The .xyz domain name, while it might work for now, is probably not the best for the very long-term.
Now, that's fine with me; I picked it up for something like .88¢, as much so I could get used to working with domain names as anything else. I wasn't thinking we'd for sure actually use it as our main name.
It does lead to the question, though, of what we should use going forward. I thought it was worth asking and getting some input here, since it is a webmaster thing (and my responsibility), and also related to the entire community, since you'll see this name just about every day.
Here's a few domain name possibilities, some of which the Staff have talked about in the past. Let me know what your thoughts are.
LoamhedgeAbbey: This is available, in both .com and .org flavors. It goes hand-in-hand with the official Redwall site's address, and the domain extension would make it look more official than this one. My main complaint is that it's awfully long for a domain name (loamhedgeabbey.org is only a little shorter than soopergrape.com/RAF). It also has the same flaws inherent to the Loamhedge name.
Mossflower: Available in .net or .org. A good Redwall-themed name, and reasonably short. Good domain extensions make it an all right pick. Great concept if we're looking at expanding past the forums. I think there's potential here. I'm not sure if it would have the absolute most "search presence" (attract as much attention and clicks from viewers as possible), but I'm certain it would look better than an .xyz page.
RedwallOnline: Available in .net or .org. I came up with this name mostly because I felt it had a very official sound to it, which I thought would be a plus to our odds of getting clicked on search engine pages. It's longer than some of our other options, though. It's also a little superfluous (obviously a website is online).
Loamhedge (besides .xyz): The best extensions are taken, but I might be able to find a .uk or something. Fatch does have a point, though, when he says that "Loamhedge" is probably not searched as often as something like "Mossflower" is.
Redwall.web: Not yet available. The .web suffix is coming out sometime soon. I could conceivably snipe this address the moment it's available. I'm not sure how much inherent presence the .web extension will have; at the most, I expect it to be like .net, something of an also-ran, and probably below .net since it was released so many years later. Still, it's better than .xyz or most other suffixes we can find. Redwall is also a great name to have in our domain name, and it's reasonably short.
Redwall.uk: Not yet available. Because of the way the .uk extension was set up, the company that owns redwall.co.uk has the exclusive right to purchase this name, for a period of time. If by the end of that time they haven't done so, we can look into getting it. Unfortunately, the date of release is June 2019, so it won't matter to us for some time. From my understanding of how it works, we might also need a UK resident to serve as middleman.
An acronym/abbreviated name (rwabbey, lhabbey, rwonline, etc.): We could conceivably get a good acronym or abbreviation for just about anything we want to say, if we put it together right. A good one should be shorter than any of our other options. On the downside, I suspect it doesn't have as much 'presence' as a full name would.
If you have any other good name ideas, I encourage you to post them here as well.
(There's no need to worry about the transition from this site. The search engine stuff should update before too long, and the move wouldn't be painful, as it isn't like moving servers. We've actually already moved from loamhedge.xyz to www.loamhedge.xyz, and I don't think anybody noticed.)
I personally would back Mossflower or Redwall. In terms of attracting more members, those kinds of names are probably more frequently searched, rather than Loamhedge or xyz.
Seeing that you pay for it, and those might be more expensive, I definitely would support you going with what you think is best though!
I support Loamhedge/Loamhedge Abbey since that's what this place is called.
The Redwall forum is dandy, but this is Loamhedge, the Redwall forum.
Not Redwall itself.
And Mossflower especially seems off track.
Well, I don't see that what the forum is called now has to be a major factor. If we set up a larger site that includes more than just the forum, it wouldn't be very confusing for the forum to be named something else besides what the domain is... in any case, if it came down to it, we could simply rename the forum.
That might sound heretical, but the fact is that it wasn't always called by this name. I originally set it up as the "Redwall Abbey Community Forum", and changed it to simply the "Redwall Abbey Forum", the same name as the old forum, a short time after. I only named it "Loamhedge" as part of my effort to get people to let it die, after the original forum was back and people (
@Delthion) wouldn't quit coming here. After the old forum died instead, I never got around to changing it back, and when I brought it up Matthias figured it'd be just as well to leave it be so as to maintain a distinction between here and the original forum.
So, it isn't like it's a name born out of great circumstances, or that we're giving up any glorious tradition by switching to something else, if we chose to do that.
Everyone's used to Loamhedge. ;)
You should just change it to .com if you don't like the XYZ thang.
But I think it's good.
I'll back anything so long as it isn't school blocked (like .xyz and I think .biz)
Maybe LoamhedgeAbbey..com or RedwallOnline.net?
@Ashleg: Well, I would have if I could have. But all the main domain extensions are unavailable.
I do think we have to switch to something better than .xyz, for Groddil's sake as much as anything else.
If we're going by what names are searched for (like Fatch mentioned), Mossflower is more likely to come up than Loamhedge (
Mossflower being a great book, and
Loamhedge merely an okay book).
Quote from: James Gryphon on October 04, 2016, 06:31:03 AM
@Ashleg: Well, I would have if I could have. But all the main domain extensions are unavailable.
We have to switch to something better than .xyz, anyway, for Groddil's sake as much as anything else. The question is just what that'll be.
If we're going by what names are searched for (like Fatch mentioned), Mossflower is more likely to come up than Loamhedge (Mossflower being a great book, and Loamhedge merely an okay book).
I believe there's already a Mossflower forum, but it's dead, and shouldn't prove problematic.
