Making some big decisions about our new site (the big important one that will be my flagship).
One of the big decisions is actually more of a small one: I’m moving the new next-big site over to cheap mainstream hosting and building up on it from there.
Mainstream hosting has gotten better while the host I’ve stayed with for the past twenty+ years is not the same hosting company (it’s changed hands many times, and doesn’t recognize or treat me as a long-term loyal customer). We’re basically out of storage space there anyway, plus it would be better to keep the new site on a different server from our paysite network in general, just to not have all our eggs in one basket and be less vulnerable to the possibility of ALL of our sites going down at the same time.
I have nothing to lose from at least TRYING something cheaper with a name and brand that improves and behaves accountably to a global and mainstream customer base. Over the past ten years or so I actually have been using (mainstream) Dreamhost for dozens of sites, just no paysites, and they’ve been great, making it easy for me to do necessary things for free (like install SSL certs) that our current host wants to nickel and dime us and sign contracts for.
If it doesn’t work out I can upgrade and/or move it elsewhere. But for now, something super affordable, accessible and easily managed is worth experimenting and learning with.
I’m excited about starting a new site with resources and choices (and experience and expertise) that weren’t available (and I didn’t have / COULDN’T have had) at the turn of the century.
