I started HMTK.com about six years ago, it was June 22, 2002 to be precise when I first purchased this domain. In the early days it was just a collection of statics HTML pages. I cobbled these pages together after my previous Geocities webpage was gobbled up by Yahoo. Anyone else remember those days? The Geocities page is still out there, wonder if you can find it!
I chose the domain name HMTK because HMCG.com was already taken. What does HMTK stand for?
It is a software application I wrote back in 2001 that started out as HMCG (HackMaster Character Generator) but was changed to HMTK because HMCG was in use for the HarnMaster Character Generator! I should have purchased the .net domain name too but I messed up. Someone else now owns that domain.
About two years in I moved HMTK.com to a server that I ran off of my DSL line in my basement. I saved money and I learned a lot about how to run a webserver during that time span. I also learned how unreliable my DSL line was and that the cost savings was not worth the loss of reliablity. For the last few years I have been using shared hosting for HMTK.com.
Shared hosting does save you money but it is not always reliable. All it takes is for one other "shared domain" on the server to suffer a massive influx of traffic and everyone goes down. This has happened too many times to me. In fact it is currently happening to a few of my other websites right now!
Because my sites are now doing well enough to afford for me to pay for a dedicated server I'm now investigating dedicated server options. Because I will be hosting multiple sites off of my dedicated server I am willing to help out those of you who wish to join me on my dedicated server.
I know it seems strange for me to sit and here and tell you how bad shared hosting is and then offer to sell you the same thing but there is a difference. The difference is that I do not want any of my sites to suffer due to a server problem. Like the guy from the hair club says, "I'm not just the owner of the server, I'm also a client."
I will post more details after I sign the forms and begin the move. Suffice to say that a lot of the load-time and lag problems that I have had on this site should soon be a thing of the past.
-- HMTKSteve
Image is CC by flickr user gu_britvic