My Annual Plug and Appreciation for WordPress VIP
Posted on October 13, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
I was traveling on October 8, the official anniversary date, but today works just as well for this:
Hey, I’ve been using WordPress’ VIP service to host Whatever for six years now, and it has been consistently great during all that time: The site never goes down, never buckles under traffic or spikes, and on the very rare occasions when I do have a concern or issue, it’s addressed quickly, efficiently and by people who are awesome and easy to work with. Which is to say WordPress VIP takes the aggravation out of having a site and allows me to focus here on what I do best, which is write.
As I do every year, I unreservedly recommend WordPress VIP for folks hoping to run their sites with minimum possible levels of aggravation. It is the best hosting solution I’ve ever had. Likewise, for those folks who just want a corner of the Web to call their own, I can also recommend the standard WordPress offerings.
And, also once again, thanks to the people at WordPress VIP who have helped Whatever be a rock solid presence on the Web for the last six years. You folks are the best.
I will add that I created my blog on WordPress largely because of your recommendation and I have been very happy. Obviously MUCH smaller traffic, but I have been very happy with the quality. Thanks for the recommendation and thanks WordPress for great service.
And it’s only 5 thousand bucks per month plus 15k per year for support! What a bargain! Only the 1% could afford that….
This service is great for people who have a lot of monetary resources but it’s out of reach for most of us.
devnet:
Which is why I also recommend the standard WordPress service, which one may use for as little as no cost at all.
I went with standard WordPress also on your recommendation. I haven’t actually used it much, but I’m happy with it so far.
I just started my own blog using standard WordPress. It was recc’d to me by an online friend. I really like it and it’s very user friendly. It was also free, which is the most important thing.
I highly recommend the wordpress ninjas at http://www.wpengine.com for bulletproof wordpress hosting if you run a site that is important yet at a smaller traffic scale than Mr. Scalzi and others who need to dedicated VIP hosting. After years of running my own WP sites I moved the important ones to wpengine and never looked back.
Thanks, John! We’ve really enjoyed having you in the VIP family :)
devnet: just to note, that $5k number you’re quoting *includes* support; it is not an extra $15k fee.
I moved my blog here after my previous blog host (no VIP option, but better for ordinary folk) went down in ignominious flames. Not only was the transfer of all content painless, but I was happy to find I could easily subscribe to Whatever.
Because if there were things I needed more of, it was SF and cat photos. /s
WordPress is great for what it is, which is a Content Management System pretending to be blog software.
If you plan on JUST writing a blog, and don’t need the huge breadth of possibilities that WordPress offers, you’re probably better off just using Ghost: https://ghost.org/
On a barely related note, October 8th is also the anniversary of the Night America Burned…
The 8th of October 1871 saw an outbreak of fires on a huge scale in the mid-western United States, probably the best known being the Great Chicago Fire, though hat was one of the smaller outbreaks that night. It still devastated that city, killing over three hundred people, destroying eight square kilometres and about 18,000 buildings and causing damages estimated at half-a-billion dollars.
The night also saw the Port Huron Fire, the Holland Fire, the Manistee Fire and, most devastating of all, the Peshtigo fire. The latter is still the deadliest fire in United States history, having killed around two thousand people (estimates vary from 1,500 to nearly 3,000 people) and burning about 6,500 square kilometres of land around the town of Peshtigo in Wisconsin (about 400km north of Chicago)
The 1871 firestorm was spread by strong prevailing winds, after it gained sufficient energy the blaze developed into a huge wall of fire that moved 150 km/hr and created tornado-like windstorms.
That’s interesting but not even remotely on topic. AND YET I can’t bring myself to out and out delete it. So I’m just gonna give you a stern finger wagging this one time.
(stern finger wag)
Yup. I’m rubbish with tech (updates tend to throw me) but I’m fond of my free WordPress. Thanks for paying for it for me, John.
Felicity Banks (previously known as Louise Curtis)
And just when I’d got used to Kittening the stern finger wag arrives.
SWF, people; it just goes to show what these SJW types are capable of…
It’s a pleasure to be able to assist you with your site from time to time, John. Thanks for flying with us on WordPress.com VIP. :)
I will consider myself chastened.