MYHockey continues to grow. During the past twelve months, MYHockey has had almost 2.7 million page views by tens of thousands of different viewers. I believe those numbers mean that we are providing a service that is appreciated by the hockey community. As I said twelve months ago, it also means other changes must be made.

Twice over the past six months MYHockey has experienced significant outages due to problems by our web hosting provider. During April, the site was taken offline for four days. When that was fixed, email was then lost for another few days. My existing web hosting service provider had been prodding me to upgrade my account again, but this outage told me it might be time to find someone new. After hours of research, I decided on one of the largest hosting companies because they had about a dozen different packages that I could migrate through as the site grows. I had spent days interviewing companies to see if they could handle my requirements. This company sounded the best and I committed. I read the entire 30 pages of terms and conditions. It all looked reasonable. Within an hour of openning my account and paying my bill I hit a snag. As I went to use one of the features of the service, they presented a new condition that was completely unacceptable. I contacted customer support and asked that my money be refunded. They told me that there might be a grey area and to send the legal department an email. A week later I called back and asked to speak with legal. I was informed that you can only email them. When asked what I should do when they don't respond, they had no response. I responded by searching for yet another hosting company. After hours more research and the willingness to accept another significant increase in price, I found another provider. For what I'm paying now, there aren't many restrictions. Lesson: anyone will sell you a cheap, beginner website or even a high traffic basic website, but no one wants to sell you web hosting for a complex, high traffic, database-driven website like MYHockey.

Almost a month later, MYHockey has settled into its new home. There have been a few hiccups along the way and I apologize for any outages during the journey. What is different, you ask? Well, very little from the outside looking in. The one thing you might notice is that myhockeyrankings.com is now the main domain. myhockeyrankings.com no longer points to midwestyouthhockey.com, but it is the other way around. The email addresses have changed to myhockeyrankings.com. This change should be transparent to you. I mention it more for what it symbolizes than the technical consequences. While 90% of MYHockey viewers have only known MYHockey as a site that covers youth hockey nationally and throughout Ontario, its roots and name go back to a time when it only covered Midwest Youth Hockey. MYHockey has not been a "midwest youth hockey" site for a few years. This move marks the end of the midwestyouthhockey.com era and has been long overdue.

What do these changes mean to you? First, all your old bookmarks should continue to work indefinitely. Second, the site should have fewer limitations that might hinder its growth. Third, if you see something that no longer works, please send me an email and let me know. A couple things broke during the move, but I'm pretty sure all have been fixed. The change doesn't mean MYHockey will start charging clients for access to information. It doesn't mean I'll be quitting my day job anytime soon. It doesn't mean there will be any change in our mission - to provide you the best, most complete and accurate information about youth hockey.

Just because MYHockey has pledged not to change our commitment, doesn't mean there won't be any changes. MYHockey has grown every year since its inception and will continue to grow. Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks.