Do You Like This Site?????

[Rookie'48]

Originally Posted by Ron_L

What about the Brethren Thong or official Brethren judges cooler?

I don't do the "thong thing" but tell me more about the cooler, does it come in XXX - large judges' size? After I load up at the "grazing table" I might need to get the motorized option with the trailer.

[BBQchef33]

First off, you would be hard pressed to find an annoyed regular here. Somoene is ALWAYS available to answer a question, and Senior and longtime members will even go thru the trouble of searching and posting links to threads that are relevant to questions asked by newer members. We are not your typical forum. Im not sure what your used to, or how you chose to run your own forum, but we are obviously different, and we have a group of us who make decisions which are in the best interest of the site.

Let me offer some insight to everyone into my thinking about digging up historical data using searches. Our forum is over 5 years old. Data from 5 years ago may or may not hold true today. I know for a fact that if you ask me a question today about my brisket techniques, you will get a VERY different answer than you did 5 years ago, or even 2. As our knowledge base here grows, so do we. We have all become more experienced cooks based on things we have taken form here. I personally would prefer a new member ask the question and get new, accurate information than walk away with old informatin that has been much improved since it was written years ago. An added bonus, will in many cases be pointers to old threads that may still hold true.

i would also like to point out that you are wrong in your assumtions in the way our forum works. Search will become available based on your offering to our knowledge base. Meaning it will eventually come with a significant post count in the ontopic forums regardless of monetary donations, as does some other pay features. But they are NOT given away, there are features that will be earned based on a members participation and contribution, and I do not mean monetary. Value added, for adding value.

One of the things that caused us to move to a subscription base is the need for more horsepower, which thanks to the members stepping up, we are in the process of adding. Searches were causing significant spikes in CPU utilization, especially during peak hours. This was causing lags and increased response times. At one point we even had to limit the number of searches to every few minutes. When a board has 2000 lurkers searching, it effects everyone.

Prior to moving to subscriptions, over 1400 members were grandfathered in and have full search functionality. 1000 of them active. Allowing free reign to visitors, lurkers and people that only take away and do not offer anything in the form of knowledge or comaraderie, was taking away cycles and resources from those that helped support the site. It was decided to make the search one of the value added features available to those that support us.

We are in the process of adding a second server to offload all database activity to a dedicated server and this will eliviate the CPU spikes we experience. This feature may be re-addressed once its online and 'free trials' instituted, but our thinking here will always be to take care of those that support our site before we take care of the hit and runs, those that take our information and leave never to return or to ever post.

[txschutte]

You forgot to mention its the BBQ Brethren for a reason.....

[BBQ Grail]

Originally Posted by txschutte

You forgot to mention its the BBQ Brethren for a reason.....

It is?

[txschutte]

It is. Everybody contributes in some way for being here. Even Wyatt, who is 10 years old.

[Solidkick]

BBQCheff33 writes....
Prior to moving to subscriptions, over 1400 members were grandfathered in and have full search functionality. 1000 of them active. Allowing free reign to visitors, lurkers and people that only take away and do not offer anything in the form of knowledge or comaraderie, was taking away cycles and resources from those that helped support the site. It was decided to make the search one of the value added features available to those that support us.

If you had joined 6 months ago, Flying Brass, this whole thing wouldn't be an issue for you as you would have been grandfathered in......

But welcome to the site anyway.........

[McClung]

Missed amnesty by just that much, dang!

[capri man]

guess i just missed it also!!

[bbqbull]

Originally Posted by flyingbrass

I was frustrated when I wrote that earlier post. I could have worded my comments better.

In most venues, this forum being the sole exception I've encountered, newcomers are strongly encouraged to search and read before asking questions. And for good reason. Much can be learned that way. Lazy newbies who can't be bothered to search annoy the regulars.

My initial motivation for joining a forum is usually to gain access to the search function and the ability to view attachments. Joining here felt like a bait and switch. Welcome to the forum, but now to get much practical use out of it payment is required upfront. That strikes me as totally backwards. Usually, the value obtained from a site/forum over time inspires one to donate. Requiring a fee in advance for such basic functionality is a pay site approach. Different strokes for different folks, but had I known that was the deal I probably wouldn't have registered.

I think someone mentioned boolean searches, perhaps implying that a simple single word search is possible. Nope. Non-subscribing members apparently have no searching ability here at all with the exception of the FAQ searchbox. I can't even pull up my previous posts or look up threads I've posted in. I find that to be an extremely frustrating environment.

Im sorry your so frustrated about this forum.
I call it the best forum on the planet, always have and always will.
I hope you can find a place like this that comforts you someday like this place I call home comforts me.
Good Luck Sir on your search.

[txschutte]

flyingbrass, I'll lay it out like this:

You go to your supermarket and they send out free samples, you try the sample and like to see what you can do with the whole package. You buy the smallest package, just to make sure you are going to like what you're eating. You don't tell the little old lady hocking samples she is a con artist for only selling you the package, and not giving you all of the samples on the table for you try out.
There are trial memberships for a sum less than you would pay for lunch.
Good luck with whatever you choose.

[big brother smoke]

First of the month mod

[Kidcurry73]

Thoughts from a new member...

I agree about the old search stuff, I did much searching via Google before I signed up on this site and a lot of the things I was reading no longer hold true as I later found out. Even met some members who had shall we say moved on...but by reading old post you would never had known...

Anyway...if you like the milk buy the cow. This ain't the only BBQ site on the web, I've been on many of them but this one seems to be the most knowledgeable, the most fun and it seems to be frequented by the kind of fun loving knuckle headed dudes I enjoy being around. More importantly I subscribed because I like not having all the ads everywhere slowing down the site load times, that in itself is worth the money!!!

[Kidcurry73]

Originally Posted by BBQchef33

ads? We always have google ads, but thats all.. Is that what u were talking about? There should not be nybanners or popups. If there are, they're coming from somewhere else. (your machine may have a popup program loaded).

No, what I was trying to say was that this site does NOT have ads and that is what I like. It made MY subscription more than worth it, among many other things!...Banner ads from other locations that slow the site down while they load are a necessary evil for some sites (take a look at mtbr.com for an example) I do spend time on mtbr but is nice to be able to help out somewhat so that the banner ads are not needed!

[Bigdog]

Originally Posted by Kidcurry73

Thoughts from a new member...

I agree about the old search stuff, I did much searching via Google before I signed up on this site and a lot of the things I was reading no longer hold true as I later found out. Even met some members who had shall we say moved on...but by reading old post you would never had known...

Anyway...if you like the milk buy the cow. This ain't the only BBQ site on the web, I've been on many of them but this one seems to be the most knowledgeable, the most fun and it seems to be frequented by the kind of fun loving knuckle headed dudes I enjoy being around. More importantly I subscribed because I like not having all the ads everywhere slowing down the site load times, that in itself is worth the money!!!

Thanks for your kind words and your insight. You get it.

[BBQchef33]

ads? We always have google ads, but thats all.. Is that what u were talking about? There should not be nybanners or popups. If there are, they're coming from somewhere else. (your machine may have a popup program loaded).