Maintaining a website can be a thankless horrible Job. There is nothing fun about maintaining a website, and it is getting less fun by the minute. 

I have had many websites in the past, but now I am down to only two.

1966vwbeetle.com – that is my main site and its been around for 20 years.  Then there is TravelTrailerNation.com.  I created that site in 2016, so 9 years ago.

I created the main site using a product called Microsoft Front Page.  Later upgrading to a newer product called Microsoft Expression Web.  The problem with both of these web creation tools is that they required a copious amount of time to modify.  Sometimes I would need to write code to make things work correctly, even just to center a block of text or a picture.  They were not great tools.

About a year ago I recreated the entire 66vwbeetle website in Word Press.  It took weeks to get it all recreated.  To most folks, they probably didn’t even notice a change.

Complicating things with the main site currently is a phpbb forum that I have.  It has been around since day 1.  It stores thousands of discussions and helpful information for beetle owners.  Lately, it has come under attack by bots which are crashing the entire website.

Now I am spending most of my days trying to take countermeasures to stop the chaos.  I would hate to shut down the forum after 20 years.

For folks that think having a website must be just a nice hobby, it is not.  Maintaining a website is almost a full-time job.  Between posting, maintaining, updating the site, and in the case of vetting users, it is an incredible amount of work.

Adding to my frustration is the fact that most folks just don’t care to read anymore.  That’s why I have gone to a dual approach on TravelTrailerNation.  Most but not all of my blog posts have associated videos on YouTube.  In my opinion, the content is more detailed on the website, but I think most people just want to watch a video, or so it seems. Let’s face it, you can find a video on just about anything. If you are interested in DIY repairs, there’s probably no better way to learn. I have learned a lot from videos that I have watched.

It has been a very frustrating month with my sites, so I realize this is a bit of a rant.  However, for all my loyal subscribers/viewers to my sites, you have my thanks.  I will do my best to keep these up and running. In particular I would like to thank Dario, probably the 66 beetle forums most frequent visitor for always reaching out to me when there is an issue.