Your Update Links: Desperate Measures, Part 9 & Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 5

Hey! I’m starting the move to the domain today, so it’s important that you guys read this update in case you have any questions about how it’s going to work and if there’s anything you need to do as visitors.

The Move – What I’m Doing

It turns out that moving the WordPress installation from one address to another is both simple and difficult. It’s simple in that there are only a few steps. It’s difficult because I have to do them in  a specific order to prevent data loss and minimize downtime.  I also have to do a lot of clean up after words to make sure all my internal links are corrected.

• One of the main things I’m doing until I clean up my internal links is leaving this address open. I won’t be putting up a redirect right away — if I have a link to a story here on the Dear Isobel address, you can still read it.
• That means that you won’t see updates reflected here, but older stuff will be accessible.
• Today, I am dowloading all the files for my site to my computer, then uploading them to the new folder on my server. This is basic and requires nothing from you guys. This is just the static files moving over.
• Tomorow, at 4 PM, I am exporting my database from Dear Isobel. This is where ALL the content is stored. The posts, pages, comments, plug in data, etc. After 4 PM, any comments or material posted here at Dear Isobel will not be moving over.
• I will be then importing all that information to the new site and updating the installation. All of that is happening tomorrow (July 8) between 4 and 6 PM.
• On Thursday, July 9, Flash Fiction updates will resume on the new domain. You will not be able to read Flash Fiction updates on the Dear Isobel address AFTER Wednesday, July 8.
• I will be cleaning up links for the rest of the month. I will be doing this systematically and will let you know in my daily update posts what’s been done and what hasn’t been. Like I said, all the stories will be available at the Dear Isobel site, but no comments will be available.
• By August 1, I expect to have the move completed

What You Can Do

• Update your bookmarks now to the new domain: http://www.crimsonglass.org. It is active and, for the most, redirects to the Dear Isobel address. I’ll be taking that redirect off Thursday morning as long as things go well tomorrow. If they don’t, this site is fine and backed up. I’ll have an update thread at Twitter to keep you in the loop.
• Remember the dates. July 8 is the last day to read Flash Fiction updates here on Dear Isobel. Tomorrow at 4 PM, all comments left on this site will not be moved over.
• August 1, I will be putting up the redirect for the Dear Isobel address.
• September 1, I will be deleting the the files for Dear Isobel. I’ll leave the subdomain active for a year, and then close it down in 2021.

As you can see — most of what you guys need to do is just update book marks and be patient. Other than that, it’s on me to take my time and do everything right the first time. I’m excited to make this move — I never thought CG would be big enough or active enough to warrant its own domain or I would have made the move back in 2014 when I reopened. That’s largely because of you guys — without you, I wouldn’t still be writing about this couple in 2020. #Liason20 as a great celebration, but I have a feeling #Liason21 is going to be even better —

And I’m kicking it off with daily flash fiction updates from August 1-August 24 to make sure all current flash fiction series are finished before I scale back the updates during the school year. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!