Dopp Juice Archive

Whew! Moving forward with the blog migration, I’m a little preturbed by the commenting options out there. Commenting, to me, is most valuable when it’s a door to two-way dialogue. The standard blog commenting model, however, is a more or less a list of dead-end mutterings. I don’t like it. I want more.

I was excited about Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin, which allows you to reply to specific comments rather than to a linear mess. I assumed that it came equipped with a “notify the person you’re replying to via email” feature (‘cuz really, that was my whole point for caring), but, sadly, I appeared to be wrong. He just provides the option to subscribe to all the comments in the post. So, in other words, if you subscribe to my comments, and I respond with a quick “thank you” to the guy who commented before you, you’re going to get that in your inbox. Gee, how useful…

Then there was Dodo’s Threaded Comments with Notification hack — which looked very promising indeed, but it lacked two very critical things:

1. The ability to opt-out of notifications (absolutely necessary for an ethical website).
2. The, um, code files. Thank you, outdated websites, for not maintaining your download links.

Really, what I want is Livejournal’s commenting system mashed up onto a WordPress blog with full customization options. But until I figure out how to do that (or someone magically does it for me… hint hint), I’m going to hold off on nested comments and stick to the opt-in all-post notification system… which isn’t the best solution, but it does foster a dinner-party-style conversation, and I believe that’s better than nothing.

And while we’re on the topic of WordPress usability issues, I think it’s worth pointing out that the system’s slick internal spellchecker is convinced that the word “blog” is a typo.   Heh.

Apologies for the mess here. I’ve had it with b2evolution as a blog software, and am finally migrating to WordPress. Leave it to Murphy to set the rules around blog migration, though; this process is turning out to be anything but smooth. Here’s a quick list of reasons for why I’d like to punch a SQL database:

• The migration tool managed to save my data but lose my formatting (scroll down. there are no paragraph breaks in any of my entries. This violates the cardinal rule of blogging — “give it to ’em in small chunks”. I’m really really sorry you have to see this…).
• My RSS feed is changing, which means that anyone who’s following me via another platform is about to get very confused.
• I have a lot of template hacking to do to get back up to speed.

But, there’s also a bright side to all of this…

• I did manage to (mostly) recover all of my posts, comments, and categories. That’s worth a toast.
• I’m celebrating the software migration with a new blog name. Goodbye, “Sarah Says…” Hello “Dopp Juice”!
• WordPress has a heckuvalot more options and support. I’m grinning right now at the automatic “Saved at 8:24:06” text (auto draft saving!) which sits right beside the “Save and Continue Editing” button in the admin panel, and I already know I’ve made the right choice.

To WordPress!

I am admittedly cranky at b2evolution right now. It’s taking way too much work post-upgrade to make my template functional again and to get my settings back to the way I want them… but I’m trudging through it, and it’s getting closer, and at the very least it’s no longer PINK!This was the temporary template: