AWstats bugfix and domain UI improvements

We’ve fixed a long-standing bug with our nfsn-awstats script that caused it to ignore your access_log.old file if you didn’t check your statistics at least once per update cycle, and occasionally even if you did.
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Forwarding sites & URL rewriting

Note: the content of this blog entry is deprecated. Please search our member FAQ for “canonical” for more information about replacement techniques.

We recently got a support inquiry about alternate methods of forwarding visitors from one URL to another.

We have a FAQ entry about using “decoy” sites to forward alternate URLs. This is one method, and probably the easiest, but there are many others that can be useful in different circumstances.

What I’d like to do here is talk about the reasons why we recommend this one and discuss some of the alternatives and when they might be more useful.
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We’ve changed our blog URI

To make it easier to use RSS feeds, which apparently do not travel well via SSL URIs in some cases, we’ve moved the blog to a better location.

It’s now blog.nearlyfreespeech.net. If you subscribed to any RSS feeds, be sure to grab the new addresses for them. (Note that the new addresses are not SSL-enabled, so be sure they say “http://” instead of “https://”.)

CGI/ssh upgrade coming on 11/22

Since we have completed the underlying operating system upgrade in our hosting cluster, we are now in a position to upgrade our aging CGI/ssh environment. The current environment was based on FreeBSD 4, and the new environment will be based on the “latest and greatest” FreeBSD 6. This should have no long-term impact on most members, but if you have compiled your own binaries, they may need to be recompiled once this update is complete.
Continue reading CGI/ssh upgrade coming on 11/22…

News & Announcements moved to blog

The source for our “News & Announcements” feed on the member home page has moved to our new blog, located here. The old forum posts will be maintained for posterity in the support section. We hope this new flexibility will help us keep you better informed about what’s going on with our service.

If you’re currently subscribed to email notifications, that feature is not currently implemented. There is a News & Announcements RSS feed available, and we’ll be adding an email option (possibly through a third party so we can still email you if our service goes down) in the near future.

So many categories

So few posts. Until we’ve got posts in every category we’ve posted this one to all of them, so you can see what’s in store and subscribe to the feeds you want before you miss anything.

If this is the only post you see in a category, it just means the category hasn’t been assigned any real posts yet.

Welcome

It’s the end of the day for us (well, really, it’s never the end of the day, we just say that so that we can go sleep some time), but this post is the beginning of our weblog.

I’ve had the pleasure of working on the support staff here for some time. Our members (that’s you) are some of the most savvy, good-humored and creative people I’ve encountered, and we’re thrilled that you’ve decided to make your virtual home with us. We hope this blog will allow us to keep you well-informed about what we’re up to, what’s coming along, and what we think of what’s going on beyond the bits and bytes that flow through our own little corner of the Internet world.

The Internet does, indeed, touch most of the world in some way, directly or indirectly, and free access to this unparalleled means of expression and connection is no longer optional to the sustainability of a just and open society anywhere. What we don’t know can hurt us, and when we can’t speak, it hurts everyone.

We’ve got plenty to say about this on our main site, and we’ll have plenty more to say about it here. In addition, we’ll be keeping you current with the improvements we’re constantly making to your service, the status of our network, changes to our policies, and providing tips, tricks, and humor—if there are two things that can’t be done to excess, they’re know-how and laughter.

We also encourage you to get in on the conversation: We all do better when we learn from each other, so step up and pitch in with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. We’re listening.

Bookmark this page, or better yet, take advantage of our blog-wide RSS syndication (see the link at the bottom of any page) or category-specific feeds in the sidebar for just those topics you want to watch closely.

Welcome, and have fun. We know we will.