Happy hosting sought for 11 year-old

[imomus]

Eleven years ago I taught myself basic HTML and started a Momus website. Here's how it looked as it welcomed visitors back in August 1995:



Amazingly enough, all the content listed on that 1995 splashpage is still online. This is blogging avant la lettre. Want to see my Paris flat that year? Click The House of Momus. Want to read a comments thread, 1995-style? It's called Cork Slab and it's a plain text "Democracy Wall for social cabbages". (How rude! No wonder only my then-wife Shazna is on there!) Then there's the Photograph Album (mostly pictures of me wearing a 90s goatee beard and posing with pretty young girls), the useful plagiarist's crib sheet, How to write a Momus song, the funny-faced friends page and the library.

Although it's still online, this slim, fat, fast, slow, expansive, amateurish and inspirational website, which managed to rack up a million hits, has basically been a drifting corpse, a red dwarf, since late 2003. In early 2004 I started Click Opera, and all my new content is here. I often refer back to my Monthly Essays, though, and I use my old website's server to host multimedia files like movies, mp3s and podcast files.

Since 2003 (when I acquired the rights to the imomus.com domain) physical hosting for imomus.com has been provided to me free of charge by a kind Australian called Andrew Gerrand (he also hosts the www.ilxor.com bulletin boards). Yes, the Momus website has been coming to you from Melbourne for the last three years. Unfortunately, Andrew can't keep offering me this kind service forever, and has asked me look around for another benefactor, or find commercial hosting.

Now I'm in a bit of a quandry. Is it really essential to keep this archive of sometimes rather embarrassing old 90s Momus-lore online? Is the encyclopedic thoroughness of imomus.com preventing other Momus fansites from coming into existence? If I just let imomus.com die, would there be more interest from publishers in, for instance, publishing my essays in a book?



Half of me would be perfectly happy to let the drifting, semi-dead old site go the way of all html flesh. But half of me would jump at the chance to host it free somewhere. After all, it does supply the official lyrics pages to my own records, including the forthcoming one, Ocky Milk. (My lyrics are mirrored -- rather more tidily -- by the Phespirit site.)

So... any takers? Any happy hosters? If you adopt my eleven year-old, he shouldn't cause you much trouble. He's 1.3 GB big, but he's shrinking, not growing; as you can see from the yearly page visits graph above, accesses have plummeted recently, so imomus.com wouldn't burn much bandwidth. And I still own the imomus.com domain, so with a little DNS reconfiguration we wouldn't even need to change his address. Prospective adoptive parents, leave a comment here or mail me.

For snapshots of the Momus website from other years, visit Wayback Machine, the web time-travelling site.

Comments

Save it!

[blastoisemaster.livejournal.com]

I originally found Click Opera by searching for information on Shibuya-Kei, and finding your article about it on the imomus site. That article was really the biggest influence on me to keep finding more music in the genre, and it was also the first time I'd ever heard of Cornelius or Pizzicato 5, whom I now love dearly. That experience alone holds enough sentimental value for me to implore you to keep imomus around.

Oh, and thanks for all that, by the way. You really did end up introducing me to a whole new stereophonic sound spectacular.

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

..as you can see from the yearly page visits graph above, accesses have plummeted recently...



Yes, that last month looks bad, but it is only August 7th, you know. You sneaky devil, making yourself look so unpopular to gain friends! You clearly need a MySpace with those kind of tactics.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, that last bar represents July! They don't average in the first days of the following month, otherwise everybody's graph would plummet!

Details

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

<< He's 1.3 GB big, but he's shrinking, not growing; as you can see from the yearly page visits graph above, accesses have plummeted recently, so imomus.com wouldn't burn much bandwidth >>

1.3 gb sounds like disk space. But then you speak of "shrinking." What is shrinking is the bandwidth, right? The disk space needed by your adolescent is not shrinking, it's 1.3 gb static, correct?

I might be able to figure out a way to host it off my gmail account lol but otherwise 1.3 gb is a lot of space.

Re: Details

[imomus.livejournal.com]

What is shrinking is the bandwidth, right?

