I have long resisted running my blog on WordPress because so much of the actual code is messy and because I prefer a more object oriented approach than it employs.  I chose Textpattern for many reasons that at the time made it superior and have used it since 2005.  Even before that, when we first started the Millennial Star blog, we chose b2Evolution over WordPress because of its superior coding. (I’ve also used Joomla and Drupal)

However, looking at the situation now and the huge community and momentum that WordPress has amassed, it pretty clear that WordPress is easier to use for general blogging than any of these others, despite a number of annoying architectural, geeky complaints that just wont go away.

I really, really, really wanted to switch to Chyrp, but I decided that no matter how well done the code is, I just couldn’t afford to get trapped into another marginal platform.

So now I’m on WordPress.  I am running the second Beta of the upcoming 2.7 version with the fancy new dashboard.

To move my data and template was a pain.  I had to write a custom PHP script to migrate all of my posts, comments, and tags directly from the old Textpattern database tables into the WordPress tables.

I also took the time to update my theme, since I had to migrate it from Textpattern’s custom xml template system to the ugly theme system that WordPress uses.

One big change that WordPress has facilitated is that I will now be switching how I do comment moderation.  Before I had it configured so that all comments had to be individually approved before showing up on the blog.  This kind of strict moderation imposes too much of an impediment to conversation and community.

So instead, I am asking all those who wish to comment and converse here that they register for a sixteensmallstones.org login.  Once you have activated your account, you must log in to comment.  The first time you comment will still be moderated, but once I have approved it you should be able to comment without further impediment as long as you are logged in.

If you have been reading Sixteen Small Stones but haven’t ever commented, and even if you have commented but haven’t really been introduced, this post would be a great place to introduce yourself and get to know some of the other people who read here (and of course help me test the new comment system and policy in the process).

Please let me know if you have any trouble with this new system, or run into any problems with the blog that might have been caused by the migration.

Oh. And if you are a long-time WordPress user, feel free to gloat a bit…and then to recommend any plugins that you consider a must-have.

Thanks and enjoy the updated website!