Blog Crashed: A Mandatory Move

估计是000webhost知道我最近生活单调,没有什么东西可写,故而找点事情给我做做。自从11月16日早上我发现没有收到例行的WordPress DB Backup的邮件,我就知道要坏事儿。直到我准备使用Live Writer来更新博客时候,才发现悲剧已经降临了。Live Writer提示找不到博客,然后我尝试登录000webhost后台,结果看到:

  1. 000webhost的霸王行为

    早就听坊间传言说000webhost喜欢无端关闭中国人的站点,身为中国人,我非常悲哀,不过,中国网民的热情实在是太“给力”了。事实上,好像我的站点可以存活1年4个月,应该已经属于“万寿无疆”了。真不知道是该庆幸还是悲哀呢?既然他说要我去看看服务条款,Okay,那我就去看看,反正我英文也不差。

    注意我用红圈画出来的那句话,看后感觉如何?学英文的朋友一定要记住这句超级给力的话,英文耍无赖估计大伙儿都没学过吧?尤其要记住这个短语:for any reason or no reason at all.

    其实要我理解,这个服务条款更像是在推销自己的付费服务。如果一定要给一个理由,我想估计是我最近中文写的多了点吧。或者就如它所言,姐我就看你不爽,no reason at all!

  2. 一点不深不浅的教训

    要说到体味到这种做站的不顺和杯具,我的挚友Bill可谓是“深知其中各滋味”了。因为多次遭遇连续不断的杯具,他曾作出了关站的决定。好在此后不久他便东山再起了。事实上,如果这次不是Bill哥们仗义,出手相救,那么这会儿读者们也不会看到别的东西,而只是我挂在某地方的一纸静态HTML的关站声明了。

    如果说教训,那这次是不深不浅的。事实上,我没有Bill那种计算机专家的严谨作风。我经常不懂得去全站备份,于是乎,我丢掉了站点建立以来所有的没有外链的图片。好在有Bill的建议,我利用WP-DB-Backup做了数据库定期自动备份,要不,我这一年半的功夫可真就算白费了。至于那些原始图片,我将视其严重性和重要性而加以选择性恢复。毕竟回复所有的图片需要大量的时间和精力。如果说深刻,那就是我的站点丢失了不少图片,找回他们费时费力;如果说不深刻,那是因为毕竟这不是商业站点~

    但是事实上,我也不是完全不懂得备份的。比如我会使用MozyHome服务来备份我的硬盘,同时用Live Mesh来双重备份我的工作。但是我怎么就忘了我自己的站点呢?

  3. 感受Hostmonster:完全不同的体验

    由于Bill目前使用的是Hostmonster服务,我也就有机会来感受下这个号称业界最好的虚拟主机服务。如果说在此之前我还不为Bill的劝说所动的话,那么昨天Hostmonster服务器的高效和稳定给我的恢复提供了莫大的帮助。事实上,如果不是它的一流稳定性,按照000webhost的效率,我的恢复工作大概需要很久。因为我手头只有核心数据库的备份,所有的插件和主题都需要重新安装。

    下图是Hostmonster的主页面。与大多数虚拟主机提供商不同的是,Hostmonster只提供一种服务,而且很少有优惠。价格似乎是永远不变的5.95美元/月。

    如果说页面的内容给你一种高傲的感觉的话,那么我要说,当你真的使用他们的服务时,你会有一种畅快淋漓的感受。我不再会看到数据库连接错误,我不再会看到Wordpress的自动更新错误而导致我一次次的使用FTP上传,更不会因为突然的传输错误而导致我的博客崩溃,更不会需要我去手工更新.htaccess。所有的主题和插件下载都在瞬间完成。如果说要我支付5.95美元的月使用费,我也是会毫不犹豫的。毕竟它的稳定对得起对得起这个价格。当然,现在说这个话还太早,Bill显然比我有发言权的多,呵呵。

  4. 最后的感谢

    如果说要感谢,那么首先我就要感谢Bill,尽管我从未当面说过(话说:君子之交淡如水嘛)。他手把手的教会了我如何建立自己的博客,一次次地利用他娴熟的技巧为我的博客排忧解难,更是在这次我的博客遭到灭顶之灾的时候慷慨相助,提供给我服务器空间。如果大家需要一些计算机方面的阅读,那就请光临他的博客——风云阁。博客如其人,我想你在那里会收获良多。

    同时我也感谢广大阅读我博客的朋友们,是你们一直以来的默默支持和鼓励给予了我写作和维护的动力。

Personal Website in China: How Far Can It Go?

China, quite an unique country that owes dual standards on the information regulations. That is, the restriction on the public discussion on some political affairs and issues tend to be mitigated when there are some large international conference holding, like the passing-by Olympics. But for other days, all these restrictions remain. The access to various websites, including blogspot.com, wordpress.com, and facebook are totally abandoned. However, the restriction can be far more than this if you are holding a website for yourself, and unfortunately, you are using a domain hosted by Chinese companies and they are settled on a server in China (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are excluded). The government can offer you strict supervising especially when you are writing political articles.

Bill, a good friend of mine, who is also a fan on programming and internet, stopped his website recently due to the delete of his account by his ISP, 000space. Unlike the previous accidents that he suffer, his confidence and courage on working for his cheerful site eliminates. A notice about this has been put under his domain. I am quite depressed to see this happen, with the reason that, the blogs that we build-up, as the only free space for our minds and thoughts, has gone totally. I really cannot tell why he can suffer this, illegal contents? That cannot be a good answer, since he is a man that never overlook the protection on copyrights. The only explanation can be available is the attitude from the ISPs overseas to the customers in China.

As is discussed above that when constructing a website in China, more broadly, constructed by Chinese citizens, the web site needs to apply for a license from the government as well. For blogs, there can be some additional measures besides the basic one for all the websites in China. The absence of such a license for the website in China can be serious:

  • The space host for your website can stop the service of your site unless you successfully applied the license for it. It is a sufficient way to enforce the webmasters to apply such license. Still remember the crash in 2005 when plenty of website were closed in quite the same period?
  • If your domain is hosted by an agent in China, they can stop your service as well due to the similar reasons. What’s more, your domain can even be forbidden and your whois record be deleted when the regulator regard it as necessary. Several examples like this are available through the internet.

Based on these reasons, most webmasters take the following steps to avoid the supervises from the government since it can seldom bring managers benefit but only trouble.

  • Take the international domains, but not the Chinese ones with ‘.cn’ at the end. With suitable coupons, the annual fee for a .com domain can be as cheap as 3 to 4 dollars, or even cheaper. And you will never have to worry about the stopping of the service unless you are willing to.
  • Host the websites overseas. For most webmasters who are not willing to apply for a national license, this is quite a substantive way. Some wealthy managers can purchase paid spaces for their sites, but for the others like me, we can only afford the free space. Then the problem on the stability of the website comes. Some websites can be deleted only depending on the mood of the ISP and you can hardly get any compensation from them. There is quite a large opportunity that you must hold, especially for the users of free space.

It is really a hard job for the webmasters in China to maintain their own sites. It is a kind of job that can hardly bring in any commercial benefit especially at the very beginning. The only factor that promoted the development of such sites in China is merely on the persona interest. I really don’t know how far the website for the Chinese web managers can go? More practically, how long can my blog maintain? It is a difficult question to answer.

As a final, wish all the web managers good fortune and enjoy the pleasure during the challenges to the difficulties.

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