Feb 09 2010
NeuroLogica Is Back
Many readers noticed that we were down for a few days. What happened was that I was given a very kind mention in an article in the LA Times (along with some of my fellow skeptical bloggers). This had the very nice effect of sending a pulse of traffic to my blog.
However, this traffic exceeded the limits of my host, HostPapa, for simultaneous users. HostPapa responded by (without warning) permanently suspending my account, and putting up a friendly notice for all to see, making it seem like I haven’t been paying my bills. Now that’s customer service.
I noticed right away and contacted HostPapa, but this was over the weekend and they were less than responsive. Eventually they simply refused to turn my account back on, even temporarily, and simply said that I was permanently banished. That was their way of punishing me for increasing my blog traffic. It certainly seems as if they did their best to turn what is ordinarily a boon to a blog into a disaster – thanks HostPapa.
Needless to say I immediately moved to another host, but it took a day to get that up an running. Thanks to Mike Lacelle, my webmaster, for getting the site back up on the new host so quickly.
In the end this is all a symptom of a good problem – we are outgrowing individual-level hosting. Right now the New England Skeptical Society (NESS) produces two podcasts (the SGU and the SGU 5×5 – which require their own media hosting) and three blogs (NeuroLogica, Science-Based Medicine, and Rogues Gallery). We also maintain four separate websites (the SGU, the NESS, SBM and the SGU forums). We collaborate on other projects as well – SkepticBlog and the NorthEast Conference on Science and Skepticism.
The internet, new media, and social media outlets have transformed the skeptical movement – vastly increasing our outreach and impact. Again – this is all a good problem to have. We have scaled up our hosting and bandwidth accordingly, and in retrospect we should have been more proactive with this one. But now we have better service and some room to breath.
However, I also have the sense that we are at the brink of taking our web presence to the next level. Perhaps this incident will lead to some creative solutions.
I any case – sorry for being dark for three days, and thanks for checking back.
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20 Responses to “NeuroLogica Is Back”
Steve,
Have you taken a look at squarespace? Their blog hosting is supposed to be second to none – especially for bandwidth (and for times when you get mentioned in things like newspapers).
Well, congratulations on your blog moving to a bigger host!!
And all is right with the world again.
That’s a great plug in the LA Times. I have to say Neurologica is the only one on that list that I feel compelled to read regularly (although I have never checked out Wiseman’s. I will now!)
Thanks, and we’re happy to have you back.
http://squarespace.com might be up to the task. Their system is designed to deal with massive traffic storms, seehttp://www.squarespace.com/the-platform/.
There are a lot of scummy web hosting providers. Thanks for publicly shaming one of them.
We use Squarespace for the NECSScon site, so we have experience with it.
I am reluctant to move away from Wordpress for my primary blog. I am also concerned that the software is tied to the host – once you are on squarespace, your content is tied to squarespace.
I any case – I have massive bandwidth now, that should not be an issue.
But we are exploring all options.
I’ve seen hosting providers slated for doing the exact opposite: continuing to serve traffic and charging the client for doing so.
I’m not saying that their action was really justified (god knows why they went off the deep end), but customers leave for the exact opposite reasons, so web hosts really are in between a rock and a hard place on this issue, and I for one would have been glad not to be charged for extra traffic.
I understand the flip side is being slammed with huge over-usage charges. I have seen that happen also. Both are abusive.
Shutting down a website, however, is horrific. How about an e-mail warning – giving options to pay for more bandwidth, and if no higher level of service is available, a few day’s warning to move to a new host.
Well, I know I’m not the only skeptic in the group, surely I can’t be the only cynic. I thought someone (or plural) had hacked/hijacked the site and caused the shut down. I did chuckle though at the error message, because my initial thought was “hmmm, a neurologist who can’t pay his bills….” Glad it was just a glitch and a positive one at that.
Glad to see that your site is back up and a large uptick in traffic is a good problem for any website.
Good to see you back Steve. Boo to Hostpapa, especially for making it look like you had gone bust!
Let’s be honest.
A little mention in the LA Times does not knock-out a blog on a major Wordpress blog site like this. Does anybody believe this horseshit? This is embarrassing nonsense. You hid from the onslaught of true skeptics on the anthropological global warming issue after you foolishly bowed to political correctness a couple of weeks ago — at the expense of logic and fact and science.
I, and other hard logic skeptics who demand non-politically correct, fact-based arguments, hope to see a refocusing of Neurologica on what its done best. It has been, until very recently, a very solid and inspiring blog on science based medicine — before its derailing into the religion of Climatology.
