blogging: October 2007 Archives

I've gone back and forth through the years using Movable Type, Blogger and Wordpress. They each have their pros and cons. When a new version comes out I try to get my hands on it and give it a shot. This afternoon my son wanted his blog upgraded so that he could use tags. He uses Wordpress. Using tags in posts has been around for MT for quite some time, but Wordpress is easier for him to use and he has grown accustomed to it. I don't force change where it isn't needed. Like the saying goes, "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Needless to say, I upgraded him to Wordpress 2.3.1. Seeing an opportunity to try out a new version of Wordpress, without hesitation I prepared my site for the change. So far, here's what I've found if you should happen to decide to move from MT to Wordpress:

• Using Wordpress' import for MT will cause all of the posts you've published under MT to lose their tags and categories. They don't lose any comments and the formatting seems to have worked out just fine. But be prepared to face the consequences of having to go back and re-tag everything you've ever published.
• The categories all get imported. But they don't get applied to the posts. Everything gets thrown into the "Uncategorized" category.
• Links to other posts you've published under the same blog will most likely be broken. So set aside some time to hunt those down and fix them.
• I have yet to find a theme that actually says it is for WP 2.3.1 and has the code for displaying tags rather than categories already in it. ( I had to go hunt it down so that my son could have it on his blog )

So now comes the fun of hunting down a theme and fixing all the broken stuff. I've only had this installed for an hour or two so I'm bound to find more things to complain about.

I imagine I could always re-install MT . . . and I may. Until then, I'll play with this.

In the past I've been subscribed to way too many rss feeds, as I've come to realize. Over the last week I've slowly weeded many of the feeds out of my reader. The majority of these feeds disappeared because:

• There was nothing really captivating. They couldn't hold my attention. I'll admit that's pretty hard to do anyway - if it's not bright and shiny you're already operating at a deficit with me anyway.
• No boobs. Ok, it's not required, but it does hold my attention.
• Too many posts to weed through in order to find interesting stuff.
• It was a blog about blogging or a blog about blogging to make money. I mean, aren't there enough of these by now? And all they seem to do is regurgitate the same information over and over and over again.
• Blogs without personality. Very subjective, I know. But when I read a blog I want to be able to get to know the person behind it.
• Feeds that don't give me the content. If you're putting blurbs ( or excerpts ) in your feed, you can pretty much count on the fact that I unsubscribed. Don't force me to visit your site. Publish the whole post. Make it easy to enjoy your content.

I imagine there will be more to be banished to the circular file in the coming weeks. It was just taking too long to sort through what was interesting and what was not. I also realized I was reading very few feeds and skipping through the majority of them.