Munuviana

October 31, 2004

Lost Children

If you posted a post just recently and it's not there now, it probably got left behind in the move. That doesn't mean it's gone; just a little lost.

Let me know and I can dig it out from the old server for you.

If you have a mailing list or some other thingy set up in CPanel, and it didn't come along for the ride, you can get to your CPanel account on the old server by going to http://old.mu.nu:2082/ and logging in with your normal CPanel login and password. I'm not sure whether that will help you much, so give me a yell if you need a hand getting something moved.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Burp

Okay, I've visited every MuNu blog and forum, and left comments on most of them, and everything seems to be working except for USURP, which I will fix. (And Nick's mailing list, which I'll have to retrieve from the old server.)

Wups! And Lemurgirl's borked too. Have to fix that,

If you have any problems, do let me know, and I will jump on them and ~~tear them into tiny pieces~~ fix them ASAP.

I'm going to take a little nap, and then I'll be back.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:44 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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YOUCH!!

What happened to my post. I just posted something to my website and it isn't showing up. Then I posted something on that and it didn't show up. I've two posts listed in my entry that aren't appearing, at least to me. I have saved and rebuilt. Is something else happening? Thanks,

Posted by: Rachel Ann at 07:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Moving, Like, Right Now!

We're moving to the new server right this moment. I've disabled comments with a friendly message.

See you all in a couple of hours!

...

Update: Make that five hours. Erk.

I think it's done, though. Let's see if this posts...

Update: Yes! :)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:12 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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October 29, 2004

Monkeys Again!!

Yes, the monkeys struck again, but at least this time they didn't break anything, and I have the server set so that everything comes back up cleanly. (Which it should do in any case, but doesn't...)

Bah.

Anyway, we'll be moving tomorrow (Sunday) as planned.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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October 28, 2004

The Muuuve

The Muve is on!

This Sunday, 31st October, starting at 1AM GMT.

The move should take less than an hour, but there's an issue with DNS catching up to where we've gone, which may take a bit longer. I can mitigate that, but because DNS is distributed I don't have complete control over it.

And then... No more monkeys!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Munuvians are now Google News Source

Hey folks, a couple of you might have heard about my campaign to add The Jawa Report (formerly My Pet Jawa) to Google News as a source. I figured if Kos was 'news' than so was half the crap I write--and I guess from time to time I do actually break a story.

Anyway, Google added me a couple of days ago. The side-benefit for all of you is that it looks like they added the entire mu.nu extension instead of just my blog. I hope you won't get too irritated if all of your blogs show up on Google News as "The Jawa Report", but at least this might increase traffic some. Simon reports that he's already showing up for a post he did on the Japanese hostage on Google News. I would say don't expect a landslide of hits, but if you do commentary on current events you might be pleasently surprised with the sitemeter.

This also shows the power and the future of blogs. A number of blogs have broken stories and others, like mine, have been used by the MSM as sources (plagiarism I call it!!) for their stories for quite some time. Now let's get out their and put Dan Rather to shame!

Posted by: Rusty at 02:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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MuNu Is On The Muve (Again)

Due to our formerly reliable hosting provider being taken over by a bunch of illiterate fucking monkeys whose idea of a good time is to wait until I've gone to bed and then reboot the server and to break something new and exciting each time*, we will be moving to our new server this weekend.**

There will be a little bit of downtime, but it should be rather less than we've had from any one of the recent monkey-related incidents.

Now I just have to work out how to do it... I actually have everything on the new server already, but Fantastico and your individual CPanel accounts aren't configured yet.

In the meantime, I now understand how Frank J feels. Goddam monkeys!

Update: The CPanel account transfer thingy seems to work, so that part is easy. Now I just have to configure Fantastico on the new box, and plan things so that downtime is minimised. I'll post an exact time for the move here shortly. During the move, posting and comments will be disabled, but your blogs will at least be readable.

Update: Fantastico is configured now! Yay! Now I just have to, um, do some work. ;)

* And adding to the joy this morning, some sort of network problem meant I couldn't even reach the server to fix it.

