I thought people would have some questions about the move and where to find things so I prepared this FAQ to hopefully help you (and me) with the move to this new space.

Hey, it’s a new url!

Yep–please update your link to this blog by removing the “blogspot” from the address. The new site is www.stirrup-queens.com.

Whoa, my blogroll link isn’t working!

This was the big place where I knew a lot of people would be affected. It seemed like the better choice to move everything over and make everyone go cold-turkey with the old location and update to the new one rather than drag out the move changes for months. So please update your link to the blogroll with the new blogroll link here. It will (as far as I know) never move again because it is now housed on a static page.

Where can I find…?

I think most things are easy to find. The current IComLeavWe list is still in the top left corner, I rebuilt the same header navigation bar for easy access to common posts, and most of the big projects are still linked to from the right sidebar.

The big thing that has changed is that the “daily news,” that top sticky post that held the link to the current LFCA and the Blogger Bingo clues is now located at the top of the right sidebar. That space is updated daily.

I miss the old blue site!

Me too. I considered making this new space look exactly like the old space, but in the end, went with the stark whiteness and red pomegranate. The whiteness gives me some breathing space and sorts out the clutter. I think. It feels more user-friendly to me. And the pomegranate ties in a lot of the major themes of my blog.

Why can’t I go back to the Blogger site?

Because we redirected all the links to come here. If you type in the old blogspot address, it should automatically take you to this site.

I’ve been considering self-hosting too. Any advice on the move?

I wish I had done it sooner rather than later. It’s sort of like moving from a college dorm room to an apartment when you move early on and it’s like moving from a two-bedroom apartment to a house when you do it later. It’s just a bigger project with more things to shift over.

That said, I don’t think all people should self-host nor jump into it before they’re ready. I certainly wasn’t until three years into blogging.

While the analogy is not perfect, think of it a lot like housing: there are advantages and disadvantages to renting vs. owning. Apartments come with professionals who can fix things when they break. The maintenance necessary for owning a house is taken care of for you. You have more flexibility to pick up and move, live in the neighbourhood you choose, and less time dedicated to taking care of the house and more time living in it.

But, you also don’t have a lot of stability–a landlord can kick you out or your rent can increase. You have less creativity–in most places, you can’t paint the walls or change the apartment layout. And at the end of the day, you don’t own your space (which can be freeing or it can be terrifying).

Those same advantages and disadvantages are seen in the inverse with a house as well as with self-hosting. It is A LOT more work. It is frustrating and confusing and can be really soul-crushing when you consider how little you know and what needs to get done. When we moved from an apartment to a house, I cried the first time we couldn’t call Santos, the maintenance guy who lived in our apartment and would fix things in a moment’s notice (I still pine for the ever-brilliant Santos, lover of my cookies and fixer of all problems). Taking care of a house is expensive. It is doubly-so when you don’t have the knowledge to fix small problems yourself.

So…to sum it up, consider whether you’d rather rent your house or own it and all of the advantages and disadvantages inherent in that, consider whether you’re comfortable learning how to take care of your site or whether your time is better spent blogging rather than the how-to of blogging, and if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

And, at the end of the day, do you want to own something? Free sites are free because they don’t offer a lot of help or support when things go wrong. As much as self-hosting is about being on your own and doing it yourself, you also have places to go if all goes to hell. At least I hope that is true.

Can you help me with my self-hosting move?

Sure–I mean, I’m happy to pass along anything I learned at this point, but a lot of my information came from Lindsay, playing with the software, and I had my cousin’s brain to pick too. I do have to say that if you’re not comfortable playing around with code, you’re probably not ready to self-host. It’s sort of like baking brownies from a mix vs. baking them from scratch. All brownies are good brownies–you don’t need to know how to bake in order to have brownies. But if you know nothing about baking, it’s difficult to explain how you make brownies from scratch. I’d start by getting comfortable with basic baking and once you’re there, it will be easier for people to help you learn how to make brownies. By which I mean, learn some basics about html and the software and then others will be better equipped to help you build a site.

By the way, thank you.

I know that all moves are a pain-in-the-ass, not just for the people who are moving, but for the people who are trying to connect with them. Bear with me for a bit while I make sure that everything is working. I’m sure this first month will be a bit bumpy with broken links, but hopefully, in a few months from now, this site will be humming along.