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hobotrain.net

☷: 15 JAN 10 12:13:20//switch yards

2010-01-15 12:50:05 by admin in admin, global_status, the hobotrain network (no comments) permalink

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global_status:

clarification follows system_status…

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system_status:

All hobotrain network sites and databases were successfully migrated to new servers between 30 December 2009 and 12 January 2010. The bulk of this migration was completed ahead of schedule with few surprises. All nameserver changes will be finalized this week. Nameservers for hobotrain.net/network (incl. spur.hobotrain.net) have been changed and their propagation is complete with the unexpected result that although links to spur.hobotrain.net readily appeared in Google search results, those results at present point to my access domain rather than to the site directory. Testing (see change_logs://) continues on other hobotrain network sites.

Moving the hobotrain installation was and is an involved process with a moderate learning curve that needs to be completed quickly. It is the fruit of a sudden decision, necessitated by the realization that much of the hobotrain network project’s content is in violation of the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) I’d agreed to when I opened my Web hosting account in early 2007.

I came to read that agreement again three weeks or so ago, on Christmas Eve, when I was up late waiting for Santa and browsing my Web host’s user-to-user support forums to see if I could help anyone with their web-mastering skills, and I came upon a topic (since deleted) in which a fellow customer (straightforwardly) asked whether it would be considered acceptable use to publish a piece in a photo portfolio that contained a partially nude figure that wasn’t intended to be pornographic and which displayed no genitalia.

The question received two responses, both expressing skepticism about our host’s willingness to serve any questionable content no matter the context, both leaving unsaid that simply by virtue of [his] going before [his] peers of [his] own volition to ask this question, this content-creator’s conscience was piqued enough for [him] to realize on his own that the image [he] proposed to publish must already be “questionable” and therefore prohibited. The second response, quite reasonably, I think, also suggested that the OP re-read the Terms of Service in order to help [him] make up [his] own mind about [his] question. It was reasonable enough, in fact, that I clicked on the link it contained to the Terms of Service, myself.

I read it beginning to end. It is a long document, longer than most in the hosting industry, and honestly, it left me pretty flat until … I came to this:

9. PROHIBITED USES

01. Breach of Terms and Account Termination. The uses of [My Web Host’s] Services set forth in this section 9 hereinbelow are prohibited. The engaging in any prohibited use as set forth herein by Subscriber or by any affiliate or subscriber of Subscriber (as determined in the sole discretion of [My Web Host]) constitutes a material breach of these Terms and will subject Subscriber’s account to immediate termination without notice.

…

04. Profanity. Profanity or profane subject matter in the site content and in the domain name are prohibited.

So that was it. It was like I suddenly realized what was going to happen when my fiancée found out that I’d been cheating on her. Brazenly. I realized that my relationship with my web host, in other words, and love them as I might, was fucked. It was over. Like that <snap/>.

Profanity’s always been a problem for me in the eyes of some people I’ve known, but I can’t help it. My whole family curse like sailors, and both my speaking and my writing are laced with it. And for the sake of a good web host, I guess I could probably scrub my language and my conscience clean and suffer none of my mania or my meaning being lost, but the more difficult problem for me, with respect to my web host’s Terms of Service, is that “profanity” is differentiated from “profane.” The profane relates or devotes itself to that which is not sacred and not biblical; to that which is secular rather than religious.1 Profanity dirties the figurative sheets, my web host and I both know, and sheets can be cleaned, but what is profane dirties the brand—an unforgivable affront that that must be dealt with quickly and mercilessly. I could dig it. And so, Christmas morning, I was on the run.

By dawn, I’d logged in to my hosting account to download a complete backup of my system, all of my site files, all of my databases and all of my email and email forwarders in anticipation of my account’s imminent lockdown.

Over the previous few weeks I’d begun to tell a few people that the hobotrain network project would be online at the first of the new year. That was too bad. For me, announcing an opening has almost always proved to be a stupid thing to do. In my experience, quiet openings, all word of mouth, is a much better approach. (But, when will I internalize this?) In any event, where I thought I would be spending the holidays working mainly on content, polishing things, moving furniture and generally just honeymooning it up around here, I ended up out on my ass a little bit panicked. Was I angry at myself for picking the wrong Web host and putting myself in this position in the first place? Not really. I was going to move on at some point, anyway. At least I didn’t pick another well known, reputable and cheap shared hosting plan with the Terms of Service that says:

In addition, our servers and services may not be used for the propagation, distribution, housing, processing, storing or otherwise handling in any way lewd, obscene, or satanic materials.

Not only that, I wasn’t especially happy with my sites’ directory structures, you know, how they were set up. I wanted to move all of my sites but net/network into the root. To do that

etc., etc.

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clarification follows…

clarification: about:spur.hobotrain.net…

It’s no secret that net/network is on the brink of collapse. I’ve done everything possible to deflect the blame for this onto evolving Web standards and the ongoing browser wars, but the truth is that at some point it’s going to go down and I need to have an alternate site in place, although that’s only half of the problem with that website.

Face it, net/network is pretty much impossible to navigate, not because of Web standards and jacked up code, but because most visitors are either incapable of or uninterested in navigating the site; hence, spur.hobotrain.net. I don’t honestly think that by my creating this GUI mirror that more people will read more content, but at least an opportunity to be able to do that is there.

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global_status continues…

additional notes:

  • 1 New Oxford American Dictionary (Mac OS)

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