Back over the summer, our senior writer Laura shared a quick editorial on the state of the Wizrocklopedia, our history with the site, and what things looked like moving forward due to staffing levels and schedules.

Today we needed to come to you with another update on the Wizrocklopedia’s status, and we hope that you may have some input for us.

As you may know, since 2013 Richard Grooms (aka Undesireable #1, go download his wizard rap now if you don’t own it!) has very graciously hosted this site on his server completely free of charge. He stepped up huge for the site during a time when the ‘pedia was offline for a while due to a combination of technical and billing issues. For his efforts and generosity, we will always extend our sincere gratitude.

However, the time has come for Richard to shut down his server, which means the ‘pedia needs to find a new home. His server is set to go offline at the end of this month, which leaves us a very short window to decide what to do with the Wizrocklopedia, and make the moves we need to make.

After some conversation between the staff last night, here are the options we wanted to share with all of you, our readers new and old.

Move the site to a free webhosting platform

This option would ensure that billing issues didn’t impact the hosting of the ‘pedia, and it could still exist as a historical resource while being updated with info on new releases, shows, tours, etc. The downside to this option is that the sheer size of the ‘pedia may cause some of the older info to be lost, along with some of the custom features and designs built into the site. There are almost 200 pages not linked above that can be found on the site via searches, many of which detail the early days, shows, tours, and releases of wizard rock.

We can still post new articles on releases & bands, and of course our Twitter & Facebook feeds will remain intact if this is the route we need to take.

Move the site to another paid webhosting platform

This option would allow us to keep the ‘pedia completely intact, without losing any of the older pages, links, files, etc. We’d also be able to keep the appearance and features exactly the same as they exist today. The downside to this option is cost – we’d need to buy a package to host the site for 2-3 years which runs around $100-$120 or so based on the web host. This site has always been run by volunteers, which means we’d need to take up a collection, or set up a crowdsourced campaign to quickly raise the funds to keep the site afloat for a 3 year period. Then, once that period was up, we’d again need to figure out funding.

So where do things stand now?

After discussing the options last night, we’d like to see if our readers would be open to helping fund web hosting for the ‘pedia for the next 3 years or so. This would ensure that everything stays the same as far as content and site availability for everyone. We fully recognize and acknowledge that the site isn’t updated as much as it could (and should) be due to current staffing levels, however we feel very strongly that it should stay online thanks to how much info it holds for wizard rock fans both new and old, and we want it online to help promote current music as much as we can.

We hope to have some info for you shortly on fundraising, and in a worst case scenario, if we aren’t able to raise what we need, we can still move the site to a free hosting platform to keep it online for those who still visit and use our resources. We can’t guarantee how much of the site will remain online, but we will do our absolute best.

Thank you very much for reading, and if you have any thoughts, ideas, or comments, feel free to leave them below or hit us up on Twitter!