Just to keep you all in the know, I have determined a course of action in regards to the future of this site and our sister sites. I know it's been a long time coming, but when you have a site that has as much content as we do, you have to be careful to ensure you don't lose that information.
I have secured a webhost called
Powweb as they offered the best rate and package details for the money, not to mention they reviewed very high on many Webhost Review Sites. They also have the high bandwidth requirements we'll need to host movie making media on Hobby-Universe.com as well as possible mirroring of downloads to spyware removal and virus software on this site. This is to be our "long-term" solution (at least 1 - 2 years).
I also may have found a host tonite that will serve perfectly as an interim that supports both phpnuke and postnuke (rare). You may be asking why we need an interim so I'll give you a quick rundown.
All these sites are run by a Content Management System (CMS) called phpnuke. It was a Power Tool available with my webhost Canaca.com and the only reason we use it. Many of the webhosts online prefer postnuke over phpnuke, Powweb is one such host. You may also be wondering why I don't just stick with phpnuke and not go through the hassle of a complete re-working of all sites. The reasons are as follows:
- postnuke is a spin off of phpnuke but has actual professionals working on its code unlike phpnuke which is pretty much the work of one guy.
- postnuke is marginally more secure (this is a raging debate online but the fact that most webhosting companies prefer pn over phpnuke must tell you something).
- Bug Tracker.
- better support in the event of problems.
- I've used pn before and prefer it.
The actual transition of the sites will happen in the following manner:
- kidzone.lifesupporters.com goes offline with a re-direct to this site and hobby-universe.com. kidzone will be back up after the move is completed and likely under a different name with a re-direct from the old subdomain.
- Lifesupporters.net will no longer point to this site, it will point to a dummy site that I'll be converting using a backup copy of this site and it's database.
- Lifesupporters.com will be the first site to fully make the transition from phpnuke to postnuke.
- Hobby-Universe then undergoes the same transition as listed above with a new theme as the current, heavily modified theme is only available in phpnuke.
- kidzone comes back online after the completion of the above processes.
It will cost substantially more but I believe that breaking the upgrading and moving will ease the transition for members and guests alike. It may be that you don't even notice you've changed sites and servers, with the exception of smoother speed and less downtime.
I'm also hoping to find a plugin, module or block that allows new members to register in one central location but attain membership across all of the current sites and future sites. I'm not sure if this is currently possible but will be in the future if I have to pay a coder to write me the script.
These changes will put us in a good position for the future offering high enough bandwidth to offer downloads and drive more traffic to Lifesupporters and her sister sites. Hopefully these new hosts offer more reliable hosting than Canaca did and keep us running smoothly well into the future.
I also want to thank you all for not only taking the time to read this, but for returning to the site as you do, adding content and putting up with the ****ty performance we've had since July 04. I can't thank you all enough; you are all the lifeblood of these sites.
Sincerely,
Ken
*IMPORTANT* Site Updates and Webhost Move Information.
