Baby Has Gotten Too Big
Welcome to another YvoCaro Plays!
It’s almost ten years since the first blog was written on LadiesGamers.com. Ten Years…it’s hard to imagine. On April 25 2014, the first of the now almost 4,200 articles saw the light of day. And though we should really clear the cupboards and wipe the dust from the corners, we just can’t. What can I say? The site feels like our Baby, who needs to be fed and loved. So, all the articles are still in the archives for you to find.
A side effect, and an important one, was that LadiesGamers had gotten too big for its server home. At first, I decided that there was no help for it. The older articles would be stored and taken from the site. I bravely set out to make copies on my laptop until I realized this wouldn’t do much good. The first years weren’t very big in server space. The more recent years, when our audience really grew, took up the most space, and we didn’t want to lose those.
Tinkering Under The Hood
I had to devise another plan, and the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that we needed another path for the future. In 2015, we moved over from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org, allowing for more freedom in how the site looks and performs. This also meant the site was self-hosted, so all the technical stuff had to be done by ourselves.
I always call it the tinkering under the hood of what felt more and more like a very intricate machine. It hummed just fine, but I was scared of the moment that some problem would pop up. Would we be able to solve it with our limited knowledge? Or would it ultimately lead to the site’s doom?
This, combined with the necessity to go for a bigger hosting plan, led to another decision: to have maintenance for LadiesGamers done by a third party, too. I searched for a company that could do the job, provide us with server space and maintain the site as well. And I found a company in my hometown. A company that I could actually go to and talk face-to-face with about the site.
Moving Day for LadiesGamers
Last week, it was moving day once more. Like on December 2nd 2015 when we made our first move, now it was November 9th 2023, when LadiesGamers went to its new home. And unlike last time, when I did it all myself, I now had to do nothing. Well, that is not entirely true, as I needed to be at hand to press buttons, give access and such. But other than that, I had nothing to do but watch Baby anxiously, hoping it would all go well.
And it did! Late that night, the site was humming in its new home. There were a few hiccups, but I had expected that. I know WordPress can be a difficult beast to tame. And with both Paula and I watching like anxious parents to see if nothing was going wrong, we would spot everything that was amiss. We noticed the little things, like icons having disappeared, the invisible comments on posts, and the fact that automated scheduling didn’t work. Things Olaf and Rik at VGI Websites & Zo worked on to fix.
And even when things escaped our attention, our faithful readers pointed things out. Our automated email service was not working. Thanks again, Joan! By now, a week later, almost everything is back to how it should be.
Baby is happy once more, and when Baby is happy, so are we!
By the way, if you like these bits of gaming thoughts in the series YvoCaro Plays, you can find the previous ones here.