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My website for my artwork is temporarily down
5 years ago
My personal website, www.hoagiebot.com , which showcased all of my furry pin-up girl and cartoon animal artwork, sadly went down a few days ago. The reason for this is because my web hosting provider, Furry Networks, has just ceased operations. This has left me scrambling to find a new web host so that I can bring my website back online.
This is a shame, since my website has been online continuously since 2001, which makes it one of the older surviving websites of the furry fandom. First coming online in March of 2001, it was originally hosted by the notorious free web host, Angelfire. By the Fall of 2002 I had moved my website to a dedicated furry-run web hosting provider, Furtopia.org. While Furtopia.org now only exists as an online forum, back in 2002 it was also a vibrant web hosting service and had probably 100 or more furry artists' websites on it, which Furtopia generously hosted for free. It was great having my website hosted by fellow members of the fandom, and Furtopia felt like a real community. I still fondly remember the Furtopia member in-person meetups that we used to have at the Midwest Furfest convention years ago before that convention got too mindbogglingly huge to plan such meets. Furtopia graciously hosted my website until 2011 when they sadly decided to shut the web hosting part of their operations down. Looking for another furry web hosting provider, I was lucky enough to find Furry Networks, which was run by a great furry and brony named TigerPaw. He was kind enough to also be willing to host my website for free, and my website was hosted there from October of 2011 until this week.
Since I have had such wonderful experiences with furry-run web hosting services in the past, I wanted to keep my streak of good fortune going and find another furry web host to use. However, I have very quickly discovered that the furry web hosting landscape is nothing like how it was back in 2002 or even in 2011. Nearly every furry web host of old, with their wonderful quirkiness and feelings of camaraderie, are gone, lost to the digital sands of time. There are some newer furry web hosting services around, with some even responsible for hosting the websites of current furry conventions, but many of them aren't free and they certainly aren't host to large and vibrant furry web communities like Furtopia used to be. In fact, some of them are all-business-oriented and cost even more than the basic plans of the big web hosting providers! Even so, I found 5 furry-run web hosts that I have sent out inquiries to, and I am hoping that I'll hear back from some of them (and that one of them will become my website's new home). In any case, I am hoping to have my website back online by the end of this weekend, even if it means that I have to sign-up with a large non-furry-run hosting service to do it..
But until then, if anyone has any suggestions or endorsements for a cheap (or free!) reliable web hosting provider that they like I am all ears!
This is a shame, since my website has been online continuously since 2001, which makes it one of the older surviving websites of the furry fandom. First coming online in March of 2001, it was originally hosted by the notorious free web host, Angelfire. By the Fall of 2002 I had moved my website to a dedicated furry-run web hosting provider, Furtopia.org. While Furtopia.org now only exists as an online forum, back in 2002 it was also a vibrant web hosting service and had probably 100 or more furry artists' websites on it, which Furtopia generously hosted for free. It was great having my website hosted by fellow members of the fandom, and Furtopia felt like a real community. I still fondly remember the Furtopia member in-person meetups that we used to have at the Midwest Furfest convention years ago before that convention got too mindbogglingly huge to plan such meets. Furtopia graciously hosted my website until 2011 when they sadly decided to shut the web hosting part of their operations down. Looking for another furry web hosting provider, I was lucky enough to find Furry Networks, which was run by a great furry and brony named TigerPaw. He was kind enough to also be willing to host my website for free, and my website was hosted there from October of 2011 until this week.
Since I have had such wonderful experiences with furry-run web hosting services in the past, I wanted to keep my streak of good fortune going and find another furry web host to use. However, I have very quickly discovered that the furry web hosting landscape is nothing like how it was back in 2002 or even in 2011. Nearly every furry web host of old, with their wonderful quirkiness and feelings of camaraderie, are gone, lost to the digital sands of time. There are some newer furry web hosting services around, with some even responsible for hosting the websites of current furry conventions, but many of them aren't free and they certainly aren't host to large and vibrant furry web communities like Furtopia used to be. In fact, some of them are all-business-oriented and cost even more than the basic plans of the big web hosting providers! Even so, I found 5 furry-run web hosts that I have sent out inquiries to, and I am hoping that I'll hear back from some of them (and that one of them will become my website's new home). In any case, I am hoping to have my website back online by the end of this weekend, even if it means that I have to sign-up with a large non-furry-run hosting service to do it..
But until then, if anyone has any suggestions or endorsements for a cheap (or free!) reliable web hosting provider that they like I am all ears!
