Currently, some of the best hosting companies, biggest Internet or new technologies related companies are already moving to eco friendly server farms, and this will certainly be the next step in Internet development and human investments.
Some years ago, the focus of webmasters and internet businesses was clearly on usability, how websites handled the information and the ease of use of the systems that were created for the users.

A new era is emerging that will clearly be about improving the power savings, not only on the server farms side, but also on websites consumption, and every effort will certainly be made in a near future to reduce this consumption to the minimum possible, while allowing the website to be still reasonably usable by everyone.
The worldwide industries are driven by the development of quality, performance and extreme "comfort" improvements in every aspect possible while reducing cost to the extreme. That leads to a lot of problems and especially given the subject of this project, to ecological problems. We should ask ourselves if that’s worth it in terms of benefits for our everyday life considering the effects on our planet.
Especially in new technologies, the "speed" of calculation and of course the quick availability of the data drives the consumption. It’s time to wonder if, after all, we can accept that a task takes 20 seconds instead of 10…?
Did you know for example that in elevators the most used button was the one to close the doors faster? We think this is really self explanatory...

Anyway, in Reggae Auction case and given the possibilities available, It’s more responsible and smarter to think about a sensible and sense full “sustainable development” goal rather than focusing on processes and overall website speed.
We have to start cutting on our everyday life comfort, in many different ways so we can make a difference.
Mistakes are how we learn.

We are already thinking ahead to find the eco friendly web host that will provide the service we need from "green power" and as soon as our hosting plan ends we will move the website to a "green" hosting company, in case our current host doesn't take the "green step"!
With the help of new technologies in server processor that increases its power on demand depending on tasks requested by hosted systems, we are already reducing unneeded rough power.

Since a while we are constantly improving every aspect of how the site accesses and requests data from the database on any user action.
This is clearly the first step to make Reggae Auction more "eco friendly" itself!
The code has been optimized in many ways and we make every efforts to improve it more and more. It is far from perfect, it's clearly a never ending quest and again there is no real accessible studies on the subject that can ensure the fact that modifications done have really the desired effects, but at least it’s a start.
We won’t detail here all the tweaks used as it's not the point, and technical stuff isn't much interesting for the non technical guy :)
Anyway, every new function or feature is built with the same goal, consumes the less power from the server and improves user workflow with the smallest amount of data possible.

In a near future we are also planning to scan and remove any useless feature that clearly consume too much ressources for the comfort it provides...

When users have the ability to access instantly the section or function of the site they want, it also helps reducing unneeded activity and waste of time while improving overall navigation comfort. This is why, the Reggae Auction CSS navigational menu will soon be updated again with “all” needed sections.
For example: to hear sound clips associated to the auctions, the use of the pop up player is less consuming than to enter the auction detail page, then go to the media section and then click on the player to hear the song.
It’s quicker for the user and less consuming for the system because you save two pages loads!
Operating that way, you need to enter the auction detail page only to buy / place a bid or read the transaction details of the item if you’re interested.

Reggae Auction uses the less server resources possible to always ensure that what is used is what is reasonably needed (Reasonably meaning a good balance between performance, comfort and economy).

The system we have chosen to achieve this goal is pretty simple and well known by web hosts and webmasters. To manage the server usage, we have limited the number of simultaneous accesses to the database, meaning that there are a limited number of users that can browse or do a specific action on the site at the same time.
When there are more users than the limit allows, these users are put on hold, they just have to wait their turn so the system can process the page they request. This is why sometimes the page can load quickly and sometimes users have to wait a bit so the page can be totally displayed. The slot system and number of simultaneous access is updated upon website activity needs, to try to always provide the same level of performance, speed and comfort.

These power savings directly benefits:
- Members, because we want these to lead to fees reduction,
- Business, because investments and overall website managements costs are reduced,
- Environment, because we use only what we “really” need with an optimized power savings system.

We really want our eco business plan project to lead to fees reduction through time!
Simple as that: The bigger buy / sell activity = the lower overall site fees

Here are some examples of what you could do in your everyday usage of Reggae Auction to help make some power savings:

 - Use the email notify function for only what you really need, all emails generated consume power, maybe some even bothers you on the long run?
 - Try to make your communications more efficient through internal messages, like ask or answer all the questions in the same message.
 - Use the menu subcategories to get to the page you want is saving you time and is also saving server resources, you get to the page you want in one step rather than 2, 3 or 4.
 - Browse the site efficiently or maybe try first to search what you are looking for?
 - When you're selling items, try not to check the status / number of bids / visitors of your items everyday, you will consume less power and it will not really change anything anyway?
 - Use the pop up player instead of entering every auction page to do the exact same thing; you're saving two pages loads each time!