Disappeared into the ether!

Those of you who are sharp observers, may have noticed that Paul’s Beer Travels website is currently off line, and those paying more attention will be aware that this has been the situation since the 2^nd of this month. If you click on the link now, you will see the colourful message shown opposite, stating that the website is under maintenance and to check back again tomorrow.

So, what has brought this about then?  The answer is a combination of several different factors, one of which was cost, but this on its own was not enough to lead to the current situation, which is one I have thought long and hard about. Basically, after a year and a half of the website going live, I have somewhat reluctantly decided to pull the plug on it. That 18 months doesn’t represent the whole picture though, because I’d already spent the previous 6 months getting the thing off the ground.

I started work on the project at the beginning of the pandemic, and after looking at various options for creating a website, I selected WordPress as the platform for my new site, but rather than go for the more common dot.com form of WordPress, opted for the dot.org version, instead. WordPress.org, is a self-hosted website, where the originator has full control over the layout, appearance, and general theme of the site, as well as being responsible for the creative content – the writing, if you like.

WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a hosted blogging platform, run by a company called Automattic. Here, writers can post their own material – text, photos etc, choose from a number of themes, and then allow the hosting company to set the whole thing up, in a manner that is very similar to that used by Google, with their Blogger software. No costs are incurred by the creator, with either WordPress.com or Blogger, but by the same token the number of themes one can choose from are limited, as are the types and number of ad-ons. 

In July 2020, after deciding to set my own website up, I opted for a company called Bluehost to host it. I also purchased my domain name, https://paulsbeertravels.com, through them. Going with WordPress.org, was quite tough to begin with, as it’s not the most intuitive software out there, and it certainly can’t be described as “user friendly.”

So, why after going to all the effort described above have, I decided to call it quits? Well as stated earlier, cost was a fairly significant factor, and with the renewal bill for hosting the site, being quite a hefty one - especially when the various extras that Bluehost recommended were considered (see opposite), my mind was more or less made up for me.

The other deciding factor was the website, in certain respects, was competing with this blog, and there just wasn’t sufficient spare time to maintain both. So, whilst I hadn’t totally lost interest in the site, I didn’t want it impacting on the blog which, incidentally, has been running for almost 14 years, and as I won’t now be renewing my hosting account, the website will lapse. The site hasn’t been taken down completely – YET, but unless I renew my contract, Bluehost will remove it – as is their right.

Once this happens, the entire site content will be gone forever – vanished into hyper-space, although this isn’t quite the case. You see, with two months’ notice regarding the renewal, I had sufficient time to copy of all the text, onto my One Drive account, and as the photos were all my own, anyway, the originals too are all on my hard drive.

I could therefore resurrect it, should I wish, especially as I have paid the fee to re-register the domain name – Paulsbeertravels.com. I’m not saying I will, but if at some future date, I decide to do so, I will use a more user-friendly site than WordPress. org. The experience has taught me much, and hasn’t been a waste of time, as I intend to use what I have learned to enhance and expand on the blog. In the meantime, thank-you for your interest, encouragement, and continued support.