Yeah, I know there have been a number of State of the Tavern updates the past week or so, but it's for good reason. We are simply trying to make The Tavern, in all of its realities and versions, better for you, the community as a whole.
The crash and mostly (yet partial) recovery of The Tavern's blog page has made me think. We are expanding the hosted hours of chat each week on The Tavern's Discord Server. We have expanded into MeWe.com. What else can we do?
At this point, who knows how long Blogger as a blogging service will be around? Will it go the way of Google Plus, given a 10 month to live life sentence and put off to pasture?
I'm strongly considering moving TenkarsTavern.com to SquareSpace. Import all of the prior posts for the past 9 years and start at a new home. One that will embrace the hosting of OSR and other gaming blogs under the Tenkar's Tavern banner. Your own feeds for your own blogs, but hosted at Tenkar's Tavern. Color me intrigued.
I've been looking into it and it looks promising. Sure, the downtime for The Tavern is a crapshot, with quotes of 1 to 15 days, but it may just be what we need as a community.
I'd love to hear some feedback on using Squarespace as a host from members of the community. Let me know your thoughts?
Do it. I'd rather have a brief gap in the taps (so to speak), then see nine years of vintage brew lost to time.
ReplyDeleteSame here. You already have a domain and hosting space isn't that expensive (Patreon covers maybe?)
ReplyDeleteI recently moved my own blog from Blogspot.com to hosting it myself. Honestly, I've seen no downsides, other than what I expected in terms of a dip in hits from the change of URL. I have a lot more flexibility in terms of what I can do with the site, and since I'm still being hosted by a third party service, I don't have to worry about having a box in my closet and applying every security patch that comes down the pike. I didn't realize you were using blogger still. I heartily recommend just hosting it. I use Dreamhost, but there are a zillion of them out there.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see your reply, Joe, as I was /just/ going to recommend Erik talk to you since you recently moved your blog.
DeleteGaming Ballistic moved from BlogSpot to WordPress (self-hosted on GoDaddy) and I've very much enjoyed most of it. The opportunities to do more with the site (stores, widgets, etc) has been awesome. The Blogger WYSIWYG editor is better, by far, than the WordPress editor I currently use. I am still miffed that I haven't found a good "blog roll" plugin for WordPress. Otherwise, honestly, a site that links blogs to a master page, whether linked or hosted, would be what I'd really want from a G+ replacement. Having only my blog page as the central repository and dissemination site for my content? Priceless.
Deletetest
DeleteDouglas, I had exactly the same problem. Look for an add-in called RSS Aggregator. It works great. You can also pay a minimal fee for some extras; I paid to have it come in as a widget, and it was more than worth the ten bucks or so.
DeleteRegardless of the decision on platform, ensure that you can make backups of your site. Going with a common platform (such as WordPress) may be best as you can make and store your own backups, which can be restored on another host's server with minimal effort.
ReplyDeleteI worried about my blogs disappearing and routinely roundup and self-publishing the best of my content.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. No point in taking the time to write good material, only to have it disappear into the aether.
DeleteThough I am not an expert on the platform of choice that folks should be using I can use the googles very well. Perhaps some of these articles may provide some insight.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-choose-the-best-blogging-platform/
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-blogging-sites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaCSu1tt1r0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j0k6EEW-Eo
http://jbtheoryllc.com/2017/05/02/the-truth-about-squarespace/
WP Beginner reviews are heavily biased towards WordPress (this should not be a surprise).
DeleteHowever, if you're doing WordPress, they are a great resource. They post every day and I find at least a few each week that are worth reading.
appreciate the feedback
ReplyDeleteleaning on launching new site while keeping the current active, then if the reaction is positive to the new site, forward the current site address to the new site
as if i need yet another project ;)