If there is one, fortunately (for us), it doesn't seem to get good results. I've found there's probably half a dozen other Loamhedge forums scattered in the top few pages of Google. ;)
Quote from: James Gryphon on October 04, 2016, 06:38:17 AM
I try not to worry too much about other forums, so long as they're not busy (which, sadly, is the norm in the Redwall community nowadays). I've found there's probably half a dozen other Loamhedge forums scattered in the top few pages of Google. ;)
Yeah, most of them are all dying.
None of the Redwall names. It makes me think that the RAF aren't coming back, and while that's something we should think about, I don't want to. LoamhedgeAbbey.org sounds good, though.
I would support Redwall or Loamhedge names (not a big fan of RedwallOnline though), but Mossflower would be too many names in one to two years in my opinion.
Personally, I want to keep to the Loamhedge because I do want the original forum to come back online, and want there to be a difference between the two.
Quote from: James Gryphon on October 04, 2016, 06:31:03 AM
......
If we're going by what names are searched for (like Fatch mentioned), Mossflower is more likely to come up than Loamhedge (Mossflower being a great book, and Loamhedge merely an okay book).
Oh I agree,
Mossflower is a wonderful book. So is
Loamhedge. Remember, some people really like the book.
Now. Most of what I think has been said already but I'll sum up:
I'm definitely not a fan of RedwallOnline.
I'm not a fan of any of the Redwall names, because then it's like the other forum's not coming back and there should be a distinction between these two forums.
Mossflower seems waaay too off track, because really. IF we expand, what would we do? Set up a shop? Copy/paste the obituaries? Unrealistic to my mind.
LoamhedgeAbbey seems best to me. .org or .com. (Although, for the record, I prefer .com)
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Quote from: Skarzs on October 04, 2016, 03:19:11 PM
Personally, I want to keep to the Loamhedge because I do want the original forum to come back online, and want there to be a difference between the two.
I'm agreeing with many of the opinions above. I want to keep the Redwall name separate, as I like the distinction between this forum and the old. I really don't like "redwallonline." Between Mossflower and Loamhedge, I prefer Loamhedge because it was a community, while Mossflower is a region in which exists many different, disjointed communities. I have a slight preference toward Loamhedge Abbey over Loamhedge.
I'd go for whatever is most likely to pop up in search results, for the sake of getting new members.
QuoteWell, I don't see that what the forum is called now has to be a major factor.
And I agree with this.
I must confess I really like the domain name "Mossflower", and I don't think using it in the domain name must necessarily lead to changing the name of the forum.
That said, though, it seems like a sizable majority, both of the general community and the members I trust the most to make these kinds of decisions, favors including "Loamhedge" in the domain name. It seems unwise to disregard such a clear consensus, despite my own feelings on the matter.
While I'm still not comfortable with having such a long domain name, I suppose that once it's been bookmarked, you won't be likely to have to type it in all that often. And it's still better than some of the alternatives (it's actually a little faster than typing in the link to the original Redwall Abbey forum, with no frames: redwallabbey.com/forum/).
I'll look into acquiring the relevant domain name and making the move soon, preferably when most everybody is offline. The .com extension is cheaper and matches the official site, so that's the one I intend to acquire. The Loamhedge.xyz site will remain online until next July as an alias/redirect for the new site.
Thanks for your input into this process.
Who actually types in the full address? :P I either use the bookmark or the frequently visited pages thing.
Y'all should be seeing things at LoamhedgeAbbey.com now. I'll do work on the database to change over links and such later, when nobody is on.
Looks good James! However, I was mid post when you changed it, so I was a bit scared when I randomly got logged out.
Looks good! Definitely more professional than the .xyz extension.
Thank you SO much, James.
I really like the loamhedgeabbey.com, I also really like the LH icon design for the tab.
I like new the domain name a lot, too. It's less sketchy than ever.
Wow, what a nice update! :) I haven't been here in months and my link got a redirection on me and I saw you got a domain. Same hosting company or someone different? Seems to hang a bit when you click on a link like the hosting is on a slower server or something than it used to be.
Hey hey hey, it's a Lutra! :)
*Late reply but meh*
It does look a lot nicer, James. Thankee! (Although I'd finally convinced my computer that I wanted to be logged in and I wanted pop-ups here ::) )
*goes back incognito*
You never saw me.
;)
Quote from: Lutra on October 10, 2016, 12:55:15 AM
Wow, what a nice update! :) I haven't been here in months and my link got a redirection on me and I saw you got a domain. Same hosting company or someone different? Seems to hang a bit when you click on a link like the hosting is on a slower server or something than it used to be.
It is new hosting, as well as a new domain name. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a little slower, because it's not as big a company as the one we were with, but they have a very good rep at the Webhostingtalk forum, and made me an offer I couldn't refuse: we went from 50 megs of database space to as much storage is on the hard drive, for half the price each month. Also, the customer service experience I've had so far is good.
My Google search results through StartPage show Loamhedge at the top for "redwall forum". Let me know if that's the same thing y'all are seeing.
Same here James. ;D
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Noted: Google uses previous searches and web addresses. If you use the forum, it is more likely to show up higher in your search results. Try searching on a library computer or something you haven't been here on.
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Quote from: Wylder Treejumper on October 11, 2016, 08:43:43 PM
Noted: Google uses previous searches and web addresses. If you use the forum, it is more likely to show up higher in your search results. Try searching on a library computer or something you haven't been here on.
Private and Incognito both show us as the top hit for "Redwall forum"