Photo gallery space and upgrades

[Brad38]

Hello my sistahs and Bros.

Can someone answer this technical question of mine. I know that our forums have a limit of 10MB of space for our picture gallery. I'm wanting to increase this size but am afraid to purchase extra credits in case I don't get what I expect. If I purchase extra space, how exactly does my money work for me? If I buy an extra 500 credits, does this mean I can use that towards expanding my photo gallery for the entire year on a month-to-month basis...or is this only good for a year-to-year basis?

I need some clarification if I'm going to purchase extra credits for my forum. Thank you all so much, you're a great group of people.

[Brad38]

Bumping up...hope someone can answer this for me. I "Searched" here for the answer but was unable to get clarification. I would be interested in purchasing more credits for my forum, but I need to know how they work (specifically for my gallery space) and if they will work using PHPBB3?

Thanks again.

[Guest]

You can use the credits for as long as you purchase them for.


Add 1 month(s) : 100 Credits
Add 2 month(s) : 200 Credits
Add 3 month(s) : 300 Credits
Add 6 month(s) : 600 Credits
Add 12 month(s) : 1200 Credits

[Brad38]

Hi Kilsek...

Thanks for your reply but can you explain something to me. Ok, we have 10Mb of storage for our picture gallery so say I purchased 1000 credits and put 100 of those credits towards my photo gallery. Does this mean that my new storage space of 110 Mb in my photo gallery will last and until that space is used up? Or does this mean that you only get the storage for a certain amount of time no matter whether that space in my photo gallery is used or not? I hope you understand what I mean.

[Lorraine]

I have a serious problem understanding these credits too.

I'm wanting to buy some to increase my gallery space, but obviously, once I've done it, I want them to last forever. I seem to be way off beam here though.

I thought that if I purchased 500 credits and used that to increase my gallery space, that would be that and the gallery would always have the larger amount of space.

So, I'm in agreement here. Could somebody please explain exactly how this works.
Thank you.

[Brad38]

Hi Lorraine,

I think I've figured it out myself how it works and since buying the credits. I purchased 2000 credits over a month ago and I increased my gallery size to 110 Mb from the original 10 Mb. It cost me 50 credits for 50 Mb so 100 credits in total to increase the size of my gallery. The increase went from July 28th-Aug 28th.

On Aug 28th I went into my control panel and added more time to have this amount of space and you can select 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 1 year etc. I added an additional 3 months of time to have my gallery space at 110 Mb and it cost me 100 credits per month to extend the time validity. So in total it cost me 300 credits for this extension.

I think whatever you spend to increase your gallery size to in Mb is what it will cost you that same amount of credis per month to extend the time of validity. So if you increase your gallery size by 200 Mb, then I think it will cost you 200 credits/month to extend the time that you have that amount of storage.

Does this make anymore sense to you? If you don't understand, I will try to explain it again differently.

[Lorraine]

Ummmm.....eerrrrrr....I think so, brad.

Basically, I think you're saying that it costs money every month to keep your gallery with a decent amount of space.

So, what if I buy, say, 100mb space one month, but my members only use 30mb space...what happens to the other 70mb? Does it carry over to the next month, or would I lose it?

I can't believe I'm so confused by this. I'm really not a thick person at all.

[Brad38]

Ummmm.....eerrrrrr....I think so, brad.

Basically, I think you're saying that it costs money every month to keep your gallery with a decent amount of space.

So, what if I buy, say, 100mb space one month, but my members only use 30mb space...what happens to the other 70mb? Does it carry over to the next month, or would I lose it?

I can't believe I'm so confused by this. I'm really not a thick person at all.

Hi Lorraine,

I was just as confused myself over this and until I saw how it worked after the time came to extend my validity. Yes, if you increase the size of your gallery by 100 Mb, that space is carried over each month but you then have to pay extra to keep that space on a month to month, quarterly or yearly basis.

For myself and with my 100 Mb increase of gallery size, it's costing me another 100 credits per month for time extensions. I look at it this way. I've purchased my extra space for my gallery, but then it costs you, like paying rent to maintain that storage space.

[Lorraine]

Ah right. I think I've got it.

So, at the risk of repeating myself:

I buy, for example, 100mb. If I haven't used it all at the end of a month, it carries over, but I then have to pay again in the 2nd and subsequent months to keep that 100mb??? Yes? And, if I don't pay again, the gallery defaults to it's 10mb?

I don't get 100mb each time I pay, all I'm doing is keeping that amount of space all the time but with extra payments?

Also, I'm assuming that I can purchase 500mb, but only use 100mb at a time, so in effect, I've bought enough for 5 months at a time?

Have I got it?

[Lorraine]

Well, I hope I've got it right, 'cause I was too impatient to wait for your reply Brad.

I've bought 500 credits and am going to use 100 of them. I reckon 100mb gallery should be plenty for my girls.

[Brad38]

Ah right. I think I've got it.

So, at the risk of repeating myself:

I buy, for example, 100mb. If I haven't used it all at the end of a month, it carries over, but I then have to pay again in the 2nd and subsequent months to keep that 100mb??? Yes? And, if I don't pay again, the gallery defaults to it's 10mb?

I don't get 100mb each time I pay, all I'm doing is keeping that amount of space all the time but with extra payments?

Also, I'm assuming that I can purchase 500mb, but only use 100mb at a time, so in effect, I've bought enough for 5 months at a time?

Have I got it?

Hi Lorraine,

This is exactly right, once you've purchased the extra storage for your gallery, you then only pay to keep or "rent" that additional storage space. It carries over and as Sunny_D mentioned, he's not sure how long after it will default back to the original 10Mb if you don't extend the validity, but you won't lose your pictures anyway.

What I did, was extend the time of my storage 3 months in advance for now. You can also increase your gallery size at any time as needed, but I think when you do, it costs more to "rent" that storage. If you increased your gallery size to say 500 MB, I think (not sure) it will then cost you 500 credits per month to keep that space.

I really hope this has helped you and once you see how your credits are spent and how you add "time" you might even understand better, like I did.

[Lorraine]

Thanks ever so much for your help, Brad.

I really appreciate it.

[Brad38]

You're very welcome, Lorraine!