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Why is it so quiet around here?
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Why is it so quiet around here?

January 26th, 2009 · 27 Comments



Trollhattan Saab has changed!
The site you're viewing now is the original Trollhattan Saab weblog, though it's now an archive only and no new material is posted here. As of February 2009, all new material is posted at our new site - Saabs United.
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It’s a long weekend here in Australia.

Happy Australia Day, everyone!

Aside from a wedding on Saturday (no, not mine) I’ve been spending a lot of time working on this:

newsitescreenshot

This is the new site that will replace Trollhattan Saab some time early next month. It won’t be called Trollhattan Saab and it won’t be at the Trollhattan Saab dot net URL. It’ll be at a completely new URL with a new name. I would have liked to have kept the TS name but the only viable option for doing that would have been to use trollhattansaab.com, which isn’t available at a reasonable price.

So….the city of Trollhattan can have it’s search ranking back and we’ll forge ahead with a new identity. Trollhattan Saab will still be around as an archive, but all new posts will go on the new site from the point of changeover.

Why?

Trollhattan Saab was started back in a time when blogs were just a few years old. I didn’t know much about building or organising websites and consequently have made a lot of mistakes along the way. The new site is an attempt to get everything organised the way it should have been from the start.

It won’t be much different to TS in terms of look or functionality, so don’t go expecting fireworks and marching bands. But hopefully it’ll be a bit easier to navigate (for you) and maintain (for me).

I’ve got 95% of the design figured out now and am populating the site with some of the higher-traffic posts from here. I’d imagine that some time in early-mid February we’ll be ready to switch.

——

And by the way, I’ve had a cracker of a piece of news come in about the Saab 9-4x. Am awaiting confirmation evidence from the emailer, but it’s brilliant!

–

Tags: Troll stuff

27 responses so far ↓

  • 1 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:09 am

    Hmm… OK… It’s gonna be weird not having TS around…
    I spot Transmit on your Mac… ;)

  • 2 Ken HNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:46 am

    But where’s the article about the 2010 Saab 9-5 interior? Here at TS, I mean? :-)

  • 3 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:52 am

    Ken H

    Last year. An Insigna was spotted on a ferry and it had a non-Insigna interior – if I remember correctly… :)

  • 4 WooDzNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:56 am

    If you wanted to retain the Trollhattansaab url you could do. Backup the current or even migrate it to ‘Spirit of Saab’ and upload your new site to your TS.net site. I’ve also just checked other TS options and .info , .org and .se are available for a pretty reasonable price.

  • 5 Dan9-1No Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 7:59 am

    Swade,

    Do you have an address/ name of it yet or not?

  • 6 swadeNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:03 am

    WooDz, option 1 would be a search engine disaster and I’ve already had one of those in the last four years. I considered other options like .org but the fact is that most people who miss this site type in .com by default. The only real viable option was to either pay the owner of TS.com the hundreds of dollars he was asking (not an option as it’s just someone looking to make money off my work) or start with something fresh, which is what’s happening.

    Dan, yes it has a URL. Won’t be long now.

  • 7 Dan9-1No Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:10 am

    Excellent, Swade look forward to seeing it soon.

    And Happy Australia Day!

  • 8 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:13 am

    Swade, so this URL will still be around as the archive? It will not be incorporated in the new site?

  • 9 TedjsNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:19 am

    The new site looks cool…

    Quiet around here is right. We are all hoping this deep freeze ends sometime soon here in Ohio. Cabin fever has set in!

  • 10 swadeNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:24 am

    ctm,

    Correct. trollhattansaab.net will remain as an archive. I’m importing a number of higher-traffic entries from TS into the new site and will do diversions from TS to the new site just so it’s got some content and some ranking with the search people, but the full library of TS entries will not be imported.

    The TS homepage will divert to the new site as of changeover, as well.

    The search function on the new site will search both it and TS, so the full archive will always be referenced.

  • 11 PhilP10No Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 11:36 am

    The new site looks great.

    Looking forward to it and the 9-4X update.

