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Post by Spock on Jun 23, 2016 15:52:55 GMT -6
Just upgraded the Blog on my old teaching website. It makes me wonder why I bother. I'm sure no one has even bothered to visit since I stopped teaching back in (July?) 2006. I have been keeping it "alive" mainly in the hope that I could teach again. If so, I would have a valid use for the website. There is some specific game related information that is stored on it that I agreed to host from other gamers. But that will get transferred to someone else soon, so I can delete it from my website. I have posts in my forum about my parents that I created to show them and ask for their input. It never happened; they died before seeing anything. I have a lot of basic student websites I'm hosting from when I taught basic HTML but finally locked out any outside (student or other) changes when some spammer attacked and added spam scripts to the index files at the beginning of all the sites. I cleaned up the trash, set the sites back to their original condition and finally changed the file accesses so that only I had change access. Most of the information links are most likely out of date. It would require me to manually revisit each and make a programming data change to the page displaying the links. I would appreciate it if I could get input that would help me to decide on keeping the website or finally putting it out of its misery. The website is located at: PCTalk.info |
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Post by Phalon on Jun 23, 2016 19:50:10 GMT -6
I'd say it depends how much work you want to undertake. Although I don't know anything about computer or gaming stuff, if you choose to keep the site up and running, any outdated information should be removed. If a visitor lands on the site and chases links that are no longer valid, for example, he's not likely to return.
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Post by stepper on Jun 23, 2016 21:47:18 GMT -6
The question I really hear is: In today's environment, is it worth my time and effort? Let's face it, putting all that information together in a presentable format took substantial work and it'd be a shame to waste it. To me, the answer lies in the answer to the questions do you enjoy maintaining the site, do you feel an obligation to work on it or is it a hobby, is maintaining the site costing you more than time, and is it worth your time? How do you feel about your answers to those questions?
Let me give you a for instance. Phalon used to love writing and maybe still does. She frequently commented on things relating to her writing and what inspired it. Then rather suddenly (to me at least) circumstances changed. The end result of that change culminated in Phalon backing way off this thing that she previously had so clearly enjoyed and mattered to her. I don't mean the change was a bad thing; the point is that circumstances changed and she changed as a result. You've seen her posts - she's as happy and grounded as she can be - and this brings me back to you. (You can sit down now Phalon and thanks for being my example.)
If your answers to the above tell you the situation has changed - which seems to be the case - then the only reason to entertain expending your personal resources on the site are because you enjoy doing so. Your comments make it sound like this is not the case. Are you harming anyone by moving on? Doesn't sound like it. So you have the option of locking it down the way it is so that all the work is not lost - just no longer maintained, you can shut it down completely, or use it for other purposes you find more personally productive.
Hope this helps.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 23, 2016 23:41:10 GMT -6
Can you move it all to free sites? Or most of it? If so, maybe that is the way to go. 
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Post by Spock on Jun 24, 2016 11:40:47 GMT -6
Thanks stepper, more to think about.
Mini-Mia, the trouble with "free sites" is that you have to put up with their advertisements. When I created my teaching site, I didn't want any advertisements to distract my students. More importantly, I didn't want anyone to think I supported something simply because it was advertised on my site. This website has that problem.
If I switched everything over to a free site, I would have that problem. So far, the my website has been in virtual lock-down. If I don't start teaching again, that is going to change.
Now if I can just decide whether I want to just close the domain down and possibly give it up or do I use the domain and hosting for something else.
Trouble is, I'm not into anything graphical or artistic and I don't have anything to sell. That doesn't give me too many alternatives.
