I can’t quite remember now on whose blog I had seen this mentioned; I know it can’t have been more than two or perhaps three weeks ago. Anyway, for whoever would need this information: there’s an option, in WordPress 2.0’s beta, that allows you to import posts from Blogger to WordPress. This can be quite useful if you want to move to WP, but cringe at the idea of copying/pasting all your old posts manually. Note that this is what I did, back in February, when I moved by Second Life blog to WordPress… It was terribly boring, I tell you. And I didn’t even have that many posts to start with.

I’ve tested the feature on two old little blogs I had set up a couple years ago for a SWG character that I never got to finish (since I’ve decided to not try the game in the end) and for another MMORPG-related project. The points I’ve been able to note down so far are:

A little dose of news regarding the WordPress platform:

1) WordPress.com goes live, at least for the time being. If there’s anyone in this world who hasn’t an account there yet, you can go and sign up without having to receive an invite first. From Matt Mullenweg’s blog:

We’ve decided to open up WordPress.com for signups without invites for a bit. The service has been scaling very well since we got the problems from the move worked out. With that done and WordPress 2.0 in its final stages, there is a lot more time to focus on some cool features and common requests for WP.com now. (The design there has been updated, but is still just a placeholder.)

2) WordPress 2.0 is in its beta stage now. I haven’t tested it myself yet, although I may do that tonight if I happen to take a break from writing after the “good job” I performed yesterday. From what I’ve seen of it so far at Looce Tech News, the administration panel is the same as the WordPress.com’s one, which isn’t as pleasant as the Tiger panel, but is way better than the old WP interface. If you want to test it as well, head to this page to grab the downloadable archive. Beware, this is still a beta, so as usual with any upgrade, back up your database first!

Y Tags: blogging | wordpress

Via Blogging Pro: if you go to the WordPress.com page, you’ll see the following message: “Want WordPress.com? Then download Flock”. The necessary link to do so is provided, but just for the record, here’s where to find the download page directly. Once you have installed Flock, just click “Getting Started”, right under the standard navigation buttons, and choose “Get yourself a blog”. There, you’ll have access to the WordPress.com, which will take you to asignup page.

Alright, I’m a blogging freak these days, I admit it.

The thing is, as I mentioned some time ago, I have this Wordpress.com account sitting in silence, and I couldn’t decide on what I’d do with it. After having mulled over this during the week-end, I came to the conclusion that I could maybe use it to post about NaNo.

Let’s not be mistaken, I’m not going to post there three times a day, as I want to go on updating regularly here, and during November as well (if I manage to stop playing Might and Magic VI in the evenings for the Nth time, I’ll get more time for this kind of things anyway! Damned be this game for being so addictive). Knowing the way my mind works, I simply foresee that I may find myself wanting to babble about it more than would be healthy for the readers here—it is something specific, after all, and I don’t want to turn this place in a NaNo-only blog in November. By then, I’ll have lots of other topics to post on the Y Logs, too.

Besides, I really just wanted to use my wordpress.com account. Really.

So… Yzabel @ Wordpress.com will thus be used as “my NaNo blog”.

Y Tags: blog | NaNoWriMo | wordpress | writing

I had almost forgotten having entered my e-mail address on wordpress.com for an invite. Today, right out of a far away galaxy, an invite popped in my inbox. And now I’m wondering: “What will I use it for?” There are many, many domains of interest I could want to make a blog about, yet I remain so undecided right now. It’s like a big birthday gift that I don’t dare use yet, in fear of spoiling it.

In any case, I’m giving myself a few days to think about it more and decide what I’ll be blogging about there, if only to test it and see by myself, not only through reviews made by other people. I’m already a big WordPress fan, after all; even though I’m used to having total control over my blogs, this still seems like a nifty opportunity for anyone who’d want to give a try at blogging without having to deal with a much more basic system.

So far, I’ve had a look at the interface, and it seems to me more pleasant to use than the old WordPress dashboard, with an integrated WYSIWYG editor (what we’ll be getting too for WP 1.6?). Far from perfect, but already lss ugly. I know, it may seem shallow, but I like having a nice layout under the eyes when I spend half a hour writing and translating a post. I’m only human, after all, and my eyes can do with the relief.

Y Tags: blogging | wordpress