Free up some space?

[Nebulous]

So what are some way to take a few MB's off your forum's database?

What are some harmless things one could do to free up some space?

Examples:

• Not allowing attachments
• Deleting old logs or temp files

 

[cwe]

Prune old, inactive members - especially one that never posted anything.

 

[Suzanne O]

Old threads. Lock them delete them and start a fresh.
change your host plan if it's tiny upgrade it. if your host rips you off look for a cheaper alternative.

 

[Black Tiger]

Examples:

• Not allowing attachments

That would give you more file space, not really a lot more DB space. If you want to reduce disk space (often dbase space is included) then yes, disallowing attachments is a good idea.
Same for avatars -> reduce size or limit size.
Images, the same, use an external thing like postimages or something like that. However, be aware that they can be lost somewhere later in time.
Don't allow profile banners or limit them.

 

[zappaDPJ]

The majority of forum databases measure in megabytes. Bottom end shared hosting plans allow for databases measured in gigabytes so why the need to free up space?

Old threads. Lock them delete them and start a fresh.

If your community's content is that disposable I'd suggest there are better social platforms to cater for them. Rich content is one of the few advantages forums have over other forms of social media so it makes little sense to delete it in my view.

 

[Suzanne O]

The majority of forum databases measure in megabytes. Bottom end shared hosting plans allow for databases measured in gigabytes so why the need to free up space?



If your community's content is that disposable I'd suggest there are better social platforms to cater for them. Rich content is one of the few advantages forums have over other forms of social media so it makes little sense to delete it in my view.

Mate i do aggressive resets.
I don't need to. But i do it because of the amount of idiots that i have to clean up after.
Get rid of the nasties and replace the threads.

 

[CedricV]

What’s the size currently @Nebulous ? Out of curiousity.

 

[Dragonfruit]

Prune old, inactive members - especially one that never posted anything.

The difference from pruning inactive members at best is going to be in the megabytes. It's basically like penny pinching. If anyone is that desperate for space, they really should upgrade to the next hosting tier.

 

[Suzanne O]

So what are some way to take a few MB's off your forum's database?

What are some harmless things one could do to free up some space?

Examples:

• Not allowing attachments
• Deleting old logs or temp files

Upgrade to the next plan mate.

 

[TPerry]

As others have commented... if you are that worried about a few MB, then it's time to upgrade to a slightly larger hosting plan, as you will use that fairly quickly in the short term. Now, I can see if one was talking attachment storage involving gigabytes of space.
As for disallowing attachments, for many niches that would be a total killer! You can always adjust the allowed size of attachments/images and with images set them to be resized if they are beyond a certain point. But again, if your site doesn't need attachments/images in the posts, simply turn that ability off for your users. Make them link to outside sources for it.

 

[Nebulous]

Thanks all for the tips. My database is a couple gigs and I don't really need to conserve space or upgrade my hosting at this point, I was just curious.

 

[briansol]

1. move your attachments to s3/r2/etc cloud host for pennies on the gig.
2. everything is probably won't make a major difference.

 

[ekool]

Install Elastic Search and move the search tables/search functions to Elastic Search. You can then truncate those tables and save a ton of space. In addition, I don't back up the Elastic Search data because it can be rebuilt. You can often mount some cheap block storage to store your Elastic Search data/Attachments.

This will get it out of the DB.

Also, there are some image optimizers here that can reduce your attachment storage size by 60%.... those are life savers on huge forums with lots of attachments.

Hope this helps.

Edit: On many sites the search table is going to be one of the largest tables you have, nearly as large as the post table.