Whinge (Trying to get ready for my 400+ lenses to port over to HP)

1. 81

   Greekgeekposted 9 years ago

   So, well. I get out of the hospital.
   I get my dead computer repaired.
   I start in on trying to finalize a 3-week trip to Europe while still not certain that I'll be healthy enough to go.
   There is also huge financial stuff happening in my life right now.
   
   Aaaaand one of my friends points out the Squidoo-Hubpages merger. (Thanks Flynn-the-Cat!)
   
   ...on Wednesday.
   
   The thing is, since SquidHQ strongly disagreed with me back in 2013 about how to keep that site in Google's good graces, I realized that after six years, Squidoo was no longer the right platform for me. So I let my lenses fall into abeyance, very seldom updating. My lenses still earned more than my hubs, and I hit 50,000 unique visitors for one month this last spring, but... I've gotten very choosy about where I invest my energy.
   
   Squidoo was no longer that place.
   
   Which means I have 400+ lenses, many of which have lost images or had their formatting completely mangled by the last two rounds of Squidoo updates, and I hadn't gotten to repairing them.
   
   So on the one hand, I'm pleased at a fresh start. I'm especially pleased that this happened now, because the night before I wound up in the emergency room, I was preparing to start moving my important content off Squidoo. (Greece Odyssey moving off Squidoo? Say it ain't so, Joe).
   
   But now I look at my dashboard and see all these disheveled-looking lenses whose content is sound but their hair wants cutting. I'm afraid Hubstaff is going to throw their collective pseudopods in the air and decide they're not worth the trouble.
   
   I also had written about FORTY Squidoo-related tutorials or lenses that were related to the Squidoo community, back when that was encouraged. Nearly all need to be trashed (I converted a few to general tutorials, but it's easier to wipe the slate clean).
   
   I only learned this afternoon about the 8AM EST deadline, after which our lenses are frozen, laid out on the auction block for display with their little bodies stuck in corbomite.
   
   So I am doing exactly what my doctor told me not to do and staying up all night to fix what I can. But I am... tired. And worried. And stressed. And not feeling well.
   
   ...okay, whinge over. Back to work.

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      pkmcrukposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Ellen! Stop and stop now. Your health is more important than anything. You are one of the people I have always looked up to since I started with this Squidoo/Online stuff and the thought that you are getting yourself into one heck of a state really saddens me.
      
      As Tim says you can let them move over and then use the 4 months "grace period" to sort them out.
      
      Take care of yourself my friend.
      
      Paul

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That was one heck of a post, my friend. Consider yourself major hugged.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      GreekGeek:
      
      Your situation sounds horrible, but if there is one thing I will tell you it is this:
      
      Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more important than your health.
      
      The way they are doing this seems as though you will have plenty of time to do your transfers, but even with that, you need to take a deep breath and slow it down.
      
      You have always been a fantastic help to me and everybody else on HP, so let the team do the move for you, then pick and choose the hubs that will be and/or are the most successful.
      
      If you can get that lady to save your articles for you, that would be money well spent because it will protect your health and also buy you some time.
      
      This situation requires baby steps.  baby steps.   baby steps!
      
      Good luck!

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      makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Ellen - first Big Hugs - nobody needs this after a stay in hospital!
      
      The MAJOR THING YOU NEED TO KNOW is do NOT under any circumstances rely on the Squidoo export to generate your lenses. As per usual it does not work.
      
      It is utterly useless - full of errors and it will react with your long lenses the same way it did with mine and give up very quickly so it might only capture 10% of your lens. It will in any case be in XML format without images.
      
      Next use the command to "save page as a web page".
      I tried all of them and the two I recommend are:
      * Safari - produces a webarchive file very fast which reproduces beautifully with all the live links intact and all the images. In the end this was the one I used for everything because I did a test and I could export from this into Google docs and then into a Blogger blog and it kept all the live links and formatting on every transfer
      * Firefox - you get two files for a web page save - one which is an html file with live links and another ones which saves all the files as bits.  I found this one took longer but you might prefer this one for lenses where you want to make sure you've got the images safe at original size.
      
