Okay, folks. We've been hard at work behind the scenes at coming up with a new home for the forum. This is necessary to ensure our survival for the following reasons:

• LUSENET currently resides on a server that is not being maintained or upgraded. This means that at some point, it WILL disappear, or at least get changed to a service that you will have to pay for.
• We currently have nearly 500 megabytes of data in the archives. This invaluable homesteading resource must be preserved.
• As you may have noticed in the past 24 hours, the server was down for nearly a day, making the forum unavailable. These outages will likely become more frequent in the future as the load on the server grows, and as the amount of data on it increases.
• There are some drawbacks to the current forum that could be improved upon.

Let me assure you that we will do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to preserve the look and feel of the forum, and intend to keep it a free service that is open to all. We are discussing different options available for getting the forum to be financially self-sustaining, but failing that, may simply have to ask for donations to keep it going. One way or another, however, we'll do everything possible to preserve it.

One of the first things that we'll need to do is choose a new name for the forum. Countryside magazine is nicely allowing us to keep the current name until we decide on a new one, but that will not continue indefinitely. Therefore, we must agree upon a new name.

Here are some of the suggestions that have been given:

thehomesteaders.net

homesteadingtoday.com

homesteadhelp.com

countryhomesteaders.com

Please weigh in with your $.02 on this one. I'll take the best liked names and we'll go with it. If you have a suggestion that is not listed here, feel free to suggest it.

We won't do anything quickly, and without much opportunity for your input. This is YOUR forum now, let's do what we can to preserve it.

Thanks,

-- Chuck (woah@mission4me.com), February 27, 2002

Answers

I'll weigh in for Homesteadingtoday.com. Online discussion forums by their nature are about what is happening right now. Since the purpose of this forum is to discuss homesteading related issues that pretty much makes us the state of Homesteading Today.

Thanks for going through the trouble Chuck. Like it or not, Lusenet is becoming increasingly untenable. Better to find a solution before the whole place just implodes on us.

.......Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), February 27, 2002.

Hi Chuck

I like countryhomesteaders.com. You're doing a great job running the forum. THANK YOU!!!

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), February 27, 2002.

homesteadhelp.com People need to know that help is available here. Linda

-- Linda Samples (awesomegodchristianministries@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I vote for homesteadingtoday.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

I like Homesteadingtoday.com. This includes our friends, the urban homesteader. And the definition of homesteader fluctuates, so we may see more folks not out in the country.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), February 27, 2002.

homesteadingtoday gets my vote - Alan was right - online forums are about what's happening now; today - even up to the minute!

THANKS Chuck - good suggestions

-- heather (h.m.metheny@att.net), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday.com. Are these the ones that it's been narrowed down to? or just some ideas?

-- Carol K (ck7951@bluefrognet.net), February 27, 2002.

homesteadhelp.com says it all. My two cents worth!

-- Terran in VT (homefire@sover.net), February 27, 2002.

I think homesteadingtoday.com is the best one. Homesteading has changed over the decades (a homesteading computer forum??? Who would have thought!!). The name is more in content with what we are all about.

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

My favorite of the ones I've seen suggested(on another thread) is Countryfied. But, any of these names is fine with me. It only needs to be something easy to remember to make me happy.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

Isn't a .org cheaper then a .com? and isn't a .com more of a commerical application? and a .org more for informational purposes only? or even a .net? sorry I am not familiar with the newer 'dot' names.

Oh...couldn't this be a college of learning and call it a .edu? well it was worth a try.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I liked countrysighed which I saw in a previous thread - but agree with the last message - as long as it's easy to remember any is fine.

-- Debbie in IL (debbie@fli-soft.com), February 27, 2002.

Homesteadingtoday.com gets my vote![tho homesteadertoday.com sounds smoother...] & check out www.unicycling.com for a way slick & fast loading & well maintained site & server. One mr.gilby runs it, maybe he would rent out to our cantankerous selves?

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), February 27, 2002.

IMHO, homesteadhelp seems to be the least cumbersome and seems to say what we want to be and do.

-- LBD, Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

Well, I have little concern over the domain name. lsjdjklsdljksdlk.com is just as good as homesteadingtoday.com People are going to bookmark where they want to go and a search engine will find you as well in time.

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday.com or .net whichever. Thanks for all the work Chuck, we should double your salary :D Another site I visit uses a PayPal account to accept donations for server fees, upgrades and maintenance or a P.O. Box to send donations by snail mail. They do a fundraising drive once a year. Seems to work well for them so I thought I'd mention it.

