For literally years, I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my web space. At the moment it’s a dump for anything I’d like to keep online or be able to reference online such as my weird and wacky writings, my pleasant amateur art and various pieces of software or code I’ve done. And thats enough for me, I think.

However, I was interested in blogging software before the word “blogging” became hip. I didn’t blog, I just used the software from GreyMatter to MovableType and now WordPress (which now runs this site). So the question haunts me (only a little though)… why I don’t I really blog and who reads this anyway?

My posts are aggregated into Redbrick Planet (which means they get posted to Redbrick) and now they get cross-posted to my livejournal. However comments are few and often come from random web-surfers or those looking for support on my software. Occasionally comments can be found on the Redbrick boards (Redbrick Planet gets cross-posted to the boards) but not that often.

In my mind there is three (possible four) types that most blogs fit into. I’m not saying these are categories that all blogs can be fit into or are strict definitions. They are simply the way I think of blogs when I come across them.

There are the online diaries such as LiveJournal. Unless I know the person, I ignore theses. However I’ve posted several times about personal incidents good and bad. But I do this infrequently. I don’t want to share with the world my problems, I have family and friends to do that. I’m also not comfortable talking about things that might land me in trouble other people’s privacy or work-related stuff. More than one project I’ve done in work has been smothered in NDAs.

Then there are the journalistic type where articles about various topics are posted. If I’m interested in the topics, the writing is easy to read and the content is fairly frequent, great. I’ve written a few articles, mostly on roleplaying, but they are very infrequent and they are truely first drafts. They have the basic points but lack structure and decent prose. I just don’t have the time between family and work to really do proper essays and the research required for them. And like all ego-driven things, the response I get to what I have done is minimal if at all and this discourages me from really put more effort into it.

The last type is what I think of as the tracker or the journal. The blogger in question posts updates and news on various projects like this guy who has managed to swap his way from a paperclip to a house! I have various pet projects I’m working on such as two RPGs, writings and even my “astral projection” attempts. I could certainly write about those but then I’m taking time away from working on them. Also in part I’m rather private about them, I guess I’m little paranoid to be honest. I don’t wear my life choices on my sleeve and I don’t know who reads my blog. Guess that makes me seem a little boring. On top of that, my life-work balance sucks so updates would be even less frequent than they already are.

(There is another type, but is it really a blog? Software, art and other content put online via blog software, kinda like what I’ve done on my current webpage. I don’t really consider these blogs, though they may be part of a real blog. It just turns out that blog software are handy (if simplistic) content management systems too).

I guess a way to look at it is, if I trawl back through my archives, how much would I like to keep or promote on the site. And I’ve already decided that with my layout and categories. I guess I’ll still be haunted by the missing purpose of this space, but I won’t be loosing any sleep.

In an ironic way, this post is reflective of my blog’s current state. It has neither purpose or conclusion. I’ve even failed to really phrase the question.

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…to my website?

Its similar but it’s eerily different.

Yep, I made the jump from MovableType to WordPress.

You can compare Movable Type and WordPress on the cms matrix

There is a number of good reasons (and BTW, this is IMHO):

1) WordPress is Open Source

The biggest reason is that WordPress is Free and I can use it for what ever I want! The latest MovableType pricing is quite expensive and limited, I think. I run a site that has about five authors on it and the basic license wouldn’t cut it. Someday I hope to setup a site for a commerical product but I’d then have to get a commerical license.

Because WordPress is Open Source, it means no licensing issues, no restrictions on use and I get all the latest updates. My originally MovableType installation was starting to stagnate.

2) Subcategories

WordPress has categories like MovableType but it also has subcategories properly implemented (not some hack). In my old MovableType installation I had to use multiple blogs to simulate subcategories. A ridiculas overhead.

One critisim I would level at WordPress is that it can only manage one site per installation while MovableType could handle multiple. But thats not really a huge issue as an installation is much, much, smaller than MovableType mainly because of the next reason…

3) Templates rather than static pages

MovableType creates static pages which can fill up your webspace quote if you have a lot. WordPress uses PHP to dynamically generate pages from an SQL database. WordPress can even properly handle real future posts too.

4) The Code

I’m no PHP expert but it took me no longer than ten minutes to work my way around some of the code in WordPress. It’s nicely arranged, I think and within a few days I was writing plugins and themes. With MovableType I never got a real handle on the massive Perl code, and on making plugins, I generally hacked others work.

5) Not another template language, because it uses PHP!

With MovableType you have a whole new template language to learn and you have to build or install countless plugins to extend it. With WordPress, it’s PHP so it’s a full computer language. I’ve found it very powerful.

6) Themes

Bloodly brillant. You can drop in “themes” and change the look and feel of your site with ease compared to MovableType. I’ve even created my own Theme from scratch and with PHP could do some funky stuff (just have a look around!).

7) Stronger comment spam protection

Builtin Blacklists, User Registeration and Moderation. I know the latest version of MovableType now has some (if not all) these issues but WordPress is free!

Easier to fully backup

At least I have found it is. Because the look and feel is stored in a “theme” and content in SQL, I could backup my entire site and move it to another installation with no problems. With MovableType, not so easy, particuarly if you were using a BerkleyDB (o the problems we had with that!) and you had to copy and paste each template out of the management UI… ug.

