Posts Tagged “Wordpress”

Colorado Sunset

Hello All!  Just a quick post to let you know I’m back online.  I made some silly mistakes this weekend when I decided to tweak my blog.  Let’s just say that the tweak became a complete overhaul when I broke my website and had to repair and reload everything.  Luckily, I had a back up of my blog, along with posts and comments.  Many of the images are broken and the posts wonky, so I will be fixing those in the near future.  Also, I’m not sold on the header - but I had to have something up there.

While I was in the throws of near blog catastrophe despair, I learned a lot and then decided to go ahead and combine my website and blog using Wordpress to power the whole kit and kaboodle.  I also upgraded to the newest version of wordpress - 2.6 and then upgraded my K2 theme.  Unfortunately, K2 wasn’t working properly, and I had to find a new template.  I decided to use Tarski - it’s similar visually, yet different in admin mode.  I’m still trying to decide if I like it or not.

I found a slew of really cool plugins that I’ve uploaded to my blog but am still exploring including a gallery feature, SEO plugin and more.  Also, I’m still working on many of my pages, but, was starting to have blog withdrawals and just said screw it and decided to go live anyway.  I’m going to be making some custom pages (a whole other learning curve) for my static ones - basically everything but my blog.

Today, I started teaching the last clay camp of the summer at the Art Students League of Denver before school starts here next week.  In between teaching and preparing for class, I’ve been spending almost every waking moment getting my site back online.  Unfortunately, I’ve done a lot of double work, but in the end, I learned how to do a lot!

If you’ve sent me an email in the past 3-4 days, and I haven’t responded, it’s because I inadvertently deleted the database for my email account.  It’s back up, but I lost many addresses and emails.

I hope to catch up with my favorite blogs tomorrow,

~Cynthia

I feel a little bit like the girl who cried wolf when I announced the url for my my new Wordpress blog and then had to take it down for maintenance temporarily - not a great nod towards my new preferred blogging platform. The speed factor, or lack thereof was driving me crazy. I have a low tolerance for slow sites - so I can’t imagine the torture that I put you through if you visited in the past 2 days. It turns out that Wordpress had nothing to do with it. It was my web host, Startlogic (all I can say is DON’T do it!), who I have promptly dumped in favor of Blue Host. Yeah, I’m out a few extra dollars, but it will be worth it in the long run. I think you’ll agree that my pages load faster now and all of the widgets and whatnots available with Wordpress are now working as intended. So, now, I will tuck my tail between my legs and carry on….

Meanwhile, if you find any issues or bugs, please let me know so I can fix it now. I’ve rolled over my blogroll - please update your links to mine, provided you still like me of course.

That’s it for today,
~Cynthia

Shall I wax poetic for you?

Wordpress Pros:

• Akismet Spam catcher
• Easily change themes with one click
• Easily edit posts and comments - no need to delete the entire comment just to edit.
• Intuitive design
• Ability to categorize posts, blogroll, categories and add tags
• Multiple pages available
• Import Blogger or other platform posts, comments and tags
• Cool plugins
• Don’t like your blog name anymore? Change it easily in WP, unlike Blogger where you are stuck with the url - remember when it says “choose your name carefully”?
• Easy user interface
• No annoying word verification thingy like blogger
• Have your own domain - unlike http://coloradoartstudio.blogspot.com (yeah it’s a vanity thing)

Cons:

• I haven’t really found any so far. You really need to use the hosted version to implement a lot of the cool customization aspects of Wordpress.
• That costs money
• A wordpress.com hosted site doesn’t allow javascript widgets - but the self hosted one does.
• A hosted wordpress account at wordpress.com has a limited amount of themes unless you buy some of the extras.
• You have to be comfortable mucking around with computer and tech stuff that makes other people hesitate.

I considered other blogging platforms after realizing that blogger just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I knew there was something else out there and went in search. Some candidates were vox, typepad, movable type, serendipity - but when it came right down to it, I liked wordpress the best. I signed up for accounts with most of these companies and gave them a test whirl before deciding on hosting my blog.

Moving anywhere, including somewhere else in cyberspace is hard work. My advice to anyone contemplating the same is to think wisely and be prepared to invest time and patience into the endeavor. I don’t want to reveal the link yet to my new blog since I haven’t decided whether or not to host my own wordpress blog, or to use the infinitely easier and user friendly one on wordpress.com site. I would hate to have everyone update their links, only to move again.

I currently have both types of blogs set up - but am wrestling with all types of code issues on my hosted site trying to make it look just right. I thought I was pretty savvy, but it turns out I have a lot to learn.

Having a wordpress.com site is very easy and intuitive - but the obsessive compulsive person inside of me wants to host my own blog. Hmm… what to do, what to do? I have a busy week coming up, so I’m going to delay the reveal until later this week when I can devote more time to the project. Maybe Wordpress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson will help me.

Right now, I have to get into the studio and throw some pieces to include in the Guild’s free gas firing next weekend since I’ve pretty much neglected everything else for the past week while obsessing over my new website and blog. The guild is having an in house workshop on how to fire their new gas car kiln. Since I’ve only fired electric kilns, it’s a lesson I don’t want to miss. Gas firing opens up a whole new world in ceramics.

Meanwhile, I haven’t forgotten about anyone and have been checking in - though maybe not commenting. I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled life soon.

Until then, toodles