Tonight I spent just over 3 hours doing “back of house” stuff. This kind of stuff no one ever knows or cares about, but it’s important. Just for posterity’s sake and for me to refer to if my current theme and database ever crashes (far be it from me!) I’m listing what I did in the last 3 and 1/2 hours related to my blog:
- Went to Technorati.com and added everyone who favorited me to my favorites list. This is going to be an iron clad rule for me from here on out so if you add me to your favorites (there’s an easy button to do so in my sidebar) I will return the favor and favorite you back! This was time consuming in that it involved a lot of clicking and reloading pages. I finally got it done though and now I am going to keep on top of my updates so I don’t have to wade through all that again.
- Got the code to post the latest links from my Technorati favorite blogs on my sidebar. You can see it now if you look over there. This amazingly allows me to effortlessly promote you out there who are my favorites and get you the attention they deserve. It’s an amazing networking widget and I am so glad to have it up and running. Now there are three ways at least to get linked here at Riley Central: Through leaving a comment (I am do-follow configured), through the recent comments widget, through the Top Commenters widget, and if you favorite me on Technorati, your posts will be featured in my sidebar widget. One thing: If I do not add you immediately, please drop me a note so I can do so! If you add me, it’s a done deal.
- Explored API libraries at Technorati. Found a plugin to show my Technorati authority . . . pretty cool! Obviously I have miles to before I sleep in the authority department, but hey . . . you gotta start somewhere, and I have come a long way believe me!
- Experimented with many many sidebar configurations trying to troubleshoot why some weren’t always loading. I reasoned the problems out and had to drop the WPG2 photos widget. I also had to put my one php widget, Top Commenters at the bottom for it to load correctly. To retain the photo fun factor, I added a small gallery to my About Damien page. I am very happy with the sidebar now, especially since I know it works well in ALL THREE BROWSERS. I tell my wife sometimes you have to give up things you want in a blog in order to make the important things function. That was the case here tonight.
- Proof read some past posts.
- Read Blogs on my Google Reader . . . weeded some lame ones out, starred some very cool ones.
- Added more widgets and things to my “Network” page . . .
And other stuff. I feel like I have been staring at the screen too long and I can’t recall what else at the moment. I can tell you it wasn’t a lot more. The things listed above were the main investments I made tonight in my blog. You have to do that sometimes. Just put the writer on the shelf and get out the maintenance tools. Your blog will be better for it and as you travel down the blogging highway, you will be better for it too.
Hi. I'm Damien Riley, MA.
8 Comments
Hey Damien,
I’m still trying to do some “back of the house” stuff on my Wordpress blog. I had it all uploaded and working and everything was fine, and now the links to pages, comments and previous posts don’t work again! This is the third time I’ve dumped it, re-uploaded and re-imported and I’m not doing anything to it!! Any ideas???? It’s making me crazy.
Jessica
The control freak in me wants your username and password . . . lol
Beyond that, remember that Wordpress is a solid platform and if you leave the tweaking to the folks that know what they’re doing, you can have a smoother ride with it. Is there someone close to you who knows about databases and Wordpress stuff?
The problems you describe sound like your template tweaks have likely upset the natural flow of the Wordpress pattern. It’s not something I can describe in an email, but I assure you I have made similar things happen to mine in the past.
Try this:
1. Delete the whole database and the wordpress install. make sure it’s all gone! If this confuses you, shoot me an email.
2. Install a fresh install of WordPress and keep the “Default” theme. Don’t attempt to change anything. You seem to have imported once before well. Try an import again of your blogger database.
3. Maneuver the blog a bit and see if the links etc. work. If they don’t, your issue is beyond my scope — I would suggest hitting the forums relating to importing from blogger. Of course, you always have the option of just starting new without an import (I know you lose the reank etc. — so I don’t even know why I said that)
4. If it works okay in the deafult theme, that’s where I come in. I am the “theme” tweaking master. We can do an IM on that or figure some sort of back and forth on it. I have a hunch it’s not the import but the theme tweaking that’s causing the trouble.
Good luck, I hope I can help you into your new WordPress digs!
Ok, control freak…I’ve sent you the info :)
Tried to go there to no avail! Maybe you scrapped it before I had a chance to take a look. Keep at it, it will work eventually!
Maybe I just have never noticed before but your comments are displaying in reverse order now. Is that a new change?
It is amazing how the “behind the scenes” work can eat up so much time but it is a necessary part of running your own blog/journal.
Hey derek. Yeah, it’s kind of an innovative thing Scott Wallick and his gang of minimalists did on this theme MyJounal Hypereal I’m more-or-less neutral on the reverse comments feature, but I do like that it’s something different. This is my favorite theme thus far, but you know how much I change!
Just to give Scott Wallick’s separate theme page a plug as it seems to fit here in the discussion:
PlainTxt.org
I’ve used 3 or 4 of these in my day. Amazing artist.
Lol…it is always exciting to stop by here because you never know when the look will be completely different! :)
I’ve tinkered around with a few of those themes myself, very good stuff.
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