Yes.

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

I'd love to, but I don't have enough space (or, I imagine, bandwidth). My own site (http://www.mylegendarygirlfriend.co.uk/mcgazz/) is unpleasantly minimal, but I've got one glitchfolk maverick of my own to host (http://www.mylegendarygirlfriend.co.uk/moths/)

[green-paint.livejournal.com]

I can set you up with a free account at artifex.org - a non-profit host that works by invatation only. My own website, ruinedmap.org is set up there, and it takes up much more than 1.3 GB.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Do they let you use your own domain name, in other words, do DNS configuring to another address?

[nickink.livejournal.com]

I loved the 'Daily Photo'. Have you ever thought of resurrecting it as an LJ Click Opera offshoot ( a bit like dermifitz has done with dermophoto? Do you still snap on a day to day basis?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I take at least one photo a day, yes. But for some reason (and despite having written a book about photoblogging (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500512515/103-7035433-9090229?v=glance&n=283155) which came out this year!) I'm bored by the idea of doing a daily Flickr or Fotolog thing. I like a bit more context for my pictures, so they tend to be up here on Click Opera as and when I need them, with lots of text around them. I also don't like spreading myself thin over too many different websites. It's nice that it's all thematic, and all centralized here. The eye of the octopus!

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

By coincidence my web site (http://dev.null.org/) used to be hosted on a friend's machine in Melbourne. Since moving to the UK, I've moved it to my own virtual host, via this company (http://www.bytemark.co.uk). It costs me £16 a month, but I get my own virtual Linux machine with 3Gb I can put content and run CGIs/software on (I currently use it for hosting a blog and some MP3s, and also for handling incoming email). Of course, the machine is a virtual one running on a much bigger real machine, which hosts a large number of such machines, though that's a lot cheaper than actually running my own hardware.

[myemobook.livejournal.com]

I actually still have 10 year-old scrap paper of lyric sheets printed from that website on the school printers (I first emailed you that year too). They travelled cross-country with me, before lyrics were reliably ubiquitous online.

[geeveecatullus.livejournal.com]

you could probably host multimedia files on multiply or something, but I'd be sad to see your site go.
it's a piece of history and way too old to just disappear.
Only sites less than 4 years old are allowed to be deleted.

[(Anonymous)]

I really like old websites.

There were so many fantastic websites from the mid to late nineties that just disappeared.

They're never going to turn up in anyones attic either, like old records or whatever.

[(Anonymous)]

One way you could boost your August figures is to put the other tracks from Anne on their for download. (Hint! Hint!)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

But I have to minimize my content and scale things down!

Someone give me server space and you'll get all the freebie multimedia files you could possibly desire!

[hunchentoot.livejournal.com]

I pay for hosting with Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com) and have more space and bandwidth than I need. I definitely have enough hard disk space for your site, you can continue using your domain, and I think there is enough bandwidth as well, but I'll have to check after getting home from work this evening (GMT -5).

[heinzbitte.livejournal.com]

Maybe if people can get everyone they know that runs large websites to gradually but quickly become interested in your music, then show them the live journal, then somehow direct them to this entry without making it obvious. IT WOULD WORK PERFECTLY.

silly little story.

[honeychurch.livejournal.com]

In january of 1996 (10 years!), a friend of mine went to London, and brought back a couple of Momus cds for me, including "Slender Sherbet". I'd started listening to Momus in 1992, and he knew the trouble I'd had acquiring cds. Anyway, I followed the URL in the liner notes to your site. I looked at it, and then went back later the same day, but it was down. I couldn't figure out what the problem was - my browser wouldn't find it. Then, it connected again, but the site was totally different. I realized it was probably down while you were updating. I think for some reason that was the first time the larger connections offered by the internet really struck me.

[instant-c.livejournal.com]

If you do have to pay, I suggest you try icdsoft. I have used them for a few years and it's fairly cheap.
http://icdsoft.com/hosting.php

PS-The momasu patch is being revised still. could you mail me what file types you typicaly use?

