I will keep this short for now, as the transition took a whole bunch more hours than I had hoped. Best laid plans and all, but…
As you are probably noticing by now, we have FINALLY been able to upgrade our 20+ year old WordPress site to the latest version. I’ve been working on it for the better part of the last year or so, after being unable (for reasons I’ll explain when I’m less exhausted) to actually update it.
Long story short for tonight (this morning): Thanks to some indefatigable persistence from a few folks — a team of geniuses, really — I was able to redesign the site from the ground up, and they were able to use a bunch of magic tricks to make a 20-year old database work two decades later with the latest version of WordPress.
I don’t have enough energy — or pixels — tonight to express my gratitude to Greg, Naomi, Debs, and Chris for helping to make this all possible. Without their tireless efforts, this never would have happened.
I’ve still got a ToDo list as long as my arm. Lots of features, fixes, tweets and cupholders. But, the basic design is now in place. Until I decide to rebuild it again. It won’t take 20 years this time. In addition to my ToDo list, I suspect ya’ll will find lots of problems and have plenty of suggestions for improvement. I welcome it all!
The best news, perhaps, is that you can easily and quickly leave them in Comments! Which are now MUCH easier to use, and include nested comments and more. Check it out below and let me know how it all works.
Also: the entire site should now be mobile and tablet friendly as well! FINALLY!
Also, also: be sure and hit that SEARCH button up in the header, for insight into our 22 years of trouble-making and muckraking that were NEVER available on the old site, in our old format!
Also, also, also: CHECK OUT the new media players in BradCast and Green News Report items! They are REALLY cool. Also, built from the ground up!
More later, I am sure. But, for tonight…that’ll do it. Please let me know where I screwed up and/or where I didn’t! Have been really looking forward to this day for a very long time. And now…I may end up sleeping through much of it.
See ya soon! Thanks to all of you who have donated to help us get here and have supported our work for so long! And thanks for your years of patience! 🙂
Well, I built this comment system! (Yes, with some help from my new friend Claude, but still)…seems like I should be among the first to leave a comment with it. 🙂
And, now that I have, I realize we need a nifty tool bar above the comment entry box, for italics, bold, links, etc. Also coming soon, I hope! 🙂
Looks good :).
Good job! I had rediscovered your blog recently and was struck by how it looked unchanged from my first visits, figured it was an issue of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
My own blog is more or less up to date but have to speak to my in-house technical assistant about upgrading PHP.
I’ve been stymied recently about leaving comments (grrr Disqus) so let’s see how this goes…
It appears to have gone just fine, as far as I can tell! 🙂
Problem was (among many), the old software was WILDLY insecure, no matter how many safeguards we put around it. That’s just one of the reasons the site became unreachable and unstable so frequently in recent years. Hopefully, no more! (Famous last words, right?) 🙂
There’s also the Hardened PHP project (part of CloudLinux) which backports fixes from newer versions of PHP into older ones – for situations where one can’t upgrade to the latest and greatest – but doesn’t want to get hacked all the time :).
Oh… NOW you tell me! 😉
It’s not quite what you think – it’s not an excuse to leave old software laying around.
Well done.
Yep – big round of applause for Brad and crew :).
Hello✋️
Love it! Much easier on the eyes. Great job!
Thank you both for all the great info and insight you provide to the world.
And thanks backatcha, Charlie!
Bravo, Brad! I second Charlie’s comments. It’s invitingly easy on the eyes!
Stopped by for the Sunday comics, Brad, and got hit with your new look. Nice and clean and easy to read. Also like the thirty-second jumper on the Bradcast.
That’s to jump BACK, right, Rick? I KNOW you’re not jumping forward to SKIP anything! Right, Rick? 😉
Okay. I’ve just added a toolbar to the Comment box, which might come in useful for folks? If not,
go to helllet me know!I don’t know. Any way you can switch back to the old one?
(Just joking. It is fantastic. Worth all the work!)
😂🙏🏻
New site version . . .
Good.
Comment icons fulfilled by… Just curiosity
??
Hey, so it actually happened!
The comment section is much better on the phone now. Before I couldn’t see the whole comment before posting without scrolling around.
Nice!
Thanks, Larry! And, I know, I still need to figure out your issue with that Dark Mode addon. Trying to get there!
wowsers! great look, great job. hugs to you and desi.
Thx, Natalie! Hugs accepted!