en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/DesertSouthwest/journal The Last.fm journal for DesertSouthwest. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. TurquoiseTrailhttp://feedburner.google.com http://www.last.fm/user/DesertSouthwest/journal/2010/04/26/3lc0zv_and_around_and_around_we_go_... Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:09:03 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/DesertSouthwest/journal/2010/04/26/3lc0zv_and_around_and_around_we_go_... Yes, I've had to relocate my homepage. Again, this time to Hostshield with a mirror on Scriptmania.

If you're wondering if I should link to such a depraved site from my Last.fm Journal, rest assured that the page is G rated, and a lot more family friendly than some of the groups you'll find on Last.fm. All that you will ever find there are pages about travel to the Southwestern United States - and keep in mind that I'm generally taking these trips with my family - recipes, nature photography, some of the non-R rated history of the region, maybe a little geology ... nothing that is unsuitable for general audiences.

As for why my page was blocked from view at the last location? I don't know, because Support has refused to answer my queries about this, but the word going around about this company, which I'll leave unnamed here, is that they seem to automatically act on all complaints, without even bothering to look at the sites they're blocking from public view, first. My site has been down for a few months, now, and still no answer - these people plainly have no respect at all for their users, which is why I'm not naming the company. Even bad press is still press, and I don't want to give them free advertising. There is a type of person who, when one mentions bad service, seems to take a perverse pleasure in patronizing the establishment where one saw the bad service, which undercuts the very idea of market discipline, and many of these people are online.

My best guess is that somebody is filing what he knows to be meritless complaints, just for the lulz. This time around, I've created two copies, not one, and will be linking them together. Why? Even if I've chosen two good companies this time, after chosing a series of highly recommended but demonstrably worthless predecessors, servers will slow down sometimes, due to heavy demand. With a few links between the copies, I'll be able to give my visitors the opportunity to switch the other copy, when the copy they're on is a little sluggish, and see if the other server is under a little less strain. But this also serves as notice, given to any employee who has decided that automatically acting on all complaints is a great way to get through his work day with a minimum of work and no waves made.

Look at it from his point of view. Let's say that our anonymous coward complains, now, about both versions of my page, our employee takes the easy way out and rubber stamps the complaint - but that his counterpart at the other provider doesn't do the same. He's going to look really bad, and he's going to have a lot more trouble lying his way out of some bad public relations, because when he makes some fantastic claim about the contents of the page - and I've seen employees do this both to me and to others - readers will be able to see what was up, with their own two eyes, because it will still be up elsewhere, and they won't have to wait to look.

I'm hoping that I'm dealing with honest people this time, the kind who don't need deterrents, but if not, that I've at least left somebody with something to think about.



If you like my site, please consider bookmarking, or at least subscribing to the groups and blogs associated with it, where I'll announce any future relocations of my site, should they become necessary. You'll also get to see some supplemental material, perhaps infrequently because I can't afford to travel very often, but something that I hope you'll enjoy. If so, then perhaps some benefit has come out of somebody else's refusal to basically do his job. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say "then it was all worth it", but at least this is a thought that takes the edge off of a bad memory, and that is surely a good thing.]]>