Hi guys,
Symbian Themes has been forced offline. Within 10 days, the site has used almost 1.1 TB of traffic (yes, terabytes - that's 1086 gigabytes!).
Now, I do not believe that the site is so popular that it's being used so much (when compared to normal stats, the previous highest bandwidth for a month was in August - 700 GB). Therefore, I think that someone is deliberately hammering the site.
So, the site's offline - not my fault, but the bandwidth limit has been reached; I cannot do anything about it.
Iteration 2 is being delayed because of this, as I cannot upload content, set up beta accounts, test stuff, etc.
Therefore, the only solution, I feel, is to take Iteration 1 offline ASAP. Yes, this will mean that the site will not be available for a few weeks, but at least it'll ensure no more bandwidth is used!
When Iteration 2 will launch, I think I'll have to include the dreaded "passcode to download" function, where you must enter a text or numeric string displayed on a graphic, before you're allowed to download the file. I know it'll be a pain, but it will stop these automated downloads (hell, some cheeky people are setting their systems to auto-download themes and sell them on CDs in online auctions!!) and hopefully save my bandwidth.
I will not tolerate people hammering the site.
Just letting you all know.
Cheers.
Thanks mate,
Another reason would also be the fact that some of the themes are uploaded more than once,with different names etc.
I know one of the main advantages of symbian themes at the start was the instant upload/download facility but i feel this is being abused with the constant bombardment of any old theme,however another way would require more site owner input,which i guess is too time consuming.
😊
Yeah. That's true.
You'll find Iteration 2 will also have controls so that the simple themes of "paste a jpeg and call it a theme" won't be accepted, therefore raising the overall quality of the themes.
jw wrote:Yeah. That's true.You'll find Iteration 2 will also have controls so that the simple themes of "paste a jpeg and call it a theme" won't be accepted, therefore raising the overall quality of the themes.
That's good news, jw.
Will it only apply to new themes, or will it also be able to purge the chaff that's already there?
jw wrote:Yeah. That's true.You'll find Iteration 2 will also have controls so that the simple themes of "paste a jpeg and call it a theme" won't be accepted, therefore raising the overall quality of the themes.
Really,thats great news :icon14:
I guess i can stay faithful Lol.
Sandinista wrote:That's good news, jw.
Will it only apply to new themes, or will it also be able to purge the chaff that's already there?
Lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol 😃
All already uploaded themes will be checked too 😉
Uploaded themes will not be instantly displayed either. Instead, they will be queued on the server, then periodically my PC will auto-download and verify them (ensuring they pass certain checks that I will decide) and then accept/reject them as necessary. 😊
That's excellent news!
Now all I've got to do is figure out what I'm going to do with all the .sis files you're going to be returning to me !!!
😃 ...and come up with a new signature 😃
But it's obvious a site like symbianthemes has to have loads of bandwithd ... now's the time that the site is the best place to get 6600 themes and everyone know by head the link to the site instead of having it on the favourites just cause they don't know the full address.
I don't know if you noticed jw but you have 2 users (personaly i think they are the same person) uploading themes, loads and loads of them... all the same, just changes the background image. In my personnal opiniuo people like that should just be banned and have their themes removed!
Please think with me... this 2 guys have more or less (let's say) 120 themes together.
that's 120 * 300Kb * 300 (average download for a theme of theirs) ... that's lots of shit isn't it? And your site isn't getting better with themes like those!
I also think i can say here what are their nicks cause they don't reveal their mails if you check their accounts ... They are Nidhi and Rahul ... don't they seem the same person?!? They keep flooding your site with themes!! For God Sake!
Just to end ... please forgiv e my lousy grammar as I'm not english 😊
Just to let people know I've temporarily allocated more bandwith to Symbian Themes so it should be available again.
I'll be working with J2K on a more permanent solution.
As someone who has recently upgraded to a 6600 I did like SymbianThemes but knew there was problems from chats to JW.
I look forward to Iteration 2 and you may contact me JW if there is anything I can assist with to help get it back online.
Could there possibly be a daily limit on downloads to stop people hammering the site. I am sure most genuine people would be happy with a limit on how many they could download if helps improve site. I am not going to suggest a number limit as I have only had about 10-15 I have downloaded in total (Love the "For Dummies" one).
Sandinista
We should be able to come up with a way to host all sis files (assuming there's some value in them).
Rafe
one problem with the site at the moment is the adult content being displayed with the latest themes , im not the first one to comment on this and for people looking at work or at home with family its just not on .The first time it happened to me my wife and two kids were in the room , i clicked on latest themes and turned round to watch the tv while it loaded in and the wife went ape s*$t on me and when i looked there was a naked teen theme sitting right next to a winnie the pooh piglet theme , now thats a bit sick and the wife is keeping a carefull eye on me :frown: Now dont get me wrong im not a prude and most of us do have a look at the adult section from time to time (allthough some of them were getting a bit close to the mark but i guess thats why it was locked ) but will the new site sought this out ?
gadget
gadget wrote:one problem with the site at the moment is the adult content being displayed with the latest themes , im not the first one to comment on this and for people looking at work or at home with family its just not on .The first time it happened to me my wife and two kids were in the room , i clicked on latest themes and turned round to watch the tv while it loaded in and the wife went ape s*$t on me and when i looked there was a naked teen theme sitting right next to a winnie the pooh piglet theme , now thats a bit sick and the wife is keeping a carefull eye on me :frown: Now dont get me wrong im not a prude and most of us do have a look at the adult section from time to time (allthough some of them were getting a bit close to the mark but i guess thats why it was locked ) but will the new site sought this out ?gadget
It will indeed. Adult content themes can be hidden through a Preferences menu.