9) Some cool builtin little features

Like Pages and paging entries, dictionary in the entry field, user levels, etc.

Of course moving over wasn’t just a walk in the park. I wrote this article on installing WordPress on Redbrick and am considering putting together an rbwiki article on moving from MovableType to WordPress.

All my content is here but many of my internal links are now broken. I created forwards for old pages that had very high hits like MT-Close2 but still there is dead links here and there. If you find any, just drop a comment.

I even wrote new plugins to help and created a new theme from scratch. But I still have much work to do, like integrating Gallery, putting something in About, finishing off MOC, etc. TBH I don’t think I’ll ever be truely finished!

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Sorry for the severe lack of updates in the last while. Life has been busy in a slow way.

Its only a week or two to go before Strawberry is here! It’s both exciting and bloodly scary.

While we wait heres some new stuff I’ve uploaded to my little site:

MT-Close2 — a plugin for MovableType.

The End of the World — a new short story taken from Lost Heroes.

And some new pictures…

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Update (21st March ’05): I am no longer supporting or working on this plugin as I’ve moved away from MovableType. This plugin will remain available for download and people are free to modify it and rerelease it as needed.

This is a plugin called MT-Close2 for Movabletype (2.65).

MT-Close2 allows you to close comments and trackbacks on multiple entires and blogs on the same installation of MT in one go. This helps fight off comment spam by closing of old entries.

Additionally it allows you to “open” comments and trackbacks, select entries by age and/or number of comments, select by categories and preview list of entries before changing. It also works on non-mySQL installs of MT (unlike MT-Close).

Originally based on David Rayners short script, MT-Close which was originally based on a script from Jeremy D. Zawodny.

To use MT-Close2, download mt-close2.zip (6k) and then unzip mt-close2.zip and place mt-close2.cgi in your base MT directory (the directory where you have mt.cgi). Set the permissions of the file so that it can be executed (normally ‘chmod 755′). Then, to use it, just bring up http://your.mt.url/mt-directory/mt-close2.cgi in your browser of choice.

Best of luck!

Notes: A few people have asked me how do you show that comments are closed when someone opens an entry. To do this you’ve got add some code to your templates (Individual Entry Template is probaly the best). This is what I add:


<MTEntryIfCommentsOpen><MTElse>
Due to the proliferation of comment spam, I've had to close comments on this entry. If you would like to leave comment, please use one of my recent entries. Thank you and sorry for any inconvience caused.
</MTElse></MTEntryIfCommentsOpen>


This will print out the message “Due to the proliferation of comment spam, I’ve had to close comments on this entry. If you would like to leave comment, please use one of my recent entires. Thank you and sorry for any inconvience caused” to the entry of comments are not open on that entry.

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Sorry for the lack of news and updates. There are many reasons.

I could blame Redbrick for moving their web services from Prodigy to Deathray. I use Movable Type for my webpage and I’m using, still, BerkleyDB instead of SQL. This broke, of course, moving from the two different machines. The standard solution from MovableType manual didn’t work. But luckily I found someone else online who had similar pains to me and gave a lovely long description of the problem and how to fix it. Unfortantly it still required admin intervention. But the admins on redbrick eventually fixed it. The stupid thing is… I’m still using BerkleyDB. I should really upgrade to MySQL.

But, oh, my technology worries did not end there! I bought a rather nice piece of kit for my home. It’s a 4 Ethernet Port Router, Wireless Base Station and a ASDL modem in one from NetGear. And all the software is Linux and Opensource to boot. (The model number is DG834G if your googling for solutions). I got it all up and running in moments and was happy as larry.

Then I upgraded the firmware.

It stopped working. I checked the NetGear website, nothing. I emailed them and after 24 hours, got an automated reply. I’m still waiting for an answer. I would have called them except, the support number is UK and a premium rate. It also says on the box 24/7 support (not that I bought it for the support option)! I googled a lot and found that lots of other people had similar issues and that NetGear support was useless.

Luckly I found that NetGear did have solutions, except that most of the time they don’t know they have solutions(?). Some other users have posted the tools and steps to fix it on broadbandreports.com. The thread is here.

Now that all my technical woes are solved, there are other things in the way…

Moving House is a big one. We’ve put down an offer on a place in Lucan but we haven’t sold ours yet. We’re waiting for that buyer so if your looking for a two bed appartment, near town, near the luas… Tramyards 2 bed Appartment, Inchicore isn’t a bad bet!

And because of that, I’ve had to put all my drawing stuff away to hide the clutter so thats why there isn’t any new drawings recently.

We’ve started a new game, which you can read about here, and that webpage has been incredibly busy with comments, posts, writeups and lots of other stuff. If your into rpgs and gaming, check it out. It’s SLA Industries with is a great setting. So thats suckling my energy too.

I’m also busy working on my writing. I may post up some extracts later (after Soph kindly corrects my grammer) but don’t hold your breath I’m afraid. I’m preparing it so I can start sending drafts to publishers. I’m hoping for some interest but I have no idea what my expectations should be.

The final barrier to regular updates then is stress. With Strawberry on the way in less than 3 months, no nursery ready (because we’re moving house), so much stuff to buy (and not enought money)… ’tis a very tiring time.

So take care reader and bare in mind that there is much more to this writer (programmer/husband/father-to-be/gamer/artist/boring sod) than some simple text on a webpage.

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