I started this website fifteen years ago today, and we’ve come a long ways since then. Three reboots, two crashes, and hopefully now it looks better than ever due to the hard work of around twenty WordPress technicians back in January and February of this year. Thankfully, there are still plenty of new things to discover, such as the random storefront I spotted a couple of weeks ago, to keep me interested for decades to come. I don’t see it possible to run out of places and buildings to photograph ever.
I do want to take the time to thank several people who helped me out to get the website up and running again when it crashed–badly–back in January. First of all, Jason Gray provided valuable advice and connections to help fix things. Second, Steven Lay also helped out, and most importantly recommended UpDraft Plus years ago, which proved critical back in January. Finally, of the most importance, Kevin Myers was able to restore over ten years of posts, representing perhaps hundreds of thousands of words and tens of thousands of photos from oblivion when he used that UpDraft Plus Backup file Steve had recommended so many years ago. That would have been a complete disaster, to say the least, if he hadn’t done that. I’m so grateful for Jason, Steve and Kevin for helping me out when I needed it so much.
Congratulations on fifteen years. Here’s to fifteen more.
What exactly caused the site to crash? From my end, it worked just fine until the day it didn’t. So what was going on behind the scenes to cause it to go down, almost permanently.
Your guess is as good as mine! It is now being hosted by WordPress and is stable and secure, backed up daily.
I liked the old look. I like the new look. Thanks for showing me a bit of St Louis every day. Especially the North.
Thank you! Hopefully the new look is at least a little easier to look at.
Living abroad as I do, this website is a wonderful window into my city, including places I would never have traveled. Thank you so much for your hard work. It means so much to so many of us.
Thank you! What country are you reading from?
I live in Daegu, South Korea.
Oh interesting!
I feel as though you have almost a calling from God to be a remembrancer of St Louis.
Thank you, it means a lot.
Congratulations on 15 years!
Congratulations Chris!
Always interested in seeing your posts.
Congrats Chris and thanks for all the fascinating content and your dedication to preserving the grand architecture of St. Louis!
Thank you!