** The monkeys are our new hosting company are extremely laid back and if the server goes down they'll send me an email once they finish their banana. They wouldn't even think of getting out of their comfy chairs to screw up a server.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:08 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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My site was down for most of the day. Was anyone else's? Are things all better now?

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 12:17 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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October 26, 2004

Sad/Happy

I'm feeling a little schizophrenic, but I wanted to let you all know I've transferred my hosting of margilowry-dot-com to Blogs-About Hosting.

This in NO WAY is reflective of the kindness shown to me by The Reverend Pixy and the rest of the Munuvian Tribe; not at all. I love you all and I hope to be considered an Honorary Munuvian. (The transfer will take approximately 5 to 7 days, so I mean after THAT. LOL)

No, it's so that I can no longer be accused of "crying poverty" when, in fact, I never did such a thing.

So this is not a farewell, just a "So long and thanks for all the fish!"

Love,
Margi
a/k/a Miss Apropos

Posted by: Miss Apropos at 03:37 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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October 25, 2004

Help! Weird Image Disappearing Act

Hello,

Got a quick question. I am using Advanced Poll on my website, and have for some reason lost all the images inside the folder, and elsewhere related to it. The path hasn't changed and it has been like this for a few weeks. I can't figure it out. I installed it from Fantistico on Cpanel. Any Web Gurus know what's up?

Also, any news on Munu getting Expression Engine or MT 3?

Posted by: Nick Queen at 10:43 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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October 24, 2004

Time To Build

Hi kids.

As suggested by Paul, I've renamed the comments script here at MuNu. For this to take effect, though, everyone needs to rebuild their blog. Just click on the "Rebuild Site" button; it only takes a couple of minutes. Then leave a note here to let me know.

Any new posts will automatically use the new script, so if I turn off the old script in, say, a week's time, that will have the same effect as turning off comments to older posts (at least until you rebuild).

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:29 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment
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October 23, 2004

Latest Blacklist Angst

Apparently Kate from Small Dead Animals can't leave the name of her blog in the comments on my own blog. I figure either "dead" or "animals" is the problem. I'd check, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to enter the Blacklist Zone. Let me know if you find the offending word, or if you'd like me to brave the Blacklist myself.

Posted by: Attila at 06:55 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Closing The Old Doors?

I understand that it's possible to put script into the server that will close comments on old posts, but it would have to be done Munu wide. I don't know about anyone else, but I have had to close all my old posts, and in fact, even have to keep them closed from up to the past 7 days-I get hit by spam comments constantly, sometimes to the tune of 300 a day.

I now notice that old Munu posts are getting them, so I have been closing my old posts on Munuviana.

Please-can we please consider as a group, the function of closing old posts?

-H

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 05:54 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 In the past we were discussing two weeks, which I absolutely think would be a good idea. I might be agreeable to one week, though this could require a little thought.

But could we implement the two week rule right away and see if it helps?

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 23, 2004 06:44 PM (SuJa4)

2 I agree. I wouldn't mind closing commments older than two weeks. I don't know about 1 week since I sometimes have legit comments after that period. But two weeks, that would work for me.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at October 23, 2004 09:09 PM (fj3tO)

3 I've deleted over a thousand spams from munu in the past two days.

Y'know, I think this might be a good idea.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 24, 2004 12:17 AM (+S1Ft)

4 Pixy: Here are some links to some stuff from the MT Support Forum

David Raynes

php Script

MTCloseComments

Last One

Posted by: Madfish Willie at October 24, 2004 02:33 AM (usnuR)

5 I lied... One more

Posted by: Madfish Willie at October 24, 2004 02:34 AM (usnuR)

6 Pixy;

Please rename the comments script?! It's such a quick, simple first step with no negative ramifications and the potential to make an instant difference.

As far as closing comments after a period of time, by far the most elegant solution I've been able to find is Mt-Close2

It allows per blog settings so individuals can select what interval works best for them, allows closing of trackbacks as well as comments, gives a great deal of control over which posts are closed, has built-in capability for re-opening comments, and allows for the use of automatically inserted text to inform the reader that comments have been closed, and how to use an alternative method if they still wish to comment.

