I thought I’d try OSZen on MobileMe yesterday, to see if I could consolidate even more of my online accounts. Unfortunately, the limitations of both iWeb and RapidWeaver became quickly apparent. I pointed 1and1’s DNS servers at MobileMe, and uploaded an iWeb site. I liked the theme, but the first thing that struck me as odd was the URL. In iWeb I configured the site’s name to be OSZen, and to use the Blog page as the home page, but the URL turned out to be http://oszen.net/OSZen/blog/blog.html which for the home page was just ridiculous.
Next, I changed the name of the site to “writing”, and wound up with a home page URL of http://oszen.net/writing/blog/blog.html. Again, ridiculous. I’m assuming that this is Apple’s way of allowing more than one iWeb site, but I wish that it had better support for personal domain names.
The other thing that really bothered me about iWeb’s blogging engine was how each new blog post was formatted with the default theme’s pictures and text. Meaning that for each post I had to delete the picture and change the layout of the page. This equates to worrying far more about how the site looks instead of concentrating on writing.
These two small items were all it took for me to switch the DNS setting for OSZen back to 1and1, and back to the comforting ease of Wordpress. The great thing about Wordpress is that it’s meant for writing and self publishing, and it does it very well. The more recent ability to update itself and it’s plugins only adds to the ease of maintaining your own Wordpress installation. Also, I’ve got MarsEdit, which rocks, and means that I almost never have to actually get into the admin interface of Wordpress. I do all my writing for OSZen from an application that was designed for writing.
I thought it might be fun, since I’m consolidating all of my online accounts and pruning them down, but the truth of the matter is, web hosting at MobileMe is for sharing your family photos with Grandma back home, it’s not a serious blogging platform.
I believe I made the horrendous mistake of choosing a company because it had a 5 page ad in a popular computer magazine. In my opinion 1and1 is a horrible company and many customers have voiced a host of complaints on various blogs. It should be a warning that when their phone is answered by a recording that tells you if you have gotten a notice from NCO, a collection agency, to press a certain number. If they are a reputable business, why do they have to send so many accounts to a collection agency? Also Investigative journalist, Kelli Jack, has written 30 articles about this company and has a suit pending against them. Kelli alleges that 1and1 stole her domain name and sold it. Kelli states: “1and1 should be shut down.”
And finally, the Washington DC, Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau has them listed as “Unsatisfactory” Read comments on the BBB why. Read some customer comments on Red Flag.
Wow, I didn’t realize that so many people were upset with 1&1. I’ll check the references you mentioned. As a matter of fact, oszen has been moved over to jonathanbuys.com, and I now host at Dreamhost.
I got on with 1&1 back in 2002 or 2001, when they first started out they gave away their professional package for free for three years. At the time I didn’t think I could go wrong, and they worked out great for me for a long time. Times changed, and needs changed, and I’ve since stopped doing business with 1&1.