Yesterday the DreamStation.cc website was down and I thought it was the end of it in its current form. Luckily, I was able to revive it for now. Our hosting company decided to upgrade the server to use the latest version of the PHP programming language without any notice. The website’s software doesn’t work with the new version of PHP, so the site was broken. Luckily, I was able to switch it back to an earlier version of PHP to get it up and running again, but I don’t know for how long. When the hosting company stops supporting the version of PHP that DreamStation.cc needs to run, then the site will be down with no easy solution to get it working again.I have been thinking about rebooting DreamStation.cc for a few years to be a simpler site with maybe just links to our social media accounts and Discord server. Unfortunately, you have probably noticed that I don’t have time to maintain DreamStation.cc anymore. The forums haven’t been used regularly for a number of years and the last thing we added to the site was our YouTube video in June 2020. I also have some new ideas I would like to potentially try and they may or may not fit into the theme of DreamStation.cc. I am NOT totally shutting down the site, but I need to switch it to something different than its current form.
It is really hard for me to erase everything we have done over the years from the Internet, but I don’t think we have a choice. The future is coming if we like it or not and I know the hosting company is going to stop supporting the version of PHP we need at some point. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to go through all the effort of trying to update and maintain the DreamStation.cc software and underlying code to keep the site running, especially when we are no longer adding new content.
I wanted to let everyone know about this change coming to DreamStation.cc now, so you can save any screenshots, photos, posts, reviews, etc. you may have contributed to the site before it is gone. I am guessing that some of the information will still remain on the Internet via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, but we won’t be able to view it live on DreamStation.cc anymore after I reboot the site.
At some point I might start adding the old content (reviews, interviews, featured articles, etc.) back to the site in the future after the reboot, but at the moment I don’t have any concrete plans to do that. I would just like to be able to get the site rebooted before the hosting company decides to break the site for good by removing the only version of PHP that still works.
I’ve also been looking into moving to a new web hosting company and this will probably coincide with the reboot of DreamStation.cc. Unfortunately, moving to a new hosting company will not allow DreamStation.cc, in its current state, to keep working. This move will allow me to save some money per month on hosting and let me use a modern web development platform going forward.
cnc137’s Dreamland website was online a couple of years before I bought the DreamStation.cc domain name in 1999 and switched from cnc137’s Dreamland to DreamStation.cc. But, if we count 1999 as the beginning of DreamStation.cc, then the 25th anniversary is in 2024. It is crazy that it has been almost 25 years since DreamStation.cc was created and I thank all of you for helping it stick around this long.
This is NOT the end of DreamStation.cc, but it is the end of DreamStation.cc as we have known it in the past. I really appreciate everyone sticking around all these years. I encourage everyone to continue to chat with us on Discord and check out the website from time to time. DreamStation.cc isn’t vanishing from the Internet, but it will be taking on a new form that is easier to maintain and less to worry about.
I will let everyone know in advance before I move the site to a new hosting company and reboot it, but I wanted to give everyone this advance notice that a reboot is coming.
Feel free to discuss this in the #general channel on the DreamStation.cc Discord Server if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
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