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Blog Flux Directory

A Slow Motion Move · Dec 3, 01:23 PM

As I noted in the update to the last post, I have become disenchanted with the voice I had fallen into on this weblog. I suppose everyone needs an outlet for their various angers & I suppose a weblog is as good an outlet as any, but I have grown weary of rehearsing others’ perfidy & my own angers. It is time for a change.

It is also time for a change of technology. I can’t complain about the basic functionality of Textpattern, but it is more difficult for a technical dunce like me to use that several other options. Back in the 80s it was considered very cool for guys like me to do the maintenance on our VW Beetles ourselves. I had the Idiot’s Guide to VW Repair & I really tried to do the work myself, but I hated it. I wasn’t any good at it & it filled me with anxiety to, say, set the timing myself. When I was finally making enough money to buy a car with electronics I couldn’t adjust, I happily made the move to hiring a professional mechanic for all except the most minor problems. And these days I don’t even change my own oil. And that is how I have come to feel about blogging. I just want to put the key in the ignition & go.

The easiest solution, of course, would be to just fire up a Blogger site (that’s how I began five years ago) or use one of the other hosted services. WordPress looks like an attractive option. I could have a blog hosted on the WP server in two minutes. I am vain enough, however, to want my own domain. To that end, I have been looking around for a WP template (I think I’ve found one that will work) & I’m now looking for someone to set it up for me. Yes, I could probably set it up myself & I even got a friend who can hack any software you can name to send me instructions for doing it myself, but sitting down to begin, I just got that whole VW repair feeling again.

So I’m exploring a couple of possibilities. I thought I had someone to do the work & help me customize a new site, but that deal fell through. There are a couple of students at the Clarkson Open Source Institute who have helped me before, but I don’t like to impose on them.

I am also changing blog hosts. This is a fairly counter-intuitive decision. Because I came very early to Textdrive, I have lifetime hosting. I don’t have to pay another cent as long as TXD is in business, but the truth is, I have grown disenchanted with the Textdrive attitude. Every time over the last year that I have had an interaction with a Textdrive staff person, whether in the formal ticket system or on the forums, I have gotten the feeling that helping me was just a terrific pain in the ass. Even the mildest complaints are treated like a personal affront. Textdrive is no doubt a great service for all those people who want to tune up their own VWs, but there is real disdain there for those of us who don’t.

I have opened an account at Bluehost, where the people I have dealt with have so far been helpful & enthusiastic. That’s right, I am leaving effectively free hosting & willingly signing up to pay for new hosting because of customer service. Not technology, just plain old customer service. I’ll continue to use TXD as a place to park files & maybe I’ll bring my blog back someday — I’ll leave this one here as an archive — but for now I’m going to Bluehost.

This is a good time to reconsider the technology I’m using, in any case. I want to change the direction of my online writing. I’m not exactly sure what that direction will be, except that it will have a different feeling that what I have been doing recently in this space. I want to praise more than I denounce & though I don’t want to give up being critical, I want that criticism to be grounded clearly in positive values. I actually have something of a talent for insult, but insult is a tool to be used sparingly. My recent writing here has made me feel itchy & sick. Time for a change of scene. Now, if I can just find someone to tune up the VW for me, I’ll be driving over the hill.

* * *

  1. I understand very well the desire to start afresh with a new focus in a new location… I did the same a few months ago.

    Let us know when you make the move.


    — Pascale Soleil    12/03/2006 04:40 PM    #

  2. How will we find you? Will you put up your new address on this blog? I have noticed that sometimes when I have clicked on your web site, it takes quite a long time to come on. When I say a long time, of course I mean just a minute rather than immediately. I can wait.


    — Nancy Bauer    12/03/2006 05:13 PM    #

  3. Pascale, Nancy: I will post a link here to the new site when it’s ready.

    And it is true that the server has been pretty erratic lately, so that’s another good reason to move on.


    — jd    12/03/2006 05:40 PM    #

  4. Thanks for the good suggestion.


    — Nancy Bauer    12/06/2006 08:16 AM    #