Personal Reminders (Site Suggestion)

This (spesifically the PM part) is something we plan to implement, once we figure out a good way to do it. I'd actually like to build a system that doesn't require a page refresh to get the notification, but something that checks the inbox even when you're reading a page. Some weird AJAX thingy, maybe.

 

I'd personally not like to get email notifications for shoutbox additions, i don't feel the need to chat in the shoutbox much, i much prefer to just pop in there manually once a day.
But if this were to be added i'd hope it would have an opt out tickbox for those that would prefer not to get these notifications..

 

Say, private messages. They get "updated" only when someone writes one -- and then system inserts that into the database and then sends out a notification to the recipient. So, only one database insert there.

Same goes for writing a new message to a discussion thread -- only one "action item", in this case, a database insert, is required. "Selecting" stuff from database is much, muuuuch faster -- so when you view a discussion thread, we select messages from the database for you to view, but as "SELECT" is about gazillion times faster, we can have gazillion more people viewing stuff than writing stuff with our current database system. (We get about 1,500 - 3,000 new messages a day, so its about 2 posts per minute per day).

Now, a system that calculates who is online can't rely on recording data when users are logging in, as most of us don't ever log out. Thus, every single page view a user makes on our site would have to update the database for that user, stating "WOOHOO! YO! I'm still here! Actually the last time I was seen was when I loaded a page today at 10:59:32". And as we get about million page impressions per day -- and if _every_ page load has to update that data, it'd mean one million "INSERTs" or "UPDATEs" into the database. And as those operations are "gazillion times" slower than "SELECTs" -- and our system "survives" currently about million - two million selects per day, we'd need to have gazillion times heavier database equipment, just for this feature.

Clear enough?-)

 

AfterDawn is run by a company, AfterDawn Oy, located in Finland -- and according to Finnish laws, accepting donations by companies or individuals is illegal (only registered charities can do that), so best way to help us is to keep your ad block, etc off and allow our site to show you ads. And of course, to link to our site from your homepage, other forums you visit, etc -- and recommend our site to your friends.

Our servers cost thousands per month (pick your preferred currency, applies for GBP, USD and EUR) and we also pay actual salaries to our news writers, etc. So, its a company. Not a big one, not very good business either, but a company that has advertisements as its only source of income

 

Not exactly. Most of our ads are "per impression" type (as opposed to "per click"), i.e. every time you load a new page on our site which loads ads, so clicking is not really needed, but allowing ads to load -- and to load as many pages as possible, too -- is most of the time enough. Of course, advertisers look for value for their ads too, so if you see an ad that interests you, visit the advertiser via the ad, so they know that advertising on our site brings them customers, sales, etc. After all, if the advertising doesn't "work" on a particular medium, advertisers will change to another medium.