{"id":343,"date":"2008-10-31T18:12:31","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T18:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/"},"modified":"2008-10-31T18:12:31","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T18:12:31","slug":"upping-sticks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/","title":{"rendered":"Upping Sticks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned recently I\u2019d been planning some changes around here<\/a><\/p>\n

I wanted to do this on the two year blog-anniversary as it seemed a cool thing to do but it hasn\u2019t worked out that way so I\u2019m doing it today (it\u2019s just a coincidence it\u2019s Halloween) <\/p>\n

I\u2019m moving my blog and hosting it myself<\/p>\n

When I first started the blog I had no idea where it would be going to, if I\u2019d stick at it or even if anyone would read it!<\/p>\n

WordPress.com<\/a> was great for this is at meant I could get up and running and it wouldn\u2019t cost me a penny. If I decided it wasn\u2019t for me then I could just walk away and that would be that <\/p>\n

However, two years on it\u2019s more than just something I dabble in. Even when I\u2019m on one of my quiet periods<\/a> I still think a lot about my blog. <\/p>\n

Obviously the free WordPress services comes with some limitations. You are limited in the plugin\u2019s and themes you can work with, your own advertising is a no-no (not that I\u2019m planning on having any!). In a nutshell the creative control of how your site works is taken away from you. <\/p>\n

The upside however is that I don\u2019t have to worry about the admin side of things. Backups, security patching, server performance, uptime, etc, etc<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the andyparkes.co.uk<\/em> domain name for ages now (redirected to the wordpress site) so that wasn\u2019t an issue. I already pay for hosting due to other sites I have so the only decision I had to make was over which software to use<\/p>\n

Making a move is something I\u2019ve been agonising over for a while and I heavily tested blogengine.net<\/a> which I was pretty impressed with. It\u2019s written in ASP .NET, is open source and is very easy to work with. My only issue was when I had a problem importing my old posts across. If it hadn\u2019t been for that I\u2019d have jumped at it I think<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve been so used to using WordPress for so long I couldn\u2019t turn away from it!<\/p>\n

Another reason for not doing this sooner was that I was worried about broken links and the fact that since the site has been around so long that certain posts were turning up toward the top of Google searches (do a search for netmeeting and vista on the UK site<\/a>) which also gave me nice ego boosting stat graphs \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

But in the end I thought \u2013 screw it.<\/p>\n

The new home for this blog can be found at<\/p>\n

www.andyparkes.co.uk\/blog<\/a> <\/p>\n

Please update any feeds you may have and if you visit the site itself excuse the dust while I try to figure out which themes, plugins, etc I\u2019m happy with<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll cross post for a little while until I\u2019m happy all is well and then parkey.wordpress.com will remain as an archive. I need to keep that WordPress account open anyway so I can use askimet and the stats plugin\u2019s so I don\u2019t plan on deleting the site<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve read my blog over the last two years I\u2019d like to say thanks. I\u2019ve had an awful lot of things happen that would have just bypassed me if I hadn\u2019t started rambling here two years ago<\/a>. If you have any feedback (or you think I\u2019m an arse!) please drop me an email<\/a> or a comment<\/p>\n

Now we just need to get someone else on a proper blogging platform<\/a> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned recently I\u2019d been planning some changes around here I wanted to do this on the two year blog-anniversary as it seemed a cool thing to do but it hasn\u2019t worked out that way so I\u2019m doing it today (it\u2019s just a coincidence it\u2019s Halloween) I\u2019m moving my blog and hosting it myself When<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","category-wordpress"],"yoast_head":"\nUpping Sticks - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Upping Sticks - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I mentioned recently I\u2019d been planning some changes around here I wanted to do this on the two year blog-anniversary as it seemed a cool thing to do but it hasn\u2019t worked out that way so I\u2019m doing it today (it\u2019s just a coincidence it\u2019s Halloween) I\u2019m moving my blog and hosting it myself WhenRead More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-31T18:12:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Parkes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Parkes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/\",\"name\":\"Upping Sticks - Andy's Techie Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-31T18:12:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-31T18:12:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/31\/upping-sticks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Upping Sticks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Andy's Techie Blog\",\"description\":\"Professional Geek\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d\",\"name\":\"Andy Parkes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andy Parkes\"},\"description\":\"Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. 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