Will the new format hopefully have better search features for the archives? Thanks again.

-- Susan in MO (smtroxel@socket.net), February 27, 2002.

All of them sound fine with me, but if I was to be held down and tickled until I gave an answer, homesteadingtoday.com gets my vote. Whatever keeps this valuble resource . . . man, I can't believe how much I LEARN from everybody here. And the Archives below is even better. Thank you for your efforts.

And thanks for asking for a consensus about a new name.

-- j.r. guerra in s. tx. (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), February 27, 2002.

I'm with Gary. As long as it's up and runnin--. I use a shortcut icon on my desktop anyhow. Thanks Chuck for all the help! old hoot. Matt.24;44

-- old hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), February 27, 2002.

I really don't care what name is picked. A rose by any other name is still a rose!! LOL!

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

does that mean it wil cost $.02 to post a question or an answer from now on? What about religious questions,, since churches are tax free,, do they still get charged?

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 27, 2002.

I too like homesteading today.

-- AyleeAnn (AyleeAnn@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

how about: countryfolks.net or countryliving.net

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), February 27, 2002.

They're all good. The name doesn't really matter. I just hope there can be some kind of transition from one to the other ie redirection when you go to the old address sending you to the new.

Let me tell you, the site being down for the day yesterday made me wonder if I had missed something. I felt like I had come home after work, and everyone had moved without a forwarding address. Panic!!

-- Bernie from Northern Ontario (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

homesteadingtoday.com sounds fine with me since everyone is liking the sound of it. My second would be countryhomesteaders.com.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), February 27, 2002.

Homesteadersforum? If not that then Homesteadhelp and third choice: Homesteading today.

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), February 27, 2002.

I think homesteadingtoday is a good one. Covers what we're talking about on this forum.

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

Any of those sound ok to me, Chuck. I just hit the bookmark to get here, anyway. :) I spend so much time here that I'd be glad to donate to keep things running---it's definitely worth the price of admission. Thanks for all you are doing. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), February 27, 2002.

Hi everone im with debbie i like countryfied kinda what i am. altho second choice would be homesteadingtoday. Chuck thanks for all the work. whatever is chosen will be fine for me. Bob se,ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@kans.com), February 27, 2002.

Add my vote for homesteadingtoday. Also, I like the Paypal idea for contributions.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), February 27, 2002.

I'd like to keep a little bit country, myself. Countryhomesteaders IS long, but it appears to available and it is memorable. The length won't matter if you bookmark it or add it to your favorites or whatever your browser calls it; or if you get there by a search engine.

Registering a .com name with Joker is quite inexpensive, and you can take up to five years at a time. A lot of people - perhaps just starting on the net - just assume .com - they don't know about .net and .org and .gov and .edu and search engines and so forth. Look at the people who wound up at that porno site called whitehouse.com because they assumed the .com and didn't think about .gov. Maybe those newbies are the ones who'll need the forum, and maybe ones the forum will need as well.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 27, 2002.

I prefer something with 'Country' in it. I'd like to avoid the 'Homestead' based names as many of us are not "homesteaders" per se. A 'Country' name would keep the name closer to the forum roots, too.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

I'm not a homesteader so I'd like to keep the country in the name so I'm going for countryhomesteaders, although I'm not crazy about it. I think just the homesteaders name would discourage alot of people who just live a country life, like me. I don't think I would have gotten the magazine in the first place if it was called Homesteading. And I found the Forum from the magazine, so...

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), February 27, 2002.

Well now, am I the only one with any questions?? Like who is WE that you are talking about Chuck?? How did we go from Ken and Dave assuring us that Lucenet was going to be somewhat reformated but would remain to we have to move?? I have trouble at least once a month accessing Yahoo cause they are having server problems, where are we going that won't have problems?? I really am confused here and not trying to be the ONLY desenting voice.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday.com too!

-- george nh (rcoopwalpole@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

So far, I like Jamie's suggestions the best. However, let us not be too quick. I will also suggest: "Beyondsidewalks.com", Boonies.com", "Ruralliving.com", "Livingwell.com", Selfsufficient.com", or (my favorite) "Ruralfolks.com". Doesn't matter, if we can continue to keep and nurture the friends we have found here, and the wonderful comaraderie of helping each other. Over the years I think I have helped a few folks. I know that I have been helped many times. GL to all! And Chuck - thanks!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), February 27, 2002.

Dianne,

Good questions.

