DaD - Now what?

[Sonimon]

Well, basically it works like this: http is like the front door to a site and ftp is like the back door. If you were going to upload all the files to an ftp server, you might as well upload the .htm and .html files so that people can simply access it through a front door. And if you have that option, then that means you've basically found a new place to host the site, so why not move the stories and everything else in along with the pictures.

Now if you're referring to having individual people host the images on their computers using an ftp program, what you're talking about is having a group of people be art section mirrors. And THAT means that each mirror would have to be updated individually. This was an option I went with as assistant webmaster for the DaD. In fact, Kazul, who later became the picture uploader, started off as one of the guys who had a mirror of the domain's picture section. This option turned out badly because mirrors started dropping off of the map when people got tired of hosting the domain's pictures and having their internet connections slowed down so much. As mirrors went down, the ones who stayed got all of the traffic and had to shut down too from overload. Offsite linking is, in general, a bad idea when you're dealing with this much content and with this many visitors.
Soni