The Atheist Pig

Well my little piglets, we’re back.

If  you’re a fan of the comic, then you’ve noticed that the site has been down for a few days. In case you hadn’t seen my postings on Twitter or Facebook regarding the issue, here it is now in all its gory detail.

Basically the site is growing in popularity, which is awesome. My site was originally hosted at Hostmonster and I had a shared hosting plan over there.

I got an email on Monday from them saying that my account had been terminated for policy violations. I called Hostmonster and they said that it was due to high traffic, which is odd because I’ve had high traffic days before (the George Takei incident being one of the biggest) and while the site slowed to a crawl, they didn’t take any action against me. I even talked to them regarding the traffic issue and thought we had it resolved.

Then came the fart cartoon. Within hours of posting that comic, it hit Reddit and then the shit hit the fan. Who knew a fart joke would’ve been the one to take the site down?

I’m still pretty angry at Hostmonster, and as much as I’d like the president of that company wake up with a severed pig’s head in his bed, I do understand where they’re coming from. Shared hosting means that other websites are on the same server, and when one site is taking up all the resources, everyone else suffers. I’m not such a prima donna who thinks my site, popular as it is, should ruin everyone else’s parade, but I do wish it had been handled differently. A warning or a simple e-mail so I could make arrangements would have been nice, especially since I paid for a year’s worth of hosting and probably won’t get a refund from Hostmonster.

Anyway, I found a new service, A Small Orange, who offers a variety of plans. I talked at length to their support staff (who have been spectacular by the way) to give them a heads up on the situation. I’m still on a shared plan, but they’re going to monitor the traffic and see if I need to upgrade to a dedicated server, which would be great to become that popular, but that option is also very expensive so if I come to that bridge I’ll probably look at putting ads on the site or trying to figure out another way to pay for that.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you who are still here and who have supported this little endeavor by leaving comments, sharing the comics, financial donations and spreading the word. I also need to thank one fan, who asked I respect his privacy and refer to him only as Sleeping Kirby, for his work on getting this site up and running at the new host. Evidently something went wonky with the backup I got from Hosmonster (I think my Johnson rod went bad) and well, it was quite a mess.

I know it’s a cliche to say, but I really do have the best fans, and you’re all appreciated.

And now for new business. I wanted to post this on Monday, but obviously couldn’t get around to it, but I’d like to add more content to the site, mainly in the form of a blog. This site supports both blogging and comics, and between my full-time job, and doing the comic, I have little time left to write good blog posts. Plus the comics aren’t searchable by Google, and blog posts would help bring in more traffic from search results.

So if you have a knack for writing, and would like a platform to share your thoughts on atheism, skepticism, etc, shoot me an e-mail at mike at theatheistpig.com. It’s a non-paying gig for now, but who knows what the future holds.

That’s all for now.

Oink.

Well my little piglets, we’re back. If  you’re a fan of the comic, then you’ve noticed that the site has been down for a few days. In case you hadn’t...

These people look like they’re members of the same group that was in Pittsburgh a few weeks back.

And just remember, these good Christians are only doing this out of love.

Via Joe My God.

These people look like they’re members of the same group that was in Pittsburgh a few weeks back. And just remember, these good Christians are only doing this out of...