As most of our regular members will be aware, we've had problems with people registering just so they can grab every file we have, and contributing absolutely nothing in return, either by providing files, posting messages, uploading photos, or whatever..... Just take take take!
These people send our bandwidth through the roof, and if we exceed it then our host will simply pull the plug and Paddleducks will go offline until the following month.
We have no wish to force people to pay for anything as we believe in making everything available to everyone, BUT we must keep control of the bandwidth we use...
To that end, the following restrictions are in place:
Regular members are limited to downloading 5 times in any 24 hour period - If you exceed that the system will stop you from downloading, and you must return on another day.
Subscribers - Those that have made a voluntary donation of £10 (ten UK Pounds) or more, to help with the website costs, will not be subject to the 5 file limit, and can download as many files as they wish.
Others - Anyone that abuses the system by doing nothing but grab files each day without contributing anything, will find their access to the files blocked after a short period - Be warned!
We don't think it's unreasonable to ask for members to contribute, even if that's just simply asking a few questions on the forum, telling us about your other models, which paddlers interest you etc etc.... It's not asking a lot in exchange for a few downloads is it?
Regards
Eddy