# Moving from WriteFreely to Write.as **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [August 26, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794 "2019-08-26T17:25:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/1 "2019-08-26T17:25:16Z")
Should be giving this a go today (even though I’m still waiting on the registrar re: if they are going to let me have a “reserved” domain). Hope for smooth sailing. ---
**Author:** ![cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/cjeller1592/32/128_2.png) [@cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/u/cjeller1592)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/2 "2019-08-26T17:39:19Z")
Wishing smooth sailing for you too! Let us know if you hit any snags in the process. ---
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/3 "2019-08-26T17:51:25Z")
Before I do this, is there a command somewhere, presumably via CLI, to delete all posts, in case something goes weird or I want to roll back and do it over for some reason? ---
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/4 "2019-08-26T18:01:11Z")
Well, crap. It apparently does not use my existing slugs. meaning anywhere I link to one of my own posts, the link is broken because Write.as generated a default slug instead. Argh. So, yeah, someone give me a command-line command to delete all posts. I have to start again and figure out what to do about that. ---
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/5 "2019-08-26T18:10:16Z")
Well, crap part 2. My existing pinned posts don’t pin, and I can’t pin them by going directly to them? So I have to just scroll through my entire post history to find it on an index page and do it from there? **ETA:** I guess I can edit screen them to “now”, they’ll be up top on the main page, and then pin from there. I’m starting to sour a bit on this “pin a post to make a page linked in the nav bar” thing. **ETA:** The above thing _does_ work, in the meantime, but I’d suggest some other method for the future, as Write.as gradually finds more general-use users, because that’s not really a good process. ---
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/6 "2019-08-26T22:13:42Z")
OOC, anyone know if there’s a way using the API (not my wheelhouse, but asking if it’s possible) to replace all my post slugs with ones that (1) first strip out the post’s html/markdown and _then_ generate the slug and (2) never stop at a period, and just cut off at whatever the default W.a word-count is for slug generation? ---
**Author:** ![cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/cjeller1592/32/128_2.png) [@cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/u/cjeller1592)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/7 "2019-08-26T22:57:07Z")
So going from: `/thomas-oleary-says-write-as-tmo-alright-i-was-on-a-wordpress-blog-w-350k` to something like `/thomas-oleary-says-i-was-on-a-wordpress-blog-w-350k` ? Yes, you can use the API to update slugs. That works fine. It is just the process outlined in 1 & 2 that will take some time to get right, especially if that parsing function will run through all the posts in the blog. ---
**Author:** ![bix](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/bix/32/272_2.png) [@bix](https://discuss.write.as/u/bix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/8 "2019-08-26T23:08:51Z")
I don’t know if that’s exactly what the new URL would be or not, since I don’t know what the word count W.a uses is, exactly, but yes that’s the basic idea. In those specific examples, the html/markdown is stripped, but then however many words that was would then be counted out after the “350k”. I have no idea if I am explaining this right. What I wish W.a did natively was (1) strip all html, markdown, and punctuation the post, then generate the slug using X words from the post (for whatever value of X W.a is using for slug length). What I’m wondering is whether that process I wish W.a used is possible to jerry-rig something via API. That wouldn’t solve my OCD problem going forward, but I can do “strip all html, markdown, and punctuation the post” and paste into the slug box manually going forward. ---
**Author:** ![cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/cjeller1592/32/128_2.png) [@cjeller1592](https://discuss.write.as/u/cjeller1592)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794/9 "2019-08-26T23:29:11Z")
No worries @bix, you are explaining it right. This jerry-rigging can be done. It would take grabbing the body of a post, parsing through the body with the parameters laid out above, and then slugifying what’s left over - all of which is possible through some calls to the API. Though you do remind me of the request for [changing slugs before you publish](https://discuss.write.as/t/change-slug-before-publish/728). That would definitely help in the future. And perhaps @matt could fill us in further on the word/character limit for slugs. Once those parameters are known, a script of sorts could be made. Hope that all makes sense!