Basically, back in February 2006 (the day the Olympic flame was lit actually), I purchased the domain name GamersCastPodcast.com (cause some asshole stole GamersCast.com from under me, and has been trying to sell it back to me at a premium ever since). For the first few years after having created it was incredibly active and I used it almost every day and has definitely become a pretty large part of my life.
But recently, it has become painstakingly obvious that the domain has lost its appeal. It is rarely updated and usually remains dormant for months at a time. Right now, its only purpose is hosting podcast episodes, for a podcast I rarely ever have the time to record any more. So, what should I do?
Well, to be painfully obvious, I have been considering shutting it down. Because let’s face it. The layout is ugly and dated, no one who follows what I do actually goes there, and I never update it. Not to mention it costs me around $100 per year to host. So, here is what I propose.
In my opinion, the most reasonable course of action would be to do a total backup of everything hosted on the server, switch to GoDaddy’s free hosting plan, hold the domain and just have it redirect to my YouTube channel.
By holding the domain, I can revisit it once things finally settle down in my life and I have time to devote to it. By keeping the free hosting plan, I can still post small pages there and host some files, if need be. And it will only cost me around $10 per year to hold the domain.
Now, in all honesty, once things finally do “settle down” and I do have to devote to the site, it will, in all honesty probably serve an entirely different purpose. Now, as many of you know, I am a computer science major, hoping to become a game developer upon graduating. When the site returns, it will more than likely serve the purpose of promoting games that I am making, rather than reporting about games other companies in the industry are designing.
Sadly, this probably means an unfortunate end to the podcast. I really don’t want it to come to that, but let’s face it, people weren’t being very well informed based on our infrequent record and release schedule. Though it may return in some form in the future.
So, what do you all think? Trust me, this was by no means an impulsive proposal and probably should have come a lot sooner in retrospect. It’s also one of the hardest realities I’ve ever had to accept. GamersCast has been a part of my life for the past 7 years, and seeing this era come to a potential is probably much harder on me than it is for most of you. So, please comment and give me your thoughts on this proposal, thanks.
