Running UUpdates

Here is a list of everything that is currently in use to provide UUpdates.net as a service.

• Domain registration. Currently this is done through DirectNic, but any domain registrar will do.
• CloudFlare is used to provide IPv6 support, caching for images and in general improve site performance and protection. This is at the free level.
• Virtual Private Server through DatabaseMart. Like the others services this can be through any VPS provider. To get into a little more of the technical details the website is running on a LAMP stack with a PHP app built on the Yii 1 framework. The main driver for needing a VPS is that there is a cron task that runs to handle the fetching of the RSS feeds. I tried a few times to run this on shared hosting but wound up getting my account suspended due to activity. There are fewer active blogs now so maybe the load would be low enough, but a VPS would still be my recommendation. Currently this is $40/year if someone wants to take over the account as opposed to migrating the software, database, etc.

To keep the site running it would be useful for someone to have a technical understanding of web hosting, and internet technologies in general. Specifically the following skills would be useful.

• Ability to troubleshoot issues associated with supporting a LAMP stack website.
• Familiarity with XML and RSS formats and ability to diagnose problems with parsing site RSS feeds.
• PHP programming knowledge would be helpful. Some issues could potentially be addressed by upgrading the packages used to do the RSS parsing. The issues that the site runs into are typically handled more gracefully by other RSS parsers.

The admin tasks have decreased as the popularity of blogs has been overtaken by social media, but there is still some work to be done on occasion.

• Adding a new website to be tracked
• Sometimes as blogs are abandoned spammers take over the URL with malicious feeds, r they just go dead. There is an error log that needs to be periodically reviewed and dead blogs need to be inactivated.
• There is a Facebook page, not much to do there but it could be handed off with it as well.

I might be missing something, but I think this is the bulk of it. Currently I think email isn't working and I have not had time to fix it. So, not many messages coming through.

If anyone is interested in taking this on please comment on this post. 

Ending support

I am ending my support for UUpdates.net. if anyone is interested in taking on any portion of this, please comment on this post. Please let me know what you are interested in. Domain name only, software, whatever.

Site changes

In order to keep up with the times a few changes to the site have been made. First CloudFlare is being used to help secure and accelerate the site. CloudFlare also enables IPv6 support. This will be yet another performance increase for mobile site users.

In addition to that due to recent security breaches I decided to ditch the "promotion" buttons. The Facebook and Google+ promotion buttons are no longer on the site. Since the Google fonts used were not securly shared those have also been removed. All in all this should result in a significantly faster load time to the site due to the CDN and reduction in content that needs to be downloaded.

If you notice any issues with the site or performance after the changes please let me know.

The purpose of this church is to be the institutional incarnation of Love on earth.

Really encouraging post by Natalie Briscoe about recent turmoil at UUA. Sort of, it is really about why we should be optimistic.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10208899020456212&id=1336081554

Avoid Network Solutions

I have been working on transferring my wife's domain name away from Network Solutions. The level of service they provide is simply pathetic. I decided to do a Google search and I am not surprised to find that others have had terrible service with Network Solutions. If you happen to be looking for a domain registrar avoid them, avoid them for any and all services. The way they drop services on people transferring out is simply poor practice. Keep in mind if you do go with their services then you might be facing expected down time in the future.
Being in web development for over 15 years I have transferred many a domain name as business needs change. I have used multiple registrars. Network Solutions is the worst I have experienced by far.
I like DirectNic, never had an issue, cheap, good service. But would love to hear other recommendations.