(2013-12-10, 12:57 AM)BR549 Wrote: [ -> ] (2013-12-10, 12:33 AM)Init Wrote: [ -> ]In all honesty, unless you're getting a huge amount of traffic you won't really notice that much of a difference.
That's good to know. So then, if there is a huge amount of traffic, which set of options would perform best with a forum?
(2013-12-10, 12:33 AM)Init Wrote: [ -> ]Prioritization wise, It'd probably be better to just choose anything and start working on your forum's content and getting members, than the time spent on determining the host. You will switch hosts more than once if your website becomes somewhat popular, so while choosing a host may be important, the actual plan of the host should be a simple choice and not take much time.
Just my two cents, like I said. For me, I would take the lowest possible price that would still function for the forum and would be reliable. It's true, you get what you pay for. But sometimes you don't need what you actually get. The money might be better spent elsewhere on advertising and/or marketing of the forum itself.
This would be OK for many, but the price differential between these plans is not a consideration; and all other costs and time considerations are within budget / planning.
(2013-12-10, 12:33 AM)Init Wrote: [ -> ]By the way I was in agreement with what Pavemen said, not disagreement.
Right, no has disagreed with what Pavemen posted.
I used to do a lot of what you're doing. Planning for the future isn't necessarily a bad thing. Planning and optimizing so that if, in the future, the websites need to scale, is also a good thing.
However, the major factor in scaling websites, is that there is really no sure-fire way to scale a website. I may not be the perfect example, and someone who has the necessary right to talk about scaling websites when I myself have never really had to scale one to the extreme. However, through the studies I have done on the certain subject, and the thoughts and opinions provided by those who have... You kind of the get assumption that there is no "How to scale a website", because every website By definition, has to scale differently.
The approach I usually take when looking towards the future with websites is...
"Give the website the opportunity to scale. Give it the correct availability to scale if need be. However, don't base the entire website's original platform, and how you create it, based off something that MAY NOT come to reality, and something that is bound to change in the future regardless."
In simple terms, Basically what I'm saying here is to stop focusing on scaling the website, and making sure it will scale, when you actually should be focusing on getting the website off the ground first.
On other note, I understand the pricing is not in consideration. Doesn't mean it should not be. In a sense, when you start a website, at least in my opinion, every penny counts; because that $5 a month you may spend extra on a server every month, could do a lot when added up and contributed to advertising.
TL;DR: It's okay to plan for the ability to scale; but don't let it affect the way your website is created in the first place to an extreme.
Choose a host that is cheap and will work for your website. See if your website becomes popular and profitable, and scale from then on in.
In a sense, with all due respect to the forum community, there have only really been 1 or 2 forums currently running who probably would have actually had to hire people and scale it commercially. Those forums probably and most likely started off not worrying about scaling.
Scale when you have the members, Focus on content before then.
END OF HUGE RANT
