Got fed up with Movable Type (most notably the lack of new themes/styles and its slowness on my host), so it’s time to get fed up with Wordpress again. The problem I have with Wordpress is that I don’t know it well enough to be able to change much, but then I no longer know MT well enough either. Same difference.

I’m using a barely altered theme by Derek Punsalan, which I’ll hopefully find time to personalise a bit more.

#1 Publishes fine, it shows the 3-column layout the way I want it, with sidebars. #2 Won’t show its sidebars, whatever I do. Not on the front page, not on the archive listing and not on the entry pages. I can’t figure it out and don’t see any difference in the templates. Anniwun kan halp?

I’ve also not been able to get dynamic publishing working on more than one blog. MT won’t let me publish both #1 and #2 dynamically at the same time. So now one is published static, the other dynamic.

Fixed. The problem occurred because I was publishing one blog’s archives outside the root. Hmm. I’d call that a bug.

(The first one to tell me ‘why don’t you use wordpress’ or ‘why don’t you just code your own’ gets a punch in the nose.)

• Blo.gs
• Blogrolling

I upgraded to Movable Type 4. Initially confusing, I think I’ll come to appreciate the new features. It took some time figuring out where what was, as templates have been ripped apart in modules and I’ve never quite been able to figure out the logic in MT’s stylesheets.

There’s one thing I’ve been unable to do and that is to create a new navigation bar above the header, just a black bar exactly as wide as the header… it should be simple and somehow it isn’t. If anyone is familiar with MT’s new stylesheets and thinks they can help me out here, let me know, please.

 I still have to move over the second half of the archives from my old installation (and I do recommend a fresh MT4 installation instead of an upgrade) and redo some of the old includes and widgets.

Another thing that’s changed is the site’s title. We’re back to the old prolific.org domain. You know what they say: once a prol always a prol.

Some stuff I’ve run into while moving to MT4:

• The Feeds.app plugin no longer works.
• I don’t like wysiwyg editors at all

Meanwhile, Dreamhost is moaning about my CPU usage and they’ve moved
this site to a test server. I cannot figure out which of Pivot’s php
files is using that much CPU, because Dreamhost run php as cgi (don’t
ask me what it means, I haven’t a clue) which means all php files show
up in resource stats as ‘php.cgi’. (And when we override the php-as-cgi
switch, Pivot stops working because it loses writing rights to various
files.) I fucking picked Pivot because it’s fast and easy on the
server, after my problems with MT’s scripts timing out on Pair.com.
Christ.

I can’t be the only person around with 6 years of posts who keeps running into problems with their CMS, can I?

Then again, why would I want to keep 6 years of s.f.a.?

five comments, copied from previous installation:

1. Simon says:

Because you’re one of the few blogs I actually read and you’re a great writer.

2. Chris says:
Seriously, Simon’s right. During one of the previous periods when your archives were unavailable, there were numerous-and I’m serious, numerous-occasions on which I wanted to find one of the really fantastic pieces you wrote or things you linked and I couldn’t. It drove me nuts and I really, really missed your archives, because you keep a friggin’ great blog. Don’t get down on yourself just because other people are either brutally mean-spirited or can’t do their own fucking jobs right (or in some cases both)!

3. Caroline says:
Thanks. I seem to be coming down with a throat infection, hence the frayed nerves.

4. Gordon says:

You’re not the only one in a summer “lull”, and I’d venture that hopping between CMSs hasn’t helped – but you probably don’t want to hear that right now.

Hope you feel better soon.

5. Philip says:
I have that throat infection, and along with with the misery and bewildering exhaustion, it brings on thoughts of chucking stuff you do for the love of it (which is usually a lot of work, after all). You have one of the best blogs out there – gutsy, damn intelligent, consistently brilliant and lively. I for one would feel the loss if you threw it in. Let the dog lie, as they say. It will all look easier by the weekend.

I loathe Dreamhost. Over the last few years I’ve told everybody who ever asked not to use them, but to go to Pair.com. Why I thought things might work out for me there this time, I do not know.

Update: F.O.D. is temporarily available at http://log.nu. Back in the saddle is the best remedy. I’ve put too many hours into this site to let hosting problems get to me.

F.O.D. is back online.