The web hosting service has some work to do in order to regain our confidence.
Is all.
Update: Well, I’ve given into the man, who said I was using up too many of his CPU cycles on the MySQL server. On account of the horrible memory hog that is WordPress. With plug-ins.
So! We are now hosted on a private server and due to be charged in a scaleable way based on CPU use. I have a week’s time free to evaluate my load, and scale the memory “dynamically.” Which sounds powerful and flexible, dunnit?
But has the feeling of a potentially unbounded requirement and subsequent drain on the personal fisc. Because you know how much I dislike shaking down my friends, and rattling the cup. Unless there’s a beer that’s in it, in which case, fine, rattle away.
I guess we’ll have to see how this goes in a week’s time, options are being explored and my appreciation to those who have privately provided support of various kinds.
By the Way: Do you twitter? Because I have been exploring it, although it seems a madly solipsistic enthusiasm – “What are you doing right now? Blogging!” – like anyone’s interested in the moment to moment updates in this our pedestrian existence. But! I was direct messaged by Mary Katherine Ham. Which is to swoon.
So there’s that.
Agreed,
Been down all day!
Should have guessed the provider without looking it up…
…been wondering!
A whole bunch of us would be willing to donate a fair amount of the Kings coin to help you resolve this situation.
You have given us much over the years, let us help.
I’m with Ron Snyder on this. We all take advantage of your largesse everyday – some of us more than once per day (it’s an addiction and I’m working on it…).
How could that work? Charge us a monthly fee or something?
Pay to play is the American way…on that basis alone VX should and must pay the most…it’s only equitable…verdad? Best
Like I told our good host in a (now not so private) email: You’re just too d*mned popular!
The outage went on so long I thought I’d been IP blocked. (Happened once to me by FOX news during the livefeeds from the RNC. I made some non PC comment on a feed to which some young editor took offense. Heh.) DHCP release/renew on my router took care of that but still I thought it was funny.
All I can say is,
I got linked by the good Captain, over 800 hits in a day.
I got linked by CNN, 374 hits in a day.
I know who MY trusted news source is.
Kris – in my experience (and purely my opinion not speaking for Lex in any way) charging a monthly or annual fee (typically in the $20 range per year) doesn’t work well in this environment and alienates some part-time or would be future participants. Supporting the site, one that is community based, needs to be out of the goodness of ones haaaht.
Other revenue generating options should be considered. He does have the Beer Fund, and four or five Ad placements which is a start. Speaking of which, click on those gooo gle ads if something interests you but don’t click them every morning to add to the coffers and Google knows.
This site is probably far too busy to sit on a $5 a month hosting plan. So when forgetting about the many wonderous and joyful free hours spent tinkering on the back end of the site, answering nastygrams, and troubleshooting other visitors’ ‘site experience”, there is that dastardly hosting fee to pay for.
Other “revenue” methods that IMO are fun but create more work than return:
Bumpa Stickas, Shirts, Mugs, etc… from places like Cafe Press are nice but don’t generate much actual coin. Running and shipping from Casa Local also tend to suck up far more hours than revenue generated. All of these methods really just perpetuate the less than Burger King equivalent salary rates.
Best return on investment? Hit that Guinness Beer Fund Tip Jar over to the right. In fact, I’m going to do that now as last time was on hizoners retirement.
pair.com – a good company when we worked with them a few years ago, based on another’s recommendation. Their fees were reasonable, and (as a network engineer) I was quite satisfied with their HA (High Availability) characteristics.
WHAT????!!!!! YOU got direct messaged by _THE_ one and only MKH? I am sooooo jealous. You probably need sandbags to hold your head down……… (and that “what” above will probably trigger all sorts of SPAM filtering. )
Lex – I don’t know what your stats and needs are but it does sound like you are a candidate for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or at least not a stingy host with 1000 accounts on a server.
I have a dedicated server through Liquidweb for my sites and they are a great company which offers managed servers and Virtual Private Servers. Where my LAMP knowledge ends, I dish off to them.
Anywho – if you are looking for reviews and suggestions, http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ is a good resource.
I’m planning on a new dedicated server from Liquidweb within the next month or so, Quad Core, RAID, 4GBRAM, CPANEL/WHM, etc… If your current system is not working in May, shout out and maybe we can do something. Personally, I’d be very wary of an open ended pricing model on how well you “scale” with them…
Re: Twitter… looked at it, but I don’t get it. Looks like something for those of ages 3 to 5, an age bracket that frequently make statements like “Look what I’m doing” and “Everyone watch me!”
Your’s in grouchy geezerousityness…
George V.
Tried twitter….most of my favorite screen names already taken. I never did “myspace” and only recently got shamed into “Facebook” by my sons. And I figured there are too many twits already in this world and I didn’t need to be another. But with MKH and Amanda Carpenter twittering away it might be time to start following some political feeds (minus the inane “mowing my lawn” , “having breakfast”, “taking a dump”, “washing car”, etc. etc. etc.)
Who *doesn’t* swoon at the mention of the one and only MK?
She’ll drink some Shiner Bock too, I’ll tell you that!
Shiner Bock? My beer of choice for vital chili ingredients. GOT to pour a bottle of Shiner in the pot to season the mix and make it all good!
I’ve been trying to figure out what to to with Twitter, myself.
Goo luck with the new server. I’ll try to help if’n I can.
Do give my best to MKH. She has a wonderful mind.
Twitter…for gomers ( you know who you are)… who really, absolutly, positively and without a doubt…need to get a flippen life…my prayers are with you all. Best
I do not participate in Twitterdom, but, MKH?
Hmmm, may have to reconsider
GeorgeV/Snake Eater:
In TOTAL agreement, guys. GEEZER POWER!
Signed:
The Fighting Fossil
So sorry about your server problems but… You mention MKH. About a year ago I emailed her and asked her to get involved in Operation Gratitude. She emailed back an interest but too busy at the time.
So, thank you for reminding me that I should write to her again.
Twitter verges on illiterate. I suggest you don’t involve yourself.
I like Twitter. I use it to follow hockey writers (a MUST during the play-offs), Lileks, Andy Levy (of Red Eye fame), a couple of friends, a Congress-critter, and most recently… our host. Do I Tweet myself? Seldom. I think my last Tweet was about a month ago… maybe longer.
I don’t twitter, and won’t in the future either. Reading Blogs and the news takes enough time as it is.
MKH is very cute, however. Don’t let the Hobbit see a pic of her, you’re blogging days may end suddenly. Wives can be extremely narrow minded about such things. I don’t understand why, but that’s the way it is.