Migrating Stuff

changing the place I blog, post articles and...stuff

So I've chosen stuff.davidaugust.com as my new custom domain for this site. Setting up a custom domain with ghost, the software running this site, is pretty straightforward. I did it a few minutes ago and already can now access this site. Before I widely share the new URL, I'll check that it is by and large loading well from more than just my own computer.

I hemmed and hawed a little over the URL, and this feels like it works as a catch all for the sorts of things I plan to be writing and posting here. It is a little unique, I hope in a good way. Hat tip to my friend Conrad Wrobel for suggesting it.

Now, my migration can move forward by:

• changing links
• redirecting people and machines here.

For the first part, this means:

• going around to places I linked to articles that are now on here and changing links to actually link to here
• going into Medium and changing the canonical links to direct people and machines here.

What is a canonical link you ask? A canonical "indicates that URL given...is the preferred URL for the current document. That helps search engines reduce duplicate content" according to the folks who set standards for the web.

The short version: canonical links help search engines understand better that you're not spamming them when you have the same material available at more than one URL. Canonical links also tell search engines which URL you'd like them to consider to be most official, or canonical.

In a perfect world, changing links (including canonical links) should help people who would like to see my past work end up finding it here instead on some older or broken link. The reality of my various blog presences over the years mean I probably just want to help people find their way to this site or my main site if they access a very old link.

The second part of this stage of migration, redirecting folks, can be more involved. I used to almost obsessively not want any old links to break, ever. So I would diligently spend gobs of time setting things up so every web address that used to have something on it would automatically redirect everyone's web browsers and search engines to new locations for that content.

I am now unconvinced that spending a ton of time doing that makes sense. If a site was last updates more than 10 years ago, perhaps I don't need each individual post there to post to a comparable post here. I think helping people find there way to my main site/s is probably find since we may be dealing with low single digits of people or machines that are still arriving at those old URLs. In many cases I crafted beautiful redirects that not a single person nor machine ever actually used. Instead of spending time getting it excruciatingly accurate for every single URL, I'm going to try to set things up for each old site so the whole old site ends up by and large sending folks to my whole current sites. If someone seeks me at a 10 year old URL, I want them to find me, and I doubt they'll be super disappointed if the thing the link originally went to might not be there.

I do need to figure out if the search function here on ghost might be useful for everyone (including me) trying to find things here. Happily, ghost includes a search function on official templates already.

At first, for redirecting people and machines, I will simply put a notice on my old blogs pointing people here. Then, eventually, I plan to have those domains automatically redirect people to my main site at www.davidaugust.com.

Why that site and not this one? Because if I somewhat randomly send people here, they may not get the context of who or what they're being sent to. My main site is probably going to be focused on what is important to me regardless of what future years hold. Or, maybe I will have my old blogs redirect people here and any other old-and-being-decommissioned sites point to my www site. Like tumblr, who took down my profile there earlier this year for reasons unknown and I'd had that profile set up on my own subdomain. I might point that subdomain to redirect people to my main site or to here. I haven't fully decided yet.

If you want to read why I'm doing all this, I wrote about why I have moved (and am moving) from old sites to this one in my last post. Please let me know if you've any questions or ideas. I think you can comment here, or find me on my Mastodon and Bluesky.

© Copyright July 23, 2025, David August, all rights reserved davidaugust.com

David August is an award-winning actor, acting coach, writer, director, and producer. He plays a role in the movie Dependent’s Day, and after its theatrical run, it’s now out on Amazon (affiliate link). He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, on the TV show Ghost Town, and many others. His artwork has been used and featured by multiple writers, filmmakers, theatre practitioners, and others to express visually. Off-screen, he has worked at ad agencies, start-ups, production companies, and major studios, helping them tell stories their customers and clients adore. He has guest lectured at USC’s Marshall School of Business about the Internet.