Lisa Melton

Regarding the old blog

On the morning of Juneteenth, I published a “Sorry, we’re closed” post on my old blog, shutting the doors on the website forever.

My intent was to make a clean and obvious break between that blog and this one. Even though I doubted anyone would actually read it or even make that connection. I was doing it for myself.

But I had no idea so many people still subscribed to the RSS feed there. I hadn’t posted anything new in almost two years. Now those are dedicated and hopeful readers.

Just minutes after that post appeared in the feed, I started getting questions and comments about it on Mastodon. People wanted to know what was going on. The post hinted that I would be writing elsewhere. They wanted to know where.

Apparently my responses that I would announce something soon was not satisfying so they started guessing. Even making up other possible post-blog adventures for me. Some of which were quite amusing. And touching.

So, why am I writing here and not there?

Because the old website is chock full o’ deadname. And I don’t need to see that constantly. It’s also not who I am anymore.

This is the curse of being transgender. Getting everyone else to move past who you were. Non-trans people have no idea how important it is for us to be called by our new names. Our true names. And that’s only part of our curse.

Anyway, the old site with the old name will remain online for now. There are a lot of links to it from folks who noticed and even liked the content. And I’m loathe to break connections even though all of it should be available within the Internet Archive.

I may wind up re-publishing some of those posts here. I don’t know whether that’s a good idea or not. What do you think?

Posted

Comments

12 responses to “Regarding the old blog”

  1. spiegelmama Avatar
    spiegelmama

    @lisa If there are posts there you're still proud of and want to link to, it's probably worth bringing them over to the new site. You can also decide case by case, when you're writing a new entry and want to refer to an old one. Or maybe look at which ones are still getting read a lot. Good luck with the porting, Lisa!

  2. Shy bunny Avatar
    Shy bunny

    @lisa If you've got the max toot length high enough, why not? ^_^ (Including a subject line/CW, so people know what's coming)Sympathies on the naming front. I escaped very lightly there, thanks to being furry. =:) About the only place I might now want to tweak things is a published paper – not really much of an issue, but it did surprise me in a recent interview to have that specific topic raised (not the material, unfortunately; the rejection leaves me a touch suspicious).

  3. j-r conlin Avatar
    j-r conlin

    @lisa I am impressed you didn't leave the last post with "… anyway, off to go find out what that weird button in the abandoned warehouse does and why there are so many odd burn marks on the floor in front of it."

  4. Octavia con Amore Avatar
    Octavia con Amore

    @lisa I'm glad you've found a way to make a clean break. Often, it really can be difficult. My youtube channel with varjous performances over the years has plenty of my necronym, with a lot of it baked into the videos themselves. Worse still, the one video with 50 times the views compared to the runner up is one of them :vaporeon_cry: :blobfox_laugh_sweat: Still, with time, people will slowly forget who you are. I have a close friend that I've known for 5 times the length of time I've been fully out tell me, "you know, I just realised I don't even remember how you looked when you were presenting masc" recently and it was so wonderful. Hopefully, all of your readers will be like that :espeon_love:

  5. Elizabeth Avatar
    Elizabeth

    @lisa Lisa (which is a beautiful name), if you still want a clean break, make one. If people want to show up for you here and now, let them know how if you want them here. If you want to look through your old stuff it could be good. But if it doesn’t feel that way let it go. I don’t listen to Beyoncé or Lizzo bc I like loud guitars too much but you might need to. B likes to say she’s not bossy she’s the boss. Try that on!

  6. JustAFrog Avatar
    JustAFrog

    @lisa Republishing under your current name makes a lot of sense to me.

  7. Geoff Kratz Avatar
    Geoff Kratz

    @lisa Republishing is definitely good in my opinion. It can also be an opportunity to update them and make corrections. I moved some posts from other blogs I had in the past to make sure they were preserved on a current platform, and used that as a chance to make some changes at the same time.

  8. Dan Hallock Avatar
    Dan Hallock

    @lisa Always up to you, which I’m reiterating even though you asked for feedback, because names are so fraught w/ expectations. Some options to preserve links:• leave as is until you decide to update/follow up on a post from the old blog, then 301 Redirect (Permanently Moved) that post to the new version/site• replicate all content to the new site, correct the name/avatar, 301 Redirect everything• “rebrand” the old site with your livename, but keep the split and the outro/intro posts intact

  9. Shannon Clark Avatar
    Shannon Clark

    @lisa perhaps you can post the articles you are most proud of (or which are most important to you) in an archive format on your new site and I think as it is your site and your content treat it like someone publishing a collection of their past works – fix typos, change/remove your deadname, even when and where you want comment on your past self/update the post as you feel necessary. (Wil Wheaton’s Still Just a Geek is a good example of an author revisiting their past work and updating it)

  10. peter royal Avatar
    peter royal

    @lisa i started following you here because of that post. i had been subscribed to your RSS feed since i-can’t-remember. you’re helping make mastodon great!

  11. Charles Ying Avatar
    Charles Ying

    @lisa When a close colleague transitioned, I scrubbed all header files to change the deadname to their true name. I don’t know how trans people think about past lives, if it should be treated separate or to also transition history alongside identity.

  12. Kim Slawson Avatar
    Kim Slawson

    Your content is as important as your identity. I say s/DEADNAME/NEWNAME/g, then republish with category “old” or something similar to distinguish them.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *