Worth the effort...

[rinnia]

I can't log into my Easy Banner admin panel, so I can't update my banner exchange, and I can't find the database the information's in, so I can't back it up and just reinstall the thing. It's making me cry.

Also, I discovered that if you switch to PHP 5 on Dreamhost now, YOU CAN'T SWITCH BACK. They're phasing out PHP 4. So. I'm not even sure for how much longer my fanlistings will work. This raises a few questions - should I switch to Enth? I kind of hate a lot of things about it, and it would be a huge hassle to switch over all my FLs. I don't know if I care enough to do it. And that's the other issue - is it even worth it to keep running them? I haven't had a lot of time for my FLs lately, and frankly, they're stressing me out more than they are making me happy lately. Jaime says I'll regret it if I close them all, but I'm not sure. I have this niggling little urge to delete everything but this livejournal and just disappear from the internet for a while. It's not like I ever built up a lot of friends or admirers or anything, so I doubt most people would notice if my sites went kaput. It's something to consider, at least.

I'm actually rather depressed to think about this. These things used to make me so goddamn happy, and now I can't get up the spirit to work for even a couple minutes. I was forcing myself to update One & Only earlier, in the hopes that I might love it again once I'd gotten started, but then I couldn't log in, as mentioned above. That site, at the very least, is going to have to be shut down, I think, as I just don't know how to salvage it.

And then there's the other thing - if I did shut down my FLs, I'd have to send in forms, and people might be disappointed in me, and there's no way I'd ever get some of those topics back if I wanted them again in the future. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. A hobby isn't supposed to freak you out like this, is it? Gah, I don't know. I just don't know.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Well -- something to consider is the reason why they're ousting PHP4. It's end-of-life from the developers so there's no further support for it. Dreamhost offering it much longer would just result in exploits galore.

Can't say much about the latter topics, I'm not an avid follower -- just an internet random :)

[rinnia.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I think the reason I got so annoyed about it was that there was a drop-down menu to select 4.4 or 5.5, and I'd switched between the two before to see how scripts reacted with no problems. This time, though, after I switched to 5.5, the drop-down disappeared, and when I wrote to support asking them to switch it back, they told me they couldn't. Really? Even though it was just on 4.4 less than five minutes ago? I get where they're coming from, and if they're phasing it out completely, why they were unwilling to switch it back, but the surprise of it really got to me. It got to me so much that for a second, one brief fleeting moment, I considered shutting down ALL of my websites. I'm past that level of annoyed now, and I'm considering it kind of a hidden blessing. I needed an excuse to shut down my fanlistings - really, my life's gotten too unpredictable to commit to them anymore - and this whole PHP thing gave me the push I needed to make the tough but right decision.

I think. I may still go back on this. I hope I don't.

Thanks for dropping by! :D

[eidolon-nine.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it makes more sense to move on, even you've been very attached to something in the past. If the listings are more bother than joy, it may be time to pass them along to someone else who *does* get pleasure out of them, and find something more fitting and rewarding for yourself. It isn't a paying job, so it shouldn't feel like a chore. It might also help to simplify your life, since you're busy already without running yourself ragged trying to keep up with a million side projects too. Maybe pare it down to only the ones that matter most to you?