Bandwidth control ideas...

[Risu-chan]

If you've got a reliable webhost and they'll let you go back to one of the less expensive plans if you cut the bandwidth use, that's the best way to do it. As far as I know, all the manga-hosting sites are in dire straits looking for a place that's both reliable and cheap...

so here's some ways to limit bandwidth:

A) Only have your new releases served off your own server; keep them there a month or two and then move them to your plan B.

B) Take your old releases off the main server. Either Bit-torrent them or IRC them or farm them out to other people's websites.

That's how several sites I know are managing to keep their sites both reliable and affordable...

Of the 3 main options under B, I'd recommend Bit-torrent or farm-out over IRC if you want to keep the "no redistribution" policy able to be enforced. Once things hit IRC, they spread without anything resembling control.

On the other hand, if you want to reduce your bandwidth, letting other people redistribute your stuff in IRC is an easy way to do it...

also, it might be a good time to take the online comics and make them zips and put them into the new-vs-old rotation...

and it might also be a good idea to start "watermarking" things (i.e. putting something about Sakura-Crisis.net into one of the JPGs, generally the title page, like Obsession and MP and the others).

People who like to steal stuff and claim it as theirs will have a much easier time stealing if all they have to do is remove the readme from the Zip file. It's more rare to find a thief with the ambition to edit the credits out of an image... in my experience, anyway...

$.02...

[Majinkarp]

I'm using BitTorrent at the moment, and I would highly recommend it. It's fair and relatively fast, because you're downloading from many people at once while others are doing the same with you. It's also incredibly easy for people to access- basically all you have to do is click on the link. I don't know about others, but I for one have never been able to learn how to work IRC.

[Anime Goddess]

Oh my don't even mention IRC.....No matter what I did to learn IRC I have never been able to get it >__< I don't know if it is just me or maybe I am plain stupid....but I have tried to learn it and with no luck I still don't get it >.<

Maybe one day I will.....

[Risu-chan]

^^;;; sorry about that Crisis, I guess I ought to be more specific on when I'm using official technology terms and when I'm using my own shorthand... "farm-out" is what I call it when someone does what Obsession is doing and having the links go from their site to locations on other peoples' sites, because it would have taken a while to write out that explanation in the middle of a sentence. ^^;;

sorry! @_@

I'd like to be able to donate bandwidth, but I work for a university. On the one hand, it's extremely reliable. On the other, I'm only supposed to host job-related things there. If it used enough bandwidth for someone to notice it, I might get fired. And I like my job a lot too much to risk that... ^^;;;;

[rev.tsukiyama]

Oh, I'll host anything. Love mode cain, whatever you like. Nijikon.net is a very yaoi-friendly domain, but really, it's upto you. I'm honoured to be able to further the cause of free smut.
([email protected], if you want to send further instructions).

[Rubyjuls]

I don't know if I could be of much help, I get 10GB of bandwith a month, I have plenty of space just not all that much bandwith, but if you think that would be enough to help with anything, I would be more then willing (my site is www.rubyjuls.com)

[jadey]

i have an extension to the rotating idea (and im speaking as a person with no web sever experience so I could be totally off the mark). Maybe you could just rotate the manga. Put a couple series up for a week, then switch for the other series, then switch. Maybe take the real old ones off and only put em on if someone request em in the forum. I dont know? But I have seen a lot of sites using bittorent and I havent had any problem downloading from them. Also I dont suggest IRC simply cuz no matter what they say, or how many tutorials they put out, its very hard. any ways good luck

[Reikou Hitakana]

I could offer up my banwidth to S-K.net as an IRC server at times. Plus I have experience working with IRC FServ clients so I know how they function and how to configure them, as well as how to instruct ppl in their use.

-Reikou

[tenjou_sama]

I use IRC rarely, so everytime I go on there I have to re-read torturials because I forget how to work the darn thing.

I only know Bittorrent from Toriyamaworld. At first I was too thrilled with the idea, but Toriyamaworld has that devilishly clever device that only lets you download 1 chapter every 10 minutes. And with Bitorrent I could download 5 volumes at once! (It was Hikaru no Go...all of Sakura's links to webistes related to that series has gotten me addicted to it!) So I like the Bittorent idea.

[jadey]

another idea... maybe u could remove the fanworks section, and just make a new link in the forum dedicated to fan work. I've seen that done at Omanga. It would relieve space and give ppl more oppertunity to add their work faster. once again I dont know if that means u have to pay for it on message board or anything, so im not offended if my ideas dont work at all.