Walking keeps me happy, ISPs keep me humble

I track my steps online because I find it strangely rewarding. I don't expect anything tangible like a prize - it's enough just to see my progress on my graph. So I don't need the website to congratulate me or give me a gold star when I log my steps every morning. Still, I expect better treatment than I got last Saturday when I tried to log Friday's steps:

Uh, Forbidden? Whose permission do I need? What's going on?

Turns out our hosting company had some problems when they tried to migrate the site to a new server. We're told that ours is the only site affected, but it's taking them a while to figure out how to get it back online. Meanwhile, loyal walkers are contacting us to ask what's up - has the site been taken down, is Walkabout over?

No and no. Walkabout is very much not over! We're in it for the long haul because our vision is to revitalize a culture of walking in this province, and that takes time. However, it also takes outreach, and our interactive website has been a great part of that. We've missed it these past few days, and we know lots of you have too. I'm sorry about that. I don't know how to fix the DNS issues myself - all I know is to keep the pressure on the host to fix it soon because Nova Scotians have invested in this initiative. And when you log on to record your progress, you deserve better than a cold error message.

Every day we reach our goals is a small triumph, and another step on the road to making Nova Scotia a walker's province. So for now, jot your steps down with pen and paper, take the opportunity to put a gold star beside your best day(s), and keep checking the website for updates. When the site is restored, we can rejoin our virtual walking groups online, enter several days' worth of steps logged, watch our collective progress numbers jump, and remember that we're part of a provincial movement.


And... does anyone know a reliable website hosting company? Apparently "99.9% uptime" is not reliable enough!