It seems that I have completely run out of space on my blog. That meant that I either stop blogging, purchase a Business plan for £220 a year, or start deleting.
Well, after due consideration, I decided to delete.
I deleted 120 posts from 2014. That did not seem to make any difference. So I started deleting early photos. That has made some difference. I am able to blog again. Yippeee!!
It felt as if I was desecrating my site though. It felt like some vandal (me) was digging up ancient artifacts and destroying them – just as if I was a mad archeologist or member of ISIS. It made me feel very sad. I don’t think anybody actually delves back to read those early blogs or look at those pictures. But that was not the point. They were there, buried under the many posts from later years – like an era of geology buried in the strata of rocks. Once I had deleted them they were lost for ever. It was like a layer of history had been eradicated.
So my site is now less than it was.
Hey Opher – so the dreaded day finally arrives and with decision made you are deleting the old to make way for the new. Whilst in the throes of wistfulness and woe, you could always copy and paste the contents of the blogs you discard onto Word documents and archive them on your P.C for posterity? (Or you could set-up an Opher’s Archive Blog?) In addition, why not set up an associated blog on WordPress solely dedicated to your published books? I’d imagine there are a substantial number of blog-posts on this site that reference those books, all of which could be reposted elsewhere and free-up space? It may only delay the inevitable but at least it’d give you a few extra months?
You sound (understandably) melancholy and I can appreciate why. Keep smiling, stay positive and focus on posting the new: perhaps a blog make-over may even inspire you?
DN
Hi Dewin – good to hear from you old friend. Yes it felt a bit sacrilegious to go removing things from the blog forever.
A couple of good ideas from you. I was not going to pay £368 to go on to a business plan. That seemed too steep! Saving them on to another blog might be a bit to laborious. We’ll see. I might give that a go. An Opher archive. I’ve managed to get myself 3% of space. That should do for a little while.
I am planning to do an authors blog and put my Ron Forsythe books and extracts. It’s taking a bit of doing. I fear I’ve been too busy writing to do much else. But that is the plan. Once I’ve rewritten Neanderthal I shall try to focus on getting that up and running and then start sending things through to publishers!
It’s never easy letting-go of something we’ve invested time and energy in Opher so I do hope you’ll give consideration to options other than simply deleting your posts. In certain ways blogging is not just about an individual voice sharing their viewpoint but rather, collectively, it offers a much broader social commentary on life, one that details opinion, perspective, and reaction to the world at large. An Opher’s Archive would add to that informative zeitgeist so that, in the near future, readers could look back in time and add to their own knowledge of events taking place in history from a perspective other than main-stream media or text-books. As an exercise I think it both fruitful and rewarding.
3% additional space should keep you going for a while yet but whilst you post 6 or 7 posts daily one wonders for quite how long!? 😀 I agree £368 is too much to pay for a business plan (why doesn’t WP offer greater choice?) – evermore so when other (free) options and opportunities are also within your grasp.
You are always busy writing, which is your passion, and which, I’m quite sure, leaves little time to do much else. It’s good to hear your plans for the Ron Forsythe blog are simmering on the back-burner whilst you attend to Neanderthal. Good luck with both and also with submissions to publishers. I wish you well with your endeavours.
DN
Thanks Dewin – you are an inspiration. I’ll feed off your energy!
That’s what friends, and fellow-bloggers, are for Opher 😀 Don’t throw in the towel quite yet! 😀
DN
No – I shall endure some more. Thanks Dewin.
Photos eat up space, which is why I have used only 2 so far.
Yes – that is the problem. But I do enjoy sharing photos and looking back at them. I shall follow up your and Dewin’s ideas.
There is an option in WordPress to export your blog/posts. I am not sure about the details how it works, but you may export them before deleting – this could give an easy backup.
Thank you – I will look into that before I have to do more vandalism.
I’m just a nostalgic guy. I like to browse through to see what stuff I put up in the past.
So it does happen. The running out of space thing I mean. I have been blogging for 3 or 4 years and have used just under 30%. I have often wondered what I will do because, like you, the thought of deleting is horrible. I do request WP backup from time to time and save it to a memory stick. It’s an option in Dashboard. Go to Tools – Export – ALL – Download Export File. They email it to your inbox within a day.
Thanks for that Raili. I’ll look into that. That might well be an option – but it’s not quite the same is it?
No, but at least you don’t lose them altogether.
I know – what a faff.