The database issues have been successfully dealt with. Now I’m tweaking the design on the new WordPress site. It is absolutely astonishing how many hours you can lose to fiddling around with the smallest things just because your OCD won’t let you leave them alone.
You can sneak a peek at the new site here.
I think I might be ready to flip the switch later this week.
But then comes the real pain-in-the-ass stuff: redirecting just under 14,000 URLs — because they’ll be ever so slightly different under WordPress, but in a way that might be better for SEO (it had better be, after all this hassle) — and migrating the comments in Disqus, because those ever-so-slightly different URLs is gonna throw Disqus a curveball.
Once all that is settled, the real changes will begin, with the raising of an experimental paywall on some content — via TinyPass — and the experimenting with some new types of content.
My brain is so fried with all this crap…
Sucks, having to spend so much time fiddling when you could be writing. I’m sure I’ll appreciate it when it’s all done.
I will be relieved.
The new site looks great, much more professional. Stick with it.
Oh, I’m too far dug in now to give up.
Wish I could help. I migrated the OFCS site from Blogger to WordPress, but those structures were relatively similar.
I’m not sure how your database works, but with a few key pieces of data it’d be fairly simple to just cut n paste a list of old URLs, dates, and new URLs and have a spreadsheet work out an htaccess redirect list for you, or a php redirect, or whatever.
Like so: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuOq7JyDzg3UdEFBTUxfM1pZbVJqcjVzTDJJbG5zZ0E&usp=sharing
Do you know an easy way to output a list of URLs from MT and WP?
There is a WP plugin that supposedly can deal with redirects, but I haven’t looked into it yet.
I don’t… do the shortened titles appear in the database at all? If so, I’d just ctrl-c copy them straight from the database, or export the database to a spreadsheet or CSV file and load ’em up into excel or another spreadsheet app.
If I could see it, I might be able to make it work… does your server have phpmyadmin or a similar way to view mysql databases?
The URLs might be in the MT DB, because MT builds static pages. But WP builds dynamic pages… but maybe there’s a way to generate them. I’ll look into it. I’ll let you know if I need any help! Thanks for the offer.
Well, I think the new site looks much better. It’ll all be worth it!
Thanks. I think so, too.
If it’s any consolation, the WP site is very, very, very cool.
Thanks!
The new site looks positively sexy!
Whoa!
I agree, it looks very slick.
Lots of blank space – not encouraging people to use laptops or other mobile devices? (Though it’s worth noting that designing to appeal to me is almost always an error. Particularly in this case since I read the text on the subscribers’ RSS feed and only visit the site to post initial comments.)
What blank space?
The design is responsive, and will look great on mobile devices and tablets.
Mainkly true, but the bias meter doesn’t work well on my iPhone. (I appreciate that this is a work in progress.)
No, I kinda had to shoehorn that in to the precreated design I’m using. Funny how no one who creates WP templates has thought to consider a Bias Meter as a standard element.
I’m speaking all this PHP stuff phoenetically. I don’t anticipate being able to rework the Bias Meter to be responsive. Sorry. :-(
When you went to Disqus for the commenting, the site lost the ability to have the last hundred comments posted (due to Disqus, I know, not due to your design). Now, I don’t even see a “Current Conversations” button.
Otherwise, I like the site!
I will get a Current Conversations option in there once Disqus is live on the new site.
Oooh, I likee-likee very much.
Will the current blog format still be available?
What do you mean?
There will be a page that lists all the most recent posts in reverse order (newest at the top), if that’s what you’re asking.
That was what I was (clumsily) asking. Thanks!
Wait, is this new site up already? Everyone’s saying they’ve already seen it- where is it?
MaryAnn included a link in the post.
It’s just a testing area. Please don’t post comments there or share links from there or anything like that.
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/