December 21, 2010
Important Note on Commenting
In an attempt to reclaim some of our blogging time each day by eliminating unwanted automated comments, we've made a couple of minor but significant changes to the rules of commenting. The changes
- You must leave the space labeled "URL" completely blank.
- Your comment cannot contain the text "http:" — either as text or as a hyperlink.
- Unfortunately, that means that hyperlinks won't work in the comment boxes any longer, you'll be able to post the URL, starting with "www" (or whatever).
- On the bright side, this allows us to get rid of the anti-spam code.
Maybe if you had the site on a true blog platform (WordPress, anyone?) that wouldn't be such a problem? BTW, have you considered refreshing the design? It could use an overhaul.
Posted by: John at December 21, 2010 10:27 PMThere have been a number of reasons that I've been reluctant to switch to Wordpress, and experience with it on another blog hasn't relieved that reluctance.
The fact of the matter is, though, that very few people add hyperlinks to comments or list a URL, anyway, so the effect shouldn't be tremendous. Now there's no problem.
As for a redesign, well, it's all I can do to get actual content on the page, just now. If we manage to create a full-time job on the blog, then perhaps time will remain in the day to revamp the design.
I suspect, though, that you are not among those who've offered to help in that cause.
Posted by: Justin Katz at December 21, 2010 10:35 PMI'm curious, what problems have you experienced with WordPress? I've never used MovableType before, but I've used Joomla and Drupal and found WordPress the easiest for me to design for and train clients on. And truth be told, if you were on, or seriously considered moving to, WordPress, I'd gladly re-design the blog for you guys
Posted by: John at December 21, 2010 10:46 PMIt's not so much problems. Part of it's a look-and-feel thing. More of it has to do with the fully dynamic nature of WordPress blogs. I like that MT creates static pages. I also like that I store it all on my own servers, under my (more or less) complete control. (That may be possible, with WordPress, but it's not the selling point.)
At any rate, I note that WordPress's anti-spam software is also available for MT, and it may be worth looking into when I've opportunity.
Posted by: Justin Katz at December 21, 2010 11:09 PMMT 5 took huge back-end look-and-feel cues from WP (2.7+ I believe)... perhaps you're using a previous version of either platform? And since both MT and WP use MySQL as a database platform, they both produce pages through a MySQL query - equally dynamic (if I understand what you mean by dynamic).
If you run WP off your own server, then it's your data on your server. If you host WP off WP.com, then the data is stored with them, so I understand your concerns there.
In any event, should anything change, my offer still stands. Feel free to e-mail me at john [at] arconixpc.com
Posted by: John at December 22, 2010 7:58 AM