From SimpleTester to TestLeft: A Tale of Hosting Woes and Fresh Starts
SimpleTester was my original testing blog, which I created around 2019. Similar to what I have on this blog, it was a place for me to write about my ideas and experiences working in the realm of software, more specifically as an automation tester.
I had no intention of closing down the site, but my hosting situation had other ideas.
When looking to start my blog, I didn’t want to pay for hosting upfront- this seems to be the most common option among hosting providers, they offer dirt cheap prices but only if you sign up for a year or years. In the end, I went for a now dissolved company called TSOHost, not because they were good, but because they allowed me to pay monthly.
I had a few hiccups with them over the years, like when they quietly removed free SSL, but generally, if I reached out, they would offer a somewhat reasonable solution to whatever problem I was facing
Enter 123Reg
Sometime around 2024 a company called 123Reg bought TSOHost. I did get a bunch of emails detailing the purchase and transfer of domain but was also assured there was nothing that I had to do.
Now I’m not at the stage where I get a load of visitors, to be honest, I use this blog mainly to document what I research and learn, so when I was told by a colleague my site was down I had mixed emotions- elated that someone was checking my site without me telling them but equally mortified that it was down.
The investigation began
So, to their credit, talking to someone at 123Reg was a lot easier than TSOHost. The reason for my site being unavailable, on the other hand, was total garbage. Some nonsense about my renewal coinciding with the transfer, but I had auto-renew turned on from the previous provider, and it was mentioned anywhere that this would not continue over. Worse still, I was now being told that I had to pay a fee to restore my site. So I was torn between losing my whole site or keeping it with a provider that blackmails its customers into paying for something that is already theirs.
After the panic of potentially losing all my work had settled, I realised all I really value is the articles themselves. Using https://web.archive.org/, I was able to view a simple version of my site from only a few weeks back. This meant I would still lose a lot, such as drafts, all images and plugins etc, I could still get all of my content and create a new site.
TestLeft.co.uk
So this site is the result of the above drama. I’m glad I was able to avoid paying what felt like a ransom fee whilst also leaving a hosting provider I felt did not deserve my custom. I feel a fresh start has allowed me to improve upon my previous effort, whilst also maintaining the core concepts that I had originally set out to deliver with SimpleTester