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comicfanman71:
I was a 2 or 3 year member at goldenagecomics.uk. I made my donation with the understanding that I could download as much as I wanted. Well I moved away to a place that didn't have internet available(way back in the country, only dialup) to me. When I finally moved to my new home with cable internet I figured I'd update my collection. Yesterday I visited that site and started copying and pasting the comic publishers names to my folders and dl a couple comics they banned me for dling too much. I thought that to be total bull. I tried to contact the ones running the site but was totally locked out. My question is, is this site the same way? Has anyone else had that to happen to them? Thank you
John C:
While the old owners were far more generous than expected about it and never let anything expire, donations over there were always for a limited time, a year's subscription. I mean, whatever I donated way back when the site first opened, it doesn't help anybody with server costs today.
There was a change in management to someone who doesn't have the resources to serve up terabytes of data to users every month (those were the actual numbers, last year). "Free" accounts are worth about what they cost, at that point.
I don't know what "locked out" might mean, since you should still be a member and have access to the forum, unless they (like we've considered here) purged the accounts that nobody has used in a long while. But if you downloaded anything, that can't be the case.
The policy here is modeled on the original free-wheeling policy over at GAC, and is its original reason for coming about. However, as costs escalate, we may also find the need to limit the downloading of non-donors and expire donations. Hosting high-volume, high-bandwidth sites reliably isn't cheap, after all. So for now, you should be able to download what you want, but your dollar (if you contribute) isn't necessarily going to let you continue to suck down books in five years.
Lastly, since we're part of the same community, we're not really keen on people bashing the neighbors. While I get the frustration, you're basically calling their management liars because you didn't read the terms of the donation process and feel entitled to their bandwidth. I sympathize, but we're not going to let this devolve to "us against them," and would appreciate it (a subtle way of saying that any abusive messages and abusive members may mysteriously vanish into the night) our contributors holding that same standard.
Complaints about someplace else are best directed to the management of that place, just like you wouldn't stand on a table at McDonald's to tell your Burger King tale of woe.
Both sites are privately-run services on a shoestring budget, and we're very lucky that there's ANY access to many of these books at any price. And the surest way to kill it is for people to treat it like a service to which they have a "right."
You'll pardon the soapbox, but I've seen several communities fall apart due to the influx of people demanding to be treated (by their peers, essentially) as privileged customers.
builderboy:
Well put, John C.
ComicFanMan71, sorry that you got locked out. GAC was experiencing instability due to excessive bandwidth demand. In plain English, 90% of everyone's download attempts were failing due to excess demand, which turned out to be caused by a handful of users. Where's the fairness in that?
The system administrators at GAC, myself included, took steps to restore the site's stability, and downloads are now back to normal. This action involved reviewing the logs of user activities, and putting a temporary ban on members who were downloading either:
1.) an excessive number of files, or
2.) downloading multiple files at once, something the guidelines at the site prohibits. If you were 3.) identified as somebody who was maintaining multiple accounts, you might have been banned permanently, as this too is prohibited at the site.
I am sorry that you are locked out of the system, and can assure you that, if you fall into category 1 or 2, it is temporary. When you return, you should probably only download what comics you plan to read that day. If we all do this, then these sites, which are not-for-profit ventures run by volunteers who love comics can keep themselves viable. If we start in with the hording mentality, the whole thing goes to hell in a hand basket.
Thank you, John, for the perceptive, even-keeled response. The two sites, DCM and GAC, peacefully co-exist and benefit from each other by providing redundancy and bandwidth distribution. Many great folks are members at both communities. Glad to see DCM back up and running.
comicfanman71:
Ok I get what you're saying and I understand the bandwidth thing and all. When I first got banned I was told that I was dling too much and the ban was only for so long. I felt that was wrong because like I said I only dl'ed a couple comics(even the non donaters can do that). I really enjoyed that site and the people there. They always tried to help when I had a question. I'm not trying to bash the site or all of the mods or admins. When they first banned me they locked me out of the dl section as well as the forum. I was unable to contact any of the people over the site and I just thought that was wrong. Where I really messed up was when I tried to register another account because they must keep track of peoples IP address's. Thats when I got my permanent ban. I would have donated more for the privelage of downloading and browsing the forum. I've got memberships at other sites that will warn you when they feel that I'm overdoing things and I figured that would happen there as well. So I apoligize if I went about things in the wrong way. Thank you
JVJ (RIP):
You know, guys,
that's what I like about these sites. Calm, cool, collected communication. It works wonders and is such a blessed relief from the flames and arrows of outrageous postings elsewhere. You don't have to wonder why I'm sharing my comics at GAC and DCM.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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