Why my site was down
• Richard Evans Lee
Yesterday afternoon I discovered that my web host had suspended my website. They’d done it a few months ago when my credit card’s expiration date changed. I was a bit miffed that they hadn’t emailed me. With a couple of weeks before my next quarterly payment money couldn’t be the problem.
So I ‘opened a ticket’ with support. I’ve always been happy with their tech support: response is usually fast and resolution easy. Yesterday though I was told that my problem was a “customer service issue.” So I telephoned. Customer service had gone home. The back office guy who answered was friendly and speculated that it might be that one of my scripts was too CPU intensive or had a memory leak. I knew neither could be the case. Nothing to do but wait for customer service to return to work.
When I finally got someone on the phone this afternoon I learned they’d taken my domain down because they didn’t like my little erotica section. It didn’t sound like they’d read any of it but were disturbed by the mere presence of crotchboy.shtml and mylovablehumilationslut.shtml. It was instantly apparent that the front office wasn’t interested in the distinction erotica and porn. I said I’d remove the offending pages. (I moved them to the free space my ISP gives me.)
While I’m not comfortable with my web host’s policy I can’t really complain. They are probably afraid of legal prosecution in today’s increasingly paranoid times.
I put the pages up, not because they are good erotica. I wrote them as self-exploration. They belong on my website as much as my coming out story and my pages about my parents. I may understand their dilemma but I’m pissed.
I guess I’ll be looking for a new host.