Offsite sigs and webmarshal.

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:21

I have a little problem only from the office.

We are using webmarshal to filter incoming/outgoing web content and it is set very agressive, with the result that if any of the posting members have a forum signature or avvy that links to an offsite host, PCFormat.co.za as a whole gets blocked for that click. This creates a log entry under my name flagged as trying to access blocked sites. It also adds a "rating" to pcformat.co.za as a site that contains links to blocked sites.

Over the long term, when our admins look at the log data, PCFormat will be flagged as unsafe due to this and will be added to the blocked sites.

Is there any any way possible that sigs/avvies can be hosted locally on pcformat.co.za?

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DAE_JA_VOO · Post by **DAE_JA_VOO** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:27

You want all the avvies and sigs of every member to be hosted on the site itself?

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:34

The toffee here is to know which offsite host is blocked and which ones are working fine. Dae, your sig does not have any issue. Slasher I know have a sig thats sourced from a blocked site.

It would be great if all the sigs can be hosted on PCF itself, but I guess thats asking for too much considering only one person have an issue.

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DAE_JA_VOO · Post by **DAE_JA_VOO** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:38

Well, my sig is hosted on Photobucket, so at least you know which host is NOT giving trouble

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:45

Do the math...

Lets say there is 500 active and semi-active members each having 2 sigs and 2 avvies uploaded. The avvy cap is 16k and the sig cap is 20k. That is 144k of data per member.

In total you would use less than 100mb to store all the sigs and avvies. Surely there is enough space for that?

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douglash · Post by **douglash** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:46

Photobucket FTW - i have had absolutely no problems with them and i work in a corporate as well, where they block stuff regularly...

so yeah, once again...

Photobucket FTW!

DAE_JA_VOO · Post by **DAE_JA_VOO** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:49

I'm sure there IS enough space sojourn, but like YOU said, it's not like the entire community is gonna change their hosting and what not just so that YOU can be happier

(no offense intended, i'm being frank here).

Anyway, i'm with you Douglash. I love photobucket. I actually have a pro account. It's seriously one of the best online services i've found

douglash · Post by **douglash** » 06 Nov 2007, 15:56

daejavoo wrote:I actually have a pro account. It's seriously one of the best online services i've found

no doubt - only reason i don't have a pro account is "in case" work blocks it and i don't have internet at home, so i will be paying for nothing...

but when i get ADSL, and i repeat, WHEN i get ADSL then i will look into it...

Post by **Cameron_Losco** » 06 Nov 2007, 16:28

It's not the space that is the issue, its all about the bandwidth consumption. We currently use about 40GB of bandwidth a month, and sometime as much as 50GB, and you know this can get pretty costly. However, we are currently working on a plan to get some advertising on the site which will mean that we will have some money to spend, and then we could then do it without a problem.

For the time being I'd suggest that you block signatures that are causing problems.

DAE_JA_VOO · Post by **DAE_JA_VOO** » 06 Nov 2007, 16:34

Cameron_Losco wrote:However, we are currently working on a plan to get some advertising on the site which will mean that we will have some money to spend, and then we could then do it without a problem.

I was actually about to start a topic about this. Another local forum allows Dealers to pay a monthly fee and then advertise and sell their products on the forum. Why don't we have something like that implemented here?