Back to Blogger

I had a blog on Blogger back before Google bought them. It was called "The Dedly Blog." But instead of letting Google host it, I had it point to a directory on my web server. I don't recall the specifics, but that function went away in 2010. So I brought all the old files in house. That was a mistake. All of the xml and style sheet settings. Ugh. What a mess. After a while, I gave up trying to re-format it. I save all the old content. Maybe I can import them.

In 2010 I published my first novel, Armistice Day. Since marketing is a necessary evil, a self-hosted blog wasn't enough, and my social media skills were are lacking. Fortunately Amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords all have a spot on author pages for adding a RSS feed. My webhost didn't offer that tech and wasn't friendly to third party software. So I started another blog on WordPress and made that the source of my RSS feed.

Fast forward to 2016. SiteLock, a new security partner for my webhost (Fatcow) starts sending me alerts that I have malware on my site. Unless I pay for their service—which ain't cheap—they don't do anything about it. So I resort to Fatcow tech service. They told me where the bad files were (in the WordPress directory), and I deleted them. Since then, I've received several alerts from SiteLock, accompanied with threats of shutting down my website, but tech service couldn't find them. Coincidentally, WordPress updates happened shortly thereafter.

WordPress is also partnered with FatCow, so I'm caught in the middle between two Fatcow partners butting heads. When I went to login to the WordPress control panel today to correct the latest complaint, I couldn't establish a secure connection, and Firefox freaked out. I'm tired of this bullshit, so I just FTP'd in and deleted all of the WordPress files.

And now I'm back at Blogger. Why? Too lazy to look elsewhere, and I know it works. Well, mostly. They did have a blogroll hiccup last year that was a pain in the ass to fix. If someone wants to try and convince me there's a better (free) blogger service out there, go ahead. I have to move my website anyway as Fatcow's rates have gone up. They were $99/yr as recently as 2010, but since then they've gone up steadily. This summer's renewal will cost me $179.40 if I want to stay.

Ok, I've blathered on long enough. I've got to reset those RSS feeds and start customizing the look of this place.

\_/
DED