Well, it seemed like just about that time to completely overhaul the site again. Now that Movable Type version 4 has been out for a while, and seems mostly stable, it seemed like a good time to make the switch. Since I’ve basically been cobbling on updates for as long as I’ve been running MT, I figured it was time for a clean install, including using MT4-style templates. So here it is.
The behind-the-scenes stuff, like blog maintenance and entry posting and editing is really quite well put together. And there’s some nifty changes to the “front end,” too.
You may notice the “Sign in” link at the upper left corner. As many of you bloggers know, comment spam got way out of hand in a big hurry a few years back. One of MT’s early solutions was to institute authentication using their “Typekey” system. I thought that was pretty cool, and my unauthenticated comment spam was getting out of control. This prompted a switch to Typekey, only to have readers and commenters complain about having to sign into Typekey.
So I brought back anonymous comments, but moderated them. Typekey folks got their comments published immediately, but others had to be approved. You can imagine how onerous that became as the comment spammers ran wild. Then a wonderful person put together a CAPTCHA plugin for Movable Type comment forms. CAPTCHA is an authentication system where you’re shown a graphic with random letters and numbers, and you have to type them into a box — the theory is that only a human being can see them, so only a human being could type them in. This allowed the non-Typekey folks to comment without being moderated, and kept the spam out, too.
In the current incarnation of GeoffBrown.net, there are all kinds of options to let people comment at will while keeping spammers at bay. There’s still Typekey, if you have that. But now you can also register for a login and password directly from GeoffBrown.net. And if you don’t like the idea of coming up with yet another username and password, you can also use your LiveJournal login to post here, too (which should be good for the many friends I know who use LiveJournal). You can also use OpenID, if you have that or your Vox login if you have one. Coming soon, you’ll be able to use WordPress to login, or even your AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) login. That should pretty much cover a lot of folks. And for the stubborn among you, you can still post comments without logging in if you fill in your name and email address, and don’t mind filling in that annoying little CAPTCHA box.
And I’ll even be sure to do regular backups, so that I don’t have an unfortunate comment loss again.
I’m still learning about all the new bells and whistles in MT4, so while I’m checking those out, one nevers knows — I might even post a few things more often.
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