Hmm…
As some of you know, I was writing a blog for the store I worked for. It was called “Dexter’s Discoveries.” After the store closed, I didn’t shut down the blog because it had new subscribers on most days and thousands of visitors a week and was at the top of Google for various subjects, and it just seemed wrong to do that.
In what I thought would be a good compromise, I changed the look and the name over the weekend. You can do this, though you have to pay a fee for it. I had imagined that xanga would do a redirect of some kind. Nope. If you do a search for “global warming lesson plans” and click on Dexter’s Discoveries, you get a “page not found” message. So rather than the hundreds of footprints I had expected to see this morning, I had one.
So I guess I have essentially shut down that blog. And paid to do so.
Sigh.
bummer
What?! If they have no redirect, then what is the point of them offering to allow the rename? You could basically shut it down, start a new blog under a new name, and save your money.
Of course I’m sure you have thought about this. Sorry to state the obvious. Is there any way to reopen Dexter’s Discoveries and write a final “you’ll find me over here…” post?
@rampaige – Yeah, that’s what I thought. I mean, I figured that’s why there was a fee. So I’ve lost my hard-won Google rankings and excelletn search results, and I have to redo my analytics and re-submit the blog — which I can’t do for three months, since blog directories won’t look at new blogs. Sad, huh?
Well that’s horrible. Have you contacted xanga about this? They ought to fix it for you! I still get the posts though so people who are already subscribed still receive your posts. I hope that makes you feel a little better!
I am so sorry this happened — it’s a real loss to the educational community. I’m with those who think you should complain to Xanga.
@ozarque – Emboldened by my commenters here, I did complain, nicely, and they changed it back for me.