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Post by stepper on Jun 24, 2016 12:32:08 GMT -6
You're welcome.  |
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 24, 2016 22:12:49 GMT -6
Spock: At one time, Lesa was going to teach HTML, etc. here. But things at Runboard took off and she no longer had the time to spare. You're welcome to save whatever information you like there. Don't know of any other way I can be of help, sorry.
whooshorg.proboards.com/board/40/html-classroom
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Post by Lesa on Jun 24, 2016 23:02:06 GMT -6
...when some spammer attacked and added spam scripts to the index files at the beginning of all the sites. That sounds like a hacker, not just a spammer. Either way, if you'd like to keep the site up, you can prevent another hacking with ZBBlock. It has been a year or two since I've updated ZBBlock at my Wordpress blog, but I recall adding custom signatures that would automatically throw a 503 at anyone who tried to make a new blog post if it wasn't coming from my IP, which a lot of spammers kept trying to do. If you use ZBBlock, keep in mind that every time you have to update Wordpress, you will need to re-insert the hook into your wp_load file. Also, make sure your login name isn't "Admin". |
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Post by Spock on Jun 25, 2016 0:04:49 GMT -6
Spock: At one time, Lesa was going to teach HTML, etc. here. But things at Runboard took off and she no longer had the time to spare. You're welcome to save whatever information you like there. Don't know of any other way I can be of help, sorry.
whooshorg.proboards.com/board/40/html-classroom
Unfortunately, the information I'm most interested in saving needs to be available to gamers. Look at the Fan Site Index to get an idea. It's all HTML programming and graphics. ...when some spammer attacked and added spam scripts to the index files at the beginning of all the sites. That sounds like a hacker, not just a spammer. Either way, if you'd like to keep the site up, you can prevent another hacking with ZBBlock. It has been a year or two since I've updated ZBBlock at my Wordpress blog, but I recall adding custom signatures that would automatically throw a 503 at anyone who tried to make a new blog post if it wasn't coming from my IP, which a lot of spammers kept trying to do. If you use ZBBlock, keep in mind that every time you have to update Wordpress, you will need to re-insert the hook into your wp_load file. Also, make sure your login name isn't "Admin". You're right, the correct term is Hacker. I've been away from programming so long that I'm starting to get sloppy.  Thanks for the idea. ZBBlock looks interesting. I'm currently paying for website wide protection for my newer website. I will keep it in mind for the next time my hosting there comes due. Unfortunately, a lot of the information I really want to keep are part of the forums. Anything I've programmed into the site, is easy to update, replace, or just ignore and remove. The forum, however, uses a database for its content. I can save off the database and reuse it for a new forum but that wouldn't be the same. I could hand copy and paste just those portions I wish to save but that would be even worse. Have you looked at the website yet? It's a lot more than just a forum. If you go to the Students section using the Navbar on the right, you will see all the basic websites the students created. I can save off the entry pages easy enough but the student websites themselves would be more problematic. The software to create the student websites is also on the site. I paid $600 USD for the software so my students would have something easy to use. I could reuse the software but only if I were teaching again. It's set up to allow you to "sell" websites and hosting to others but it's so basic that I would be embarrassed to try to make money from it. "admin"! Does anyone really leave that username in place!? |
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 25, 2016 2:34:20 GMT -6
I only use free sites at the moment, so I have no clue how to be of help to you. Sorry. I do plan on owning a site/s at some point though. Trying to figure out web addresses, and when is the right time to start on the project/s.
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Post by Spock on Jun 25, 2016 11:25:43 GMT -6
I use the iPower Hosting Pro Plan. I pay $7.95/month but they seem to have a sale on this month. Evidently the regular price has also gone up. I've been using them since mid 2006 and have had nothing but good service with them. I'm sure there are cheaper hosting outfits but I'm not familiar with how well their service works or what they offer. I think they will even create a site for you but you have to pay extra for that, I prefer to create my own. Perhaps you could convince Lesa to create the basic site for you, teach you how to maintain it, and you could then expand it as you found necessary. |
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 25, 2016 18:37:14 GMT -6
Thanks, Spock. I have the site bookmarked. I'm a member of Holly Lisle's writing website & forum, and she has a thread where she suggested:
Tiger Technologies
www.tigertech.net/
Word Press
wordpress.org/
wordpress.com/ -- Temporary -- Move to Personal Site when able.
Free or Low Cost Mailing List Software
upcity.com/blog/top-25-free-or-low-cost-email-marketing-web-applications/
hmm ... Holly also recommends never using someone else's platform for your own business. She lost a lot by using Facebook for her writing business. Her account got hacked and spammed with porn and Facebook deleted all her lists and such, and it set her back big time. So, my suggestion to use free sites seems to be the wrong advice. Sorry.
