Upgrading WordPress
This post is just an fyi: I am upgrading my blogging software from WordPress 2.0 to 2.1. I am hoping it won’t break my theme, but if you notice any funkiness about my site, it’s probably because the upgrade went terribly wrong.
WordPress 2.1 has some great new features, and I am looking forward to getting some blogging done with it. It has a Post Autosave feature, which will come in very handy for me. I’ve lost many, many posts due to accidental navigation away from the page and browser crashes.
2.1 also has a tabbed editor for easy switching between the WYSIWYG editor and the code editor. Hopefully, I won’t have to spend as much time in the code as in the past, though. 2.1 supposedly fixes many of the HTML bugs that forced me to visit the code editor after publishing a post and seeing how it was displaying.
I also rather like this feature, though I am not sure yet whether I will use it:
“New search engine privacy option allows you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.”
I’ve become more aware of my own privacy needs lately, due to this blog being associated with my real-life name. The names of people from my past that I’d prefer never to hear from again were turning up in my email inbox. As a result, I’ve had to lower my profile by removing any mention of my real name from the site, and I’ve changed the names of real people I have mentioned in blog posts.
I know it’s naive, but I write this blog thinking I am speaking to a select group of friends, but in fact I have more visitors than I know about, many of whom I’d rather not hear from.
Upgrade Update: the upgrade went fairly smoothly, except for a database error I am getting in my sidebar. I suspect the problem is with some customization of the code in my theme. I seem to remember tinkering with the code to display my Blogroll links in a different order than was customary. But it’s been a couple years now. I’ll figure it out eventually.
By the way, i really like the new features. I am still not sure whether I will go “private” or not, though. Despite the risks, it seems antithetical to the purpose of a blog to make it inaccessible to Google and other search engines. Any opinions on the subject from my readers?
4 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Probably should e-mail you separately on this, but I do think the whole point of a blog is to share with more people than just your blog friends.
Besides, you are an intelligent writer, and your political blogging is also very good.
Don’t worry so much. Make it harder to find your name, perhaps. That’s about the extent of it.
Comment by Mel B. — Thursday, 1 March 2007 @ 5:40 pm
I agree with you, essentially. I took some measures to remove my name from this blog, and they seem to have paid off. I googled my name yesterday and this blog no longer comes up (at least not as a top hit) when searching on my name. So that’s a good thing.
Also, I am going back to sites like flickr and removing my real name from those accounts, as well.
It’s ironic how easy it is to find someone online, however. We create all these aliases and avatars for ourselves, but in reality, the mask is pretty thin.
Comment by greypilgrim — Friday, 2 March 2007 @ 9:01 am
I hope you don’t go completely private. I don’t know you “in real life”, but I always appreciate reading your posts.
Shoot, I comment here more than anywhere on the web these days.
Comment by Step — Saturday, 3 March 2007 @ 9:33 pm
The privacy option does nothing more than prevents the site from being indexed by Google. It is a valuable feature, I think, for those people who (for example) might not want an employer to be able to find one’s blog. But I have decided not to use it. By taking my name off the blog, I’ve effectively done the same thing. Google no longer returns this blog as a result when searching on my name.
I still need to track down all the sites I’ve registered at and included this blog in the personal information part of the registration. Google still returns hits for my name that would lead a searcher to this blog, with only a few more clicks past the search results page.
Comment by greypilgrim — Monday, 5 March 2007 @ 8:52 am