Given the variety of users at muNu, I really think a solution which allows for individual choice of settings would be very beneficial.

I've been in touch with the author, and he indicates it will work with MuNu's multiblog setup, and with our mySql backend.

Whatever solution is implemented, it must include some way of making clear to commenters that the comments have been closed before they begin writing their comment. I've come across a number of situations where I've written the whole comment & posted it, only to then finally get an error saying comments have been closed. Not satisfactory.

Posted by: Light & Dark at October 24, 2004 05:44 AM (eT6wp)

7 Paul, I'm happy to rename the comments script, but it does require everyone to rebuild their blog for it to take effect.

So what I've done is made a copy under a new name, and once everyone has rebuilt, I can remove the old one. I'll start with Munuviana and Ambient Irony so I can gauge the effectiveness.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 24, 2004 02:20 PM (+S1Ft)

8 Test of new comments script...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 24, 2004 02:20 PM (+S1Ft)

9 Well, at least it works

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 24, 2004 02:20 PM (+S1Ft)

10 One big problem with MT-Close2: It gives everyone access to every blog. Only to close/open comments, but still...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 24, 2004 02:40 PM (+S1Ft)

11 Well crap. I knew there was bound to be fly in that ointment somewhere.

** Cranium smokin' to try to come up with a workaround.**

Paul

Posted by: Light & Dark at October 25, 2004 01:40 AM (eT6wp)

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October 22, 2004

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

Many thanks to the hard-working tech support guys at our hosting provider, who logged into the server overnight to do some inessential maintenance and COMPLETELY SCREWED EVERYTHING UP!!!!!

It should all be working now. I'm really sorry about this, folks. I'll work this weekend on getting the new box set up, which is hosted at a place where they don't login to your server and screw things up. (Not because they're smarter or anything, just because they don't do that.)

And I'm really late for work, so I have to run. If you have any problems, you can reach me at andrewm -at- teleone -dot- com -dot- au for the next few hours.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:09 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 You poor, poor thing. I actually had visions of you (even though I have no idea what you look like, exactly -- but in my mind I picture a thinner, cuter Santa Claus) running around pulling on your hair and screaming.

Please let me send money? Pwease?

Posted by: Margi at October 22, 2004 01:11 AM (MAdsZ)

2 I'm with Margi *grin* I've worked with computers long enough to have visions of disaster and you with your hair standing straight up (what would be left of it!).

Deep breath now - at least for the moment - the worst is over. ~~~~~ soothing vibes headed your way.

Posted by: Teresa at October 22, 2004 01:20 AM (nAfYo)

3 Andrew, thanks for ever'thin'. I was sure it was not your fault when I emailed, I was jes' not sure if you had any idea 'bout the incident. I am back up 'though now ever'thin' I wanted to say I have either forgotten or OTB/WizBang!/A Small Victory have already covered. Actually, I spent most of today "hand editin'" my manuscript. It is the first time I have actually done that, and was surprised at how many petty things I found while actually readin' my own damned book. It is gonna be a blockbuster, I think.

Posted by: Tiger at October 22, 2004 01:50 AM (G5PGV)

4 Pixy - If you won't put out the tip jar, at least tell me the cost of a 6-pack of your favorite barley and hops based beverage.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at October 22, 2004 02:39 AM (U3CvV)

5 Dearest Pixy, I wish you much chocolate!

Posted by: Susie at October 22, 2004 03:28 AM (JR8Lf)

6 Hey, a guilt-free day of no posting...it's not such a bad thing now and then. ;-)

Posted by: Jennifer at October 22, 2004 04:35 AM (GhlR6)

7 This is another good reason to live on this side of the planet. These things happen while you sleep...of course that it happens the same day I got linked by both Andrew Sullivan and Real Clear Politics means about 1 billion blog readers missed out on visiting. But I'm not bitter. Yes, sure I will hunt down the techy geek who screwed with our server and make him rue the day he dared meddle with Munu, but I'm not bitter.

