June-July 2024: Chaos Ahead

Dear readers,

August this year will mark the 11th anniversary of the launching of la Pensine Mutine, still active thanks to my regular readers — whether you were here since day one or just joined along the way. And who knows, you may be just finding out reading this. It's also, obviously and especially because of my work. However, a blog without readers is what you may call a diary!

Now, at a time when the world is on the edge of a precipice, the internet is at stake. Social media, which are used to channel views and confine them in perception bubbles (or echo chambers), have gradually been hogging the minds of people, leading to significant drops in blog attendance. Hence blog platforms no longer generate sufficient profits and are closing down one after the other. Fortunately it won't be the case for Eklablog — that fabulous small start-up taken over by French media company Webedia (Canalblog, Overblog, Allociné, etc.) in 2016. That's the good thing about it, but…

Yes, there's a snag — a downside. As a matter of fact, we've just been notified, earlier this week, that the platform would be migrating onto Webedia's, supposedly “more stable” and more modern, notably with the implementation of HTTPS protocol. The catch is that, in spite of all the care and measure taken to preserve contents (the essential part), neither themes nor blog post filing system might survive the migration. Included in the potential disaster may be all the hard work ensuring you a more convenient browsing and reading experience as it won't be possible anymore to edit HTML and CSS codes unless you subscribe to a premium offer.

I'm already giving away a great deal of my time and skills on this blog for free, understand that I cannot, on top of that, pay for something others buy with donations, paid subscriptions or ads. Besides, I simply can't afford it. And the idea of having to stop blogging does break my heart.

There is, however, no need to worry as I do not intend to and if God or the Universe permits, I shall adjust to this new way of blogging.

On the upside, the website should hopefully be easier to browse on smartphones; blog posts may now be assigned to several categories (as it is sometimes quite challenging to pick up a single category); and archives should also be more functional. However, I would be surprised if I didn't have to edit each post individually. And that may take a great deal of time I would rather use writing or translating articles. I promise to do my best and keep you up to date.

For the moment, everyone on Eklablog is panicking. Every blogger wonders what to do. Especially those who cannot afford premium subscriptions, who are completely baffled by new technologies, and for whom blogging was a therapy and/or their (only) contact with the outside world. As I found out there were actually quite many of them. Incidentally, I've just joined a Discord server on which we are trying to get organised and help each other to get over the worst together. It should be more convenient as it is not on the platform.

According to Webedia's spokesperson on Eklablog, the migration process is expected to begin in June-early July and will be gradual as there are over a million blogs to process. So don't be surprised if it's a bit of a mess, but please, don't go away for it will only be temporary. I had meant to take some time off this summer and so I have scheduled a number of articles that you should still be able to read. Follow me on X or Telegram to be informed in real time when new posts are available. And, of course, I shall keep making videos. Maybe podcasts as well.

As for ads, once the migration process has been completed, I shall post an article providing hacks for a comfortable reading experience. Hopefully (toes and fingers crossed), la Pensine Mutine may be able to celebrate its 11th anniversary on 8th August relatively unscathed. I wish so much I could have achieved one million visitors, however it may be a harsh blow if the counters are reset to zero. As always, we'll deal with it.

Take care,

Updated 20th June 2024

After experimenting with a test blog on OverBlog, I'm currently in the process of reorganising categories and tags (which should later become main categories and categories respectively) in order to minimise post-migration mess. I'm also deleting some useless stuff. I found out that many videos have been deleted as well as some pictures. I don't have time to fix that now (though I might ask for your help when the process is finalised). Presently, what's most important is to complete the tagging before migration on OverBlog servers and I don't know when it will begin. So don't worry if stuff keeps changing. I shall do my best and keep you posted as promised. This shouldn't affect scheduled posts. See you on Sunday for a new article. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Original text by ... translated from French by EY@EL
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