The Paperback Stash was started in 2007. Clearly I was younger then. 😏
Different emotions filter through me when I read old posts - some make me smile with nostalgic warmth, others make me cringe at the childish enthusiam and overindulgence in explanation marks.
Leaving up old book reviews will still be done, of course. The website is a chronicle of books I've read. But there's no reason to keep leaving up dozens of posts of old, retired features where I merely typed 2-3 sentences answering a weekly prompt from 2012. I have a wide breadcrumb of abandoned features since 2007 - some where I only participated once or twice, some where the content was so minimal it was only interactive for that year but leaves no point to have now.
I've going through recycled and old content - removing insignificant, half-hearted attempts. Where the content is reasonably good, I will revert some of those to draft and expand/update. Comment heavy posts that I have for nostalgic purposes may still be kept. Old shopping links will get a large overhaul -- many of these products link to dead links of products no longer available; in some cases, the websites (such as magneticbookmarks) have been gone for years. I like the idea of these in content, but I will merge, change, and minimize the posts to keep it condensed for future updating, instead of creating dozens of new posts that are similar.
This will take awhile but is something that needs to be done and will help me feel better. Remove the clutter. Trim off the no longer relevant. No one is interested in some of these older posts, myself included. Leaving endless posts that serve no posts delivers no favors. Website clutter may even slow the site down or make it less manageable. And - if I ever have to move the site for whatever reason - this will make it easier.
This won't be done overnight. It's a project I'll be undertaking and revamping for months. Expect new posts with old content condensed, in some cases re-written. Some old features will be removed and menu links erased. I'm trying to keep the content large but together, and want to keep it simpler, direct, and I hope eventually more enjoyable.
It's overdue. It's needed. And, I guess I'm finally ready because I look forward to now instead of dread it. Technology has improved, resources have expanded, even HTML and CSS have changed over by this point to where some of the old posts just look downright ugly and poorly aligned.
So if something looks strange for the upcoming months or gets re-arranged, this is why. I am not removing all old posts - I have no reason to remove my earlier reader/blogging existence completely, and how depressing and counter-productive that would be anyway, right? But change is good when it means improvement and just makes simple sense. I look forward to continuing the site in the future new directions I have planned, simpler but I hope fuller.
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