WordPress and Blog Updates
So I've been AWOL. My bad. It's update time!
Yeah, so I was supposed to update before now, to do a big SXSWi blow-out post, but life shit got in the way (some of that shit was quite good, I must point out) and it felt like it would be weird to write about all the stuff the longer and longer it went unsaid. Whatever, I have too many drafts NOT to try to write one “The insanely late edition” post — but that day is not today.
So I’ve been AWOL My bad. It’s update time. WordPress 2.5 was released today and I went ahead an upgraded my blog. All my plugins seem to be working just fine (although there seems to be a problem with SRG Clean Archives, not in how it functions but in how its Options page displays in the new dashboard, I had to manually edit the plugin file to turn off the Moo.FX (they conflict with the JQuery components in my sidebar elements; I think I could adjust this using the new JQuery workaround for using Moo and JQuery libraries at the same time, but it’s more of a hassle than it is worth), but I think I’ll have to test it out a bit more before I know for sure.
Thanks to both Adii and Chris Murphy for pointing me towards Dean Robinson’s Fluency Admin Theme — it is SO hot. Although I have come around to liking the default 2.5 dashboard a LOT more than I initially did when the previews started to leak out — and I do prefer it to the old dashboard — Dean’s take is far superior, at least in my opinion. I really like lots of the upgrades and updates to 2.5, but I’m seriously having ExpressionEngine envy, especially after seeing their 2.0 preview. I’m playing around with the free Core Version for an upcoming project and may end up using the full commercial version for that site. This site will more than likely stay WordPress (I really like WordPress), but for lots of video content (which is what the project will be about), I’m exploring all my options. Plus, it’s just SO pretty. And I’m a sucker for prettiness.
I’m also going to be switching web hosts within the text few days. I signed up with Media Temple about a month ago for the project I will be launching soon and want to go ahead an host my blog there too. I haven’t had any major issues with my current host (1and1) — and I’ve had my account for like 4 years — but I can’t rely on them if I do need to make a technical or customer service request, which is why I nixed them for my video-based project — and I can’t justify spending $10 a month to host this blog when my $20 a month account should be plenty to host both. Over the last month, I’ve migrated the majority of my domains to a domain only account (still with 1and1), to limit the potential fallout when canceling a 4-year old hosting contract) and I was just waiting for the 90-day limit on my christinawarren.com URL to pass (though now that isn’t even necessary) and for 2.5 to come out so that I can backup my MySQL tables and move the installation over to the new site before switching the DNS servers.
My goal is to have it all moved by Monday morning — but we’ll see.
We’ve been posting intermittent interviews from SXSW at DownloadSquad and the remainder should be up this week. I will link to all of them when I’m done.
Out!
6 people have left comments
Sean Hackbarth said:
I finally got around to upgrading my WP install on a seldom-used weblog. From 2.0.7 for me (yes, it’s been a while). It seems pretty good, but I don’t like the image uploader. The ajax is nice, but it won’t insert the image code into the post. I end up with a blank, white window. Luckily the media library gives me a URL so I can paste it into the post manually. But it’s an extra, unneeded step.
Aaron Brazell said:
Be careful with Expression Engine. Though it is nice, it is very difficult to move off of. Though if you DO decide to go that route and then want to back out later, I might have a little experience I can lend.
Christina said:
Thanks Aaron — that’s good to know! If I do end up using that for anything, it’ll be for filmgirl.tv — not christinawarren.com. I’m pretty satisfied with WordPress for blogging, I just get itchy to try new CMSes and tools.
Chris Murphy said:
I’ve worked with Expression Engine and I have to say that aside from the longer ramp-up time to get something developed against the framework, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to use. I have also used the spin-off framework “Code Igniter” which was based on the EE core (I believe), and it’s amazing to work with. There’s obviously some growing pains with either framework, but for client projects, I’m hooked on CI.
It was a very tough decision for me when I was forced to choose between EE and WP. In many ways EE is superior, but as an our of the box solution, WP still has a lot to offer — but who knows, I may just switch back over.
Here’s a pretty popular example of design & EE at work: http://veerle.duoh.com/
Christina said:
Chris,
YES! Veerle’s blog is actually what first got me intrigued about EE in the first place. Then EE 2.0 was previewed at SXSWi and I saw their screencast online (http://expressionengine.com/ee2_sneak_preview/) and just totally, totally fell in love. Your comments on my blog in February really had me intrigued too. Veerle designed the new backend interface for EE 2.0 and it just looks so amazing. And I’m a sucker for a clean, pretty (and functional — though obviously that is hard to tell from a screencast, it looks pretty functional) interface.
Out of the box, I agree, WP is tops. For my personal site, I really don’t see myself using anything else (and I’ve tried the latest releases of the other OpenSource blog/CMS platforms recently to compare). But when I look at something like EE, I can’t help but think “yup, THAT’S worth paying for.” I’m having fun playing around with the free core version of EE right now (to get a sense of how much I like it before plunking down the money for a license) and although I might end up waiting for 2.0, from what I’ve seen, I’ve been extremely impressed.
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