It has come to my attention that there is a problem with the mailing system for my blog posts. A number of people have been spontaneously degenerated from the mailing list. In addition, the Blogger platform that I've used for the past ten years is seriously outdated. Rationalist Judaism needs a new platform, with all the old posts imported (and preferably the comments too), and a better email delivery system. But I don't have the expertise, time or money for this - it's all I can do to eke out time from my other work to write the posts. To that end, I am looking for the following two things:
1) Someone with the technological knowledge to arrange a new platform and port the existing blog to it;
2) Someone to fund the above!
If you're able to help with either of these, please write to me at director@BiblicalNaturalHistory.org
Wishing you a Gmar Chatima Tova!
Congrats on the growth
ReplyDeleteVeist such ois there’s demand for your product
Agav, u sound ultra chareidi asking for handouts like that! Gmar tov
Mark Shapiro did it on his Seforim blog, but the comments are gone.
ReplyDeletePersonally, blogger is not that bad, and I don't think the gain of a new platform is worth losing all the comments.
Thank God you never used Haloscan, unlike other certain bloggers!
I remember someone referring to it as the "haloscan churban". The loss of so many vibrant discussions in the heyday of Jblogging, was indeed a tragedy.
DeleteSeforim blog is run by Washington-based Dan Rabinowitz, not R. Dr. Marc Shapiro.
DeleteTry Substack.
ReplyDeleteI was going to suggest Wordpress, but Substack is an interesting option. Especially if you want to offer paid subscriptions.
DeleteR' Slifkin, a tech-competent teenager in your network (perhaps a family friend?) could implement a new blog for you on the Wordpress platform pretty easily.
As already mentioned, the tricky part may be importing all the old posts and comments. With Wordpress there may be some tools available to import old posts.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-switch-from-blogger-to-wordpress-without-losing-google-rankings/
ReplyDelete"Rationalist Judaism needs a new platform, with all the old posts imported (and preferably the comments too)"
ReplyDelete1) If you see a need for a new platform, I'd suggest that it be in addition to this old one. Bypass the importing of posts and their comments (and the new problems created by the transition, as happened with the Seforim Blog's transition) by simply labeling this as a legacy site, with its last post being a link to the new platform's homepage (whether that means changing rationalistjudaism.com to a something like legacy.rationalistjudaism.com and continuing with the same website or, alternatively, leaving the current rationalistjudaism.com as-is and going forward with new posts at a new website name/url).
2) If you really want to stay technologically up to date, you're looking at multiple platform pivots each decade (think of all the websites you use which get major updates every other year for no compelling reason). Your current platform displays great on both PC and mobile. From the user-end side of things (aside from the email issue you mentioned), I'm not convinced the grass will be greener on the other side.
It is seriously outdated. If he were to use a regular platform such as disqus, they would offer the upgrades on their own as upgrades in their platform and he would not need to migrate to a new platform every few years to keep it current.
DeleteI was thinking of another way to integrate the two sites: have a home landing page with links to all your posts. The ones before the migration will take users back to the blogger site and the ones post migration will take them to the new site.
I think getting an ssl certificate would be the best money spent. The blog shows as insecure site. My 2 cents
ReplyDeleteI donated a while ago adding a comment the $$ should got to this.
Getting an SSL certificate for the blog would give better ranking. I donated towards this a while ago but maybe my comments with the donation were missed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that R' Slifkin should look into the SSL certificate as well. With a dedicated hosting system it shouldn't be hard ("click and go").
DeleteRationalist Judaism without the comments section is like a rosh yeshiva without a scraggly beard
ReplyDeleteRav Ahron Lichtenstein was quite the Rosh Hayeshiva though.
Delete"Degenerated??" Now you're just giving them ammunition!
ReplyDeleteWishing your Blog אריחת ימים and it should know no more צרות.
ReplyDeleteDo Rationalist Jews bash their heads for al chait?
ReplyDeleteRYBS said (obviously in jest) that for some sins, we should strike our heads rather than our hearts.
DeleteSee the Mesorat HaRav Machzor in the comments on the וידוי.
All mailing lists sometimes suffer from issues. If it occurred only one time, I would recommend to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteThe email system is not a part of Blogger, correct?
If you don't need any specific functionality to be added to the blog, I would recommend not to replace it. The migration might be very long and painful process.
Blogger is not outdated, it is mature. The reason why Blogger is not changed for a while is because it perfectly serves its purpose.
What I would recommend is:
- To add tags to the posts. (I hope Blogger supports that, and if not, that might be a reason to move from it.)
- To back up all the posts (along with the comments, if you are interested in them). If you don't have better way to do that, I probably could write a program that takes them directly from the site (bli neder).
I can make you a Tik Tok. It will be very lit and you can post screencaps from your haters accompanied by smug dances.
ReplyDeleteHappy to help set you up
ReplyDeleteHappy to help set you up if you want to self-host or use a free host like firebase or GitHub pages or a service like netlify
ReplyDeleteI would recommend doing nothing other than planning out a migration path should Blogspot ever be End-Of-Lifed. There are limits, like for comment management, but unless you are dealing with an army of trolls whose comments you regularly need to block, you shouldn't have much of a problem. The site is basic and limited but works.
ReplyDeleteVox Day was on the same platform using the same old style never-upgraded template, highly customized, with the same comment system, for years. The only reason he moved off is because he was shown the door last year, something that will never happen to you. But he had a totally custom system in place for years with multiple complete live backups ready for this eventuality. You don't. It's not easy if you're not prepared and if you don't have a support base of highly knowledgeable and experienced people who will make it happen, which you also don't.
He also didn't create a new comment system, instead relying on his SocialGalactic site for that.