Disruption due to website transfer by Sep 30
We have to move to a new webhost by Sep 30. Renewal with our current one would have more than tripled the cost of the 4-year promo deal we had so we have secured a similar contract with another provider. We've already started working on the transfer. We hope it will go smoothly but there may be bumps along the way and that could result in some disruption in the availability of the website or some of its functions.
Who's we in this? I'm delighted to tell you that Kevin McLarnon is now on board as full co-Administrator - he is the one who took on updating the RM Data Dictionary page and spreadsheets that have proven so valuable to so many over the years (including to a bunch of AI services that have learned from them and are now helping us RM Wizards dive even deeper). He is already on the new host exploring its features and limitations while I've been tinkering on the current host and making a couple of changes to the website before the final transfer.
Two major changes in the last couple of days is the delivery of notification emails and this Announcements 'forum'. Until now, notifications were being sent via an email account with the webhost because the contract included them at no extra cost. Our new host charges $20/yr per email account so I am trying to use a free Gmail account instead. Moreover, the host's email was limited to 100 messages or recipients per 24 hours which was too low to encourage users to subscribe to forums for notifications. Gmail has higher limits; if not good enough, there are other low cost alternatives.
This announcement is supposed to be sent to all users if everything works as it should. If it does, then you will be encouraged to click on the Subscribe links available at the bottom of each forum page for notification of that forum's new topics and, likewise, on any topic page for notices of replies/comments to it.
Wish us luck for smooth sailing over the next four years. What will RM have become by then?!
Tom