WordPress was far easier to install than Movable Type was, and it has built in spam blacklists and easier-looking comment management, and a nice interface, but I don’t know php so editing the templates I find that I’m spending a lot of time squinting so I only see the familiar codes and not those lines of php with all the disconcerting question marks.

To change the URLs of my permalinks I have to “use mod_rewrite” which is no doubt basic for a programmer and I know I’ll be able to google my way to doing it, whatever it is, in time, but I’ve gotta say Movable Type is closer to HTML and familiar pastures.

I was getting a teeny bit sick of having to delete comments every single time I took a look at my blog, though. I’m not convinced WordPress’ll have better spam control, but simply changing systems should confuse the evil spammers for a while, anyway. I thought of using Tinderbox again. Now that Haloscan offers both comments and trackbacks I wouldn’t have to give up my networkedness. But I do like having the comments in my own control. It’s so cool that I could just import all the posts, comments and trackbacks from Movable Type, no problem!

I’ll try WordPress for a while. Maybe I’ll return to Movable Type, or Tinderbox, or another platform in a while. Trying out different systems is good. Like stretching. Keeps you flexible.

5 thoughts on “switching – pros and cons

  1. steve

    I found WordPress a bit intimidating. That’s part of why I’ve settled on Texpattern — something about the interface just feels intuitive to me. With WordPress I felt like I was struggling to figure things out, whereas Textpattern made sense right out of the box. However, I know other people have had the opposite experience. There’s an indefinable element to understanding a piece of software, like trying to explain why one tennis racket is more comfortable for your swing than another.

  2. LiL

    I’m running my main blog on MT, the first time I tried WordPress I was intimidated by what I now think was my unfamiliarity with open-sourceness. But after a while, I tried it again and now I really like it. WordPress feels really pure and transparent and hence manageable to me – though I’m only running a simple group of research blogs on it at this time, mainly for personal reference. So commenting is less of an issue and I certainly haven’t had to import anything yet. I like the link organization features a lot, and the categories as well. And just that WordPress has such a tiny core and generates pages on the fly, saving on disc space. I wonder how this will affect bandwidth usage for an oft-read blog like yours though.

  3. tormodh

    Since trackbacks doesn’t show (as far as I can see) – here’s a quick (and dirty) rundown on mod_rewrite.

  4. scott

    no pics are showing up for me here though — is that intentional or is that an unresolved wordpress thing?

  5. Elin

    I’ve come to really really love Tinderbox (remember the time years back where I just couldn’t make sense of it for my bare life? Gulp!) Now that I can, I am redesigning my blog in the t-box. But you’re right, trying out lots of different systems is fun:-) I think Jesper’s blog is done with wordpress?
    E.

Leave a Reply to Elin Cancel reply

Recommended Posts

Triple book talk: Watch James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me discuss our 2023 books

Thanks to everyone who came to the triple book talk of three recent books on machine vision by James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me, and thanks for excellent questions. Several people have emailed to asked if we recorded it, and yes we did! Here you go! James and Jussi’s books […]

Image on a black background of a human hand holding a graphic showing the word AI with a blue circuit board pattern inside surrounded by blurred blue and yellow dots and a concentric circular blue design.
AI and algorithmic culture Machine Vision

Four visual registers for imaginaries of machine vision

I’m thrilled to announce another publication from our European Research Council (ERC)-funded research project on Machine Vision: Gabriele de Setaand Anya Shchetvina‘s paper analysing how Chinese AI companies visually present machine vision technologies. They find that the Chinese machine vision imaginary is global, blue and competitive.  De Seta, Gabriele, and Anya Shchetvina. ā€œImagining Machine […]

Do people flock to talks about ChatGPT because they are scared?

Whenever I give talks about ChatGPT and LLMs, whether to ninth graders, businesses or journalists, I meet people who are hungry for information, who really want to understand this new technology. I’ve interpreted this as interest and a need to understand – but yesterday, Eirik Solheim said that every time […]