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to host your site. And you can keep the imomus.com domain name. DNS reconfiguration - no problem.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wonderful, Dave, I'm looking into a couple of other options just now, but I may want to mail you about this.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

pretty much all through the demon.co.uk site days, at least from about '98 on, i read your thoughts of the day, viewed your photos, and admired you & your good-looking friends from afar as 17-yr-old mischa was much too shy & intimidated to actually leave a comment [though she considered it man times!]. much of what i learned about japan came from that site...and reading your essays was what broke the tedium during high school all-nighters and acted as trans-continental glints of hope when i was miserable at stanford and wanted to leave the country/planet. &it's STILL one of my favorite places on the internet.

i hope you find a suitable host...i would absolutely hate to see that site lost! [i'm sure you will find one though. you probably already have, you resourceful man, you....]

i have to say, for '95, the design of the above page is quite good! i mean...courier new was sort of the "thing" at that time, but wow, Nick, you were quite the early adapter!

Color critique

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

<< i have to say, for '95, the design of the above page is quite good! i mean...courier new was sort of the "thing" at that time, but wow, Nick, you were quite the early adapter! >>

Momus, I looked at your home page many times but never clicked beyond it because I found the color and imagery to be discouraging. Two bland colors and sketching?

I finally forced myself click into some of the content and was thrilled by the colors.

I think you should revise that top level page, it does not represent you AT ALL. You're all colorful now.

how to write momus a song

[thisisforreal.livejournal.com]

i've been struggling with writing you a song for fourteen hours now and have just accomplished my song for momus. your 'how to write a momus song' was helpful though eventually almost everything sung was injected as i went along.

sendspace.com/file/qt78pm

Re: how to write momus a song

[imomus.livejournal.com]

My favourite moment in this song was when it suddenly turned into "A Doppia Faccia (The Face Of Love)" by Nora Orlandi. Was that you, providence, or iTunes? All three, perhaps.

amazon

[hadleyburg.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of publishing a selection of the essays. Perhaps in PDF format via Amazon might be an idea, like Lord Whimsy's "The Perils of Sportswear".

[http://users.livejournal.com/_greengrass/]

Dear Momus,

On an unrelated note, I'm going to new york for the first time for about a week and I was wondering if you knew of any well-priced places to stay. You seem to know about such things.

laughing squid

[cascavalanche.livejournal.com]

Laughing Squid (http://laughingsquid.com/) hosts a couple big blogs(they do boingboing) and they offer a "starving artist discount" (http://laughingsquid.net/faq/billing.php#starving).

[pixelmist.livejournal.com]

I accidentally wrote a Momus song once. It's called "Kure Kure Takora" (which I see you have as an icon now!) and my best friend listened to it, nodded, smiled, and mumbled, "Momus much?" And I was ashamed, so I decided to stick to mournfully slow songs about autumn with melodies ripped from 8-bit videogames, instead.

...or is that Momusy, as well?! GET OUTTA MY HEAD! :p

I can host ya..

[(Anonymous)]

i host websites for several friends and bands (jazz butcher among them) on my own machine sitting in a hosting center in the SF bay area. it won't cost you a thing, as long as you can manage the DNS side of thgings yourself. lemme know.

del -at- adjective -dot- com

[intergalactim.livejournal.com]

dear momus,

please leave it up! all that information is gold...

i discovered your website searching for info on DAT politics (still the best one online in english)and was hooked...

i'm always going back to old articles and daily photos.

FOR INSTANCE: just on saturday i discovered your piece about "flatmate spook", which i am going to have to thoroughly quiz vicky about next time i see her (she worked at the same library as me).

whilst on the topic, does anyone know a way to save whole websites??

it sounds like there are lots of people willing to take it on, so i'm glad, i *was* going to suggest a paypal donations scheme...

hey interfalactic guy

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

You need a spider, aka websucker

http://tinyurl.com/jfvvt

[arsonisnoway.livejournal.com]

I've got a bunch of bandwidth left over on arsonism.org (http://arsonism.org) if you don't end up going with del above.