An appeal for the website and an apology
Hi all and thanks for clicking.
The reason for this post is utter exasperation with my current hosting company after dismal service for many, many months now and extremely low revenue from ads partly as a result which has seen revenue to keep the site going drop hugely.
If you can support the site info below:
There’s Paypal here
Another option is via Patreon here
Finally there’s the Ko-fi option
Ever worse
Despite being with the same website hosting company for around eight years now the service gets ever worse and costs ever higher with an massive drop seen about 8 months ago when they changed their systems. Recently they seem to be capping the site at low views despite me moving from a basic package around 2018 up two levels at substantial cost to what they call the “professional” top level service. It isn’t. A very expensive package which handles far less views now than cheaper packages did back then.
If you’ve noticed the site unavailable recently this is why. It keeps falling over. Months of phone calls (with very long waits), hundreds of emails and numerous changes my end have seen no improvement. The icing on the cake is them asking for £1,000+ for it to work.
Don’t use names.co.uk.
In an attempt to get it working I’ve removed numerous functions such as the email list. Also tools measuring site views and notification of comments. From automated processes in the past everything has become manual and time consuming due to a hosting company that takes ever more money and provides less than it ever did on cheaper packages.
This post is being put up as I’m utterly sick of it and an apology to those who have and do support the site site. It’s crap for you and crap for me when it’s falling over every hour.
Everything the hosting company suggest I do I’ve done. Plug-ins removed. Code altered. Email list removed. Cron-jobs limited. Nothing ever works. It’s leaner than its ever been yethe hosting company appear to be trying to extract ever more money for a half-usable service.
In the past people have offered to help with the technical and I’ve said no. Mainly due to lack of time but really, given how much I’ve wasted trying to fix issues to no avail I’m happy for anyone who can help.
Email me at fromthemurkydepths@gmail.com or admin@fromthemurkydepths.co.uk and I’ll be happy to hear.
I’m leaving this useless hosting company which means hundreds more for someone else. I’m all ears with a company that isn’t terrible. It’d be hundreds down the drain as well given what I’ve already paid the current hosts for a 2-year package around 18 months ago but at least it’s not that far from the end.
Given how much revenue has dropped and my rent being sky high if you support then please do. Info on how to is below. Many thanks.
Wix. For a few years my business used a website hosted by a firm in City Road – lots of emails on every point, days for replies and little beyond a few pages of basic WordPress. When the pandemic hit, we asked them if they could build a sales page, so if we couldn’t receive customers we could at least sell our stock. Two weeks for a single page.
Wix, by contrast, allowed me to get a new basic site up and running within around a week, just from the site builder. The harder part, transfer of hostnames and updating the DNS records, Wix support talked me through it in real-time over the phone. As tech support goes, it’s up there with some of the better L2 enterprise support.
The morons hosting my site didn’t even realize I’d moved until trying to sell me an upgrade to their new online store a few months later.
You may need to archive your old posts and start fresh, before considering putting all the old posts back, or you may be stuck on the details. My recommendation would be to start a parallel site, build it up over a week and run it. With online booking and a twenty page site (complete with archive posts) I pay a little over £220 a year. This includes being hand-held through SEO optimization. The usual metrics can be accessed by them or through Google if you have a business page with them.
Lastly, they’re forever offering discounts on GSuite, so make enquires as time permits. The email setup is actually harder than the DNS change, but again, excellent phone support is roughly ten minutes away.
I actually quite like your website and I’ve been reading your articles that interests me a lot. Including tube, DLR, trains and buses in and around London. I hope that you do continue on posting more information as well insight to London’s transport and the local areas around London.
I’ve noticed a gradual decline in the site and several occasions where connections failed completely.
I have made the occasional donation. I would like to do more, but I do not work and my income is fixed. I hope there is a solution because I do enjoy your shining a light into the murky corners of government (local and national) as well as on the grease that oils of the wheels of the grift.
Hi I’ve noticed especially during the day that all that seems to render is the background graphics template and that’s it.
I use IONOS, trustpilot rates them at 4.7 which is pretty good.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ionos.co.uk
I am making the assumption you are not a techy, (apologies if you are) but they do WordPress hosting.
https://www.ionos.co.uk/hosting/wordpress-hosting
I don’t know what volume of data you deal with but the price seems reasonable to me.
The other option is leaving a comment about your plight on IanVisits website for advice, as I would be surprised if he wasn’t aware of your online presence and he uses a template based website, though I believe he has a techy background.
Good Luck, and hopefully speedy resolution.
Take care
Graeme
I do like your website and I hope to see you post more of what you get your information from. I’ve been reading lots of articles and commented on some articles and I hope to see you post more.
Mythic Beasts do wordpress hosting and won’t mess you around