Please, Stephen, let’s keep it back on track.
The incredible derailment of Climatology over the past couple of weeks, that was inevitable (and reported on thoroughly everywhere, all over the English speaking world — mainstream UK, Canada, Australia media — EXCEPT for American mainstream media), should not have stained a truly logic and skeptical-based blog and podcast. But it did.
It was all very embarrassing for you and the “skeptics” guide to the universe to crash and burn like that. It doesn’t have to happen again if you stick to logical arguments and facts. Muzzle the outed Climatologist fanatic Rebecca. Insist on scientific models and practices. PLEASE.
Good luck on your recovery.
Wow! Trevor, what kind of “skeptic” are you? Asking to “muzzle” the person whose opinions you don’t like, that’s going to convince us of the strength and rightness of your position… Yeah, sure!
More seriously, Steve, I’m glad the blog is back. Too bad about the host’s reaction. Maybe, with the widening audience of SGU and its associate websites, it may be worth looking into WordPress VIP package? They are said to be very effective at handling huge traffic and big databases, and it may be no more expansive than buying bandwith from a regular webhost.
Pretty good troll, Trevor. 8/10.
However, you should have left out the bandwidth issue. That was showing your hand a bit too much.
HostPapa has taken the initiative to “go green” by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data centers, offices and more!
More windmills to power they’re bandwidth servers maybe?
No surprise Mr Novella used Host papa. As a member of the church of man-made global warming he is following the green scriptures faithfully and is true to his faith. As with all religions the religious text does not ever hold up to be true “Unlimited Bandwidth”.
Looks like hostpapa is crumbling along with the catastrophic man-made made global warming hysteria theory.
Anywho, good to see your site is back up Steven now go get em.
True. I was mentioned also in that article and I was surprised at how little traffic that link brought in.
“derailing into the religion of climatology?”.
The most recent article I’ve seen on here regarding this subject was one talking about the complexity of climate change science, and that Steve hadn’t heard any compelling evidence to go against the scientific consensus. Seems pretty logical to me.
And in my opinion, the ’skeptics guide’ dealt with the leaked email ’scandal’ in a logical way too. The ‘outing’ of this information in the emails didn’t rubbish the existing science, and it wasn’t the ’smoking gun’ against AGW. Quite rightly, the sensationalist news reporting and claims made by the denialists was put into proper perspective when discussed logically by the rogues.
“Insist on scientific models and practices”
You’re asking them to insist on scientific models and practices, yet you’re lambasting them for being skeptical about sensationalist news reporting and denialist claims that do nothing to rubbish scientific models and practices?!
Wordpress VIP service looks interesting, but we are not quite big enough for that yet. They charge $500 per month per blog – yikes. You can get a lot of hosting for that kind of money.
They also recommend their service for those getting 1 million page impressions per month or more. I am at about 200k.
[...] commentaires You got to hand it to Steve Novella (Neurologica, SGU, etc.): after a few rounds of harsh criticism from left and right in the skeptics’ camp about his calm, reasoned stance on AGW, [...]
Here’s a copy of the comment I just left in the article on the LATimes:
“Though not a member of any skeptical group, I certainly do admire and appreciate their work. I also appreciate what looks like a good effort on the part of the LA Times to support exercising a skeptical view of things.
Aside from the example here, there’s the one you did correcting a previous article. That previous article featured Mary Shomon as being a thyroid patient, customer of home thyroid testing kits and supporter of that kind of purchase. But nowhere in the original article did it state that the reason she was saying she supported purchasing such kits is because she herself profits from the sale of them. It was good of you to later reveal that fact. Hope it helped a lot of thyroid patients, and maybe others, to start to think about what a covert sales-pitch looks like (In this case the sales-pitch was: ‘See, I’m just one of you’).
Also, if I may, I have a suggested topic for any of the skeptics: What about the alternative medicine doctors who went down to Haiti and practiced medicine on those poor unsuspecting folks? I’m specifically talking about Mark Hyman, M.D. He is a doctor that, though too unqualified to be given privileges at any hospital in the U.S., went down to Haiti and positioned himself to be referred to inside a hospital there as the chief doctor. Then there’s his wife, Pier Boutin, M.D. Though her medical credentials as a U.S. surgeon are vague at best, she went down to Haiti and performed surgeries in a hospital there. I don’t know about the skeptics, but I think those acts should be looked into and classified as international crimes.
Medical deceit harms everyone.”