      Plus I made a folder for each file to keep things and nice and neat and navigable in future!
      
      Finally - and obviously - do them in priority order.
      
      My take on it is you are not going to be in the first tranche of people coming over so I don't think you need to worry too much about being speedy.

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   Margaret Schindelposted 9 years ago

   Ellen, a number of us have taken up Susan Three-Hundred's offer to save copies of all our lenses as full html pages with comments, et al. for the bargain price of $5 per 100 lenses. We've all been stunned at how fast she turned around the files, and she probably could finish your 400+ lenses in an hour. If you want to look into this option, go to Fiverr and search for "I will save 100 Squidoo Lenses before the site shuts down for $5". Hope that helps ease some of the 11th hour stress.

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      Cari Kay 11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I may be very interested in this but cannot find the page over there.
      
      Does anybody know, will comments be transferred as well. They are a very important part of some of my lenses.
      
      Thank you.

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         Margaret Schindelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, Susan saves your lenses as full html web pages (.htm) including your comments. I'm new to HubPages and I'm not sure we're allowed to post links in the forums except within very strict parameters, but if you go to Fiverr.com and search for her "gig" (offer) titled "I will save 100 Squidoo Lenses before the site shuts down for $5" you should find it. She also goes by Susan Three-Hundred on Facebook, if you want to contact here there as well. Hope that helps!

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            Cari Kay 11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you.

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               Margaret Schindelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               My pleasure, Cari!

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         fluffanuttaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, comments will be transferred, although they won't be threaded like they are on Squidoo.

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            Cari Kay 11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Good to know.  My lenses on iron infusions and also the dangers of the hCG diet have so many useful comments.  I'd hate to lose those because I know they really help others.
            
            Feeling better about all this.  That's a good thing.  Thanks again!

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3. 0

   fluffanuttaposted 9 years ago

   Or, you could just chill and let HubPages do their thing by transferring ALL your lenses, leaving you to worry about them later. There will be a 4 month grace period during which your Featured lenses will be Featured hubs. You can then freshen and repair your hubs one at a time as time and life allows. No need to stress over them now. Just hit that green button already!

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   julieannbradyposted 9 years ago

   Ellen and Margaret - so good to see both of you gals. I too am stressing - remember I once had 810 lenses? I've not repurposed all those pages, but might do so in the next few months as I have them all saved as complete web pages.
   
   Over the course of one week, I have transferred over 50 lenses/lenslets to my blog(s). I will let the transfer go through on the remaining lenses and then see how the content looks.
   
   I hear you about 50,000 unique visitors in one month's time. I was down to 219 lenses.
   
   Let's hope everything pans out for all of us.
   
   Hugs to you!

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      Margaret Schindelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hugs to you, too, Julie! Sorry so many of us have been stressing. I'm more sanguine now. But I'm a "belt and suspenders" kind of gal and I wanted the peace of mind knowing that I had my XML lens exports from Squidoo and also the full html save pages with comments from Susan Three-Hundred, especially since not all the modules will be brought over. Hang in there, my friend. The creation and editing cutoff is in 20 minutes (eek!), but Susan can still take care of those saved html page backups with comments until the the lenses are fully transferred.

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   julieannbradyposted 9 years ago

   I did also get the downloaded export in XML format that gave me two folders -- the lenses and comments! Not sure when I will start aggressively applying comments, but I am surely covered with having copies backed up of my content. Now, to find the time to use what I saved. Whew! You know, I have said this a lot lately. "I am retired and never worked this hard in my professional career!" Can't wait to actually have a vacation and feel like I can do anything I want as a retired gal.

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      makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Have you opened them? Mine were full of errors!

