As you might have already noticed, the blog is looking just a little different. It’s because we’ve switched to Movable Type. Hopefully, it’s legible in most of the browsers y’all use. We made the switch because MT software is better-designed for group blogging.
Plus, MT comes with some neat bells and whistles. The “recently updated comments” feature (at the top of the sidebar) is my favorite of those, but finally having a functioning RSS feed is also a plus.
Once again, many thanks to Jenn, to Kip, and to Kirsten for their long, thankless hours toiling in the Alas grapeyard squeezing out the new MT vintage. (Ever start a metaphor, and then regret it?).
Any way to make the RSS feed include another few lines of text in the “description” field? It’s so short now that it’s sometimes hard to guess what the item’s about….
The new blog looks great!
Your site looks great. I like the “Recently updated comments” idea, I’m going to try and figure out to do that on my own site.
I figured that was why your blog wasn’t coming up for me. Welcome back. Your blog looks great.
All you have to do, Alassers (and Mr. Chess), is reset the number of words in the extract on the blog configuration page. It’s currently at the default of 20. I wonder–given the usual writing style(s) of Barry, Bean, Chas., et al, what an appropriate number would be? Neither too much nor too little, but just right…
David, I’ve changed it to 35 words… let me know in a few days if that works for you. (Of course, if et al starts posting, all bets are off.)
Barry, I thought you’d also like to know that your blog is loading in much faster now for me than it used to.
Woot! I am also looking at other blogging tools to help with my site. Not having the artistic talent that you guys have I am feeling a bit dull and uninteresting.
It also appears that issues of public lands policy and privatization of everything is not sexy enough to encourage people to come and debate.
Well done! An already spiffy site looks even better. (And yeah, I love the Recently Commented On too.) But… umm… “grapeyard”?
And is there any way to get the comments to actually remember my info?
The page also loads much faster for me, which is cool.
The problem with the “remember me” function is due to the way that cookies are being set. This is a fairly common problem for a new blog. If you go to the MT support forums at http://www.movabletype.org/support you should be able to find some tips on how to make sure that the cookies are set properly. And if what you find isn’t clear, post and ask a question. The MT support people are tremendously helpful!
This looks great! Congrats on your new digs.
35 words is certainly an improvement. Why not 100, or 1000? Are we worried about the bandwidth?
I have no idea why not 100, or 1000. Does anyone have any idea?
David, you’re the only person I know of who reads Alas via RSS. If no one gives a reason to keep the number low, I’ll set the limit to whatever you suggest.
it looks great. bravo and welcome to MT land!
the typeface looks really small on IE, Win 98, but i wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Very sharp, and yeah: it really does load much faster.
The MT-enhanced Alas is looking sharp indeed. Nice one.
In Internet Explorer in Windows ME, the font is so small that the quotes are unreadable.
As far as the “remember info” bug goes, I’ve tried the fix suggested in this MT thread. Let me know if it works for you.
Wow, power! *8) It’s fine as it is now, really; whenever I have time I come over to Alas itself, anyway, when the RSS reader tells me that there’s new stuff. It’s only when I’m in a real hurry that I try to get the information out of the feed.
How are people keeping up with blogs, if they don’t use an RSS reader? I thought I was a late adopter! Now I don’t know how I managed without it. (I’ve even hacked up CGI scripts to HTML-scrape RSS feeds out of my couple of favorite weblogs that don’t have real ones, just to bring them into the fold…)
I don’t want to rain on the parade… but I think your site looks how you want it to in windows, but ever so slightly odd on my mac osx ie5. The margin down the sidebar isn’t a crisp line for me (as it used to be), it’s mostly quite thick and in some places has lumps and bumps. Nothing content or sight threatening, just… irregular.
I speak as someone who knows nothing and has given up the unequal struggle of making my site look how I want it to on anything other than my own screen in my own room on a sunny day.
I look at the site on Mac OS/X ie 5.2, and it looks ok. Unfortunately, recenly it’s been slow. But I don’t think that has anything to do with movable type or ie 5.2.
Pingback: Musings