There and back again: returning to Blogger from self-hosted WordPress?

Who cares?

I hope anyone else who lands here after pondering whether to switch from Wordpress.org to Blogger comments below – so we can compare thoughts. Were you wondering how, or why? Are there as few articles about that journey now as there were when I searched--let alone any promise of ease in such a transition?

During my search for tips back in July 2017 I found that my experiences and rationale almost totally matched Jenn’s Wordpress—>Blogger transition story, even to the fact that Google assumed I really meant to ask about switching the other way. (Did hers happen in 2014, or was the post re-dated when she shifted it with her blog, Hello Brio over to Squarespace?)  Like Jenn, I want to tell you why ; and in case she decides to ditch that post, I will reflect on her suggestions.

Why I decided that the experiment with self-hosted Wordpress was over

--posting infrequency + not finding the right handle for a static portfolio = insufficient value for $$$
--under my name = wanting it to be perfect
--struggle to get it "just right" too time consuming
--needing to spend less time at the computer

Why I am switching [back] to Blogger from Wordpress (despite the p tag issue).

1. Nostalgia.  I loved learning to blog here, and have fond memories of when some of my posts made a difference to people.
2. I still have a hefty collection of posts here, which people are still reading.
3. It is free.
4. I think Blogger can do more now than it did then, but I do not need most of the extra functionality self-hosted Wordpress could do.
5. moonflowerdragon.blogspot looks better on mobile than micameerbach.com

As Jenn suggested, I reconsidered my goals:

• Return to one FREE online spot
  # no particular deadline, although the sooner it is done the sooner I can stop paying for the other domain, yet let’s give enough time to be sure it will work comfortably.
• See whether I return to posting more frequently under the pseudonym
• It was always about skills/professional development, and it still is, with a few new questions:
• What would it take for a blogspot site to be a professional advantage rather than the opposite?
• How much of that which I did at micameerbach will remain relevant if republished?
• Are any of those posts that stayed so long in draft worth actually posting?
  

How I plan to switch from Wordpress back to Blogger = Slowly

Tracy Thomason over at 15 Minute Monday posted about exporting one’s files to move from Wordpress to Blogger.

However, I figured that as I would need to check each post for peculiarities anyway, I might as well consider each of the 111 posts (61 published, 49 drafts, 1 private) manually.

Those peculiarities?

• both Jenn and Tracy mentioned that image URLs don’t transfer
• inbound links would be broken
• internal links would be broken
• comments would have to be exported or mapped over

First: I made sure that the Internet Archive WaybackMachine is capturing micameerbach occasionally – some busy posting months were not captured at first, but the Internet Archive WaybackMachine lets us add.

Second: This post here, and a (semi)final post there

Third: Up to 111 iterations of:

1. Pick a post, either the next highest viewed, or any post,
2. Check whether its URL is cited anywhere else online.
3. Read it,
4. Consider: does it offer or demonstrate anything useful?

If it is worth transferring,

1. in html view, copy and paste everything across to a new post here, but in Open Live Writer (unless Google decide to support p tags in their Blogger editor),
2. append note about where I had originally posted it, perhaps hyperlink to archive version?
3. reupload photos and basically re-link everything.
4. retag & add tag Republished_from_micameerbach
5. Do not try to anticipate whether formerly internal links will also be transferred, just relink to their WaybackMachineversion, and note them in a Google Doc for later checking
6. At old post append note about and linking to republication
7. At old post tag with Republished_at_Moonflowerdragon – let’s me track which ones I’ve done.
8. If the URL was cited anywhere, contact citers to inform them of new post/archive to avoid broken link.

If it is not worth transferring,

1. Check whether it is at WaybackMachine
2. If similar topics/posts here, append at top – link to tag/post]
3. Tag as Not_republishing
4. If the URL was cited anywhere, contact citers to inform them of archive version.

For drafts, I could just copy & publish, but that would not help answer the learning questions above, so I could

1. if publishing: tag it something like drafted@mm / published@MFD
2. if not publishing, don’t delete but tag it notpublishing@MFD

Finally: Unless I give up earlier, when all 111 iterations are complete:

1. Count the tags & maybe talk about what if anything I got out of the process
2. Wind up that account
3. Celebrate

Image Credit: The beautiful watercolour above is “Bilbo: Back again…” by Kinko-White who kindly gave me permission (via shuzzy) to use it here to symbolise my return home here after an adventure.

Testing Open Live Writer for p tagging

First, well done me for finding out why I had trouble installing Open Live Writer, and fixing it.

Now to find out how OLW handles paragraphs.

Cool. So next, whether Blogger will respect them.

Can I get '<'p'>' tags in Blogger? (Test 1)

Test 1: Write post in Docs with space before paragraphs & copy across?

Remember to either: never edit the html in Blogger, or if I do edit the html, do not return to Compose view before publishing.

This is a bit of a nuisance, but could it be a way to keep my first blog, and my tags too?

Result: NO

Back? Maybe

I had forgotten the problems managing post content in Blogger, because <p> tags keep disappearing. I seem to recall reading a suggestion that it is the Blogger editor at fault.

And I forgot how *&^%$#@! bad that gets when I want to structure my content around images:

1. put tags in HTML editor

2. switch to Compose view = no paragraphs



3. switch back to HTML view = tags gone.


This seems like a fairly significant problem--one that may send me looking elsewhere, maybe switching to WordPress.com if I leave WordPress.org .

However -- if it is possible to blog here easily using a better editor, perhaps I could happily return. Do you have any suggestions?

I'm baaaack

Later, maybe, more on why and how...
 In the meantime, I'm listening to (and occasionally watching) [Update 14 June 2021 - formerly shared video is no longer available at Youtube]

Motiversity. (2017). Best Motivational Speech Compilation EVER #4 - GET BACK UP - 30-Minute Motivation Video #5. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgS0JG2cgWU