I have set up new email addresses for some of my domain sites. I'm still going to use my Gmail for almost everything. But, I've been getting attacked by spam emailers, mostly from Subaru USA. So I can use the new addresses for people I actually want to hear from. Which will likely be almost nothing really. Even family email may as well go to the old account. I'm not so likely to check the new accounts often. Unless I set them up to work with something like the email part of SeaMonkey. Tried once and it did not work, but how can you tell when you don't have activity in the account. Yes, I did send myself a test email. Anyway, that is all more to work on.

I'm looking at various ways to keep my niche web resource directories, without WordPress. Everyone seems to suggest WordPress plugins. But they don't understand that all those plugins are dependent on WordPress. WordPress, which says it is standalone software but requires a lot of plugins.

I am trying RSS feeds but, some sites do not use RSS any more. I don't understand why. It is such a simple way to distribute your content and you don't have to do anything. Just put the link up somewhere and forget about it.

Yesterday I was looking at a lot of ways to set up a holiday and event site. Calendar software, address book software, PIM software... No luck so far. Most of the software I find is dated or forgotten/ abandoned. If something isn't popular they don't want to bother with it. Popularity being dictated by Google overall. I am fed up with marketing and that whole mentality. Why do people want to be Google automatons?

I am starting two online shops. One for Ontario Exploration and the other for ASCII Artist. Both of those sites are still on WordPress due to the web resource directory I have built for them. Also, I'm just not feeling the patience to move all the images and figure out this and that to make them work on b2. The image thing on b2 is still bugging me, a lot. Really it shouldn't. It is just a matter of changing the way I create a post, adapting to different software. But, it did seem so much easier to add it while I wrote the post, instead of before or after. I guess I am just letting myself be stubborn about it.

Another change, I allowed Grammarly to attempt to take over my life. It feels that way, even though it just sits in every post window, waiting to boss me around and tell me I should be spelling everything in US spelling, not Canadian. I did not set it all up, registering with the site. If I had it might stop nagging me about every word I spell with Canadian spelling. I don't want to register and give my information to them. So, it will be a battle between trying to catch typos and getting fed up with being corrected.

On the homefront, outside of this computer, I am dealing with hoarding, trying to make myself exercise and other things. Go me.

Happy New Year! Possibly the last time I type that, until the end of this year.

I thought I had all my sites set to Canadian English. But, I had missed a couple.

It doesn't come up a lot. There aren't huge differences in Canadian English versus British, Australian or US. But, when something does pop up wrong it bugs me. Especially when spellchecker is trying to correct Canadian spelling.

So, I fixed them all.

To do so yourself...

Start at Settings. Change your Site Language (find English, then the English version you use). Save that.

Then go to your Dashboard, Updates. At the bottom will be the option to update translations. If you have changed your language in Settings, there will be an update in translations. Go ahead and update it.

That's it. A simple process and a simple fix to have your site in your preferred English.

WordPress is the Cadillac of CMS for web developers making cookie cutter sites for clients paying thousands of dollars (sometimes). For end users, it is deliberately chopped up and dumbed down. Web developers don’t want clients tinkering, maintaining, changing, or even updating their sites. There are cases where the web developer actually owns the site, the client just has rights to the contents. Clients pay for the site, choose the content, but otherwise get in the way. But, they do pay.

So why is WordPress still free? Why not claim their share of the money being made? Or, will they? It happened with Movable Type.

For those dwindling few who can’t afford/ don’t want a web developer… why are you still using WordPress?

When Gutenberg replaces the current post editor it will take away more functions than it adds, for the end user, the people writing their own sites. WordPress will say it streamlines the editing functions. But, have you taken a look at it? I did. The editor is gone.

Posting to WordPress will become cut and paste with content blocks. This makes it much easier for web developers to configure plugins, themes and other services they can sell to clients who don’t really want to deal with any part of putting up a site themselves. Clients just supply the content, remember. Any editing of the content has already been done before it gets pasted into WordPress.

The new WordPress will be a lot like the old GeoCities. A lot of people won’t know much about GeoCities. It was an online web host, but your sites were on their domain. Sort of like Blogger which gives you the site.blogspot.com domain. I don’t remember if GeoCities let people add their own domain, Blogger does. Anyway, GeoCities made it easy to put up a site. The structure was there, all you really had to do was add your own content. GeoCities was free to use, but they did run a few ads on your site. If GeoCities had not shut down, would they be competing with WordPress now?

Online site building software: Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, and others, are just competition for WordPress.com because WordPress.org people still make their own sites, right? Yes, if people were making their own sites, but too often sites are made by web developers and people just cut and paste their content into cookie cutter sites built by web developers using WordPress software and assorted plugins the client doesn’t need to know about. How is this really different from an online web site builder? The online website builder is a lot cheaper but does require some hands on work beyond just dumping content into it.

Why not just write for sites like HubPages and at least get paid for your content instead of paying to put it online?

Maybe the only reason WordPress is still free is WordPress.com. If you haven’t taken a look at WordPress.com for awhile, go login and take a look at the features there. Long ago the .com and the self hosted WordPress were not so different. But, that was long ago. WordPress.com is free to sign up for but then it becomes a Facebook game. Features are offered like pretty treats, shiny extras, and premium goodies virtually yours when you pay with real credit cards.

At the end of the day you are paying to use WordPress.

I have moved out of WordPress. I'm using the multi-domain feature of b2evolution. After importing my WordPress content I have found problems with paragraph formatting and missing image files on posts. I will deal with that over time. Today I am just working on today and the post I write next. There is only so much time I want to put into old content when I suspect most of my readers don't have human eyes anyway.

Some of my sites rely on WordPress plugins which will only work with WordPress. I am deciding whether or not to keep the sites fully on WordPress or to move keep them partially on WordPress, in order to use the content I have on the plugin, Link Library.

Meanwhile, I have a lot to do in the admin on b2evolution.

My sites include my interests in web publishing, creative writing, urban exploration, ASCII art, and general art, culture, travel and history. I have several sites because I really like writing and publishing online and I tend to buy new domains on impulse when the idea always seems good at the time.

I have been online since 1996 running my own sites single-handed and self taught since before WordPress. I’ve also written for several other sites and networks: Suite 101, BackWash, LockerGnome, HerPlanet, HubPages, Squidoo, Twolia, and WZ.com. Before the WWW got going I also wrote for zines.

I was an editall with the Open Directory Project for over ten years. I’ve never been able to like or accept SEO since being on the side of having to clean it up in the early days of the web.

I’m never bored. People who claim to be easily bored must be half brain-dead. There is always something else to do, try, explore or get totally wrong. I’m a recovering perfectionist and find it hard to give myself credit for anything when there is always something that could be fixed, made better, in short, perfected. At times I burn myself out or just don’t get started at all. Yet, I’ll be back… always an optimist, too honest and eventually someone will sum that up on my gravestone in a unique and clever way that I will wish I could see. I believe in reincarnation because I really want the end to be just the beginning.

Should you be wondering… this is not a professional profile. I don’t think I could ever really manage that level of proficient, professional perfection.

Doing things my own way is so much a part of who I am. It’s a shame I have given myself so much to aim for. But, I am recovering… some days.