UUpdates site maintenance

The hosting company providing services for UUpdates migrated the system to a new server. Ever since then I was looking for a new hosting company. I did find one, but things did not work out well. So, I am making my way through any issues that I find with the site currently to fix it post migration.

It looks like finding a new host might be difficult. The site has enough activity that the basic hosting plans will suspend the account for too much activity. The dedicated hosting plans are bit expensive (and that is what the sales reps push me towards).

So, I am going to be rewriting sections of the code to optimize the data collection. As blogs become less active it will scale down the frequency with which updates are checked on that blog. I am hoping to be able to make these changes without interruption, but you may notice some odd behavior over the next few weeks.

If you notice any issues with the site, or odd behavior, please let me know.

Since this posted a while ago

Due to some server issues, migration, etc. etc. I got a tad behind on adding entries to UUpdates. One blog seems to be updated fairly regularly, and the particular post of interest is no longer current I thought I would link to it here. Check out this post on growing religion through social media.

Hosting Company Recommendations?

Anyone have suggestions for a good hosting company? My current hosting company has annoyed me for the last time. It is more than time to move on. Requirements include:

• Would be nice if they were a "green" host. Run on wind power or some such.
• Need at least 2-3 GB of bandwidth per month. Thousands of visitors and all the fetching traffic add up.
• PHP/MySQL are absolute musts fewer the limitations on number of databases, etc. the better
• Ability to host multiple domains
• Cron support (or some scheduled task) is a must
• SSH is a must
• Ability to acces at least port 80 outbound from the server
• 24x7 chat with Tech Support (for cases like now when they mess things up)
  

Anyone know anything about http://www.sustainablewebsites.com? In my quick searches they looked good.

Thanks

Minor Interruptions

There may be minor interruptions as UUpdates is migrated to a new server. The hosting company that I am currently using (I will be asking for recommendations for a new host in a later post) was bought out and the servers got migrated despite my selecting the "I will do this manually option".

Hopefully things will be straightened out shortly.

Fifth Annual UU Blog Awards

Howdy folks, a bit of a late start on the blog awards this year...

Last year I remember thinking when I saw Aaron Sawyer blog post about presenting at an award show how uninteresting an awards show would be if the accounting firm of "so and so" simply walked on stage, thanked everyone, then tacked up the winners on a poster board. This seems to me to be what I have been doing with the blog awards. Dull, uninspired. But if I got some of you good people involved….How much more exciting and interesting!

In sum, I need volunteers this year to host each award category. This is what I am thinking:

• Volunteers will respond to this blog post to claim a category (see below) It may be best not to claim a category for which you suspect you may be nominated!
• Contact me with your e-mail address
  
• Put up a post on your blog to collect nominations
• Collect, vet, and make sure we have a link for all nominations, preferably title as well. Oh, you will probably also get people saying "thanks but no thanks" that will need to be removed before being finalized.
• When nominations close send the data to me. I will handle the ballot and voting per usual. I will allow the votes to show for a while, but then towards the end voting will go into mystery mode where the results will not be revealed until the end. Unless folks think I should keep it in mystery mode the whole time.
• Once the voting is done, I will e-mail you the results to be revealed/presented on your blog.
  

Award Categories:

• Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary (Single entry and Best of Class)
• Best Anecdote or Narrative (Single entry and Best of Class)
• Best Political Commentary (Single entry and Best of Class)
• Best Review or Cultural Commentary
• Best Design or Use of Visuals
• Best New Blog
• Best Non-UU-Themed Blog
• Best UU-Themed Blog
• Best Minister Blog
• Best Seminarian Blog
• Best Lay Blog
• Best Writing

Once we have the volunteers we can set a time line for when nominations, voting, etc. will run.

And of course, questions and comments are welcome.

Update: Life needs my attention devoted elsewhere. If anyone else wants to "host" awards this year, please do. Otherwise Philocrites started a top ten meme.