The Avengers Forever: IMHO

	IMHO: 15 April 2008 Page 28 of 29

I am being ruined by incompetence.

Everyone's wondering what's been going on the last few days. Password pop-ups. 404s. Cryptic error messages. One must think I'm some sort of out-of-control yahoo without a clue what I'm doing on the internet.

It wasn't me.

I cannot deny, however, having created the circumstances leading up to the mess. It started when my former web host was being hacked—five times in as many weeks. They were slow to address the problem, and meanwhile my sites were being corrupted. So I went shopping. That was my first mistake.

Searching high and low, I evaluated dozens of web hosts. One of them, midPhase, was consistently rated in the top five or ten hosts nationwide. A global company, midPhase has been around for almost a decade and had everything I needed for less than half of what I was spending. So, I transferred everything over to them—all nine of my domains—lock, stock and barrel. That was my second mistake.

It took months—literally—to get my sites back up (and it's not yet done). While I was dealing with all manner of technical problems, I also found that midPhase was doing a little deceptive advertising. They boldly proclaimed "no hidden fees!" in their online promotions. Yet, when I examined my invoices, I found all sorts of little charges for things not found in their marketing. I called them on it, and the charges were quickly reversed. I should have sensed big trouble from the outset.

The Evil Button After the dust finally started settling with my business accounts, I finally got around to taking care of my personal accounts, and on the afternoon of 13 April, I created a new FTP (file transfer) account so that the other webmasters at TheAvengers.TV could at long last update their websites. It could not have been simpler or (presumably) more benign: with just a few clicks in the fancy-dancy Plesk web administration control panel, I was able to add the new FTP account.

But at that instant, everything associated with the domain became password-protected. Everything. And there was no username or password for anyone to use! I was also locked out of my own master FTP account, so I could not even see what may have gone wrong. I was dead in the water, utterly and completely.

Naturally the emails immediately started pouring in asking me what was going on. I responded as best I could; meanwhile, I frantically entered two emergency support tickets. Five hours later there was no response, so I called the midPhase 24-hour support hotline (knowing full well nothing would come of it, but having nothing to lose at this point). As I predicted, their phone support was about as useful as a cell phone with a dead battery; I was informed the issue would have to be escalated to their "Tier 2 Support Group." And where was the Tier 2 Support Group located, I asked? "The Ukraine."

Suddenly I felt as if my abdomen had been sliced open; I was gripped with an eerie, frightening coldness. Little did I know that my worst fears would be surpassed, because, eighteen hours later, after no progress, suddenly all of my domains vanished. All nine of them.

I envisioned nearly 100,000 files having been wiped out, and databases corrupted beyond recovery. Then I envisioned the process of finding yet another new web host... But my midPhase account is barely three months old. I could not afford to move to another host—it's four digits every time I move. So, I'm stuck. Then I began thinking in terms of litigation... If I had anything left to my name money-wise, I would be hiring a lawyer. (Assuming there wasn't a "not our fault" clause buried somewhere in my midPhase contract, that is.)

Of course, at a glacial pace, and with many intermittent flickers, the lights started to come back on, one at a time. Everything but the Forum, that is, which suffered some sort of fatal injury, the nature of which I was unable to determine; it was up to midPhase to correct. I envisioned another 24 hours or more of downtime while Larry, Mo and Curly tried to figure out what they'd done wrong. As it happened, 4 AM on 15 April, unable to sleep, I decided to take matters into my own hands and managed to do their job for them.

When all was right again, I was completely and utterly spent. I am now so ready to throw in the towel—I cannot afford the stress any more (I have hypertension as it is). The bastards have ground me down. So, if anyone out there in virtual Avengerand wishes to take up the challenge of running TheAvengers.TV, please be my guest. More power to you. I'll even foot the bill—I just need to get out from under the boulder of administration.

It's so sad: the technology that has helped bring us all together is increasingly dependent on increasingly incompetent support personnel, often in foreign lands and thence even further removed from our hands. When technology goes beyond our ability to master it, it masters us in ugly ways like frustration, stress and litigation.

Personally it's all the sadder considering that I've been enjoying doing this for almost a dozen years. But now I no longer enjoy it, and it's certainly not worth the aggravation. Now it's worse than a job. I will continue to maintain the sites as best I can (with fewer updates, I'll confess), but I am honestly looking to get out. Maybe Nanny Roberts was right.

One of the pleasures in my life has been destroyed by sheer incompetence. The best tech support on the planet could never hope to restore something like that...

And that's my humble opinion.

David K. Smith, 15 April 2008