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   ChristinSposted 9 years ago

   Wow, so much work for a lot of you with so many lenses.  I'm glad someone is doing the HTML backups for a reasonable price - very cool and should definitely take some of the stress out of it. 
   
   I really don't have much to add; just wanted to tell OP to protect your health first.  All this stuff will get done in good time.

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7. 81

   Greekgeekposted 9 years ago

   Thanks, everybody. I now feel sheepish and embarrassed for the vent.
   
   It's lovely to see some familiar faces. I hope that the traffic gods are treating you well on HP and that ex-Squids are finding it not too nightmarish getting your lenses transferred wherever you decide to go.
   
   ....and I'm now down to something like 300 lenses, which is a little more manageable. Crikey. (Scattered across 3 accounts; writing adds up over seven years).
   
   At least I find Hubpages a comfortable publishing environment. An uncluttered interface and bug-free editing are very, very welcome. I think some Squids are going to enjoy that, if we can get past the fact that Hubpages' filters are strict but very different from Squidoo's.
   
   And I will be having to revamp right along with you. I had a pretty good feel of what worked on Squidoo vs. what worked on Hubpages, and they are different. There's a few things that were best practices on Squidoo that are gonna trigger warning flags here.

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You shouldn't. I thought it was a perfectly fine post. I am happy to see you around here again.

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      Fiorenzaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      GG, so sorry to hear you've been so ill and do hope you are now on the mend.  Please don't overdo it - as everyone says, we have 4 months to sort them out and the grace period on each only expires when we start to edit that article individually.  So plenty of time to sort it out.  I know exactly what you mean, because I struggled to sort out the mess caused by the recent stripping out of HTML, all lovely stuff you taught me on your lenses, that I used to position images with nicely formatted captions under them to attribute them correctly.  All gone now and a right old mess even before they arrive here.  I gave up trying to fix them pre-move in favour of seeing what they look like on HP and sorting it out this side of the divide.  I only have a fraction of your portfolio to fix so I really do feel for you, but please don't risk your health.
      
      The lenses are still up and can be saved in non edit mode - most of us are doing a 'save as web page' because the XML facility is buggy and doesn't always contain the content or all of it.  That should be the case till at least the 2nd of September when 'early adopters' who hit the green button before 23rd August start to be migrated over, if that helps.  This is just a belt and braces in case any content gets lost enroute.

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   chezchazzposted 9 years ago

   Hi GreekGeek-
   I do hope you are feeling better. Do take care of yourself so you can enjoy that trip to Europe!
   Glad to see you here. Thought I'd take this opportunity to give you a hug and a great big T h a n k  Y o u! 
   I learned a lot from your tutorials from html and css (which I miss being able to use) to seo tips. Would not have been so successful on squidoo without your expertise. Just subscribed to your blog also.
   I've had a helluva summer and just getting back into the swing of things myself but HP seems far more human(e) than the tentacled beast so will definitely take advantage of the generous 4 month time frame once lenses transfer over.
   My pages will never look as good as they once did thanks to everything you taught me, but c'est la vie.
   Carinosamente.
   ---Chazz

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9. 92

   goatfuryposted 9 years ago

   Greekgeek, I feel your pain (although proportionately less so!).  I hope you've been able to set the transfer up so that it's as painless as possible.  If you need help, the community here on HP is just as supportive as Squidoo was, in my experience.  Good luck!

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10. 0

    robertzimmerman2posted 9 years ago

    Glad to see you here GG, you have been missed! With only 10 lenses I decided that letting them go to HP was the lazy way to end up with some material to make some hubs. I had signed up here at the same time I joined Squidoo but I only had time for one.
    
    I have already begun reading your articles and absorbing the tips!

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    wildsimplicityposted 9 years ago

    Feel better soon, GreekGeek! You were such an inspiration to me when I joined Squidoo in 2011. (I wrote as asphyxia over there). I'm glad to see you're making the move, too. I think us squids are going to thrive here.

