Moving

Moving
By Joseph Walther


Due to some technical problems beyond my control, I will not post a column this week. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this post will make it to the Internet. At the outset, these are not technical issues with Blogdrive.com. While people who use Blogdrive.com have had several technical issues this past year, this time around, the problem lies with my own equipment.

Computer servers crash. This is an unpleasant fact, as all who use them well know. Therefore, webmasters build an acceptable level of “downtime” into their site designs. Additionally, site hosts encounter problems that are impossible to anticipate. This, too, is an unpleasant fact. Blogdrive.com has had a few of these over the past 14-months.

On the other hand, some customer service issues are unacceptable under ALL circumstances. Ignoring customer inquiries happens to be one of them. For me, Blogdrive.com has become the flagship for such behavior. This is the reason that I’ve searched for another comparably priced site that provides the same high-level site statistics that I must have.

Due to contractual obligations, I had to develop a backup site, simply because Blogdrive.com became too erratic. Therefore, I began using a shadow site at Blogspot.com. Blogspot.com has not gone down in all of the time that I’ve used them as a backup. Unfortunately, they provide no site statistics at all.

Finally, I found Blogharbor.com. They are a tad more expensive than Blogdrive.com, but they provide an even higher level of site statistics. They also respond, almost immediately, to customer inquiries and requests for technical assistance. They also notify their customers, via email, of impending system maintenance.

Blogdrive.com is in the process of moving their data center. I hope that this will solve some of the unannounced downtime. I am not going to renew my annual contract with Blogdrive.com. I am going to go to a month-to-month basis. If the problems persist, I’m going to drop them altogether.

Beginning next Sunday, July 9, 2006, I will post this column to three different sites. The main site will be http://thetruefacts.blogharbor.com. The backup site, as always, will be http://JLWalther.blogspot.com. Finally, I will continue to post on a month-to-month basis at http://JLWalther.blogdrive.com.

Readers who registered to receive email notification of new postings though Blogdrive.com may register through Blogharbor.com if they desire to do so. There are simply too many of these for me to switch over. In addition to this, I maintain several distribution lists. I will continue to maintain these myself.

The guys with pocket protectors are installing some new equipment for me as I type this on the old system. I will post as usual next Sunday and every Sunday thereafter.

Have a great week.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send your comments. Just click here.