Thursday 23 February 2012

Blog move: Another reason.

Blogger's new Captcha is causing problems for a lot of people. Including me. I have to refresh it a few times on blogs that use it because after a half-century of use, these eyes don't pick out the fine detail they used to. They can still rivet a student to the floor, even if I can't see them so well. The prominent canines probably help a little too.

(I still intend to put that N gauge stuff on Ebay but every time I take it all out, I just put it all away again. I mean, I have a Hymek, possibly the only N gauge one in the country! I would find it easier to sell my brother although I probably wouldn't get as much for him. He is 'used' after all - although, I hasten to add, not by me)

The move to Wordpress means I don't need to sign in to Sitemeter to track troll IPs, I don't need to sign in to Disqus to boot trolls out, and although the troll can comment in Disqus and get deleted, he can't get in to Wordpress in the first place. He has left a snide comment there but it was a waste of keypresses because nobody will ever see it. I'd still let interesting trolls in but not the no-issue loonies.

Wordpress does all those things and it doesn't have, or need, eye-crushing captchas. With one sign-in. The downside is that because it's more powerful it's also more complicated. I've been learning how to use it and I don't think I've even scratched the surface of what it can do yet - and that's just the free version!

Blogger seems determined to make it difficult. I've noticed that they have me as a .co.nz site sometimes and that's all part of their forthcoming 'hey governments, you can block this bugger if you like' function. The new captcha is getting on my nerves and from what I'm reading, I'm not the only one.

I had planned to complete the move over to Wordpress last weekend but getting prepared for my first job interview in 20 years was more of a challenge than I expected. Tonight I am neither commiserating nor celebrating because I don't know yet. I'm... practising.

With Whyte and MacKay, £11 in Morrison's. Morrison's also still stock flints and petrol lighter fuel and have staff who actually smile at you when you buy those things. I think they are the only supermarket (shop, even) left who will sell you smoking-related materials without acting as though you had requested Halal African infant eyes in aspic. When Man with a Van isn't available, the only place I'll buy duty-paid tobacco is Morrison's. The rest can get stuffed.

Okay. Wordpress. Moving the comments is proving tricky. Frank says it might just be that it takes forever but the last time I tried it duplicated a load of posts and moved no comments. I might just have to leave a link back here until I can get the comments sorted out.

One question. Does anyone care enough for me to put in the effort, or is the existence of comments on a soon-closed but not-deleted blog fine with everyone?

I mean, it would be a right bugger to spend ages making it work only to get a chorus of 'We didn't really give a shit'.




13 comments:

Wwbrunton1 said...

I still enjoy reading your stuff...Bill in SD

Barman said...

 We didn't really give a shit.

JuliaM said...

As long as there's a link back to the closed blog, it shouldn't matter, should it? We can always go back and read the comments there.

Wolfers said...

When I made the move from blogger to wordpress I too came across the problem of exporting/importing existing comments, but with the aid of the tech savvy Brother Snowolf and some woman's instructional video on youtube I managed to do it after about twenty minutes creative swearing.

Mark Wadsworth said...

You already did one blog move didn't you? Just do the same again with WP and start again where you left off.

I did set up a WP blog in a panic a year or two ago when Blogger was playing up and ran it in parallel until Blogger sorted itself out again.

If Wolfers is right about shifting commments across wholesale, then it might be worth considering. My problem here is I'm not allowed to shout things OH FUCKING JESUS OF CHRIST at the top of my voice when I'm at home, so I bang my fist on the desk instead which can get really painful.

Subrosa said...

Whatever's easier. That's my motto.

Bones said...

Still keeping fingers crossed that it is good news re your job. 
I seldom shop in supermarkets; in fact hardly ever in the big three, every now and then in Aldi or Lidl (the one I go to is nicely kept). Otherwise, I try and support the local shops, butcher, baker and candlestick maker, they never sniff at my cash, always a friendly word. Other than that I get really good value at the local market. 
Today I bought a 16gig memory stick, from a local computer shop, not PCWorld or Comet, very happy to have my cash without a dozen questions at the till. 
Note cash, not tracked on some database.

Bones said...

I meant to say too, although I don't smoke myself I do buy baccy and the rest for the OH, and the marketeers never give you 'the look' and baccy is man with a van whenever possible.

Mark Ellott said...

Actually, Wordpress is pretty straightforward. Even if it is more difficult than blogger, the level of control makes it worth the while. Best yet, self hosting independently gives maximum control.

PJA61 said...

Just let us all know when and where you've moved to. Please.
o/t you have probably noticed a lack of visitors from the Dutch Ministry of Justice. That was me 'cos for some reason your new lay-out of a good while ago is text-less on my work browser.

PJA61

Dioclese said...

Be i terested to know how you get on because frankly I'm getting a bit pissed of with Google continually buggering about and 'improving' things.

Also considered moving to Wordpress but at the moment everything is working fine - except that I am getting some spamming. Probably won't bother at the end of the day.

Leg-iron said...

Okay, taking out Disqus didn't break anything. Yet.

I should hear about the job tomorrow. I'm not getting too hopeful - I am overqualified and over the hill - and I filled out a form for another one-year job today. Not great pay but no travel costs, and if you take out travel costs these days, you don't need very much money.

I just need to wait out the recession, until everyone else has rebuilt the economy to the point where they can afford my services again ;)

Amusing Bunni said...

Good Luck with the Job Search, Leggy!

Make it easy on yourself and don't fiddle trying to figure out comments and all, Just do a link to the new blog! Updated my Blogroll!

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