WordPress and my new blog name
As some of you might know, there was a massive technical blip with my blog a few days ago, and it’s not something I would have noticed. However, blogging pals Liz at My wellbeing and learning journey and Ashley at Mental Health at home were kind enough to let me know. So thank you ladies. Now peeps, I need a favour?
The incident occurred after I successfully removed my old blog name “Mentalhealthfromtheotherside” from my url and replaced it with my new name
“Mentalhealth360”
This all went well and I was able to cancel the old name altogether. Now, this is where it went haywire and my posts were getting mixed up in “reader”.
I managed to speak to several “happiness” engineers about the problem and while they might be happy with the outcome ffs, I am not. Here’s one of their 10+ responses:
“There appears to have been an issue on our end, your site was registered in the Reader with the incorrect URL. I’ve resolved that issue for you, so going forward the only new posts added to your feed in the Reader will be from your site.“
Happiness Engineer, WordPress
So they resolved the issue of the reader for me, but (as above) now only any new posts would be added and visible in the reader. Mad as heck, I contacted the happy team again who agreed to add my last 20 posts to the reader!
What does this mean for Mentalhealth360?
They’ve only added my last 20, yes only 20 (out of over 120), posts to the reader, which is where the problem was. It now means that only those last 20 posts will appear in your (and any new followers) reader, making it look like I’ve only ever posted 20 articles 🙁
Also, because of what they’ve done, anyone clicking on my old name within your posts, rather than redirect them to my new name, it will come up saying “this site is parked“. Obviously, anyone seeing this message is just going to walk on by! And I’m so furious, I could cry.
Now, I ask a favour
If you do have my old blog name anywhere within your recent posts i.e. Blog Awards, would you be so kind to change my name and link to https://mentalhealth360.uk/? I know it’s a huge ask and I’m not suggesting you go through all your posts lol but even if you could just change one or two, I might have a chance.
I’ve had to update all other social media and having spent the last 2 days on it, I’m wound up to the max. And, I’m still fucking flippin’ p’d off with WordPress. I need to get off here before an even bigger rant, so I’ll stop now and hope you’ll bear with me while I furiously type out some new posts.
Caz x
My new blog name
I want to say a huge thank you to all who commented, made suggestions and helped me to choose my new blog name. You were super helpful and really kind, taking time to read my post, checking out my ideas and coming up with lots of your own.
My initial favourite blog name was Mental Health from all sides and some of you agreed, so I’m going to use that as part of my tagline.
However, when Sadagopan at Pointless & Prosaic came up with Mental Health 360°, it made sense to me, with several of you in agreement. So there we have it.
Now all I need, and I’m going to be really cheeky here, is to ask if you would help spread the news through any of the social media channels you use? I’d really appreciate you helping me promote my new blog name in any way possible.
Thank you also for your thoughtful comments about my content and for now, I will continue along the same lines. However, along the way, I’m happy to have any more suggestions about what you’d like to read on my blog.
My last few posts have been about Communication skills in various forms, something you might find helpful in any situation:
- https://mentalhealth360.uk/2020/03/03/how-to-improve-your-verbal-communication-skills/
- https://mentalhealth360.uk/2020/02/07/what-are-good-listening-skills/
- https://mentalhealth360.uk/2020/03/15/how-never-to-miss-important-social-cues-again/
- https://mentalhealth360.uk/2020/03/13/when-and-how-do-i-say-sorry/
Yay. I would like to thank the academy… jk. I am glad my suggestion was helpful. A couple of quick points – (i) I’m one of those people who got fed up of the negativity in social media and came out of it. So I won’t be able to promote much. (ii) Are you not updating your blog address? It says “mentalhealthfromtheotherside.wordpress.com”
Thank you for your help. I’m waiting to see which domain name I can buy, then I’ll change it – thank you again.
Best of both worlds. A good title we liked and the other we did too, becomes the tag line.
You just need your profile name to reflect. I can see you jave done title on your blog, but your profile shows the old so when viewing your posts in the reader, no one would be wiser of the change. X
Ah, thanks for pointing it out Liz. I’m asking another blogging pal if this makes a difference – do I need to change this?