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12. 81

    Greekgeekposted 9 years ago

    Thanks, everyone!
    
    MM: Thank you, as a savvy old Squid I knew better than to trust that exporter. Even if it were working properly, an XML exporter loses graphics and other resources.
    
    I did "web archive" saves from my browser for my two niche accounts, then realized the thing to do was bang into shape the lenses that were most in need of repair before editing was disabled, and back up the rest after they were frozen.
    
    I'm still finishing up. Oops.
    
    Editing was so much fun. As you know, Bob, I've always been a little funny about hosting my images on my own site and serving them via HTML (not so much in the past few years, but the old photo gallery module was buggy ss heck, so I used CSS to make my own, instead.)
    
    As Hubpages doesn't allow the IMG tag, I knew my images would disapper from my lenses. So I was trying to upload them to text modules.
    
    Squidoo being Squidoo, it let me do that for about an hour before it started giving me broken image icons in the workshop.
    
    I'll fix 'em later, maybe even upload larger sizes with clearer colors now that I've leveled up in Photoshop. My Greece photos are all seven years old. It's funny how you can look back at web graphics from five or ten years ago and think, "Golly, how small!" because nowadays we assume people have better bandwidth and screen resolution.
    
    OH! ONE THING: BACKING UP SQUIDOO QUIZZES.
    
    "Save As" may or may not save data hidden in javascript modules like quizzes. But after you take a quiz -- just click any old radio button to get thtough it -- the module lists ALL  the quiz questions and answers for you to review, with the correct one marked green. Copy and paste that into a text editor that preserves formatting, and you'll have all the quiz content.
    
    Just in Case.
    
    I wrote a whole slew of Greek mythology quizzes, so I needed to do this.

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13. 83

    ecogrannyposted 9 years ago

    Greekgeek, you have always been a role model and amazing fount of information on Squidoo. Your tutorials helped me tremendously over the years.
    
    I am so sorry to learn that you have been ill--and especially that you were so ill that you were hospitalized. I pray your recovery is speedy and lasting and that your three accounts move over here without a hitch.
    
    Best wishes.

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       Greekgeekposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you! It's probably going to turn out to be ulcerative colitis — I'm waiting to see a GI specialist who can verify my GP's guess.
       
       I'm just thanking my blessings that I can afford to work at home.

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14. 84

    kerbevposted 9 years ago

    You're not the only nervous squid here.  I am also quite busy in life right now and the filters scare the hell out of me.  I am not sure if hubpages will like any of my 300+ lenses.

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       Greekgeekposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hang in there, kab, and wishing the best for you and everybody!
       
       I look at it like this — the way Squidoo was going, we were going to be forced to move soon anyway. In fact, we'd probably have lost the holiday shopping season.
       
       Now, Hubpages is offering to do part of the work for us. Even if they don't take them all, it saves us having to rebuild quite so many from scratch, and we can put others on our own domains and see how they do.
       
       Hopefully the ones that work as hubs will outnumber those that don't.

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          makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Very true.
          
          I'm just relieved that the whole thing has finally finished and the "what next?" feeling one used to get with every email from HQ has gone FOREVER!

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       Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       It is my understanding that if your articles were in the top 175,000 on Squidoo, they will be transferred to HP and be featured for a four month grace period, so long as you don't edit them.  If you edit a Hub or publish a new one and it does not pass QAP, see my advice here:
       http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/124012? … ost2626843

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          Margaret Schindelposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Paul E. clarified which articles will be transferred in a post on another forum. As long as the lensmaster's account has at least one featured lens, all their lenses will be transferred:
          
          Paul Edmondson posted 7 days ago
          Actually, if the account has a featured lens, all of the lenses will be transferred in the account. Unpublished and WIP will be moved over as unpublished. However only featured lenses will have 301s.
          http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/123836?page=14
          
          Hope that helps!

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