A Fresh Start

After 10 years and almost 8,000 posts, my WordPress database has become corrupt. I’ve been trying to fix it off and on for the last three weeks, but it’s time to cut my losses and start fresh. The posts are still there, somewhere, so I’ll be slowly revisiting and reimporting the ones I found interesting — but really, who needs to read my thoughts from 2006 linking to a blog that’s no longer there? (They used to say comic readers, by which they meant kids who read superhero comics, turned over every four years or so, so you could tell the same or similar stories again for a fresh audience. In my experience, the life of a blog is similarly about five years. After that, the links go dead.) This fresh start should mean better organization for the site, a modern theme, and faster performance.



17 comments

  • David Oakes

    The Queen is dead.

    Long live the Queen!

  • James Schee

    I knew I’d gotten a lot of weird errors when I’d come to the site. I’ve been coming to your site since it began(before it was even officially open even?? lol) and seen it through a number of changes, so on we go with a new start!

  • > but really, who needs to read my thoughts from 2006 linking to a blog that’s no longer there?

    I do!

  • Yikes! A loss can be good motivation for turning a new page (or site full of them) but I hope you have copies of recent stuff, at least, to add back into the mix as you can. Lookin’ forward to the revived, renewed CWR as it happens!

  • That’s got to be rough. Then again, as a fellow long-time blogger, I’ll admit I sometimes see the appeal of a fresh start as well. Sorry to hear about the database problems.

  • Yes, James, those errors meant I knew what I needed to do to fix things, but I couldn’t get to the controls I needed to do so. Frustrating!

    But I’m probably overdue. The site originally started in 1999, but in late 2005, I switched to WordPress in the first place, and at that point, I also brought over only selected items to save.

    Thanks, everyone, for your sympathy and continuing readership.

  • Crazylove

    ” but really, who needs to read my thoughts from 2006″ I do!

  • David Oakes

    You’ve got the time arrow set to “Reverse”.

  • ??? If you’re referring to reprint posts appearing, if I set their date to the original date of posting, the URL stays the same.

  • James Schee

    It seems weird to see the old(original?) CWR page format again. If my memory isn’t failing me that is. lol

  • Good luck with the new version of your site. Too bad about the lost posts…

  • Cali_leo_girl

    I was so sad when I could not get to your blog. I’m just glad you did not disappear. LOL

  • Sarah

    Hm, I noticing many dead links for articles I’ve saved/bookmarked—even posts from as recent as 2013 and 2014. Are you going to setup redirects for those so we could still access them? Or should I resort to the Wayback Machine?

    I’ve been a longtime reader and love what you have to say about comics and related fields. In fact, I’ve even cited some of your articles in my grad school papers. :)

  • I am slowly restoring posts, but it’s a manual process, so those links will be live again at some point, but maybe not soon. In the meantime, if there’s something you need, you can email me. Thanks for continuing to read! And cite (I’m flattered)!

  • Sarah

    It’s great to know that you’re restoring—and I understand how slow migration of years of content could be. :) Thanks, I’ll keep in mind that I could email you (esp. if archive.org is busy)!

  • Phillip Temple

    I wanted to find your review on “motion comics”, but couldn’t find it with
    the search tool…Waahhhh!!! It’s tagged thru Wikipedia, but the good thing is
    I’m pretty sure it’s here…I think….lol…

    Anyway, if it’s not, might I have your opinion on motion comics, please?…
    I have no idea at all what kind of beast they are, animation, still or otherwise…
    I have no frame of reference, so, your thoughts are highly appreciated.

    Thanks!!
    PLT

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