Hi all. My website/blog has been running for quite some time now. All through this time it has been hosted by Hostpapa and for most of that time it has been straight forward. I signed on for an unlimited storage and bandwidth site that was aimed at a personal website. About a year and a half ago Hostpapa contacted me and started to harass me in regards to the site.
Too much CPU usage. These statistics are way too high. My site was impacting other users. On and on and on. Phone calls at odd hours of the day and downright rude emails from them. They kept providing statistics that were in no way verifiable by anyone apart from themselves. And what were they saying. Let us help you by putting you on another plan that will save you money! Halfway through my plan cycle they wanted me to go on a new plan that cost more than the plan I was on to save me money…
I tell you what, I barely got through that period without quitting the blog. A friend of mine kept me going and so I weathered the storm – did absolutely nothing to the site but they told me that the things I did reduced the traffic and they would take no further action. To me, because I did nothing, that shows the stats were fabricated. My viewers went up in that period and there was more content but their statistics showed a dramatic reduction.
So fast forward to today. The same crap has started again. Strange phone calls at all times of the day. Emails telling me how my stats are way too high. This time they are trying to tell me that I only have 500 MB storage for email and I am breaching that (despite having unlimited storage on my plan). And of course they want me to sign on to a plan about 50% more expensive than the one I am on to “save me money”.
This time I am just not going to get through it. This harassment has got to stop and I am going to stop it. I have set the site to not renew and I will no longer be putting up posts here. In all honesty, my heart has not been in the blog since Google Plus closed. I loved being inspired to post from the people I spoke to there. Now, I post and the posts sit in a vacuum. No-one reads them any more and the only activity I see on site these days is for the free 5E adventures I wrote.
So, thanks to those of you that do still read the blog. I am sorry that it will no longer be about but I am just sick of the harassment on a hobby blog that gets 100-150 visits a day. So long and keep rolling.
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I’m genuinely sorry to hear that Mark. I understand what you say about the impact of G+ closing, as my sole social media interaction is reading blogs. I enjoyed reading your g+ contributions, with the Tom Baker logo.
I hope you continue to find positive outlets for your writing.
Kindly,
Glenn Robinson
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Thanks for all your posts Mark.
– Loved your posts with pirate ship props (and the campaign).
– Bought the paper dice tower because I saw it at your site
– Played Conan at the same time like you did and was curios about your opinion
Thanks for all the time and missing G+ for role playing inspiration, too.
Have a nice gamer live!
Steffen
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Sad news, Mark. Sorry to hear about your experience. Things are certainly different now that G+ has folded. I’m sure that there are busy hives of activity re gaming in various spots about the net, but I’ve been happy enough to let it slide by and concentrate on other things.
All the best, I’m sure our paths will cross again in some form.
Craig Vial
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Gutted to hear this, but understand the impact of the G+ closure. Especially with such an awful webhost, can understand how you’re feeling. Will miss you – hope to cross paths again regardless
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