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Category: Blogging
I Have Moved!
I will keep this short and sweet. I have moved from jamesmichie.blogspot.com to jamesmichie.com/blog.
My blogging platform of choice is WordPress. I have a bit of minor tweaking left to do but the bulk of the work is done and I am pretty happy with the results.
I believe that I have migrated my Feedburner feed correctly so there should be no need for anyone to update. However, I will publicise the move as much as possible over the next couple of weeks just in case.
One thing that does not seem to have worked as well is Disqus. My comments are here in the Disqus WordPress Plugin page but they are not appearing below the relevant posts. It may simply take some time for the migration to take place, so I am not going to worry about it too much until tomorrow.
I would be very interested to know what people think about the redesign. Please comment below!
[UPDATE] I am slowly editing some of my older posts as the import from Blogger into WordPress has done some funny things with some of the paragraphing. I am also updating some of the links. I have also installed the Blogger to WordPress redirect plugin and now if anyone visits jamesmichie.blogspot.com or any individual post they will be redirected here to the matching post or page. I am waiting to hear from Disqus about sorting the permalinks of about 20 comments or so that are not displaying below the relevant posts. Overall, though, I am very happy with the way my new home is looking! 🙂
Moving!
This blog [jamesmichie.blogspot.com] will be moving to a new home very soon.
I spent several hours yesterday afternoon/evening tinkering with both WordPress and Posterous and have concluded that WordPress will be my platform of choice. I am going to use Posterous for a future #365 project and with my students due to its ease of use. As @stevegillott put it, Posterous is more of a “fire and forget thing”. Which is great for newbie bloggers but does not suit my needs.
I have already set up the WP blog and it is under construction. My new home is “jamesmichie.com/blog” and you can follow its progress over the next few days as I set it up. I have already transferred two of my static pages from this blog. I have added follow buttons, a CC license, search box, TweetMeme button and I have teaked the CSS chnging the font to Helvetica and the colour of hyperlinks.
When will the move be finished? It is my hope to have the move complete by the end of the weekend. My next full blog post will hopefully reach you from my new home. 🙂
Should I Move My Blog?
Having bought the domain jamesmichie.com and spent some time creating a landing page, I would like to move my blog to jamesmichie.com/blog. However, Blogger will not allow me to do this as it is neither the original domain nor is it a sub-domain. Therefore, I have been left with a choice. Keep my blog where it is and redirect from jamesmichie.com/blog (as it does now) or move my blog to a different blogging platform. This could be quite a bit of work and is therefore not an easy decision to make.
When I am struggling to make a decision I turn to mind mapping, so I can way up the pros and cons. Here is what I came up with this morning over a cup of coffee:
What do you think? Stick with Blogger? Move to WordPress? Or move to Posterous? Your thoughts and comments are welcome.
To view the mind map as a downloadable PDF click here.
Please Feel Free To Use My Stuff!
Several people have blogged recently on Creative Commons licenses and what to do when people steal your work, presenting it as their own.
I’m jumping on the bandwagon a little and offering my perspective on the re-use of material from my blog. I use a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 U.K. license which allows you to copy, distribute, display, perform and make derivative works from my blog content. I picked this license because I wish to share. I am in the habit of “giving gifts”! (Godin, 2009) This is a philosophy that I deeply believe in. On my blog itself I have tried to stay true to that same ethos when using found material. If I have used others work, I have given them credit, added links and contacted them to let them know that I’m using their stuff. I simply ask that anyone who uses material that I have made and published here do the same. So here is a statement that I plan to feature permanently on my blog.
If you wish to use any of the material published on this blog, then please:
- Give me credit. Acknowledge the work is not your own.
- Provide people with a link. This could be my blog address included at the end of a PowerPoint presentation or a hyperlink on your blog. Whatever it is, it will allow any interested parties to visit the source of the original content and perhaps find other material that they might find interesting.
- Contact me. Let me know what you have used, why, and what the results were. Perhaps I can help? I may have ideas to share or more information which may be of use. I may even offer to feature a post about you/your work on my blog.
Considering this issue has made me reflect on why I blog.
My blog is my “cave” (Thornburg, 2007) where I internalise, reflect and evaluate. It is why I moved beyond writing a class blog to writing this, a personal blog that is unashamedly for me, about me. This is not ego tripping but a feature of my journey as a life-long learner. My “cave”, however, is made of glass so that anyone can look in on my learning journey. And I have provided a convenient in-tray where people can leave comments, questions, ideas. My blog therefore, is also the “watering hole” (Thornburg, 2007) or at least a conduit to it, much of the discussion generated on the blog being transferred to Twitter where it continues and evolves. This is why I blog, for me, and for you. This blog is my “gift”!
If the “cave” and “watering hole” metaphors have left you either intrigued or confused, then please read: Campfires in Cyberspace by David D. Thornburg Ph.D.
You may also like to read more about “giving gifts”, if so try: Linchpin by Seth Godin
CC Logo courtesy of Drew Baldwin on Flickr.