The Avengers Forever: Website News Archive

	Website News Archive August 2008

Forum: Under new management... eventually. (30 August) As of today, I've elected not to re-launch the Avengers Forum. After two hosting catastrophes in the space of less than one year, I'm removing myself from the burden of hosting a forum. Discussion is under way at the temporary Yahoo message board as to who might pick up the reins. Perhaps someone else will have better luck than I've had, and I sincerely hope so; I would not wish this anxiety on any Avengers fan. As sad as it is to give up that part of my webiverse, it is at the same time liberating; I'm already making plans for the spare time I'll gain... I've posted some more thoughts about all of this in an IMHO.

I've had it. (20 August) My current web host, midPhase, has earned my contempt and wrath after two more back-to-back account-wide outages, spanning a period of over four days and counting. I've had it, had it, had it, HAD IT with the complete and utter idiots at midPhase, the worst web hosts by far in the fifteen years I've been in web development.

To say that I'm sick of this is a substantial understatement—I am millimeters away from saying f**k it all and becoming a hermit; I do not need my life shortened by the stress of just trying to keep my websites up. It's a bloody good thing I don't earn my living online—I'd be out of business by now. All this follows the debacle back in April, one of many minor catastrophes I've endured since I changed over to midPhase.

So, it's probably stating the obvious that theavengers.tv (along with all ten of my other domains) is on the move again. Which is to say more outages will be forthcoming as the switchover—which, based on entirely too much experience, never goes smoothly—takes place. Meanwhile, the Forum will likely be offline much longer, as I try to find a way to migrate the database intact—not a trivial thing. There's a remote possibility that the database has been corrupted or lost, and if so... well, say goodbye to the Forum. Someone else can host it.

As it is, TAF is sputtering back to life after reviving the older host account. Getting the site back up to speed is a challenge, given that it hadn't been updated since January, and FTP services still point to midPhase, so I am updating the most critical files—one at a time. You will notice lots of missing pages, broken links and outdated information as I scramble to re-sync the site. Most of my other sites are still pointing to the wrong host, so it will be a long, ugly, painful process of breathing life back into everything.

From a broader perspective, midPhase stands as a perfect example of how corporations are losing their way, failing to maintain customer support—any host's number one priority—and allowing inexperienced, work-ethic-challenged "kids" to run critical systems. As if to underscore this fact, several times I've had to help the technical support personnel solve problems for me; if I didn't know my way around a web server, I'd be SOL. No longer are the inmates running the asylum—it's children in charge, now. Brats, most of 'em.

On a happier note, be sure to check out last month's news for some exciting developments, in case you hadn't already seen them.