You wouldn’t need to change your blog link, otherwise it will be like starting over again, as people would need your new link, but in your profile, if you change your name to reflect the title of your blog, (if you don’t want to use your personal name) then that would be a goid idea to change, otherwise you would see “mentalhealthfromtheotheotherside.. ” because in the reader when your posts come up, this is what I would see and not your new name.
OK, I’ve changed my profile name, thank you. I’ve asked another blogging pal about what I need to change i.e. from the old name to the new? aarrgghh!
Where it says “public display name” in your profile, that’s where you can change accordingly to your new name, then remember to click on save a bit further down.
You little darlin’ x
I love your new logo btw.
Thanks again x
No problem. 🙂
Thank you for your inout Liz x
Love the new name!
Thanks Ashley and thank you for your input.
So sorry I haven’t seen this…I love the new name…!! 👍🏻
Hey, no worries Kim. And thank you, I think I’m happy with it now lol x
Love the new name! It’s perfect!!
Thank you 🙂
Excellent choice of your name!
Thank you for your input.
I like it. 🙂
I’m still wondering if a song lyric taken out of context is the best name for my blog (and now that I think about it, my user name on here is also a song lyric taken out of context). But I’m keeping it for now.
It was only as my blog evolved that I decided to change the name. I like your name and only you will know when (if) you want to change it 🙂
That’s a good point. 🙂 I think the name fits. Listening to music has always been a big part of my life. (Making music, on the other hand, that’s different. I always had a good ear for music, but I never did anything with it… however, I’m going to stop talking about that in the interest of not giving away spoilers for future episodes.) The song that my blog title comes from (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOllF3TgAsM) is specifically one of my favorite songs from the time period I write about. As you’ve probably noticed, I always post a song with each story I write, and I used this one for the episode where I was driving home at the end of my first year of university. I’m probably going to use this song for every episode that happens at the end of a school year. Interestingly enough, I’ve always liked the song, but if you had asked me in 1995 I wouldn’t necessarily have considered it one of my favorites. It didn’t become one of the best songs ever to me until years later. And that’s kind of how I feel about the time period I write about… at the time it had its ups and downs just like any other time period, but only later and after living a bunch more life did I realize just how special those days were.
The main reason I might want to change it is if this blog gets really big, or I do something with it that will make me a profit, because I don’t have permission from the band to use their line (although I do have a disclaimer stating as such in the “About” page). (As for my username live_a_life_less_ordinary, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7y4GnzUlM, I do actually know the songwriter well enough to talk to, and I think the band knows I use that as my name because I’m friends with all of them on Instagram, but since that’s just a user name, I wouldn’t have the same issues with profiting from their name.)
Speaking of which, I’ve wondered if I should make a consistent and original name to use for all my online identities. I could always just use Greg Dennison, now that I’ve established that name on my blog, since after all it is a pen name.
Wow, I like those tracks, particularly the second one – never heard it before. And you know the songwriter – ooh, get you. Consistency’s good and if you use your pen name everywhere else? Good all round 🙂
Carbon Leaf, the band that did Life Less Ordinary, is from Virginia. In 2002, I made a friend on the Internet from Virginia; this was shortly after I moved away from Jeromeville, so I won’t be writing about her in my blog. She told me about Carbon Leaf back when they mostly played small venues in the eastern USA, far from me. I took a trip all the way across the country to see them with my friend in early 2004. Shortly after that, they started touring nationwide, and I’ve now seen them 21 times. But the band members always stick around to talk to fans after shows, and I’ve been coming to their shows for so long that the three original members all know me by now. I’m friends with them all on social media too. The band also had a really tight Internet community back in the day, so I’ve made friends all over the world from there, some of whom I’ve met in person in my travels. (Interestingly enough, my friend who first told me about them doesn’t really follow them anymore, but that’s just life.)
(Side question: when I say things like “Virginia,” does that mean anything to you? You’re in the UK, right? I honestly don’t know how well you guys know our geography. And it probably doesn’t help that Jeromeville and Plumdale and all the places I write about don’t really exist. I’m from the western USA, and Virginia is on the other side of the country.
All the places I write about in my blog are real, but I’ve changed all the names, and I don’t say which state I’m writing about. I do that to keep things plausibly anonymous since most of the stories in my blog are true.)
Wow, that’s great that you’ve been able to follow them and, more importantly, look how many friends you’ve made on your travels. That’s really interesting to know.