WE in this case is ME and a couple of friends who are BRILLIANT computer nerds and will program in exchange for pizza. They will help me when it comes time to port over the archives and such, so that I can be sure I don't screw something up.

LUSENET will survive for some indefinite period of time. It could be a month, or it could be ten years. We don't know. The fact of the matter is, LUSENET is a philanthropic venture of sorts on the part of Phil Greenspun, and he has no reason to keep it going when it comes to putting money into upgrades and such. He told me he'd like to see it eventually get rolled into Photo.net, and change it to some form of subscriber based system.

I don't know of Mr. Greenspun ever having visited this forum, and it's pretty logical that we'll take better care of our forum than he will. The bottom line is that we should be proactive about this and prepare to keep the forum going on our own.

The other issue is that, regardless of what the future of LUSENET is, we will eventually have to shut down this forum because Countryside will not allow us to continue using their name forever. It is not possible to simply change the name of the forum and keep it on LUSENET, unless we wanted to lose the archives, something I don't think anyone is willing to allow. We COULD simply start a new forum here on lusenet, but again, we'd lose the archives.

There will be many benefits of taking the forum to another venue, like the ability to search the archives, or to customize the forum questions that you see, so for example, if you don't want to see any religious posts, you could set it up so that threads in that category simply don't show up on your screen. Changing to a new venue would also make MY job as moderator MUCH easier, as I could automate many of the tasks that I must now do manually.

I hope that answers your questions. Thanks again for asking.

-- Chuck (reply@mission4me.com), February 27, 2002.

Brad, most of those that you suggested are already taken. So are the ones that Jamie suggested. (actually, countryliving.net IS available, but countryliving.com belongs to a country living magazine, which could be confusing.)

Keep the suggestions coming, though.

I neglected to mention that we COULD pick up more than one domain name, but it would increase the cost by about $10 a year for every one we register.

I'm going to go ahead and register homesteadingtoday.com, since it looks like the majority of posters like that one. That way we have it, and even if it turns out that we go with something else, better safe than sorry. I wonder sometimes if these companies don't monitor the queries that people send on which domain names aren't taken, then buy them up before you can get them so that they can offer to sell it back to you at a higher price. I've had it happen....

-- chuck in md (reply@mission4me.com), February 27, 2002.

Thank you Chuck........I really was not aware that we could not change the name of the forum or that they really would have the archives destroyed rather than have their name on them. Interesting. I appreciate the work that you are doing by the way. I just was aware from other forum moderators on this server that a forum could be locked down so that the archives were there but no new posting could be done. Your have answered all my questions and I appreciate it.

I am just one of those people that is never all that crazy about change and have enjoyed the "shopping mall" on Lucenet and would not be too likely to migrate. I have links to many other homestead minded sites, but seldom visit them because I really like this format. I hope that you are actually able to pull it off and wish you well.

Once again, thank you.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday.com

but as long as I can get to the site I'm not too fussy about the name.

-- Anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), February 27, 2002.

Chuck, I also like Homesteadingtoday.com. I know I'm late and you've already chosen, but I thought I'd let you know that I like the name also.

Thanks.

-- Mary in East TN (barnwood@preferred.com), February 27, 2002.

I haven't already chosen, but it does look like there's a trend here...

-- chuck in md (reply@mission4me.com), February 27, 2002.

I like the Homesteadingtoday, also. It shows new ideas/ways are acceptable and sometimes even better, than the old ways but would still support the time honored basics and ideals that homesteading implies.

-- Thumper/inOKC (slrldr@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

homestead help

-- js (schlicker54@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

Homesteadingtoday.com best represents the content of this forum.

-- Rebekah in BC (rebekah_swinden@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

Homesteadingtoday.com. Sounds good to me!

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), February 27, 2002.

homesteadingtoday.com sounds good to me. all who use this forum may not be homesteaders but it was meant to help answer questions for Country side's readers wasn't it? Most are homesteaders or wanna be's.

-- Corky Wolf (corkywolf@hotmail.net), February 27, 2002.

Chuck , I am a newbie here but I think I have the answer. Remember when Prince changed his name to a symbol? If memory serves me after that he was refered to as "the artist formerly known as Prince" see where I'm going..."the Forum formerly known as Countryside" Sorry couldn't resist. I like Homesteadhelp.com peace tom

-- tom (wysfarm@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

I vote for countryhomesteaders.com.

-- Cindy in NY (cjpopeck@worldnet.att.net), February 27, 2002.

I like,, kill em and grill em

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 27, 2002.

