I’ve been debating what to do with this blog.

For two years, I’ve had a self-hosted WordPress installation that crossposts automatically to LiveJournal, DreamWidth, InsaneJournal, and JournalFen. I set this up because I finally got fed up with LiveJournal’s greed and incompetence.

If I was doing this from scratch, I would have just set up a paid DreamWidth account and used it to crosspost to the other sites. DreamWidth didn’t exist when I initially set this up, and then they were unproven. By now, though, they’ve earned my respect. They are working constantly to upgrade their system in a way that is logical, transparent, and has their users’ best interests in mind. Most importantly, they put their money where their mouth is when it comes to censorship. While LiveJournal gladly censored their users to keep their advertisers happy, DreamWidth stood their ground and were willing to switch payment processors twice rather than cave in to pressure to censor content that is legal in the US.

Meanwhile, maintaining a self-hosted blog is kind of a pain. I have to upgrade my WordPress installation regularly to keep it secure, and nearly every upgrade breaks my cross-posting plugins. So far I’ve been able to fix them, but that’s hours of my life wasted each time. I also get many fewer comments on my own blog–people just don’t like leaving the comfort of the journaling sites, even though it’s simple enough to click the link to comment directly at my blog. (It is, really! Try it!)

I’ve thought about closing my self-hosted blog and switching my main blog to DreamWidth, but that feels like a step backwards. With my own hosted site, I have more control. I can have infinite userpics and mood themes. If there’s something in the code I dislike, I can go in directly and change it. If I want a new feature, I can install an existing plugin or write my own. I can create backups directly from the database. I can do a full-text search and put my Twitter and Delicious accounts in my sidebar. It’s just more customizable, and it fits my control freak tendencies.

I do want to support DreamWidth, though, and I want to continue to distance myself from LiveJournal. Since I’m already paying for my own blog and frantically saving to go to Paris in October, I don’t want to pay for a DreamWidth account yet. But I am trying to center my fannish activity there by:

1. Adding as many White Collar people there as possible. That new!fandom!squee! is the perfect motivation to get me to read my DW reading list daily.
2. Filtering everyone who crossposts to both sites so that I’ll only see their posts on DW. If you crosspost and I have you on my LJ flist but not my DW reading list, please let me know your DW username so I can add you.
3. Enabling comments on DreamWidth. I’m not sure if this is right–I really like having comments centered on my own blog so that the discussion happens in one location and so I can make a complete backup from one place. But if it was hard to get my old friends to comment on my own blog, it’s basically impossible to get new friends to do so. Plus, it’s a way to encourage more activity at DreamWidth. So… for now, I’m enabling comments at DreamWidth, though I’d still prefer comments on my own blog.

Now I shall have to make a commitment to actually post more often. Having a new fandom certainly helps!

(I wish there was more time in the day. There is so much I want to say about White Collar and so much guilt about the RL work I should be doing instead. Argh. But this is me, so expect fannish indulgence to win out eventually!)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2833

I’m rusty_halo on dreamwidth.

I’m not cross-posting there yet and not sure when/if I’m going to. I definitely like DW better than LJ, but I like having my own blog even more. I might write a WordPress plugin so I can cross-post from here to there too. I might also end up changing my entire online presence–perhaps use Dreamwidth as a main fandom journal and use my own blog as a non-fandom thing. Still figuring it out.

Anyway, I’m there now if you want to add me. I’ll try to add everyone there that I’ve added on LJ, IJ, or JF.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2740

I’m posting this from my new mobile phone. I feel like I’ve finally entered THE FUTURE.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

Just a reminder about how to comment on this journal.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2565

A version of Hide or Cut Post Text that displays lj-cut tags correctly on your WordPress blog. Download here.

A version of LJ User Ex that 1) works in comments as well as posts and 2) allows you to use “lj user”, “ij user”, and “jf user” tags to refer to users on LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and Journalfen, and “lj comm”, “ij comm”, and “jf comm” to refer to communities. Also works in crossposted entries. Download here.

