Category: Site Admin
PSA – May Is Melanoma Awareness Month
Etiquettehell.com LLC has, for years, been very supportive of various health awareness issues and charities. Very often the issues we support have a personal connection to me or someone within my family or circle of friends. I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in September 2009 resulting in surgery for wide local excision of the melanoma and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Happily my melanoma was caught early enough that it had not spread. Since then PSAs on the Ehell forum has saved lives as people have discovered their own nascent melanomas. Early detection saves lives.
Be aware of your skin and if there is any doubt about an odd mole or coloration, have a doctor check it. Much heartache can be avoided if skin cancer is caught early.
Important Site Update
Update: It appears from the comments that some of you are confused between the difference of “forum” and “blog”. You are currently reading the blog. The forum aka “Community” is accessible via a link on the menu and is entirely different from the blog…different format, different software. The forum is going away, the blog is not.
After 20 years I’ve decided to semi-retire from web administration of the Ehell domain and therefore there will be downsizing the site significantly.
This decision has been coming for several years as advertising revenues have been steadily declining. While Ehell never made huge amounts of money, it did cover the expensive cost of the server and funded many of my charitable projects. The forum is and always has been the largest resource hog of the server. It costs hundreds of dollars a month to host the forum and at this point the forum is not paying its way. Revenue has now gone so low that last month it did not cover the cost of the server and the trend indicates this will be the pattern for the future.
We tried various things in the past 2 years to increase revenue but the major problem is ad blockers. The analytical data is indisputable…..lots of people read the ehell site while using ad blocking. Ehell needs those eyeballs to generate income to support itself. I cannot thwart the ad blockers. There have been a number of tech sites warning of the impending collapse of “free” sites which depend on income derived from people seeing ads but will go under due to ad blockers. Ehell is one of those sites. Ad blockers are changing the internet and nothing will be free to view in the future unless you go through advertising “front gates” or pay a subscription.
So,the plan is to downsize from a dedicated server to a shared server in a month, probably June 7th, significantly reducing costs. The forum will cease to exist at that point and the blog will remain for now.
I will not be approving new members for the forum as of today nor will I be archiving the site. Current members are welcome to head over to the blog and comment (there’s a lively community of regulars commenters there). If current members desire to find another venue to interact with each other, please do take this time to do so. The only restriction is that the name “Etiquette Hell” cannot be used in any context since it is trademarked.
I know there are members who have been active on the forum since it’s creation nearly 15 plus years ago and have witnessed the growing pains, theme changes, drama. Closing the forum is like saying good bye to old friends. I sincerely hope those members migrate to commenting on the blog.
Jeanne
I’m Back!
Sorry, readers, I was engrossed in a large project that consumed my time, my brain and my computer for the past two weeks. Project is wrapping up so the blog is back to business as usual.
Christmas Give Away!
British designer Harold Holdway, in his world-famous 1938 Spode Christmas Tree design, adorned the top of the tree with jolly old St. Nick. We find his design both unique and charming, as do Spode Christmas Tree lovers the world over. The celebrated tree is found in three-dimensional form in these charming 4.75″ Christmas tree salt and pepper shakers. Two sets to win!
The rules are simple. Reply to this post using a valid email address by midnight EST on December 1st. You do not need to put your real name or email address in the comments but using a valid email address when you comment will make sure you receive notification if you win. Each reply comment is automatically assigned a number based on the order in which replies are received. Two winners will be chosen using random.org random number generator and notified by email by the following Sunday, December 3rd. Failure to respond within 3 days to notification of winning means you will forfeit the prize and another random drawing will determine another winner. So check your spam filters!