Several weeks ago, I upgraded my version of MovableType to 4.1something. And, once I finally figured out how to edit some config file properly, it’s been fine. Except for searches. The search field on my blog no longer works. And believe it or not, this is important to me. I can’t always remember when something happened, and I often look it up on my blog.*
There is usually something, with each release, which prompts me to redo my style sheets according to whatever new crazy format they use at the time. It can take a while, but I can usually figure it out, and I end up feeling pretty smart about the whole thing as well. But with 4.x everything is different. It’s not just the style sheets, it’s the whole new template structure. It’s simply beyond my ken. I’m not geek enough to figure out how to move all my content over into the new structure, and change the style sheet to look like I want it to, with my newly mocked out design.
It’s gotten to the point where I warn Wil I am going to work on it, and he knows not to worry when I start yelling “What the FUCK? Where did all the sidebars go? I CHANGED NOTHING! For fuck’s sake!” It makes me so crabby.
On the one hand, I really really want to figure it out. I will feel so shiny and brilliant if I can. Not to mention, I truly do love MovableType, and Six Apart products as well. One only has to look at the Vox blogging system to realize how adorable blogging can be, thanks to these guys. Not to mention TypePad. They are just cool. I’d be all over TypePad, but I don’t need a hosted service.
I’ve been using MT since I started blogging almost six years ago. I like it. I don’t want to leave it.
But for pity’s sake, it’s going to make me crazy. Almost every blogger I’ve met, or that I read, who lives here in the Vancouver area uses WordPress. So much so I figured it had to be made here, but I guess it’s just gotten really popular in the last couple of years. I’ve thought about it. It appears I would have to install a copy for each blog I want to have, and I’m not sure I like that idea. But it’s tempting to know that there are more resources available to me out there for help with WordPress.
I’m going to keep plugging away at it. For now.
Awww Jodi
What can I say? I’m a WordPress boy. Although truth be told, I would *really* like to learn more about Movable Type.
You will note that search on my Movable Type 4 blog is now powered by Google…
🙂
When I started blogging I moved from Blogger to Greymatter to Movable Type, and I stayed with MT for a long, long time. But then it got excruciatingly slow for commenters and rebuilding entries. I moved to WordPress a year and a half ago and I love it. LOVE it! I don’t even mind the extra-installs for different blogs because everything is so fast and slick.
I’ll admit, I haven’t even been tempted to upgrade. Is it worth it?
I am one of those rare types who still uses Blogger publishing via FTP to my hosting account. That’s largely because Blogger was all there was back in 2000 when I started, and I’ve gotten used to how the templating works — it does what I need.
Other blogs I work with use WordPress, although I did use MT for awhile for a work intranet. Each has its benefits, but the lack of multi-blog ability on a standard WP install is pretty annoying.
Annnnyway, on my Blogger site at penmachine.com I use a standard Google site search, rather than anything built into Blogger, and you can do the same with WP or MT or whatever. It’s not instantly indexed, but it’s fast enough since Google checks my site several times a day, and also indexes the rest of my site that isn’t part of my blog:
http://www.google.com/sitesearch/