If feelings are like seasons, mine would’ve experienced a full year’s worth in just a matter of days. Including hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. Seriously.
Well, you all know that I’m trying to move S Studio to another host. Well, that didn’t work out. I’m soooooo aching to rant about SiteGround right now. But, I won’t get in to that at the moment. All I know is that I’ve paid them money – and I haven’t received a single penny back. But, they were extremely quick to cut my hosting account immediately. Now, I just want to move my other account that’s still currently hosted with them. So very unimpressed.
Anyway, since I didn’t have much time to look around for another host, I decided to stay with my existing host – ICDSoft.com. I realised that while it’s not perfect, it has been my tried and true host for 6+ years. And, they have a stellar Tech Support. Yes, in the end, I thought that probably the best way to optimise my site is to work with my existing host and see how I can make it better.
You’d think it’s smooth sailing from there, right?
Well, in the quest for a quicker loading site, I thought I’d upgrade my WordPress installation to 2.6 (besides, that little reminder: “Your WP installation is out of date” drives me nuts). And, changed its location to the root folder (’been told it might help).
And, I almost had a heart attack when WP decided to “update” my database. And, I ended up with a totally empty site. Yes, that image you see in this post was exactly how I felt that very second.
With my limited knowledge of WP structure & phpAdmin, I managed to restore my data. But, more trouble awaits!
Permalinks stopped working properly. A few things disappeared. Plugins started to act up.
Long story short: S Studio lost some functionality – including the Now Reading plugin (MyBooks/library section), which is a shame. I really really like it. And, I’ve spent a bit of time developing my library pages. Now, it’s all gone. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to get it working again.
Also, I overhauled my permalinks. Not sure how that will affect my traffic and Google PR. But then, I’m in this for the long haul. So, even if the site does take a hit in the short term, hopefully, it’ll pay off in the long term.
The light at the end of the tunnel: S Studio’s back up and running! Yes, I can blog again & chit chat at the forums. With prettier permanent URLs to boot!
And, I know some of you have mentioned issues with logging in to the forums. From my investigation, it appears that one of the reasons for those issues is the old permalink structure. Now that S Studio changed the permalink structure in to something shorter & nicer, those issues with the forum should be much improved. So, do head on over, say hello, and join us.
As to the original problem that brought about all these things: S Studio’s loading time. Well, I’ve done a few other steps to improve that (including reducing links on the index, installing WP-Supercache, etc). So, hopefully, the loading time has improved too. And, I’ll definitely keep this in mind so I can continue to improve it.
If you do encounter issues, just let me know. As you can see, I go to such lengths when I listen to feedback. 
Anyway, thanks again for your patience and support during these rough times. I’m especially thankful to all of you who persists through slow site loading times, log-in issues and such. You all rock! And the reason I’m inspired to keep improving S Studio.
Much love always from me to ‘ya…
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Jayme 08.07.08 at 12:48 pm
Yay! Glad to see everything’s back up and running again. I remember how it felt like when I messed up my blog after mindlessly hitting update to the next version of Wordpress. But then I learned with some hard work and a lot of help, everything will always fall back into place. And no matter what happens, we’ll just be right here.
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Thanks for that, Jayme. It IS wonderful to know that friends like you stay with me here on this blog, through whatever circumstance. Thank you!
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Kay/Murfomurf 08.07.08 at 8:53 pm
Glad you’ve solved most of your probs with the hosting. Maybe you could Google for old cached versions to get some stuff back…worth trying!
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Hi, Kay. Posts seem to be mostly okay. Just little bits off here & there. It’s primarily plug-ins not working & such. But, I’ll get through it. Thanks!
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Kari 08.08.08 at 12:26 am
I’m sorry you’re having so many issues with the upgrade and database. I’ve been there and it frustrated me to the point that I just wiped it all out and started from scratch. As I mentioned on Plurk I haven’t had any problems since installing the auto upgrade plugin. Without that I think I would be lost! I hope you get everything working to your liking. Always rooting for you!
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Yes, Kari. I remember that. I will definitely keep that upgrade plug-in in mind next time. Probably won’t take too long. WP has a habit of upgrading, just when I finished updating my installation.
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Shaun Connell 08.08.08 at 3:12 am
Three quick things:
1. I was going to say “two” quick things, but I saw my words popping up above the editing box, and, well, that’s really cool.
2. I feel your pain, or at least, I will in a bit. I’m about to move about 9 full websites from one server to another. Gag.
3. The little picture of the dude at the top right part of the screen is just awesome.
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Hey, Shaun. Glad the reply bit the dude impressed ya.
And hope your upgrade went well. Thanks!
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Xee 08.08.08 at 10:29 am
With a lot of content on the line, I’m sure it’s been a rollercoaster ride. I’m glad that finally things have been sorted out. And that you’ve rested well (just read your Plurk!)
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Thanks, Xee. Yes – just glad that there’s a bit of stability now. Just need to keep figuring out how to optimise this blog.
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Heather 08.10.08 at 6:20 pm
Hi Shai,
Big sigh of relief. I did notice the site loaded a bit quicker this time. Hope that keeps up, too.
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Shai Coggins reply on August 11th, 2008:
Wow, that’s good to know, Heather. Hope I can keep improving it. Thanks!
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