One of the ReclaimPress discussions Taylor and I had recently was with Chris Long, who will soon be taking on the role of provost at University of Oregon, leaving behind some absolutely amazing work and colleagues at Michigan State University. Chris has been an early supporter of Reclaim Hosting, and for that we’re very grateful, but it wasn’t so much because he liked our logos or thought we were cool (though secretly I think he did : ).

Rather, it was because he was part of a group of faculty at Penn State University almost 20 years ago that saw blogging as a way of narrating their work and capturing the life of the mind over the course of their academic career. Chris stayed that course on his Long Road blog, and while we were discussing the option of moving his site, it became clear just how important it was to him that this move be seamless and his site run under the best of conditions. The discussion was going to start as an argument for him to move from cPanel to ReclaimPress (see my last post about a post-cPanel toolkit), but it turns out there was no argument to be had. Chris immediately saw the value of running his blog in ReclaimPress given it would be faster, backups allow for multi-region restores, and he has access via SFTP and SSH should he need it elsewhere easily.

Another brilliant image from Visual Thinkery to capture the preciousness of our blogs

In fact, this is a theme that’s been in the air as we work to bring old gold bloggers over to ReclaimPress. Maren’s “20 years of blogging… now on ReclaimPress” discusses just this very thing, highlighting just how crucial her blog has become to her sense of self online. As a result, the moment of moving it elsewhere brought the importance of this space into sharp focus:

My blog, which I mostly take for granted, and which, thanks to the super solid shared hosting experience I have had ever since 2016 I never really had to worry about, ever, suddenly became my most precious of domains.

Years of chronicling your work, commenting with colleagues, and generally prospecting your small bit of the web is something that has been deeply valuable to a whole generation of web denizens, and as the center cannot hold, perhaps that small blog at the edge of the web, tied to many, many others, can keep both hope alive and some freak flags flying.

I can’t really speak too much about returning to the blog given I never left, but I’m ready for the vinylesque revolution of blogging, in fact I know a place where you can press your own blog vinyl fresh on the web.

WordPress Vinyl Cutter on reclaimPress