Ok. Maybe they’re only fun to me!
On Saturday, October 25, I upgraded this site to a paid site and purchased a domain. This means, no more ads on my posts! And in addition to the URL I’ve been using (https://jesuisicihereiam.wordpress.com/), you can now also find me at https://jesuisicihereiam.org!
The behind the scenes benefits: I finally get to start using plugins again. Think of these as small software upgrades. It’ll allow me to do little things with my blog that might have been impossible before. I’m not sure which of them I will actually implement, but it’s nice to have the options. When I first started using WordPress in 2012, the sites I used all had plugins and the option to download more plugins. So I basically had limitless features. And then with my personal blog for the last 9 years, I never upgraded it so I have not had access to those features. I’ve never really liked candy, but for those who do, think of this like a Katya at a candy store. 😍🤩
One feature that I thought I would need a plugin for, but found out was already included in the base WordPress, was to show the archives. So if you now look at the bottom of each page or in the sidebar, you will see a list of months along with a number next each month. If you click on any of those months, you will get a view that shows you all the posts that I made during that month. And the number next to the month represents how many posts I did that month.
I also have a new plugin that is a more advanced newsletter. What my subscribers get right now is an email every single time I publish a post. And so far I’ve not had anybody complain about the frequency of those emails, but I wanted to have the option of a newsletter where I could generate a summary on my own once or twice a month that contained links to all the posts made that month. That way if someone wanted, they could get a digest version, rather than an email with each post. So if I have spare energy I may look into how to set that up.
And finally I wanted to create more interactivity in my blog. My initial plan was to just set up Google Forms and use those as survey instruments to collect people’s thoughts about specific questions. But I discovered that there is a specific WordPress forms plugin that may allow me to do the same thing. The barrier is the learning curve of figuring out how to use that new tool compared to the ease of using Google Forms. That will likely make Google Forms be the winner in the short run. But if my early attempts at interactivity work out well then I may invest the time to figure out the fancy integrated forms feature.
Thank you for reading this far. I know this post is a departure from my usual commentary about life in general or my own life in particular. Perhaps this discussion of logistics is dull to many of you. The last set of thoughts I will leave you with is I’m trying to think through how to help guide new readers through my blog. Most of you reading this have been with me for at least a couple weeks and as far as I know most of my readers are people who I am at least connected to on Facebook. But as my audience expands, it will inevitably include people who don’t personally know me. And obviously anyone who joins the journey from this point forward will not have the back story or the unfolding story of my Brain Grape (link). So I am trying to think through how best to present the backstory and get people up to speed. One thought was to create a separate page that just shows the brain grape stories in chronological order from oldest to newest. That feels like the most salient and prominent storyline for my blog at this point.
I think every other post could stand on its own and doesn’t really need background or context. I’m not sure that I am ready to open up the internal debate to a wide-ranging free for all discussion. But I am also very curious to hear people’s thoughts. So if you have some brief ideas about organizational strategy for my blog posts, feel free to leave me a comment. And maybe I will even create a Google Form where you can submit your comments to me privately. (If you’re interested in that, check back here and I’ll post a link to that form if/when I create it).
As a reward for reading through to the end of this long, logistical post I will offer up a song I like. My dad enjoyed the song from Queen that I posted recently and encouraged me to include songs, even if they’re not directly related to my post.
Thank you for standing by me! 💜
“Stand by Me” by Ben E. King.
https://youtu.be/hwZNL7QVJjE?si=By4BChW39FMRV3Ge
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