Looks like a concensus to me, too, but I'll go with homesteadingtoday or whatever the general favorite is. Doesn't matter as long as we keep on with this great bunch of info and folks. I'd vote to increase your salary, too, Chuck! We certainly ought to give Ken a bonus, too, for all his hard work. Thanks for taking on this huge headache. Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), February 27, 2002.

countryhomesteaders.com I don't know why, but homesteadingtoday.com sounds too slick for some reason. Also, if someone was doing a search, what would they be most likely to type in to find us? Something with "country" in it? Just a thought. Any name would be fine though. Thanks for all the hard work, Chuck.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), February 27, 2002.

I vote for Countryfolk. I think all homesteaders would consider themselves country folk, but not all country folk consider themselves homesteaders.

-- Dianne (willow@config.com), February 27, 2002.

homesteadingtoday.com is agreeable.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday. Says what this is all about.

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), February 27, 2002.

I like homesteadingtoday.com but homesteadhelp.com seems easier to remember correctly (I know everyone will bookmark and icon, but I mean for word of mouth and internet searches.

-- Rick in SW West Virginia (Rick_122@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

My vote would be for homesteadingtoday. Countryhomesteaders sounds like it precludes those that live with the homestead mindset, but aren't in the country, and homesteadhelp makes me think of FAQ's and I would probably skip it if I was doing a search. While this forum is about getting questions answered, it is also about sharing and discussing an outlook on life that is different from the vast majority of folks.

Thanks for letting us put our 2 cents in Chuck, I really appreciate your fair minded efforts.

-- Jane (jwagman@mail.com), February 27, 2002.

Whatever name is available is OK with me. Just keep the forum going. If you need a vote, something with Country in it is good for us. Thanks everyone for your input on the different subjects, especially Vicki for the goat info. Good job!

-- Hank (hsnrs@att.net), February 27, 2002.

whateverworks.com. I'm just glad great minds are spinning their wheels on it. this is a nice little community. thanx.

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

I vote for homesteadingtoday.com. Thanks Chuck for a good job.

-- Terry Theckston (tterrym@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

Just to be different. How about Today'sHomesteader.whatever! Darlene

-- Darlene in W WA (tomdarsavy@cs.com), February 28, 2002.

Myself, I really don't care what the name is as long as I can find it and there's still all these good people posting on it.

-- Terri in WV (mrs_swift_26547@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

I'll add my vote for homesteadingtoday. Thanks Chuck, you're the greatest!

-- Debbie in MO (risingwind@socket.net), February 28, 2002.

homesteadingtoday gets my vote.

I know some would rather have country in the word as they don't think of themselves as homesteaders. But as we have agreed before it is the mindset wherever you are and some of us aren't in the country either. "Country" these days intones the fru-fru parts like decorating and bed and breakfast that are cute. We go beyond that.

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), February 28, 2002.

I still like ChucksPlace or some such. Like ChuckBailedUsOut.com... Anything you want is fine. Countrified made me think of CountryFried... Sure could go for some Fried Chicken with biscuits 'bout now..... Thanks again, Chuck! (My 2¢ worth) p.s. for most applications type your number and then hold down ALT and punch in 0162 to get a cent sign... later later

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), February 28, 2002.

I vote for Homesteadingtoday. Thank you, Chuck.

-- Sandy in MN (onestonefarm@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

I vote for homesteadingtoday.com It certainly says it all. Thanks for your hard work chuck. litl, Kristean

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

homesteadingtoday.com is good, and specific enough for a search engine.

Jody

-- Jody (ruready@cin.net), February 28, 2002.

I'm voting Homesteadingtoday also...sure sounds alot better that stop- me-before-I-throw-in-the-towel.com..........eh? P.S. Chuck I'm still laughing about the birthday shopping horror story! Thanks!

-- Harmony (harmonyfarm57@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

Chuck, I just found this great place a few weeks back..im happy to see the you are takeing the bull by the horns so to speek..lol I like the Homesteadingtoday, but hey your the man with the plan..and I will also be sending you $ for the CD that you are offering, at such a great price..I wanna thank you for doing such a wonderful thing.For all of us here..God Bless You Chuck....Amelia Kay

-- Amelia Kay Drennan (bluegrassgirl@charter.net), February 28, 2002.

Since most of us found our way to this site via Countryside Mag..how about www.countrysideliving. or csmagliving or jdsdisciples ? Well so much for my $.02 worth.

-- Billl...Alderson, WV (ewvaughn@mtneer.net), March 01, 2002.