Okay, if we assume that my original Blogger blog (Aug. 2001) was v1.0, and the shift to Movable Type (Dec. 2001) was v.2.0, that makes this (shifting to WordPress) v3.0, right?
It was a much lengthier migration than I’d planned, largely because I wanted to do it as Right as Possible the first time out. I’ll be doing a full write-up (since migration guides are all the rage, it seems), but I really wanted to maintain my internal links, which meant not only manipulating the link names for the ones with Dirified Titles, but the ones earlier of when I made that change — December 2005 — which still had the old numeric filenames. Suffice it to say I did a lot of manipulation of the export files, which took up most of Saturday and a chunk of Sunday.
But I figure I have about 90% of my internal links working properly, and that’s good enough for the moment. I also used a combo of Google Analytics to look at old Top 20 numeric post addies and the Redirection plug-in to set up WP to redirect from those to the current WP versions of the post. More info on that in a future post, but it’s pretty keen.
WP makes use of Gravatar, a “Globally Recognized AVATAR” for plugging little pictures next to people’s names. Basically it associates a picture (you upload) with your email address. Seems to work pretty well (though I recall there have been times when the Gravatar servers were down). Recommended.
One thing is to pick, for the mid- to long-term an appearance theme. The current “Ringbinder” theme is nice enough, but a fixed and narrow width, which know is going to cause problems with my wider graphics in some posts. I haven’t screwed a lot with it as of yet, because the template setup with WP is such that when you change templates, it fully replaces the CSS and all the template files, so any customizations you’ve done get wiped out. I’m currently looking at either the Grace themes (similar to what Ginny has done), or else maybe one of these jewel stretch themes. We’ll see.
I’m trying and experiment with the Share This thingy at the bottom of each post. Whatever theme I choose, I’ll probably end up putting it in the post footer more cleanly, but this is where it automatically puts it.
I still have lots of other work to do here, obviously, beyond the above. Some key items:
- Testing posting by email, which WP claims to be able to handle.
- Seeing how pingbacks and trackbacks work.
- Cobbling together my About page properly.
- Looking a bit more closely at anti-spam measures — WP comes with Akismet, and some light registration requirements. Do I want to beef those up any?
- Look at the myriad Plug-ins I can slow my blog down with! Woot!
But the bottom line is — I’m here, and it’s working. Woot!
Frist!
Welcome to the world of WordPress. You’re over the biggest hurdle, at least. Thanks for the nod regarding my current theme – you’re right, every time you decide to change things, the CSS is changed from scratch. I keep the custom stuff in separate notepad files and add them to the new themes as I go.
I also liked a theme called Tiga that might work better for you, but don’t know if it’s been kept up to date with WP2.7. It’s a pain dealing with fixed width or narrow 2 column themes, and some theme designers come up with weird ways to handle stuff (example: Talian, the one I used before). I think there was a recent rather painful purge of themes in the WP theme repository to force designers to follow a standardization scheme. If that’s so, it’ll be easier to figure out where and how to apply tweaks.
As it happens, I noticed the pingback, so that’s good. Usually I get wacky adfarm spam, so it’s pleasant when it’s actual REAL!
Akismet is pretty much enough, but we also still have SpamKarma running, although it’s no longer supported. Doesn’t hurt to have ’em both, we figure.
David thinks the plug-ins don’t really affect performance, something about it having a very defined structure. But you’re right, there are a LOT of plugins. David even wrote a couple himself. You probably will, too.
Above all, have FUN and enjoy not having to deal so much with the spammage.
1. Good idea on keeping the changes in their own separate file. I can see where that would be handy.
2. FF blocked the Tiga author’s site. I’ll poke into it later. It did lead me to some other good possibles (though I’ll confess I’m liking the look of this one).
Wow….
It’s *very* pink and green.
Miss the “***Dave’s-March-of-progess” photos on the side. 🙁
Oh, and how do you have the little photo in the comments? o.O
I think it’s more of a “tan.”
The “March of Progress” will make a reappearance in some form, eventually.
Go to http://gravatar.com and create a Gravatar with your email addy that you’re registered here with or use to comment with here. It’s easy-peasy (and it will backfill whatever you’ve done here, I believe).
Tan?
Peach or Salmon maybe. 🙂
Hmmm. May be a difference in monitor output. Both my home LCD and the one here that office say tan.
I believe (if I’m reading the color code right) that would be #FBEBDA. Which registers as right in the middle of warm, and is generally matched with other tans and browns. R 98% G 92% B 85%.
It definitely looks like either a peach or salmon colored theme on my LCD.
Mmm… salmon… (Homer Simpson style drooling)
I miss the ‘march of progress’ photos too. But hey, new digs!
It’s the pinkest Tan I’ve ever seen.
Okay…
FBEBDA *should* be tan…but to me it looks like “peachpuff(SVG) #FFDAB9” or “peach #FEF0DB”.
To me FAF0E6 or EEE8CD also look tan.
Okay, finally found your blogroll, which seems to be residing at the bottom of the page instead of being right in line with everything else on the right side.
It’s lower down than it used to be because of what I wanted to have up higher. There are things down below it, though.
Okay, well, what I mean is, is that there is a huuuuge gap from where “Cavalcade of Categories” starts, to where the actual selector is located…as in the entire length of this comment section worth of gap.
Yea, looks fairly flesh colored to me, too. Although I miss the comments being just below the headder, it’s the lack of white space at the top that’s still kind of jarring.
It’s like a letter with no space under the letterhead – but that’s just my fixation.
Wow, BD — I see what you mean … when I load it into IE6. In FF it looks fine (correct), and I never thought to check it elsewhere. It seems to align to the bottom of the posts, but … well, that’s just odd.
At any rate, that’s not the design intent. I’ll try to fix it this evening.
Mary, I don’t miss the extra white space at the top. I agree on the comments being up there — when I change themes, I might have some options in that direction. (And with BD’s problem, I may change themes sooner rather than later.)
It’s definetely tan on Safari on the iPhone.
But not on the desktop.
(Sighs, figures out when he’ll change templates to less colorfully ambiguous ones …)
Okay, it is only IE 7 that seems to be having the side bar issue, Safari and FF show it in the right location. But all look Salmon to me.
Actually IE6 seems to have the same problem. 😛
Mine registers pink too, but I think it’s cute 😉
Anyway, I didn’t quite understand this…
The CSS and template files I have with my WordPress are only native to the template itself. Which is why when I switch templates it always takes down my website because I forget to add in the statements for the different plugins I have. Maybe I’m just missing what you typed…
But that’s cool you are using WordPress and I hope you enjoy it. Here is my list of plugins I would recommend checking out. Most of them I have used for 2 years now with no trouble:
Get Recent Comments
Google XML Sitemaps
Register Plus
Subscribe to Comments: Very handy
Viper’s Video Quicktags: Very handy
Wordpress Database Backup: Must have!
WP-Print
WP-Supercache: Gotta be careful about this one
Good luck and have fun!
Already using Get Recent Comments.
Subscribe to Comments is on my short list.
Holding off on Supercache until it seems I need it.
Considering Sitemaps, but I want Google to know about the whole site, not just DDtB.
Others will be examined.
Get Recent Comments has an annoying bug, in that any time I change the widget list, the titles get all wonky on display. They go back to normal when I post another comment.
I thought I was going to be in trouble because WP doesn’t allow Server Side Includes to pull in text, and that’s how I was managing my WIST and Blog of Heroes listing. Turns out instead it’s just as easy to use the RSS widgets built in to show the past few post in each (which is what helps me figure out when stuff has updated). As a bonus, they show the content when you hover over each one. Nice!