A New Host

AndyBox.com has moved. During my break from work, I “migrated” the site from my old hosting company to DreamHost.com, a quirky and popular company in California. The migration process did not go smoothly, which is part of the reason you might have seen some weird things on here over the last few days. I have enough web experience to maintain the site and modify it in some ways, but the migration required some steps and knowledge that were well outside my comfort zone.

At one point last night I feared I had lost the site forever and would have to start over. AndyBox.com might seem like just another blog from the outside, but I’ve been running this site since 2001, and I truly pour my soul into it. It’s partly an online journal of my life and partly a way to think through many different questions and topics, some general and some personal. I post stuff on here that I would never tell you directly. Why? Because I love writing and hate talking. Writing frees me to say what I really want to say. Talking forces me to operate without thinking about and refining what I say, making me self-conscious and tight. Reading my blog is one of the best and only ways to really know what makes me tick, because otherwise I probably won’t tell you. The idea of losing all my past posts made for an extremely stressful and unhappy night.

However, after much tinkering, reading, and praying, I finally got the site running again at its new home. We’re still working on a few issues with our email, but everything with the site seems normal. If you notice any problems, PLEASE notify me either via comment or my contact page.

Jumping Ship

UPDATE: Well, it turns out that it takes a few days to transfer a domain (the web address of a site) from one host to another, so for now I’m still on the old host. I had to do SOMETHING to the site, so I switched back to the old layout. To me it seems a little simpler and cleaner, and I like the Alaska picture at the top. What do you think? Vote in the new poll at the right.

I also moved the Comments link to the end of each post instead of the top, figuring that position made more sense.

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Since I started AndyBox.com back in 2001, I have paid a company called HostMySite.com to, well, host my site. Another company called Hosting.com bought it a year or two ago. In ways I won’t bore you with, Hosting.com has displeased me and must be punished. I plan to move the site to another hosting company Saturday night after we get back from Babe’s and put the boys to bed.

Why do you care? Because I’m not sure it’s going to work.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to move the site, but I don’t know how long it will take or what problems I’ll encounter. If you try to visit on Saturday night or Sunday and the site isn’t available, now you’ll know what happened. Check back later.

And pray.

Related Posts Feature

If you like a post and want to read others that discuss the same topic, you can now see a list of the top five most relevant posts. Just click to post title and scroll to the bottom.

Features like this are one reason I keep using WordPress even though it frustrates me sometimes. Someone much better with computers than I am took the time to design this feature and then shared it with us for free! All we have to do is download it and turn it on.

I hope you like the new Related Posts feature. Give it a try!

Back In Service

Sorry about that, folks! As you might have noticed, my site has been down for the last 24 hours or so. I tried to update my blog software using the “easy automatic upgrade” process, and you saw where it got me. By the time I realized the upgrade had failed so miserably that the site was down, I was already at work and couldn’t do anything about it. Now it’s back up (for now!). Happy reading!

Blog Question

Faithful readers, I want your opinion. As you’ve probably noticed, my blog at AndyBox.com covers a wide range of topics that interest me, including faith, family activities, funny videos, music, politics, current events, hobbies, etc. I’ve posted over 600 blog entries on top of all the regular pages about me.

I think the current format works okay, but I wonder whether it would work better to split it into two different blogs. AndyBox.com would focus on news about my family, hobbies, work, trips, and other stuff that primarily interests my family and close friends. I would create a new site for my philosophical discussions on Christianity and how it works (or doesn’t work) in the real world. The new site might interest some of my friends and family but would also target a wider audience that doesn’t really care how much Jonathan weighs or that Brenden has a new tooth. (I assume there’s someone out there like this)

Creating the new site would take some time and a little bit of money. It would take more work on my part to maintain both sites, and each site might not be updated quite as often. However, it might help me keep my thoughts a bit more focused and might work better for you guys.

What do you think? Are you happy with the current setup, or would you rather see me split the site into two different ones? Please vote in the poll and post any comments here.

Translator

Although most of you live in the United States, I do get visitors from other countries. I just found a WordPress plugin that automatically translates my site into other languages. Not being fluent in anything but English, I can’t attest to the quality of the translations, but I figure it’s worth a shot to help out my foreign visitors. Just click a flag on the right side of the page to choose the language you want to read. Pretty nifty, eh?