on the community aspect. Thats why I wanted to set up the wiki.

[Tywyll]

No where else on the internet offers Rail Simulator Project Hosting, web hosting, designing, Files Area, Forums and more

Sorry to be the prophet of doom, but why do you think that is? And I'm not just talking RS...

Maybe look at what UKTS doesn't offer and try it out, see what the community does

I agree here. No point re-inventing the wheel IMHO. People who have been using this site for so long now (a very, very long time in computer technology terms) aren't going to suddenly migrate to something they're not sure is going to work.

A LOT of hard work goes into making this site work, and we are grateful for it. If you think you can match it, then I genuinely wish you all the best.

[drwho200]

Sorry to be the prophet of doom, but why do you think that is? And I'm not just talking RS...

Its the resource problem! But I have the resources open to me. I also have the ability to do it as well and its a main focus.

I agree here. No point re-inventing the wheel IMHO. People who have been using this site for so long now (a very, very long time in computer technology terms) aren't going to suddenly migrate to something they're not sure is going to work.

Of course not! I am not going to re-invent UKTS at all! I am focusing on Rail Simulator and no other Simulators so the site will be different.

[bigvern]

DrWho - I don't want to be a killjoy of your enthusiasm, but isn't it a little against forum and Internet ettiquete to constantly come on a forum annexing a Download site trying to entice users away to another site. At one point I'm sure that sort of thing was quite frowned upon. A brief mention or a link in your signature is one thing but actively touting for traffic is another. I'm sure the mods are watching this with interest.

[drwho200]

I don't want people to stop using UKTS and I am changing my signature, I just haven't got into my UAC yet today. I have an idea: My site isn't simply a 'Download Site' its a developers site for specific projects such as the S&D Route Project which I am helping on. It will also host certain key development files not just any file, that I leave for UKTS whom I would like to link to. I hope to turn the site into a sort of portal for all the Projects that should start to happen over the next few months and years for EARS (KRS). The new design should show exactly what I mean and I hope you understand.