Is it working a little better? It seems that way, though not quite as fast as it was a few weeks ago. GoDaddy said that this site uses absolute paths where relative paths could be used, and that the images slow down the pageloads. I checked the php and tpl files, and I don't think the first statement is accurate. The images are very small (except for the ones hosted elsewhere), and it was running fast a few weeks ago under the same conditions. So I really think that GoDaddy overbooked their servers with too many customers.
If your browser is reloading the images every time, that will slow things down. Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > Temporary Internet Files > Settings
I appreciate the offer to help pay for better web hosting, but for the same price ($7/month) I might be able to get better hosting someplace else. The forum itself doesn't cost me extra except for the domain name and domain aliasing folders feature, and the bandwidth is not anywhere near my limit (supposedly
). One thing I like about the forum is the fact that it's not tied to money: it's open to the poorest person who walks into the library to use a computer. Too many things in this world revolve around $. I don't judge others for doing what they have to do to pay the bills, and understandably money makes public things run better. But I like the idea of offering something that's just free for people to use and enjoy. It sends a positive message I think.
At the moment, I don't have a whole lot of time to work on the site, but if anybody knows of another company that runs really well with multiple domain names... Or I could upgrade my geocities account to allow php... As far as offers to help pay for this, I don't mind accepting small amounts (It's really cheap). But I don't want to pollute the board with a PayPal symbol at the bottom of every page. Other forums, such as Summitpost, receive considerably more web traffic and high resolution image downloads, so the Google ads make sense (although I would prefer the PayPal donations instead). This forum is so tiny that it hardly costs anything to host this, given that I'm already hosting other sites on the same account for $7/month.
Counting the days until October...