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Dec 26, 2001 :: The Pugmarks saga

Defected from Pugmarks --the web host so far-- to LinkSky. That was a saga all by itself. Pugmarks was a “free service” [bar the Rs.500 for set-up] when this site began in May,2000. During the first year I traveled to Bangalore especially to meet a Pugmarks executive in an exhibition stall there. “What would be the charges after the first year is over?” I asked, anxiously. He consulted someone and vigorously asserted it would be Rs.2000 per year. ‘Not bad’, I thought and forgot about it. When the year ended, *they* had forgotten. I had to remind them. They woke up and in thanks, asked me to send Rs.12,000, as they had changed their tariff in the while! After much protesting, pleading and bargaining, they picked Rs.4000, “as a special case”. What did I do? I sent the cheque.

As the site grew, their limitations began to surface. Support was handled by a team that barely understood technical questions. Features that called for cgi email scripts could not be implemented. Worst of all, as GoodNewsIndia’s popularity began to increase, I was informed of a new tax! “Your traffic last month exceeded 250mB. Please upgrade to a higher plan which will be Rs.20,000 a year,” said an email from Pugmarks. “… within 15 days,” it added.

Well, I chose to put the offered time to better use and started to look for an alternate host. There was of course the mild panic at this one-man GoodNewsIndia operation, even as research on various low-cost web-hosts proceeded furiously. The winner was LinkSky.

The contrast is remarkable. First of all, all queries were answered within an hour or so. The offered services were irresistible and pretty high-end, providing an opportunity to add many features. And then the price: $4.95 [Rs.240/-] payable monthly for 50mB of disk space and about 9gB of traffic!

While shifting the site from Pugmarks, much hand-holding was required—and was available! There were about 6 email queries that momentous day-- and all were answered in full and with clarity. By the way, my account had been set up earlier in two hours flat, and I could begin transferring the GNI site even as web bureaucrats [--anonymous computers, really!] changed my address! In the end, the ‘shift’ went smoothly and without any outage.

Insofar as I can make out LinkSky is a small personalised operation, with a sophisticated server installation. The chief I think is an artist, who seems to enjoy the business more than the money! Very impressive, so far.

And thus, to a plug: GoodNewsIndia is taking its first commercial step in two years. If any of you admirers of this site’s work wish to put a few coppers this way, you can do so easily by choosing LinkSky as your web-host. I am promised a small commission for every account routed through GoodNewsIndia. LinkSky is good value in money and service terms. You can click this link [-or the banner in the home-page] to go there.

In it’s new home, GoodNewsIndia already sports a feature on the home page by which visitors can “recommend the site” to their friends by a click on the mouse. Soon every story-page will feature the facility to send the pages they are on to their friends. More ideas are in the works.

An uplifting mood reigns at GNI after the scare!

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