Hosting, migration, evolution

No matter how much you like your web host, it's an awful idea to let it hold the keys to your domain. Freeing yourself to go elsewhere can be an ordeal.

This little weblog rather reluctantly entered the digiverse in March of 2004 - a mere snatch of time to me; it often feels as though I’ve been doing this for a decade. Reflecting on this brief blogging career, I am astonished to find that Waveflux has been hosted by no less than four different companies thus far. That is actually a bit sobering - a different host per year, on average. It’s less than flattering to think of oneself as being a kind of dysfunctional, peripatetic, serial client: never able or willing to find satisfaction with any one host, forever on the roam. The reflection provokes even more sober consideration when I consider how hopeful the start of each new hosting experience seemed at the time, not unlike the advent of Opening Day in baseball. I suspect I’m not the only person with a website who has felt that way, especially after having fled an unfortunate relationship with a previous host. You’d think, however, that the law of diminishing returns would kick in eventually, blunting the initial blush of enthusiasm, making jaded the vision and stony the heart.

Yeah. You’d think so.

So this week I cut ties with LivingDot, the hosting provider with which I signed on in November 2006 - having come to them due to a disappointing ending to my relationship with Total Choice Hosting, which in turn had been a refuge from the abysmal customer service at Gate.com, which had swallowed whole my original host, HostSave. So actually, counting the current service, that makes five hosts in four years. Criminy.

But forget the numbers for a moment. I left LivingDot because I’d outgrown it in a sense - though not because of current traffic. The visitor numbers at Waveflux are negligible, to put it kindly; the mighty Atrios, to frame a comparison, gets several times more traffic for a single post that I get in a good day for my entire blog. Not hating on Duncan; it’s just an example. Interestingly enough, the number of unique visitors and pageviews have been on something of an increase lately. There are a number of contributing factors, I think - the new magaziney layout of the blog, the increase in posting here, the quality of the writing (I dare say), and minor spillover traffic from people interested in the LaVena Johnson story.

I outgrew LivingDot partly for mundane dollars-and-sense reasons - I needed a service that provided the same level of service for fewer bucks - and partly because of anticipated needs. Not necessarily future increases in the popularity of the blog you’re reading (though we live in hope) so much as planned changes to the platform and design of the LaVena Johnson website, which will necessitate a transfer to a self-hosted installation - mine - instead of the present Blogger hosting.

There were other reasons for leaving the old host, though, having to do with autonomy and communication: direct control of your own domain registration was nonexistent, as LivingDot - a reseller for domain registrar eNom - automatically abrogated that authority unto itself. Many website owners might not care overmuch about such matters, but my experiences with other hosts instructed me that no matter how much you like your web host, it’s an awful idea to let it hold the keys to your domain, because they may be bought out (HostSave –> Gate.com), or become officious and rude (Total Choice Hosting). Freeing yourself to go elsewhere can be an ordeal.

Communication eventually became an issue with LivingDot. Recent difficulties in establishing a dialog about server issues precipitated the importance of finding a more communicative host, but that situation just underscored a broader need - a host that actually fostered communication with clients.

LivingDot treated me well in many fundamental respects. Technical support was swift and efficient whenever super-tech Robin answered the call, and I will always be grateful for the efforts of managing director Pavel Ushakov to upgrade my then-Movable Type-powered blog to the disastrous (for me, at least) version 4. No one party came out of that catastrophe looking good, but I credit Pavel for laboring over my upgrade issues with a lack of assistance from Six Apart, whose support department was neither use nor ornament on that occasion. Still, there comes a point when it’s time to move on.

You’re asking who the new host is? I’ve already told you, o faithful and regular reader: Waveflux is now hosted by Steadfast Networks, based in Chicago. I’ve heard good things about Steadfast from web hosting mavens, and have been impressed thus far with the responses of its support staff in the ticketing system - always important - and with the user forum and the company weblog, evidence of the value that the company places on communication with clients. Moreover, Steadfast provides a full range of hosting solutions - from shared hosting through virtual private servers to dedicated servers, which I expect to exploit as my needs evolve and expand - as they are doing even now. Best of all, perhaps, the offerings of Steadfast seem grounded in reality. My account resources are generous for the price I’m paying, but not fantastic - that is, not overpromised.

So the latest host migration is in the books, and I’m once more embarking on a new journey hand-in-hand with a brand-new host. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes; I actually am hopeful, truth to tell. The positive aspect of shuttling between web hosts over time is that - assuming that you’ve been paying attention - you learn more about what you want as a web client, and you learn to look for those things in a host. I see the potential for a long relationship with Steadfast, an upward glide path for my web ventures. I must admit that it makes me feel hopeful. Like a baseball fan, yes, on Opening Day.

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