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We’ve just sent out a press release from the Zoopy HQ:

Zoopy increases media delivery speed with local hosting

Two months after receiving investment from Vodacom (which now owns a
40% stake in the company), South African social media site Zoopy has
started to roll out some of the large scale community improvements
they hinted at when announcing the Vodacom deal.

Members of Zoopy.com, which launched in March 2007, are able to upload
and share videos, photos, podcasts and blogs - both online and via a
choice of mobile applications. Until now, users have been doing so
using international bandwidth to connect to Zoopy’s overseas servers.
This is standard practice for most medium to large online businesses
in South Africa, who are often left with little option but to host
internationally when faced with much higher local hosting fees. The
downside to hosting outside of the country, however, is reduced
loading speed of websites and, in Zoopy’s case, media files like
videos and photos.

According to Zoopy CEO, Jason Elk, this is now a thing of the past for
Zoopy visitors. “As of today, we have servers in South Africa that
will deliver Zoopy content using local bandwidth for South Africans.
The significantly slower international speeds and low bandwidth caps
in SA (many users only budget for the 3gb they receive per month) have
left us as frustrated as any other internet user in the country. So
we’re prepared to do what it takes to deliver our media at amazing
speeds, whether viewed on Zoopy.com or embedded on other sites or
blogs. And for our members, an increase in upload speeds when adding
media to your Zoopy profile will make things quicker and more
convenient too,” says Elk.

Zoopy has also just increased their upload file size limit from 100mb
to 200mb. Elk explains, “If we’re giving visitors a quicker and more
comfortable experience over local bandwidth, we wanted to add to the
enjoyment by giving them more space to express themselves as well.
Members now have 200mb to play with and can upload longer or better
quality versions of their videos, for example. As always, this service
remains completely free.”

“These improvements are part of a determined plan to bring the Zoopy
community everything they need to manage, view and share their media
in all the ways they’ve hoped for, and more”.

This is a very important step for us for various reasons. I wont go in to much detail as there is an entire blog post dedicated to the topic on the Zoopy Blog so head over and read it.

For now visit muti and digg and vote up the post.

Some people have noticed that Amatomu is down and has been for a few days. This is true, Vincent twittered this fact and asked that we all be patient. As a dedicated Amatomu user I must admit I am having withdrawal symptoms.

The simple, short and sweet reason for this is that we have relocated Amatomu to Afrihost as our host of choice. Gian was quick to jump at the chance to host the site and saw it as a challenge. He’s probably right. His team have been helpful with the move but it has taken slightly longer than expected.

Some sites may be experiencing slow loading of their templates. Removing the tracking code might or might not be a quick fix for the problem but issues from our side will be resolved soon and then you’ll simply have to place the code back in to your template.

There is a very good reason for this I might add, it has to do with expensive and ineffective hosting packages offered.

SA Rocks is now down due to exceeding of bandwidth limits. Brilliant. So what hosting organisations in SA are saying is they are happy to take our money but will only let our sites run up to 2GB per month of bandwidth. What rubbish.

There is no promotion of success, no assistance to become a prominent website, it is as if hosts just don’t want to see local sites succeed. Why, why is it not possible, what is wrong with this damn industry?

I am now forced to either pay 9c per mb over 2GB, or host internationally, both are lose lose for me. Does anyone have any fast and effective suggestions?

Update: My hosts have been extremely gracious and increased my bandwidth for the last days of this month. What nice guys/girls!

I read the article that appeared on My Broadband and think it was a fair and equal representation of the situation of hosting in SA. SA Rocks is hosted locally but not necessarily because it is the best option. I chose to host it here because it is very tough to promote SA in the USA.

I must however comment on this situation, as the original article does. Here is my comment: “It costs me a R100 a month, at the least, to host SA Rocks locally, what a ball ache. Stupid local hosts, ripoffs, mo-fo’s.”

I feel like a Ho, I feel like I am being used and abused, but instead of them paying me, I am forking out the cash. I want to know, more substantially than an a single article, why it costs me, as a blogger, R100 to host here in SA? It is cheaper for me to be hosting 3 sites abroad than it is to host one blog.

Surely there is some sort of intelligent life out there in the world of hosts and service providers that can see the blogging boom occurring here in SA? Surely they can figure that quantity is massive and thus if the hosting price is dropped it might be beneficial in the long run? having 10 bloggers at R50 a month is better than one at R100 a month. Half those exorbitant price for a while, do a test and see what happens. In that test period, make it known to bloggers and webdesigners that this offer is on. Go on, I dare you, take a leap of faith and see what happens?

It takes on company to break the mold. The article at My Broadband sites a vicious circle of selfishness (in my opinion) that perpetuates this situation. Why doesn’t one hosting company/service provided try something new and see what happens, you can afford it, I’m sure!

I am considering a change in name and url for Shutterview. I am tired of Googling my blog and finding another site. I am tired of hiding behind my blog with my opinions. I think I am perfectly happy for people to know who I am by the name of my blog. I have never hidden behind my blog url but also never promote who I am.

I am just a bit stuck about hosting, url purchase, design etc etc etc. So, if you have any suggestions, thoughts or comments, feel free to send them through.

I am considering an obvious but easy http://nicharalambous.com as the new url.

Is it worth the admin of resubmitting, reclaiming, technorati ranking, google ranking, alexia, RSS feeds, subscription losses etc etc etc? I’m not sure, but I am sure that I am fed up with blogger in a big way.