Personally, I'm surprised that these old website bones are still holding up, what with the advancements in technology and gaudy new AI trinkets!
Regardless, I wanted to migrate the website to another platform for a few reasons:
- I'm tired of updating WordPress plugins. If you own a WordPress website too, then you know that the constant updates are a drag, especially since they break your website half (or more) of the time. Yet, they're crucial for security reasons.
- I didn't want to pay for a gazillion 'essential' WordPress plugins to be viable SEO-wise. On top of that, I also pay for plugins to keep the site secure, and free from malware and spam. It all adds up to quite a bit, as you can imagine — both in time and money.
- Simply because I got bored of the design, and have always wanted a magazine-feel to the site! So there we have it 🙂
So Where Did "A Chronic Voice" Move to?
The website is now hosted on Ghost Pro, which is perfect for a small blog like mine. The migration process was a lot more work than I had anticipated, as the import function in Ghost is pretty barebones.
What I Did and How it Benefits You, Too!
I did a mega spring cleaning of all 300+ posts plus pages on the website. You don't need to be a web expert or writer to know that what was written 10 years ago is probably cringe-worthy by now, both in terms of technicality and writing style.
What this means for you — many posts from the archives have been updated with new (hopefully wiser 😆) perspectives. So even if you've read a post before, you can read it again 😉
A Walk Down Memory Lane
I had originally wanted to delete all my monthly writing prompt entries as well, as they don't provide much value in terms of SEO. But as I was going through them, I realised that they are in fact, a treasure trove of memories. Many of the posts brought a smile or tinge of sadness to my face.
I have housed them all under a new ‘Diary Entries’ page here. When you get tired of reading 'science-y' articles, perhaps you can break the monotony up with more freeform, emotion-filled articles 🙂
Other Changes That Will Affect Or Benefit You
- Website is way faster now. I don't even need to check the time to compare the load speeds. In Ghost, the pages load up in a flash! So that means a more seamless reading experience for you.
- Newsletter platform and membership merge. I was previously using MailChimp as my newsletter platform. Since Ghost has a newsletter feature and membership options too, I decided to merge the two for a more integrated experience. If you're familiar with SubStack, the model is very similar.
- No change on your end. Except perhaps for the newsletter layout! As a current newsletter subscriber, you are automatically considered a 'free member' of the website 🙂 All current public content is free for reading always.
- Comments section. This is now restricted to members only (including free members), as I received way too much spam previously on WordPress. I also wanted it to move towards a more community feel.
- Should you wish to unsubscribe at any time, you can click on the 'unsubscribe' link at the end of this post as well.
Thank you for reading this lengthy welcome message, and why not take a peek at the new website here? 🙂 I wish you a lovely week ahead and thank you for being a part of this community!
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