So, friends and followers,

I have engaged Fifth Mission Marketing to revamp the website.

In the near future we will be remaking the Western Trail Rider website.  For about the past year I have been having trouble keeping the website functioning. When I set it up, back in 2012, I had plenty of time on my hands, having recently retired, so I was able to spend the time to create the website using all open-source software, including WordPress for the blog, Coppermine for the member photo gallery, and PHPBB3 for the forums. I was able to tie all three programs together using WP United, which allowed a single log-in to enter each of the aforementioned programs on the website. Then, during the fall of last year, while I was moving, the website came under fire from spammers. While I wasn’t paying attention the site received more than 5,000 spam member registrations on the forums, which I had to delete manually, almost one-by-one, because PHPBB3 didn’t have a function for bulk member deletions. There was so much good information on the forums already that I didn’t want to simply trash it all. I cleaned it all up, but still couldn’t seem to keep spam operators from registering on the site. I just didn’t have the time to monitor it every day to keep up with them.

Then came along several major updates to WordPress, which broke the functionality of WP United, so the programs no longer talked to each other. WP United is no longer supported, so it’s broke for good. Then came updates to the other two programs, by which time I was lost and none of the programs were functioning properly. I hired Fifth Mission to get the website functioning just in time for Dad and I to embark on the first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip last spring. It worked for a little while, but another major update from WordPress while I was out broke things again.  Well, I was frustrated and sort of gave up on it for a while, besides, I was fully engaged in building up a new business.

Now that I’m back in gear and working on planning and preparations for next year’s second leg of the pack trip, I’m also working on getting the website back in gear.

Here’s the plan:  Fifth Mission will be hosting my website. They will redesign it using a new WordPress theme, adding several new and “high-speed-low-drag” functionalities to the site. The new theme incorporates a photo management function, which will replace Coppermine as the member gallery. There will be a map, sort of like what you see on Google Maps, with small icons on it that are clickable by members. When you click on the icon, you will go to a page that holds photos, comments, and writeups on a particular trail located under that icon on the map. This will take the place of the forums. We are still working out details of how to conduct other discussions, such as gear, trail tactics and strategy, etc., in a forum-style format, but there will be something.

The downside is that all the current website members and followers are going to have to register again. Sorry about that, but in order to keep the spammers off, we are going to have to start from scratch and rebuild everything. This time it will be all under one program and with one company hosting it and watching over me and the website. When there is an update, everything will be compatible and will keep on working. I am optimistic that in this way I will be able to keep things up and running.

So, in the not-too-distant future, look for some major changes on the website.

Stay tuned for new updates on my preparations for the second leg of the big ride.