and
m21grams.wordpress.com (which IMHO was pretty decent in every aspect but unfortunately caught the attention of “concerned citizens”),
it's time for yet another effort:
Introducing the new, and from now on primary, blog minus21grams.net
Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip hooray!
...
(awkward silence)
What, no applause?
...
(moderate booing)
Are these ironic cheers I'm hearing? How dare you?
Don't forget, I know who YOU are. You'll be dealt with accordingly :P
Seriously now, the *new* -and greatly improved if I may add- blog has been up and running for almost 3 weeks now.
That's right folks, opening day was April's first, I fool you not.
Alas, judging by the traffic statistics I'm reading [3 weeks' data should be sufficient to draw some conclusions], most of you are unaware of its existence.
Numbers don't lie: this old, roughly designed blogger hosted blog gets 5 times the visitors in comparison :(
in·con·ceiv·able!
Maybe you don't pay much [correction: ANY] attention to the Twitter messages I'm leaving...
They're right in front of you, you know...
Really hard to miss...
You have to be blind NOT to notice them!
Try clicking one of these for a change and you'll be nicely surprised (or so I'd like to think)
Where were we? Oh yes. Time to update those bookmarks/favourites of yours and drop by the new place.
I insist. Otherwise I'll be offended.
Don't ruin my mood please, I'm known for having a notorious temper. Do you really want to put your life in jeopardy over this? :P
Right.
Here's a somewhat more detailed description:
After the unpleasant surprise/traumatic experience I had with the free hosted WordPress blog, I figured “What the Hell, let's do it properly this time”.
And by properly I mean a paid hosting service.
Thanks to some very eager people, members of a domestic tech forum/community, I got valuable information and guidance as well as a few recommendations.
Based on those facts, I registered my own domain [Cost: $13,98 - valid for 2 years] then bought a “starter pack” from a (local) web hosting provider [Cost: €44,98 annually]
The idea of spending money on something other than CDs or tickets doesn't appeal to me at all.
I did, however, weigh my options carefully prior to making such a decision; unless something totally unexpected -meaning catastrophic- happens, this is the last time you'll ever hear me complaining about web site expenses.
Blah, blah, blah. Spare us the details and GET TO THE POINT!
How is it different?
Well, first and foremost I will no longer see any of those “we have received a complain regarding your blog, remove the content in question or else...” notices.
Peace of mind at last. That is not to say links won't get reported though.
But at least the prospect of being shut down just because some wanker got up on the wrong side of bed will be nothing but a distant memory.
So, the #1 difference is independence.
Followed closely by flexibility.
The advantages of running your own domain are endless.
You can start a site from scratch, pick a theme/template out of thousands and customize it and so on.
Sounds cliché I know, but “the sky is the limit”.
Complete freedom to do whatever you set your mind to. That of course includes the possibility of messing it entirely but that's another story...
All those plugins I used to see but couldn't use due to restrictions, are now at my disposal.
One of the first ones I implemented involves a decent rating system using a scale from 1 to 10 rather than the standard, insufficient 5-stars.
It allows you to vote for each album, very handy considering most visitors don't usually care to comment.
[Just go easy with that, I noticed high scores -9s and 10s- on albums that IMHO don't deserve it]
Which bring us to the process of leaving a comment.
It's slightly different compared to blogspot and given there is no CAPTHCA code to insert, easier too.
All you have to do after writing your message, is to tick a box confirming you're NOT a SPAM bot
Couldn't have been simpler.
You should also know I'm planning on installing the Google Friend Connect plugin.
Any visitor already logged-in to their Google (and several others if I'm not mistaken) accounts, will be spared the nuisance of filling the name & e-mail address boxes in order to leave a comment ;)
As an alternative, you can always count on the ShoutBox widget. No (150) character limit like ShoutMix's, knock yourselves out.
I'm sure you'll figure out the rest, it's all straight-forward.
Be advised:
I intend to transfer the content of blogspot, starting with the posts of 2010.
It won't be completed over a day but when it does, all the comments containing tracklists, information, logs and download links will be removed.
The initial posts will be edited in order to re-direct to the new blog and any future comments posted here will be BLOCKED.
If you have something to say, do so at http://minus21grams.net
That's the whole point anyway ;)
