Migration to Movable Type
Okay, foxfirefey asked me to review Movable Type blogs, since I've been running one for the past few years. (deardonut.com, sorry for the plug.) I'm certianly no expert, but I've done a little googling and I've tried to answer most of the basic questions.
With MT, it's important to note the difference between the free version and various paid versions. Because even if you have the free version, you still have to pay for a webhost. I have a very cheap webhost ($15/year, and that deal is no longer available, sorry), so it was worth it to me to keep my blog on my own server and do the whole free install myself. But it was HARD.
Like, I'm not super tech-savvy, but I did teach myself html and css from scratch in a couple of months. Even so, I found the MT install very frustrating and confusing, though eventually I figured it out.
But if you're going to have to pay $15-$30 a month for a webhost anyway, you might be better off going with one of the hosting partners. The yahoo deal looks pretty sweet -- $8 a month for hosting plus MT install and management. I'm not sure if there are hidden fees there, but if not, that's a small price to pay for avoiding the hassle of installing yourself.
Of course, that only gets you the very basic MT, no bells and whistles. If you want to recreate your LJ experience, with friends-only entries, imported archives, threaded comments, etc., you'll have to use a bunch of plugins and scripts, and I don't know if Yahoo will handle that or not.
1. The ability to import a Livejournal--with/without comments.
I think the answer to this question may be found here, although I can't figure it out. Am I a moron? I can always understand LJ's FAQ, and most other sites as well, but everything on the MT site makes me feel like I'm back in college, reading a grad-level text and scratching my head.
I *think* they are saying you can import entries from other blogs, including comments. Exactly *how* you do this... maybe someone more tech savvy than I am can figure it out. In any case, it doesn't look simple, but maybe that's just me being an idiot.
Aha! Google handed me this very useful page, which is much more user-friendly. So yes, it can be done, but you need to be able to work with Perl, which I don't think is a given for everyone on LJ. Oh and, not sure this script includes comments. I suspect it doesn't. It's also worth noting that it will display all your FO and private entries publicly.
2. Threaded comments.
Nope. But there's a plug-in.
3. Comment notification.
Uh. In theory, yes: there's a box you can click to send you notifications when you get comments. In practice, it works... most of the time.
4. OpenID support.
There's a plug-in.
5. Style customization--how is it done, etc.
It's fairly easy to customize the style using the style sheet template that comes with MT. Assuming you know how to work with CSS, which is hardly a given for most LJ-ers. There are a bunch of standard styles you can choose from (more or less like LJ), and then you can modify as needed. Modifications on LJ aren't so simple either, if you want to do anything complicated, so I'd say it's about comparable.
6. The ability to make "friended" entries.
Here is some script you can insert that will allow you to password protect certain entries. Eek, looks a bit daunting.
7. Integration with other website management tools--plugins for gallery management, etc.
Not quite sure what you're looking for here.
8. Ease of use. How do you sign up/install; how does it run.
Um. I'm afraid I'm going to look like an idiot here, but I found it kind of hard and very frustrating. LJ takes, what, maybe 15 seconds to open a new account and set it up how you like? 15 minutes at most. MT took me a very stressful week. Once I'd figured it out the first time, I was able to do another set up for my husband in about an hour.
Basically, you have to download a bunch of files from the MT site and then upload them to your own site. Fairly simple, right? Well, not to a n00b. Here is MT's own user manual for installation. Actually, that's just the table of contents. If you're already familiar with things like Perl, CGI, and PHP, it shouldn't be too difficult. But if you're not...
9. If it's host your own, what are the server requirements? Do you know of or have experience with reliable webhosts capable of running the software? (No referrals, please.) If it's another service, how does it run differently from LJ? What are the advantages?
You have to have Perl on your server... I think that's it. My webhost had it, and also had tons of other users with MT blogs, so it was pretty easy to get help setting it up. Although let me say, the people on my webhost's forums (mostly just users) were A THOUSAND times nicer and more helpful then the people who hang out on MT's user forums. I don't know what's wrong with those people. But I also have a really cool webhost (well, until recently when they were bought out. It's actually a very similar story to LJ --> 6A)
I think all webhosts these days should be able to run MT blogs, except maybe freehosts like geocities etc.
10. Capacity for multiple blogs.
Unlimited blogs, even with the free version.
11. Open Source or proprietary? If proprietary, what's the cost?
Not open source. The pricing structure is kind of weird. You can get a free download if you're willing to be completely unsupported, and do all the dirty work yourself. For $70, you get support and I think they'll install it for you, but you'll still have to pay for upgrades and for your own webhost. To me that seems like highway robbery, but what do I know?
12. Does it do Trackback or Pingback?
Yup, both. Although I always get error messages with my pingbacks, not sure why.
13. Does it do spam filtering for comments? (Ick, ick, ick!)
Erm. Yes, there are a million and a half plugins to deal with this problem, but I don't know that any of them are perfect. And waking up in the morning to find 800 penis ads on your site is really upsetting, especially since you used to have to delete them one by one. Seriously. They've improved the deletion process a LOT with the recent upgrade, so that's less of a problem.
The solution that works for me is a plug-in that allows me to close all comments more than 5 days old. This means no one can comment on my old entries, but that rarely happens anyway, and it's a small price to pay to avoid a gazillion spam messages. Spam occasionally shows up on my recent entries, but it's much more manageable.
14. RSS and/or Atom feeds?
Yes.
15. Ad status. Do they put ads on your blog? What are they like? Can you run your own?
No ads, and yes you can run your own. You can run Google ads (I think) and adsense without losing the right to run a free blog, but any more extensive ads and you run the risk of being considered a business. (Which means paying for a license)
16. Do they have a tagging system? How does it work?
MT has catagories, which is basically the same thing.