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Post by Lesa on Jun 25, 2016 20:49:42 GMT -6
You're right, the correct term is Hacker. I've been away from programming so long that I'm starting to get sloppy. Thanks for the idea. ZBBlock looks interesting. I'm currently paying for website wide protection for my newer website. I will keep it in mind for the next time my hosting there comes due. Unfortunately, a lot of the information I really want to keep are part of the forums. Anything I've programmed into the site, is easy to update, replace, or just ignore and remove. The forum, however, uses a database for its content. I can save off the database and reuse it for a new forum but that wouldn't be the same. I could hand copy and paste just those portions I wish to save but that would be even worse. Have you looked at the website yet? It's a lot more than just a forum. If you go to the Students section using the Navbar on the right, you will see all the basic websites the students created. I can save off the entry pages easy enough but the student websites themselves would be more problematic. The software to create the student websites is also on the site. I paid $600 USD for the software so my students would have something easy to use. I could reuse the software but only if I were teaching again. It's set up to allow you to "sell" websites and hosting to others but it's so basic that I would be embarrassed to try to make money from it. ZBBlock can be used anywhere that uses PHP. For phpbb, it looks like you would put the hook in common.php. See page 9 of the pdf here: www.spambotsecurity.com/files/ZB_Block_Manual.pdfWhy wouldn't you want to keep a full backup of the database and all the files? If the site isn't active, you only need to back everything up once. If the student pages are all straight html, can't you just keep a backup of the whole /students/ directory? A lot of hosts offer Wordpress installations through their hosting control panel. Most people who use Wordpress probably don't know the first thing about HTML, PHP, or mySQL, might not know it's possible to change 'admin' to something else, and many might not even see any need to change it. The ZBBlock logs on my Wordpress site showed me that spambots were constantly trying to crack the password for an 'admin' account that didn't even exist. It is also very easy with ZBBlock to permanently throw a 503 at any IP that tries to log in as 'admin'. As for a good host, I've been using ICDSoft since 2003, and have been extremely happy with their reliability and fast, knowledgeable support. icdsoft.com/hosting |
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 25, 2016 23:51:07 GMT -6
Okay. I have these links bookmarked.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 26, 2016 5:12:05 GMT -6
Psst....Leeeesa! Hey.
Crap. Missed her again.
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Post by Spock on Jun 26, 2016 10:05:18 GMT -6
ZBBlock can be used anywhere that uses PHP. For phpbb, it looks like you would put the hook in common.php. See page 9 of the pdf here: www.spambotsecurity.com/files/ZB_Block_Manual.pdfWhy wouldn't you want to keep a full backup of the database and all the files? If the site isn't active, you only need to back everything up once. Security for my forums isn't really a problem. I have a registration process such that none of the members see any spammers. I have backups just in case any hackers do any damage. The problem is the "unnecessary" expense of maintaining a website that is not being used and apparently only has any value to me. I also have a full backup of the entire website, so I could recreate it an time I wish if it went away. The problem with the Student accounts is that almost all the images link back to the website creation software in multiple places. It's a headache I just don't feel like facing. I was going to make copies of each site, compress it, and email it to each student. Then I realized not only how time consuming it would be for each account but most of the student emails are hosted by my website as well! I have no guarantee any of them even still monitor them. I will look at ZB Block for my gamers site ( Wildtangent Fansite ). It also has a fledgling Blog. I will take a look but probably won't switch unless my current host hikes their prices for my next renewal. |
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Post by Spock on Jun 26, 2016 10:11:10 GMT -6
Just checked for file sizes.
PCTalk.info: 11,370,560,203 bytes (11,44 GB on disk) for 31,689 items
Wildtangen Fansite.com: 7,637,748,722 bytes (7.22 GB on disk) for 33,955 items
I have multiple full backups for both sites; both online and offline, on and off site. GB of storage is nothing compared to the TB size of Harddrives. I even have "quick response" backups on a couple of 128 GB zip drives.
Of course, that doesn't count the size of the databases that are stored on the host. I back those up periodically as well. Hopefully often enough.
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Thanks for the idea. ZBBlock looks interesting. I'm currently paying for website wide protection for my newer website. I will keep it in mind for the next time my hosting there comes due.