Upgrade, Schmupgrade
I spent the better part of yesterday evening upgrading to Movable Type 3.2, and like every other MT upgrade I've done over the past 3 years, this one can best be described as "craptacular". I don't know why Six Apart can't seem to do a better job of automating the process. I guess I'm getting what I paid for (nothing). I probably should switch to a different blogging interface at some point, but since I'm on a server running a dead OS and don't have shell permissions to access the system, the thought fills me with even more trepidation than continuing to use MT.
At least they're bundling some plugins with this new release to deal with comment and trackback spam, although I'm disappointed that TypeKey is still the only authentication service being offered. Why not switch to a simple verification system based on alphanumeric characters embedded in images, like the one Blogger uses, instead of forcing commenters to register with a centralized service? Overkill. If anyone knows of an MT plugin that provides a Blogger-like comment verification process, please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment.
Anyway, after straightening out some problems with the file upload and resolving a mysterious conversion of special characters with umlauts into dingbats, I've finally got the site and the user interface to the point where they're at least as functional as they were before I began this whole process. Hopefully, none of you will encounter any problems, but if you do, let me know. I have comment throttling enabled, so if you leave a comment and don't see it appear on the site right away, don't panic, just wait 20 seconds or so.
I'll be making some further changes to the site today. I hope to add an Atom feed and convert my archives from date-based to category-based so you can more easily browse through my old posts.
UPGRADEDATE: looks like the Atom feed isn't going to happen until I can find a way to compile the XML::Atom perl module on my home system, and since I've got about 500 more entries to categorize, I won't be changing the archives for a couple of days, at least. Oh well, it'll all happen eventually.
Comments
njaeelswwieldTCHONGbibblo seVerio twIIIIIIng nonLUTANDETORNETIPISA ~~^^~~ iaHilaBiaH_tchingTchong ###d....//
Posted by: Sebastian | December 30, 2005 10:44 AM
WTF?
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2005 10:50 AM
Just kidding... Everything seems to work as perfect as ever. :-)
Posted by: Sebastian | December 30, 2005 11:06 AM
Ok, I thought that either there was some sekrit message you were trying to send me, or you'd been drinking and typing again...;-)
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2005 1:17 PM
Oof. That sounds cruddy and very frustrating. I wish I could give you pointers to make it all magically better, but I'm a spoiled WordPress kid. If you ever consider switching servers, we did do that recently and it went very well -- I could give you tips there.
Posted by: Humuhumu | December 30, 2005 3:32 PM
Thanks, HH. I like the price of my current server ($0), so I think I'm going to stay here for a while. I have given some serious thought to Wordpress though, and if it looks like I can a) run it on this ancient IRIX box, and b) migrate all of my old posts over without lossage, then I'll probably switch.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2005 4:34 PM
Wordpress is extremely good, and they make migrating from Movable Type moronically simple. The only dangers come from PHP itself, and you can eliminate a good many of them by patching the stock distribution of PHP with Hardened PHP.
Posted by: jkcohen | December 30, 2005 8:40 PM
Jonathan: if the PHP patch involves compiling, I probably won't be able to do it since I don't have shell access. I have ActivePerl installed on my WinDoze box at home, but I've never been able to get it to work correctly.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2005 9:50 PM
It's hard to beat $0. On the other hand, what's it costing you in labor? This is cutting into your valuable drinking time! Your poor tiki bar is getting dusty while you're wrestling with your setup!
What am I saying... you're probably doing all this work while in your tiki bar. Be careful coding & drinking at the same time.
Posted by: Humuhumu | December 30, 2005 10:42 PM
Your poor tiki bar is getting dusty while you're wrestling with your setup!
Don't worry, the bar's been getting plenty of use, and we'll definitely give it a good workout on New Year's Eve!
Posted by: MrBaliHai | December 30, 2005 11:35 PM
Gott Nytt År! (that is "Happy New Year!" to you Your Goofiness - but you probably know that from your time in Denmark..)
And about choice of blogging tool I'm with you.
($0) is the only choice. Why should you pay for it?
Posted by: Sebastian | December 31, 2005 8:16 AM
Well, I guess (as one of the few who regularly commented) you noticed that I've given up on the comment spam fight. Besides getting sick and tired of all the fiddling with the anti-spam widgets and cleaning up the messes that inevitably got through anyway, I also finally got disgusted with the bandwidth they were burning up with their attempts regardless of the result. It's not like I was getting many legit comments anymore, anyway. Unfortunate, but the spambots have really been swarming lately. I've seen comment spam on sites where I've never seen it before. Such a shame.
Posted by: M.Ace | January 1, 2006 5:17 PM
Well, it's a real shame they drove you to that point.
I've had to shut down all comments except for the last 5 entries, and remove the trackback .cgi file entirely to get the signal-to-noise ratio up to an acceptable level.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 1, 2006 5:46 PM