Merry and Bright Roundup
News from December 2024
As this is the last edition of the year, it's time to say a BIG thank you to everyone in our community for keeping the faith that keeps our servers running! Happy Holidays from everyone at Reclaim Hosting!
Announcements
Our year... in your words!
Like many in our community we have definitely felt the pace of work in Higher Ed gathering momentum... and times that used to be a little calmer are now just as busy. That leaves less time to take a step back and appreciate what's been achieved. When we finally did, we found incredible feedback! So here's a taste of what our work has achieved this year... in your words. Thank you :)
Changes to Shared Hosting from January 1st, 2025
Over the past ten years, our Shared Hosting Service has grown from a boutique offering for pioneering students and staff, to a powerful yet affordable package that thousands of customers have come to rely on. With that bigger scale also come much bigger risks, and behind the scenes our team of dedicated infrastructure and support specialists works tirelessly to ensure that your domains remain safe and secure. Building the kind of resilient and robust shared hosting infrastructure however requires a lot of resources and for 2025 we’ve had to make the difficult decision to pass at least some of the increases in our costs onto our clients. Find out what's changing.
Upcoming PHP Version Changes
As time goes on and versions change, we need to update our cPanel servers' default PHP versions and remove deprecated versions. The changes will affect Shared Hosting customers and sites hosted on Domain of One's Own and Managed cPanel servers. We've published plans for those changes for 2025.
Rewatch December's Reclaim Rewind Community Chat
While we'll be taking January off from Community Chats, we'll be back in February, and in the meantime you can still catch up with the festive Community Chat we held earlier this week, with a whole host of very special guests:
Reclaim TV Guide
Reclaim TV: Knowledge Commons with Special Guests from Michigan State University
January 24, 2025 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
The Knowledge Commons is the network for knowledge creators across the disciplines. You can use it to discover the latest open-access scholarship and teaching materials, make interdisciplinary connections, build a WordPress website, and increase the impact of your work by sharing it in the repository.
In this episode we are joined by special guests Larissa Babak and Bonnie Russell from Michigan State University, learning about the network and taking a look behind the scenes of a change in repository platforms.
Catch up with Reclaim TV on Demand
We had a packed schedule in 2024, with plenty of special guests sharing innovation and open practice. Take a look and catch up with anything you've missed, or watch these recent shows on Reclaim TV On Demand:
Check out the Case Study Bonanza - Reclaim Rewind 2024:
Watch (most of) Team Reclaim look back at 2024:
Check out our stream on Public Obsidian notes on cPanel, with Taylor, Pilot & Amanda:
And of course, you can see the updated schedule at any time by checking out events.reclaimhosting.com!
Recent Blog Posts
It's been a great year for blogging, and this month is no different. Over on Bava Tuesday's Jim invites you to Celebrate the Holidays with Reclaim whilst also putting together and end of year WordPress Multiregion Recap.
Taylor's been documenting a blogging transition, sharing open practice in three posts: Who is this?, Some progress and New blog! Noah has also jumped in with open approaches to keep your domain safe & secure, and Reclaim's servers running, with his post Naked and Afraid: Security in the Open. Rounding up the events this month and celebrating community is Maren's Jolly Holidays on the Open Web .
Service and Support updates
Contact us for help & support via our support portal.
Updated PHP documentation
With our recent announcement that we're changing the inherited version of PHP to 8.1, you may need to change the PHP version in cPanel. Never fear! We've got you covered with our process outlined in our documentation. If you run into any errors after the change, we recommend following our guide to troubleshooting common WordPress errors.
Staff Picks
And finally, for some end of year fun and inspiration, take a look at:
- Taylor's finds which include the open source Death Generator and a tool to rewrite screens from your favourite PC game;
- Community Member Mark's reflections on blogging, digital storytelling and the DS106 Radio Summer Camp.
Happy Holidays from everyone at Reclaim Hosting! Here's to 2025!