  • 12 1985 GripenNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    I’m hoping the 9-4X news is that they really are going to build it in Trollhattan like that Edmunds Inside Line report claimed, or even better that the 9-4X will be available for sale in North America with a turbocharged Biopower inline-4…

    Site looks nice, Swade. I think your readership will follow your excellent content regardless of the URL. It’s starting to look like a smart move to not have registered “RusselsheimSaab.net”! :-P

  • 13 RoganNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Hate to say it but I really don’t see the point of this. Yes, you started TS years ago when you knew little about blogging, but the website has evolved since then.

    No, the site hasn’t evolved in backoffice terms, which is what this is primarily about. This site also has a lot of bugs, which have only become more prevalent with advanced releases of Wordpress. Hard to explain here without spending too much time on stuff people don’t want to read, but it’s going to be a worthwhile move, even if revenue drops a little

    Also, remember that period when you simply redid the TS frontend and ad revenue went through the floor. You didn’t seem happy about that, so think about what changing URL’s is going to do in terms of that.

    That’s being managed as part of this process

    Just stick with TS…

  • 14 AlexNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Could the 9-4X info involve TTiD availability in the US?

    Since it technically qualifies as a “light truck”, I’m guessing the emissions requirements might not be as strict as they are for regular cars.

  • 15 JoelsooNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    Saab + marching band? I’d like to be around for that…… even if I’m not supposed to expect it!

  • 16 Dan PalkaNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Hit Command + Shift + 4 simultaneously, release and THEN hit the space bar. Your mouse will turn into a picture camera icon and your Mac will save a really nice clean screenshot of any window you roll your mouse over and click on, crapped and everything.

  • 17 swadeNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    9-4x stuff doesn’t concern model developments or production. Will share when I can. Just don’t know enough details at this point.

  • 18 Ken HNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    Swade, how about creating a separate page for the tech stuff regarding your blog? It may be a bit “nerdy” for a lot of people, but could be useful for the aspiring blogger.

  • 19 swadeNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    Ken, Technical items will be tagged as such and will be able to be easily brought up just by clicking on the tag at the bottom of the entry. Same with performance items. I’ll also be starting a blog as a separate branch to cover all the modifications made to the Monte Carlo.

    Unfortunately my own technical limitations mean that this type of content will be limited, but you’ll be able to get to it fairly easily.

  • 20 ctmNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 6:11 pm

    9-4X to be built in Finland? :)

    Alex, are you sure the 9-4X qualifies as a light truck? I know the 9-7X do but that car is something totally different in terms of the platform.

  • 21 WooDzNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    I remember when Swade asked for help on TS to report broken links to him. The work required to fix those problems far out weighed the time to build a new clean site. I don’t see the problem with a new site at all. Swade will post the URL when it’s ready and I will amend my RSS.

    Anyway Swade when is AMS going to buy your site anyway?

  • 22 swadeNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Haha. I wish. Like Saab, they’re not sill enough to pay me to do something that I already do for free :-)

  • 23 MarkacNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    The new blog preview looks nice. Good luck with it. Can’t say there’s much about the 9-4x that would excite me, but I’ll be interested to read the news. Thankfully the new 9-5 gets released before the 9-4x, and that’s something to get excited about. Hopefully there won’t be a horribly long wait for a new 9-3 after that. It would be great to have a couple of Saabs to get enthused at again.

  • 24 Ken HNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    Ah swade, you misunderstood a little. I meant the tech stuff about the blog itself, not the tech stuff about the cars which the blog is about.

    I tried to be clearer, but reading what I wrote I am not yet sure… :)

  • 25 PekkoNo Gravatar // Jan 26, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    Let them build 9-4x in mexico, it helps saab to survive. Dollar is weak that also mexico build 9-4x makes more profit also in Europe and if exchange rates will change risk is shared because there is production in SEK and Dollar zone. Finland or germany are not optimal place either because SEK is very weak against Euro. This also could be one reason to move NG9-5 from germany to trollhattan.

  • 26 SånättNo Gravatar // Jan 27, 2009 at 7:38 am

    Swade, you wouldn’t like to work in the car industry – If it works, don’t fix it… :) Seriously, there are probably reasons behind your decision that I don’t understand. I wish you all the best, I love this site!

  • 27 SånättNo Gravatar // Jan 27, 2009 at 7:38 am

    Double post!