17. Support for multiple users?
Not with the free version.
Ask me any questions, I'll do my best! Or better yet, correct my errors.
With MT, it's important to note the difference between the free version and various paid versions. Because even if you have the free version, you still have to pay for a webhost. I have a very cheap webhost ($15/year, and that deal is no longer available, sorry), so it was worth it to me to keep my blog on my own server and do the whole free install myself. But it was HARD.
Like, I'm not super tech-savvy, but I did teach myself html and css from scratch in a couple of months. Even so, I found the MT install very frustrating and confusing, though eventually I figured it out.
But if you're going to have to pay $15-$30 a month for a webhost anyway, you might be better off going with one of the hosting partners. The yahoo deal looks pretty sweet -- $8 a month for hosting plus MT install and management. I'm not sure if there are hidden fees there, but if not, that's a small price to pay for avoiding the hassle of installing yourself.
Of course, that only gets you the very basic MT, no bells and whistles. If you want to recreate your LJ experience, with friends-only entries, imported archives, threaded comments, etc., you'll have to use a bunch of plugins and scripts, and I don't know if Yahoo will handle that or not.
1. The ability to import a Livejournal--with/without comments.
I think the answer to this question may be found here, although I can't figure it out. Am I a moron? I can always understand LJ's FAQ, and most other sites as well, but everything on the MT site makes me feel like I'm back in college, reading a grad-level text and scratching my head.
I *think* they are saying you can import entries from other blogs, including comments. Exactly *how* you do this... maybe someone more tech savvy than I am can figure it out. In any case, it doesn't look simple, but maybe that's just me being an idiot.
Aha! Google handed me this very useful page, which is much more user-friendly. So yes, it can be done, but you need to be able to work with Perl, which I don't think is a given for everyone on LJ. Oh and, not sure this script includes comments. I suspect it doesn't. It's also worth noting that it will display all your FO and private entries publicly.
2. Threaded comments.
Nope. But there's a plug-in.
3. Comment notification.
Uh. In theory, yes: there's a box you can click to send you notifications when you get comments. In practice, it works... most of the time.
4. OpenID support.
There's a plug-in.
5. Style customization--how is it done, etc.
It's fairly easy to customize the style using the style sheet template that comes with MT. Assuming you know how to work with CSS, which is hardly a given for most LJ-ers. There are a bunch of standard styles you can choose from (more or less like LJ), and then you can modify as needed. Modifications on LJ aren't so simple either, if you want to do anything complicated, so I'd say it's about comparable.
6. The ability to make "friended" entries.
Here is some script you can insert that will allow you to password protect certain entries. Eek, looks a bit daunting.
7. Integration with other website management tools--plugins for gallery management, etc.
Not quite sure what you're looking for here.
8. Ease of use. How do you sign up/install; how does it run.
Um. I'm afraid I'm going to look like an idiot here, but I found it kind of hard and very frustrating. LJ takes, what, maybe 15 seconds to open a new account and set it up how you like? 15 minutes at most. MT took me a very stressful week. Once I'd figured it out the first time, I was able to do another set up for my husband in about an hour.
Basically, you have to download a bunch of files from the MT site and then upload them to your own site. Fairly simple, right? Well, not to a n00b. Here is MT's own user manual for installation. Actually, that's just the table of contents. If you're already familiar with things like Perl, CGI, and PHP, it shouldn't be too difficult. But if you're not...
9. If it's host your own, what are the server requirements? Do you know of or have experience with reliable webhosts capable of running the software? (No referrals, please.) If it's another service, how does it run differently from LJ? What are the advantages?
You have to have Perl on your server... I think that's it. My webhost had it, and also had tons of other users with MT blogs, so it was pretty easy to get help setting it up. Although let me say, the people on my webhost's forums (mostly just users) were A THOUSAND times nicer and more helpful then the people who hang out on MT's user forums. I don't know what's wrong with those people. But I also have a really cool webhost (well, until recently when they were bought out. It's actually a very similar story to LJ --> 6A)
I think all webhosts these days should be able to run MT blogs, except maybe freehosts like geocities etc.
10. Capacity for multiple blogs.
Unlimited blogs, even with the free version.
11. Open Source or proprietary? If proprietary, what's the cost?
Not open source. The pricing structure is kind of weird. You can get a free download if you're willing to be completely unsupported, and do all the dirty work yourself. For $70, you get support and I think they'll install it for you, but you'll still have to pay for upgrades and for your own webhost. To me that seems like highway robbery, but what do I know?
12. Does it do Trackback or Pingback?
Yup, both. Although I always get error messages with my pingbacks, not sure why.
13. Does it do spam filtering for comments? (Ick, ick, ick!)
Erm. Yes, there are a million and a half plugins to deal with this problem, but I don't know that any of them are perfect. And waking up in the morning to find 800 penis ads on your site is really upsetting, especially since you used to have to delete them one by one. Seriously. They've improved the deletion process a LOT with the recent upgrade, so that's less of a problem.
The solution that works for me is a plug-in that allows me to close all comments more than 5 days old. This means no one can comment on my old entries, but that rarely happens anyway, and it's a small price to pay to avoid a gazillion spam messages. Spam occasionally shows up on my recent entries, but it's much more manageable.
14. RSS and/or Atom feeds?
Yes.
15. Ad status. Do they put ads on your blog? What are they like? Can you run your own?
No ads, and yes you can run your own. You can run Google ads (I think) and adsense without losing the right to run a free blog, but any more extensive ads and you run the risk of being considered a business. (Which means paying for a license)
16. Do they have a tagging system? How does it work?
MT has catagories, which is basically the same thing.
17. Support for multiple users?
Not with the free version.
Ask me any questions, I'll do my best! Or better yet, correct my errors.