Tuesday, March 27, 2007

dot com bust

some of you may have noticed something wacky about this blog in the last few days, namely that it was redirecting to a blogless site where cadiz was nowhere to be found outside the generic ads and address. my apologies.

you see dear readers, back at the turn of the century i was in the loop. i could program myself out of a box and was fairly in touch with the rigors of HTML and the like. unfortunately, the cutting edge of that technology was galloping ahead at light speed and i was left behind because i turned away for a second. you know, to focus on my career.

to make a long story short, this weekend i followed the too-simple-to-be-true instructions provided by blogger.com for pointing my blogspot address to a custom domain. they even provided a list of places to get a domain and said that blogger could continue to host, redirect to your new address as well as keep the blogspot.com address. all links would still work and, except for a day or two while the domain people's servers would be updated, people would always be able to access your blog.

granted, i openly admit there's a chance i did something wrong in this process. so i called technical support at the custom domain company and a man named nico told me that what i was trying to do was impossible. highly annoyed, i canceled with them and now i have a vomit-like taste in my mouth.

today the cutting edge of programming is galaxies beyond my comprehension and the idea of trying to catch up is daunting and unappetizing. the only reason i wanted to change was to have something easy to remember that is relevant to the blog for people in my life who find it too taxing to remember the address and/or use that as an excuse for why they don't care to look at it, while at the same time moaning that they have no idea what is going on with me.

i do not want to start over. i do not want to lose my archives. i want this to be a relatively painless and inexpensive process. but i'd like to make it a reality.

earlier this year, i spent an ungodly amount of time labeling all my posts. however, if i cannot find recourse, i may have to suck it up and start over somewhere else, blogger. i've heard lovely things about WordPress, Vox and Moveable Type. and the tips some of you have shared are making me really consider it.

suggestions would be highly appreciated.

12 comments:

Lia said...

Good to know it's not just me; I couldn't find you!

I totally hear the goodness of custom domains, but I am way to lazy and cheap to (a) move to a new host and (b) pay for hosting or a domain name.

But I respect your wanting to do it. People really should invest in good things, and this is a good thing.

Alla said...

pobrecita! that nico you spoke to sure is a guy wasting a perfectly nice name!

The Stormin Mormon said...

Yeah, what I wanted was available at Blogger, so I stuck with it. Though editing code in New Blogger does suck.

I did notice the sudden disappearance of your blog...

Jon said...

I've been thinking about doing this myself... I'll keep you posted (get it? no? yeah, it was kind of a lame joke. specially coming from me.) if I learn anything.

ML said...

I was wondering what was going on. I tried accessing your blog several times yesterday. I'm glad things are fixed now :)

omar said...

Hm. I know how to use blogger in conjunction with external hosting, but not how to have blogger continue to host the site and use an external domain name.

If you do ever switch to Movable Type, I'd be glad to help. Though from what I understand, setting up Wordpress is easier (in fact, AFTER I switched to MT, I realized that my hosting company has a one-click Wordpress installer. RaJ's hosting company has the same thing).

I cough up around $60/year for the domain name and hosting, I'm sure you could find it cheaper.

Beenzzz said...

I guess I missed the blog problems. Glad to have a chance to read your posts again!

jiji said...

i've been trying to figure out the same thing. i heard godaddy.com has cheap domain hosting and ive also heard good things about wordpress. why can't our friends just learn to memorize blogspot.com?

Mike said...

I was going to say exactly what Omar said, word for word. Then I followed that link. Apparently you're supposed to be able to do what you tried to do... Which domain company did you use?

And if you decide to host your own site, my webhost has plans as low as $10/year. Their customer service sucks, but they've been pretty reliable over the last 6 months.

Bill C said...

You tried following the "blogger" directions for (domain company name withheld to protect the clueless even though they don't deserve it), and - what? It just didn't work, or the directions didn't match what you saw, or...?

I see now what you were talking about, though. Supposedly you don't need a hosting service, just the domain. Must be some special pseudo-hosting voodoo via Google. But if it works, that's great. Also less expensive.

Hmm. Maybe I can do some experimenting with my unhosted aardgeek.com, currently redirecting to radioactivejam...

cadiz12 said...

eh, no need to protect them! i got 1and1 from bloggers list of suggested companies and when i asked the tech support over there, they said it couldn't be done.

i don't know if i just chose a company that no longer does it, or what. but now i'm looking into other options. i guess i'm sort of scared of trying some other host because of the hassle factor, but i wouldn't mind it being easier to tweak the layout. i'll keep you guys posted.

Syar said...

Listen to the wise, smart people. I don't think they've failed you in the past. Unlike this Nico fella. I too would like to switch, but I'm saving up for this whole "paying for something (albeit crap) I already get free" concept.