Geography was never my best subject 😉 but I have a little knowledge of America. My sister and her little ones (now grown up and married) moved to Houston some years ago so I got to visit many times. Then she moved to Philadelphia and I visited there too. But they’re all back in sunny Houston now. My son and his girlfriend have been in San Diego for almost two years now and are awaiting confirmation that they can stay another two years — so we go to visit in August, all being well. To answer your question eventually (lol), I know a little about the States. I love the name Jeromeville and would have thought it was a real place by your blog 🙂 Caz x
Makes sense. 🙂 I’m not great on UK geography. I could point on a map where England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are, and I could point to approximately where London is… and I’m probably a little better with that kind of thing than the average American.
A lot of the names I made up for people and places have some similarity or connection to the actual name. In the case of Jeromeville, the actual city has the same name as the last name of a family that settled the area soon after the area became part of the US (it is part of the territory that we got after the Mexican-American war of 1848). And the patriarch of that family’s first name was Jerome, so that’s where I got the name. (If you want to know more about where this place is, send me an email, gregoryjdennison at gmail; if you don’t have time and this isn’t a big deal to you, don’t worry about it.)
I’ve been to San Diego eight times; it’s about an 8-9 hour car trip from here (or about an hour and a half on an airplane, I did the trip that way once). I will be writing about the first two when my blog gets to November 1997 and December 1999. The last two of those trips were in 2011, when I was in the worst long distance relationship ever with someone who lived just outside San Diego. It’s really pretty down there. I’ve been to Philadelphia once to see all the historical stuff, during a time in my life when I was on the road for four months trying to find myself. I’ve never been to Houston; it holds the distinction of being the largest US city that I’ve never been to. And I’ve never been to the UK, although my friend in Virginia whom I mentioned before married a British guy, and one of his friends who was a bridesmaid in that wedding has told me she and her friends would be glad to give me a couch to stay on when I finally make it over there. 🙂
Hi Greg, yes I’m sending you an email for that info on Jerome 🙂
Brilliant, glad you been to San Diego and that you’ll be writing about your trips in your blog. Yes, Philidelphia was more historical than Houston and San Diego. Though we did go to visit the Alamo in San Antonio with my sister.
Houston’s okay for me – hot all year round 🙂 but other than that, there wasn’t too much to see. Went to Galveston for a few days which took me back to when our parents used to play a lot of Country music, back in the day lol.
Most people love the UK, it’s full of history. London is an amazing place to visit, so much to see and do so, yes – if you ever get to visit, let us know 🙂 Stay safe Greg – Caz
I didn’t get your email yet… did you send it?
I got your award nomination. I’ll get to it eventually. I’m currently trying to figure out what my work is going to look like for the next weeks or months or however long this goes on for. I’m never quite sure how to handle blog awards within the context of my blog, since blog awards and blogs didn’t exist in 1995. I did one before where, in the story, it was a chain email someone sent me, and sometimes I just reply in the original post instead of making a new post of my own. Maybe I’ll save it for a time when I don’t remember anything too special to write about. What do you think?
Just sent it now 🙂 Hey no worries, you don’t have to participate. I like the awards cos it’s a great way of finding out a bit more on fellow-bloggers. If and when you got time 🙂
I think the new name is a great choice 😊😊
Thanks Jess x
That’s a great way to handle it, use “all sides” as the tagline and “360” as the name! I was all intimidated by the idea of coming up with a tagline, so I’m glad you found something that worked!
Yep, I’m glad I was able to make the decision with the help of our lovely blogging community.
I really like the new blog name!
Woohoooo, great choice! I think I said something about 360 too but if someone else said it first then great minds think alike 😉I’ll reshare your post on social. Are you changing it on the URL as well? xx
Thank you for sharing. I’m chatting with someone about whether I have to or not? x
Love the new name!
Thank you 🙂
Cheers x
Love the new name 🙂 It’s a great fit!
Thank you Ang 🙂
Love the new name caz its great. xoxo
Thank you. I got it with the support from our lovely blooging community 🙂 Glad you like it.
Hello all! Great article 🙂 Check out and follow my new blog and instagram @instaphotojo
Will do 🙂
What a disaster! If it’s their screw-up it seems like it’s the least they could do is make the old domain redirect to the new one. And it’s totally absurd that they’re only putting 20 of your posts in the Reader. What a bunch of asshats. The quality of WordPress customer service has gone way, way downhill compared to when I upgraded my plan last summer.