In action:

IJ: asylum_promo (Tag: <ij comm="asylum_promo">)

JF: fandom_wank (Tag: <jf comm="fandom_wank">)

LJ: ihasatardis (Tag: <lj comm="ihasatardis">)

Current Mood: geeky

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2558

Several people wanted to know how I’ve been cross-posting my WordPress moods and avatars to LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and Journalfen. So here ya go. :)

You need a WordPress blog, obviously; read my full “How to Migrate Your Blog from LiveJournal to WordPress” tutorial if you’re just starting. This is for users who are already set up.

I hacked the LiveJournal Crossposter plugin to pull in my moods (from the Cricket Moods plugin) and my avatars (from the Post Avatar plugin). This works on WordPress 2.3.3 (and probably others).

This doesn’t actually update your moods and avatars in LiveJournal’s system; it just includes your own moods and avatars, from your own site, in the body of your post. This might make your posts look funny on your friends list (your icon will be aligned left; others may be aligned right depending on the journal style). You can tweak the display options by editing the code below, but there’s no way to make it match every possible journal style. On the plus side, you can have as many moods and avatars as you can fit on your own server, without having to worry about LiveJournal’s limits.

This has an obvious bug: it doesn’t crosspost moods and avatars unless you’ve already saved a version of your post. The easiest way to do this is to click “Save and Continue Editing” first, then click “Publish.”

I’m not releasing a complete plugin, because I’ve also hacked my LiveJournal Crossposter script a million other ways. It’s easier to just give you the snippet of code you need, and you can paste it in. I’m attaching it in a file; all you have to do is find a certain line in your LJXP code and paste all this right before it.

To use this code, open LiveJournal Crossposter and find the lines that say:

if($header_loc) {
$the_event .= $postHeader;
}
else {
$the_event = $postHeader.$the_event;
}

Found them? Okay, now just paste the code in the file directly above the code you just found.

Click here for the plain-text code or click here to download it as a PHP file. The instructions are repeated in a comment at the top of the code, in case anyone gets linked directly to it.

This also works for InsaneJournal Crossposter and Journalfen Crossposter.

Let me know if you have questions. And if you figure out a way to improve it, please share. :)

Current Mood: accomplished & creative

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2534

I’m glad that InsaneJournal’s back, but the prospect of potentially losing data from over there made me nervous. I’ve got my entries backed up, but not comments, so I decided that I’m only going to allow comments in one place: my own journal, on my own server, where I can back up as regularly as I want, and move servers if the one I’m on proves unreliable. I just want to have control over my own data, and not feel jerked around at the whim of some company.

Anyway. So I’m turning off comments everywhere but there. I love getting comments, and I welcome and encourage you to comment there. It works pretty much the same as LJ; comments are threaded and if someone replies to your comment you’ll get an email. You can preview comments, and I’m working on adding the ability to edit comments. You can even post with your default LJ/IJ/JF icon; just enter your journal URL as “Website” when you comment, and the system will grab it automatically. And if you don’t want to enter your name every time you comment, you can always register; it’s my server, so the only person who’ll see your email address is me, and I promise not to spam you.

I’m also crossposting to Journalfen now in addition to InsaneJournal, so if you’re as fed up with LiveJournal as I am, there are plenty of places you can read my journal instead.

I apologize if this annoys you, and I realize that I’m bound to lose a lot of comments this way. But it only takes a tiny bit more effort to comment there instead of here, and I feel much safer having everything on my own server. I have to do what’s right for me.

You may also notice that my userpics and mood icons appear differently depending on which journal layout you’re using. This is because I integrated my crossposting system with the avatar and mood plugins I’m using on my own journal, so you’re seeing data pulled from my own server. Again, I apologize if it annoys you, but it’s a tiny inconvenience for you and it makes my data much safer.

BTW, for those who have been following my journal migration saga, I figured out how to import comments with threading preserved. So all of my old LJ comments have been copied to my blog with threads preserved. :) If you’re interested in doing the same, let me know and I’ll write a tutorial.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Current Mood: weird

In this guide:

• Why Leave LiveJournal?
• Why WordPress?
• Step One: Set Up Your Own Webspace and Install WordPress
• Step Two: Customize WordPress to Get the Look You Prefer
• Step Three: Migrate Your LiveJournal Archive to Your New WordPress Blog
• Step Four: Customize WordPress to Get More Features
• Other Guides
• Updates Since Original Posting

Current Mood: accomplished & accomplished

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.