I’m a designer, not a programmer, dammit! Well, I’m also a writer and a usability specialist…but coding? That stuff is HARD, man!
You might remember that, a couple of weeks ago, I announced that FAN FILM FACTOR was no longer living as a sub-domain at fff.trekbloggers.com. We had migrated this entire blog site–all TWO HUNDRED blog entries plus graphic files, videos, PDFs, etc.–onto my own domain server at fanfilmfactor.com. And there was much rejoicing.
Until something bad–something very bad–happened…
While each blog page of Fan Film Factor now had a spiffy new URL address that looked like this:
https://fanfilmfactor.com/blah-blah-blah
…any hyperlink I had written inside any of the TWO HUNDRED blog entries I’d already written still said this:
http://fff.trekbloggers.com/blah-blah-blah
This meant that most of the hyperlinks I placed into my blogs to navigate people to other Fan Film Factor blogs, continue reading part 2 or 3 or go back to part 1, view larger graphic files instead of small thumbnails, open up PDF files…none of that stuff worked!!!
Did I mention there are TWO HUNDRED BLOGS, people???
I had to go back to each blog entry fix every last link! Some just had one or two tweaks. Some pages had dozens or more to fix! You might not have noticed, but for the past two weeks, I’ve been going chronologically forward through all of my blog entries and correcting all the links–one…at…a…frcikin’…time! And let me tell ya: it was MIND-NUMBING!!!
Then, last night, I was having a bit of trouble with the blog site and called up GoDaddy tech support. I really LOVE those guys!!! You can be clueless and helpless and hopelessly lost, and they don’t make you feel like an idiot. They’ll patiently help for as long as it takes, and last evening, it took about a half hour…which included some waiting on my part while the tech guy checked a few things out.
While I was waiting for the magic to happen, I told the guy how I’ve been manually changing all these darn links one-by-one and asked if there’s any way to just do a global “Find/Replace” on the whole site.
There is????
Yep, a plugin called Velvet Blues (now, how in heck was I to know to look for a name like that???) fixed every single link in a matter of seconds!!! I’d been spending hours on this one, folks. I am so HAPPY right now. The world is brighter, the birds are chirping. Fan Film Factor’s links are all fixed!!!
But we’re not entirely out of the woods yet. I’m still finding the occasional graphic that isn’t showing up (usually those little, colored rating rectangles with the rank braids on them), and a few of the links to part 2 or 3 of this or that multi-part article seem to have vanished. I’m trying to hunt them down.
So if you find any lingering glitches, PLEASE feel free to let me know at [email protected] so I can make everything perfect!
Velvet Blues…who knew?
Yeah, WP’s portability leaves a bit to be desired, the problem isn’t just links inside entries you made, but the theme you’re using puts down hard links too, and not always in the same formatting/syntax if you have a particularly troublesome theme, so it usually requires several once-overs with a substitution script for a couple of different (but very similar) patterns. I hope you get it all sorted, it can be a pain 🙁
My spouse is probably the most prolific poster at his group blog (The American Catholic) — but he’s not his own webmaster like you are (with the help of GoDaddy). So when technical glitches show up at the blog (and if it’s not an easy fix which only needs to be done for his own posts), he emails the webmaster, who goes and troubleshoots whatever’s causing the problem, and generally the blog is back up and running within a day. (My spouse also blogs at Almost Chosen People, which is a much smaller group blog — just him and 1 other guy, I think — so he may not have a webmaster to turn to there; however, that blog doesn’t seem to run into technical glitches as often as The American Catholic.)
Anyway, enough about the “slings and arrows of outrageous blogging”; I need to go check out that “Chain of Command” crossover fan film you blogged about earlier this weekend. Keep up the good work!
“Change of Command” — oops!
No, the episode name is “Chain of Command” after all — but a general YouTube search doesn’t pull it up if one isn’t already familiar with the names of the contributing fan film series. 🙁 I guess I’ll have to click the link from within your blog post to get to it.
That’s why I always supply the links! 🙂
The phrase “God is my webmaster” just went through my head. Also in the running: “Jesus runs my I.T. department” (I.T. = interactive trinity). 🙂