Thoughts on website and future Friday August 29

The past week has been extremely frustrating and challenging. The website had become dysfunctional and unacceptable. As of now it is better but still riddled with some issues. I have been confused how we had been with Vanilla for 13 years and prepay for the service every year, and suddenly following an upgrade the site morphs into something unusable and giving the sense that it is being built from scratch in real time and in the public eye. On a scale of 1-10, my frustration has been a 9.5.

I did vent my frustrations with Vanilla and received an apology along with an explanation of why we can't revert back to the previous functioning design. It has to do with security reasons and the like. I will probably post more detail about this over the weekend. I also vented my frustrations about how I had warned Vanilla in July that past upgrades were always ragged and having another one so close to football season was making me nervous. They acknowledged this and pledged to keep hammering away until we have everything right.

I wish to say a big thank you to everyone for hanging in there, especially those that in recent weeks have sent in your annual donation to fund the site and keep the pirate ship afloat. I really appreciate you.

It did occur to me briefly on Friday afternoon to just shut down the website and issue refunds to everybody and call it a day. 13 years is a long time and it has been a hell of a fun ride overall. All good things must eventually come to an end. And as the late great Pup would say, "Holy fuckall!"

But several posters reported to me yesterday that the posting experience was improving on the site and there was some hope. So I was on the phone with some people yesterday for a few hours and worked out a battle plan.

So here's where I'm at as of Friday morning Aug 29: I do have a Plan B chambered and in place to take us to another host if necessary. I have received price quotes for the whole process and it is workable and fine. I would break even for the year. Now, in a certain sense, Washington's football season REALLY starts on September 27 with the biggest game of the year vs Ohio State at Husky Stadium. Either way, I want our Vanilla setup to be humming along happily for that week or else I want us on the new setup and ready to go by the time the Buckeyes and coach Ryan Day and his Just for Men hair treatment jog out of the tunnel and onto the Husky Stadium field. Despite my immense frustrations with Vanilla they are working hard to make things right and are pledging to keep going until I give the thumbs up.

So this is the timeline and plan that I have formulated.

If you have any feedback on the site or issues, please feel free to post them here or send me a PM.

Thank you

Derek