Announcement: LAXCrossword.com is Moving

LAXCrossword.com is Moving
I find myself having to change some fundamentals about the LAXCrossword.com blog, largely due to economic constraints. I’m not a big fan of change, but am afraid I really don’t have a choice. That said, my intention is to change many things for the better, while taking care of what is necessary.

What is Changing?
There are two levels of change. The most fundamental changes are in the background, and will not affect your experience significantly as a reader (I have to change web hosting service, and also the blog platform).

The second level of changes will be very noticeable for you. The look and feel of the site will change significantly. My aim is to improve the reader’s experience, to make reading and navigating the blog simpler and more intuitive. I am also addressing many complaints that I receive about the difficulty of accessing the blog using mobile devices, and smartphones in particular. You will find that the reconfigured LAXCrossword blog will be easier to read across all devices, and pages will load much more quickly.

When is LAXCrossword Moving?
I’ve been preparing for the move for about a month, in order to minimize disruption. The change should be instantaneous, hopefully without any downtime. One moment you will see the old design, and the next moment the new. Most readers in North America should see that change some time on May 31st. For others, the transition may not occur for another two days, with everyone accessing the new blog by June 3rd. Once again, the blog will be up and running during the change, it’s just that some readers will see the new site, and others the old.

Realistically, this move is so fundamental that I expect to come across some issues that I will need to address. If you see something that you think I should know about, feel free to contact me. I’ll be monitoring the blog very closely while the transition is taking place, and hopefully making any changes necessary in real time.

Thank you, all, for your patience and support.

Bill

Update (20:45 PST)
The good news is that the new blog is up and running. There are posts available for today’s puzzle, and the past week. The bad news is that I don’t yet have the large volume of old posts and comments imported yet. As a result, searches (say on Google) that give links to those old posts are giving a 404 error. I’m working on it. But, as I say, you should be able to check on the puzzles for the past week.

Update (23:15 PST)
All of the old posts are now available here. The old posts (prior to May 25, 2016) have some formatting oddities (double grids, in particular) but the information is there and is legible. I’ll try to clean up those posts over time. I am still getting 404 errors when linking to those old posts, say from Google search. I’m working on fixing that issue next. The good news though, is that all posts can be accessed using the navigation here at the blog (the best is the “calendar” in the sidebar or pull-down menu).

Update (23:55 PST)
It looks like all of the important stuff is up and running. Any bookmarks that you have to the old site should bring you here to the new site with no work on your part. Also, if you find LAXCrossword coming up in search results, even old posts, those links will take you to the old post here at the new blog. There are probably some issues that I don’t know about (yet), and if you come across something, please do contact me. I’ll get right on it!