I already had ample reasons to despise the freedom-hating People in Charge (PIC) of WordPress.com. This latest news doesn’t add to my dislike – it’s just amusing. WP.com has announced the most expensive web hosting service offering in history. 
Read more WP Dot Com – the most expensive web hosting in history
Rambling thoughts about WordPress
Hosting and Registrar
WordPress Official Recommended Hosting List is Depraved
WordPress dot org has long maintained a very questionable list of recommended hosting providers. Currently the list includes only BlueHost and DreamHost. Why only two? Dunno – the criteria for inclusion and the selection process is completely shrouded in mystery. The list appears to be based solely on the whims of WP Person-in-Charge Matt Mullenweg. A tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist might suspect that large sums of money are surreptitiously transferred from the chosen hosts to the WP PIC.
Read more WordPress Official Recommended Hosting List is Depraved
Cloudflare Drops cPanel Integration
On November 1, 2022 Cloudflare officially declared End-of-Life for its cPanel plugin that provided one-click setup and access to certain common CF admin functions (CF/cP integration had been deprecated a year earlier).
Hostmantis -> Dynamic Hosting – This Can’t be Good
Oi. Got an email from my hosting provider, Hostmantis.
We are partnering with Dynamic Hosting. Going forward, Dynamic Hosting will be managing all monitoring, technical support, and billing services accordingly.
“Partnering”? What the eff is “partnering”? In this case it seems to be a euphemism for HM bailing out on its customers, selling all accounts to DH.
Read more Hostmantis -> Dynamic Hosting – This Can’t be Good
Apache, Nginx, or LiteSpeed?
Spoiler Alert: LiteSpeed is my choice for its superb server-side cache. Apache is a solid pick too – I just have to add the Comet Cache plugin. Nginx is right out – no support for .htacess.
Apache, Nginx (pronounced engine-x), and LiteSpeed compose the vast majority of the web server market. Comparisons of the three are readily available on the interwebs, so I won’t get into that – just a quick summary: Read more Apache, Nginx, or LiteSpeed?
HostMantis Six Month Review
Summary: Overall, thumbs up for excellent value. I would choose HostMantis again. Not perfect, but at the low price I was not expecting perfection.
WordPress dot com is Decadent and Depraved
I love WP dot org. But its sibling WP dot com – I have never understood the appeal. And now I have strong reason to dislike and distrust it. Like so much of the radical left Silicon Valley elite, the People in Charge (PIC) at WP dot com are fundamentally evil and viciously anti-American – and have gone out of their way to prove it. Read more WordPress dot com is Decadent and Depraved
Parting thoughts on MDD Hosting, first impressions of HostMantis
Summary: MDD is awesome but price increase is a bit much for me. HostMantis has been great so far.
Read more Parting thoughts on MDD Hosting, first impressions of HostMantis
Migrating Websites 2 – Nuts and Bolts
Migrating websites is a chore. For me, it requires actions on my old host, old WP admin, new host, new WP admin, and Cloudflare. The individual actions – with one or two exceptions – are not terribly difficult or complicated, but have to be done just right and in just the right order to keep things from going haywire. My last post gave the background of my current migration effort. This post covers the nuts and bolts.
Migrating Websites
Ugh. Migrating my websites again. This time from MDDHosting to HostMantis.
Are free domains worth it?
Generally, no. Think about it – how is giving away free domains a sustainable business model? But there are exceptions. I’ve been using a free domain, mostly successfully, since 2015.
Domain Expiration Process
The first rule of domain expiration for any domain that I care about is *** Do Not Let My Domain Expire! ***. I can manually extend my domain registration at any time. I can also use auto-renewal, which should save me as long as I make sure to keep my payment information up to date. I do both. So, I rely on auto-renewal to save me only if I forget to renew manually – which hasn’t happened, yet (*).
NameSilo is Decadent and Depraved
OK, the title is a bit harsh. NameSilo has long been awesome, and remains somewhat awesome. But – NameSilo has started down the slippery slope of obnoxious up-selling. It’s bad. Nowhere even close to as bad as GoDaddy (can anything be that bad?), but bad, and once started down that slippery slope, where will it end? Read more NameSilo is Decadent and Depraved
cPanel and the greedy, treacherous betrayal
cPanel is easily the king of the hill when it comes to web hosting control panels. It is, in a word, awesome. It gives me an intuitive interface to simplify the process of managing my site. cPanel had its origin in the late 1990s. With ongoing improvements it became the default hosting control panel of choice early in the millennium, and remains so today. But likely not tomorrow.
MDD Hosting and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
or, How to Destroy an Entire Data Center with a Typo
First, MDD Hosting is awesome. I’ve been with them for about a year and a half, and will likely stay for decades if they stay awesome. Uptime – with the one big exception described below, has been good. Speed is great. Price is reasonable. They check all my must-have and nice-to-have features: LiteSpeed server; cPanel; free Let’s Encrypt SSL; CloudLinux account isolation technology; SSD storage; Softaculous Autoinstaller; PHP version selector; Not associated with Endurance International Group (EIG); No obnoxious up-selling or other BS marketing games. Most impressive is help service – always prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable.
But last September (2018), MDD and its clients endured a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day – several days actually.
Read more MDD Hosting and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
