One of the most frustrating things about having a blog is having to do the technology stuff instead of the writing. I’m into writing. I’m into how to use the technology to market your work and not how to do the technology to make everything work.
And while I like solving problems, spending two hours figuring out why my blog isn’t rendering right in Internet Explorer is about as fun as having my tooth drilled.
Where I was
For about the last year, I’ve been using Yahoo! to host my blogs. I had originally started with them when I had just a web site and that part of my digital work was just fine. When they added WordPress (and other) blogs to the mix, I moved my blogs from Squarespace (a great hosting company) to Yahoo! because I could install WordPress on Yahoo!… I moved from Squarespace because I was limited to their themes and all of their themes at the time were 2-columns, not three which I prefer.
Over the course of the year, I backed out of my original blogs that I started on Yahoo! and created others, including this one on technology for writers. I was pretty happy how things went, but over the course of the year, I found that Yahoo! was consistently getting slower and slower in their responses to my site, especially when uploading articles. Sometimes the articles would take three minutes to upload. Really nuts since all my stuff is a dinky picture and text.
The Tipping Point
Then I hit the tipping point: My ham radio web site that I originally had on Yahoo! was done in FrontPage from Microsoft and they discontinued FrontPage with Vista. I had about a year before I had to convert the entire website to….what? Well, WordPress.
I also made the strategic decision that I wanted my ham radio site to be my ham radio blog, not the web site that I had originally set up. And that’s where the trouble began.
No one at Yahoo! could tell me how to move my domain (http://k9jy.com) from my web site to my separate ham radio blog where I would then link a subdomain to my old web site.
I went through every self-help solution they offered. Nothing. Then I called their support group, since it is offered 24-hours a day. Four times. Four times I tried different things; my blog ended up being a blank page on the browser.
In essence, I had no more live support than what was offered in the self-help. If you are going to rely on self-help for support, you damn well better have super live support if self-help doesn’t have what you need.
Nope.
On top of it all, the mantra on WordPress was to upgrade to 2.2.1 for security and feature reasons (I liked the features and heard horror stories of the security problems).
Yet, when I look at Yahoo!’s version of software, I’m stuck at 2.0.4. With automatic upgrades as the default option. So much for security. Sure, I’m a little patch in the Internet, but all I need is some idiot to come and nail my blogs and I’m in a world of hurt.
The answer from Yahoo!? We aren’t done with our testing. We move as we complete testing. This, with about 10-15 iterations of the software between 2.0.4 and 2.2.1. If they are really testing, I’d really be surprised.
The Decision
After the fourth call with no results, the continued slow response times on the sites, the security risk at being at 2.0.4 and not 2.2.1 as recommended, and me looking at my goals for my blogs and wondering how Yahoo! could possibly be what I needed (not wanted, needed) for my sites, I made the decision to move my sites.
Then comes the daunting task of figuring out how to move four domains, hundreds of articles, and do it seamlessly so there is no impact on users.
That’s when I started doing research on how to move mountains.
In the next article, I’ll tell you the solution I came up with for the “hosting problem.”
Update: This article is part of the Shared Answers group writing project. The project is where two separate posts are written — one about a problem (this one for me!) and the next one (on Monday for me) about the solution to the problem.
The Shared Answers group writing project is sponsored by Writing Thoughts and Grow Your Writing Business. Laura and Yvonne did some great thinking around the format. The format enables one to write on any problem and solution; I wanted to write about something on the topic for this blog — technology for writers — and this format fits very well.
The project is open until August 15th, so add your posts to the project!
Scot
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Yvonne Russell 08.04.07 at 6:07 pm
Hi Scot
I feel your pain… technology can be so frustrating! If I’d given the iPod I bought yesterday to a 14 year old to set up, I probably would have saved myself a lot of time and angst. LOL.
Your challenge was far greater. I look forward to the solution.
About your ham radio - I often think of blogging as the modern day version of ham radio, so was pleasantly surprised to read they are still around.
Thanks for joining in our Shared Answers Group Writing Project, and for helping us spread the word.
Laura 08.04.07 at 8:03 pm
Hi Scot! I’m sorry that you’re having trouble with your hosting company. I look forward to reading what you do about it. Thanks for joining our project.