Thursday, December 07, 2006

To switch, or not to switch?

I'm a late adopter. I got my first computer sometime in 1999 or 2000. I started a blog in 2004. I don't like to rush into things.

Blogger's new Beta version has been around for a while, and they're starting to exert a little pressure to encourage bloggers to switch. It looks like it will be possible to switch over a current blog, retain the name and url, keep everything you've ever written and any comments anyone's ever posted, and still get all the funky new features of Blogger Beta.

So what's not to love?

Mr. H.K. switched a long time ago and had a few problems early on. I hadn't seen any dire reports from him recently - until this past Sunday. And Lauren has simply upped and left her old blog behind. But I want to keep the anothermonkey.blogspot.com address. And I don't want to risk losing all of my entries, as happened to Mr. H.K. on his experimental Beta Blog. So, what to do?

I think for now I will wait. Soon, I will switch. But not just yet.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

:) I think you'd have to get rid of it. I was up for a change. But I'm a bit sad to have to leave the website I've been writing in since 02. Oh well, bygones. :)

Anonymous said...

I switched and don't see a difference. My blog is still at the same address -- is it supposed to change?

Maybe I should post more and really put it through its paces.

Nah.

Gort said...

A Big Fat Slob had all sorts of problems when he switched. Seems to be working alright now but you may to email him to get an update. I've been fooling around with wordpress but haven't had the time to really test it out. I'm staying put for now.

Anonymous said...

Well I just wrote a comment and then I clicked the "switched to beta?" link and it made my comment disappear. That is officially the first beta problem I've had...hah. I made the switch yesterday, everything seems fine and I am liking the new features. I will cry if I loose any of my old posts. How strong of a possibility is that?

Anonymous said...

oh man! I just tried to comment twice unsuccesfully. Suffice to say, I switched, no problems so far. Am I going to lose my stuff? Please tell me no.

D.B. Echo said...

Melanie, these two comments came through, but out of how many? It looks like you tried to send at least one other comment. And is the time stamp correct? If so, they were held up for about 9 hours and 45 minutes, because they both appeared around 11:00.

Mr. H.K. has the longest experience that I know of with Beta, and he was the first person I knw of to have a disaster with it. He might be one to ask. Gort is also recommending talking to A Big Flat Slob - a link to his site is available through Gort's Gort42.

I wish Blogger offered a backup service - for a fee, they could provide you with a CD-R containing every post you've ever written, complete with pictures and comments. I would pay good money for that. I haven't backed up my stuff in a looong time, and it would take a very long tome to back it up now - and if I do it on a month-by-month basis instead of a post-by-post basis, it won't capture the comments, and I don't think it will capture the pictures in any case.