And boy was it needed!

Our old website was borked after the webhoster upgraded PHP, which Joomla (1.1…) could not handle. Many pages did not show content but merely an error message, so it was time for action. After some deliberation we decided to do something radical and 1) move away from our old webhoster, and b) switch to WordPress.

For changing the webhoster we have several reasons. The server that we’re using now is actually ours, so we have much more freedom and control over what happens. Furthermore, given the recent (at the time of writing) issues regarding the NSA monitoring everything and everyone that is even remotely related to the US, switching over from an American to a Dutch hosting provider seems like a good idea. Granted, the Dutch have ‘Brein’, an agency vetted to shut down every website that allows the downloading of copyrighted material through whatever means necessary, but it is the lesser of two evils. Extra bonus: ping times for Europeans (our main target audience) will have dropped significantly and this should provide a better browsing experience.

About the switch to WordPress… Joomla’s user interface (mostly on the admin side) is quite cumbersome. Because our website doesn’t have that many fancy requirements, we believe WordPress is a better solution - easier to use, and easier to update ;o)

We’ve copied over the old forum (will change the layout to match the new website later on), user accounts are still the same so if you had one you can still use it. Old news messages are not transferred so we’re keeping it fresh, yo. In the new design we hope to “sell” URD better by focusing on clarifying what URD can do and why people should use it. If you have any tips or questions, please post them in our forum. There’s a button that will take you to it somewhere on this page