You’re right Ashley and I’m about to send them an email saying a much. I’m so effin’ p’d of with the happiness engineers at WordPress.
I am not overly enthusiastic with the happiness engineers at WordPress. There I said it lol
your new name is perfect. i really love it.
Thank you. I wanted the name to reflect my posts, which are about all things mental health.
Glad you like it, thanks.
I don’t do social media as you know and I have removed my blog awards altogether from my site, as of yesterday. (Don’t know if you have seen that blog post announcement.)
As for WordPress, I feel I can’t rant about them anymore than I have done so far. I have not been impresed for some time and very annoyed with them this year.
If I said anything more about them, then I can only repeat what has been said already regarding your situation.
Aaarrgghhhh. I’m now trying to change my URL on other platforms but it’s all gobbledegook to me. I could rant forever but it’s getting me down so I’m not looking at any more technical stuff today! x
I imagine it would be awkward, but not something I know myself, so I couldn’t say.
I say have a break and return later.
Yep, I’ve shut down all other tabs apart from this one. Thanks for caring Liz x
I don’t get how WordPress made that mess in the first place. I wonder if any others were affected.
But yes, shut the windows down and go back in a day or two. Easy to get drained otherwise. X
That’s exactly how I feel Liz – and defeated! Not sure how THEY made the huge mistake ffs.
I had a scare too when I saw that your site was ‘parked’. I checked the translation for ‘parked’ as I didn’t understand it. I thought you were working on your blog, lay out or something and that it was ‘parked’ for that reason. When I went to your site, not following the reader, I could see all your posts. Oh sometimes there are weird difficulties with WP aren’t they? Good tip to change your old name into the new one in Awards, I didn’t think about that and I’ll have a look.
Aaarrgghhh! It’s all driving me nuts! I’m so mixed up with all the other platforms, I don’t know I’m doing anymore. I’m shutting down all my other tabs and work on them when I feel calmer and happier. I could punch wordpress right on the nose!!!
Hahaha, I get it sometimes my website acts out too! And the reader messes things up but it will be ok in the end I guess.
Crikey, I hope so! But it’s certainly affecting my blog and Pinterest numbers – cos all some people see is “parked”! I give up 🙁
No that’s not true anymore! I checked just now, I can see your posts fine in the reader and click on them to go to your site. No more parking mentioned!
Whoohoo………. x
I had a chance to quickly try and catch up with all my reading and every single post I clicked on of yours said it was parked and I thought, hmmm, must be a glitch, let’s check someone else’s. I’m glad I kept digging to find out you are still here!! Sounds like such a frustrating ordeal!
Oh, I know how hard it is , catching up with everything. Yes, I’m glad you managed to find me but I think I might lose lots of followers – aaarrggh! 🙁
I sure hope you don’t! But if I was able to figure it out and find you then anyone can! I have the technological savvyness (however you wish to word it) of an 8 year old.
Me too, definitely not a techie lol. Keep your fingers crossed for me Ang 🙂
I’m so sorry you are dealing with this problem. Unfortunately, WP offers a lot of things but doesn’t seem very good at making any of them work well. I went through a similar problem but luckily only lost my likes/comments for a few posts not all my posts. It must have been so devastating not to have your posts that you worked so hard on show up on the reader. Is there any way you can republish them perhaps? They are really not too helpful when it comes to solving these bugs either.
Also congratulations on the new domain- I love it!
So sorry you’ve been having problems with the Reader and the new name! 😥 I updated the links I had in my older Sunshine posts.
Thank you so much – it appears I’ve lost the majority of my followers 🙁 They can’t find me? Hey ho, it is what it is 🙂
Hi Caz, I just wanted to drop in and let you know I’ve gone through and updated any links to your site that are on my blog, I hope it helps a little and that you haven’t lost too many people along the way! I’d love to be able to offer some tips or advice but my technical skills are non existent unfortunately!
Aaaww, you little angel. We put so much hard work into our blogs, it’s so unfair 🙁 So, thank you Jess. I really appreciate it.
No problem at all, as you say so much work goes into it so something like this is beyond frustrating!
It certainly was!