Thanks to the help of Domer.mq, there are a couple things I’m going to do to decrease the amount of bandwidth I’m using (which is probably causing a lot of our problems). The only switch which I’m sure will have you all throwing tantrums is a change in the Shoutbox. Currently, the Shoutbox is taking up space on the HJE server. That was normally fine, until last month, you guys went crazy:

Most active month March 2008 : 112,170 pages sent. 3,704,442 requests handled.

That’s a lot of traffic, caused primarily by the Shoutbox.

I’m going to switch over to Shoutmix, which will take up space on someone else’s server. That said, I’m not entirely sure I’ll still be able to have the brilliant “Hide the Shoutbox” feature implemented by Thrillho and Pre (thanks, guys). Can everyone just TRY to keep in mind that there might be people reading the site for the first time, and they might cast a sideways glance at the Shoutbox? It would be nice if they didn’t need therapy because of anything they read there.

Here’s a good rule of thumb. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to type totally creepy?” If the answer is, “Yes,” don’t type it.

The new Shoutbox should be up shortly.