How to Cope with Strategy Planet

Once again we have caught up with Caddy in her home at the villa on Brasket Island. We are in the kitchen on the first floor, where she has just finished eating breakfast. And, once again, we've managed to catch her before she has had a chance to get dressed for work.

Caddy says, "If you have tried to access downloads on any of the sites hosted on Strategy Planet, you probably have run into nothing but 'file not found' errors. Don't worry; it's not your fault.

"It's not even the Simsmasters' fault, except for one thing: The problem is their choice of web hosting services.

"Strategy Planet requires that you have a Gamespy ID. You can work around this by manually editing the URL every time you want to download something: Replace 'http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?' with 'http://xferla4.fileplanet.com/'.

"Frankly, for me, it's not worth the hassle in either case. I don't want to have to keep track of yet another set of login credentials, I don't want to give my email address to yet another spam service, and I'd have to reallywant a specific download to bother with navigating through three web pages and then manually editing a URL every time I wanted to download something.

"There's really only one solution for the webmaster: Move to a different web hosting service.

"Strategy Planet just isn't worth the hassle. Use of those idiotic Active Server Pages is bad enough ('.asp' is the Mark of a Moron), but I can't imagine why anyone who put so much work into creating downloadable Sims stuff -- or anything else, for that matter -- would tolerate their clumsy download scheme when there are so many good alternatives available.

An Alternative for Small Sims Sites

"I don't want to just whine about the problem if I can't help fix it, so I asked Greg if his offer to host homeless Sims sites on Moon Sims could be extended to refugees from Strategy Planet and similar web hosting services. Here is an updated record of what he said:

'Of course! We can add any Sims site that needs a home as long as it's not too big and doesn't have content that would be inappropriate for Moon Sims. We can keep adding sites until we start to wear out our welcome on the CyberTeams server. At the moment we are not even a blip on the radar, so we have lots of room for more sites. CyberTeams will know well in advance if we are approaching a point where we are interfering with their business, and they will tell us about it, so I'm not worried. Even if CyberTeams tells us to stop adding sites, we shouldn't have to move anybody that is already there.

'We can deploy WebSite Director Express for every new site, so it will be easy as pie for Sims webmasters to get their stuff on line and maintain their web sites. I think they will enjoy the rather powerful web management features that come with WebSite Director Express, too.'

"So there you have it, simsmasters. It's not every day that somebody offers you web hosting supported by $1200 worth of web management software for free! For the rest of the story, read Greg's open letter to Sims webmasters. If you like the idea, then write to me at moonsims@asi.org and we'll get things rolling!

"Don't be shy about taking Greg up on his offer. He would be more than pleased to make space for you on Moon Sims.

"Hmmmm? You like this outfit, too? Well sure, why not? Here's a download page for me in my cut-offs. Just promise not to let Bruce see me dressed like this!"

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