I have recently been replaced.
As a volunteer webmaster for my church.
After 10 years.
After investing many hours in an upgrade and move to a new server.
The system I was using (eZ Publish) is an excellent CMS and can be configured and customized to do just about anything. I paid all the expenses for the Amazon server ($150 for three years). The server was running Postfix, Dovecot and mailman.
The site was originally set up by a church secretary who had little to no experience with the technical elements of web sites or content management systems. She set up the email, too. My contribution was to help them set up a hosting account, install and configure eZ Publish and show her how to use it. She did a great job.
Then she moved out of state and no one else was interested in the site - other than posting bulletins and eventually the audio from the homilies.
Every three years or so, I would upgrade eZ Publish. The site moved to a different server when necessary, I think I moved it three or four times. The church owned the domain name. Each time I made sure the church office owned the hosting account and had all the necessary credentials.
Before the last move started, I sent a few notes to the church office to let them know the hosting (then at BlueHost) was expiring and that I was going to move the site because it was difficult to set up on shared hosting. I never got any replies.
The last move was a lot of work primarily because the email was set up from scratch - no cPanel or other web admin tools. Once I was finished, although the server ran fine, I knew that in order to run it, the administrator would need to have strong LAMP skills. If the acronym LAMP is unfamiliar to you, you don't have the skills. Harsh, yes, but true. I set up the server nicely, including my favorite things like Fail2Ban, mod_security, iptables.
About a month after the move, I got an email from the pastor letting me know they were planning to use a different site and offering to "reimburse you for whatever you paid out for the update to the DNS that you just did."
It was clear due to staffing changes that the intent was to move control of the site back into the office and that decision had been made before I invested the time in the move.
Had they told me what they were planning, I would have left the site and email at BlueHost and walked away.
But they didn't tell me.
And they replaced a powerful, enterprise class CMS with specialized 'church' hosting because they wanted a new design and an easier to use admin interface.
Remember at the beginning when I told you I paid $150 for three years? Their new hosting costs at least $50 a month, and it doesn't include email. Don't worry, you can get free email for your non-profit through Google or Microsoft. So - for three years, you could pay $150 (since I paid, the cost to the church was zero) or you could pay $1800 ($50 * 36).
- Didn't they compare different hosting packages? They did. All from specialized church hosting companies. Yup, it was apples to apples. They're all expensive and imply that their servers are holier.
- What are the alternatives? There are many great hosting companies that provide shared hosting for $5 a month. $5. And you can install a CMS that is easy to use. And administer the email. $5, that is one-tenth of what they have chosen to pay.
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But wait! Isn't that easy to use interface worth it? No. The reason is that there are many great CMSs that are easier to use than eZ Publish. It pains me to say this because I believe eZ Publish is awesome, but there are lots of other CMSs. Do some research, choose one you like and go. And remember, the site was initially set up by someone who did not have any experience with a CMS.
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They wanted a new design! They didn't have control of the design! The design shouldn't change frequently on a site. The content should. There a lots of great skins, templates and designs available. Find one you like and work to integrate it into the CMS. You don't need to pay an outrageous amount of money for hosting to have access to beautiful designs.
- They wanted pictures! Yah, yah, yah
So then what happened?
For a couple weeks, nothing happened. Usually when someone requests DNS the transfer is imminent. The new site is ready, the email is ready.
That wasn't the case. Nothing was ready.
After another week or so, I got impatient. I didn't care to run their server if it was going to be replaced. Why spend more of my time on something that is going to be discarded? So I sprinkled a few kittens on the site on my server and after another week or so they got tired of kittens and moved everything off. Yay.
But what is really sad is that I would have been glad to help them find a better solution for them. One that they could have had complete control over. An admin interface that was easier to use. Pictures!
The new site has images which are huge. Huge means they take forever to load and the site looks stupid as they load. The email addresses are posted on the site. A nice little set, ready for spammers to collect and abuse.
If you're still reading, I'll get to the point:
- Don't tell your current hosting company you're replacing their site until you've switched the DNS. Unless you like kittens.
- If you have a volunteer that has done a decent job, have the courtesy to let them know if you want to make significant changes in the way you're running the site. Don't let them waste their time.
I disagree so strongly with their choice of the new hosting company that I left the parish. I really like my new church.
And the server?
Well, I've renamed it, made the disk bigger and am using it for another project.
It's all good.