Posted by: Simon at October 22, 2004 06:16 AM (FUPxT)

8 I am with you Jennifer. I needed the vactaion.

Glad it is back and working. Thanks for all your hard work Pixy.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at October 22, 2004 06:17 AM (OLtxi)

9 I too was grateful for the time off. My hands needed that break.

Actually, I felt terrible for Pixy knowing the mayhem that would ensue having all those sights out. A few of us munuvians actually emailed each other to check in and say hi rather than having a comment conversation.

I wish you a quick and full restoration and several quiet months ahead!

P. S. And in joining with the others, I think you deserve both a 6-pack and some chocolates. If I knew your address I'd ship some to you. So instead I'll send warm, fuzzy, bubbly, chocolaty thoughts.

Posted by: Michele at October 22, 2004 02:46 PM (UHi7p)

10 I too worried more about Pixy yesterday than whatever techie thingy was troubling Munuviana, and hope he knows just how much we all appreciate his care for this wonderful community of bloggers.

Thank you, Pixy.

Posted by: Debbye at October 22, 2004 04:23 PM (QrHDi)

11 When I critiqued one such provider, he used some small print in the contract to stop service. Nearly a year later, I repeatedly received emails from him reminding me to renew my subscription.

The arrogance of some of the wannabe technocrats seems to be boundless.

Posted by: jcwinnie at October 22, 2004 05:23 PM (EtlQT)

12 Don't have any beer or cash to offer ya, but I've got lots of roasted beets! Do ya like beets? I've got beets.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at October 23, 2004 02:34 AM (N56X0)

13 I'd just like to add my sympathies and thanks to you for doing such a great job, Pixie. Maybe Simon could head back down to Oz and buy you some more fried rice in a pineapple...

Tuning Spork, OTOH, must hate you or something. Beets, indeed!

Posted by: Victor at October 23, 2004 04:30 AM (etHvD)

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October 20, 2004

Help With Authors

I'm trying to set up guest bloggers to do their blogging thing, but I don't know how to change their name, once I've set it up, or how to delete a superfluous author.

Thoughts? Suggestinos? Ideas?

Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at 05:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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MT Blacklist Conundrum

Here's an interesting Blacklist problem. I just attempted to leave a comment on my blog - Hold the Mayo - in response to another comment. In my comment I referred to John Kerry's thinly disguised socialism.

The problem is someone has blacklisted Cialis. Now I have gotten enough spam to know that blacklisting cialis is a perfectly sensible thing to do.

I also know next to nothing about the function of the blacklist. Is it possible to assign exceptions to a blacklisted word to cover a circumstance such as this?

I did find a work-around that will work for the site author only. Post your comment without the offending word or misspelling it. Then go into the entry page and edit the comment. Editing the comment apparently bypasses the blacklist.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 04:17 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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October 19, 2004

Web-site help

I am writing a web-site for my Masonic Lodge, and I was wondering if you'd all give it a look and tell me what you think. It's pretty basic. I am not much into Eye candy. I believe in simple text based web-sites. As far as I'm concerned it's still 1996 as far as HTML pages go.

hehe.

Take A Look

Posted by: Tom Bux at 01:05 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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October 16, 2004

I hate Bob

I don't even know Bob but I hate bob. I have a feeling I am not alone in hating bob. I know at least one other blogger who hates bob as well. Bob is lucky I don't know him or I might make the papers for wacking him upside the head with a 2x4. In any case, I have deleted his posts, banned his ip addy etc etc, and he keeps coming back.

Short of hiring a hit man how can I can I make sure this guy never shows up on my blog again.

I know it has something to do with blacklist, but I don't want to go messing there, or people will be wanting to hit me upside the head with a 2x4.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at 05:25 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Rachel: Try this link and this link for information on how to work blacklist

FYI: You can use the search thingy over in the sidebar to search across all the MuNu blogs for answers to questions such as these. Most of your answers will be under MuNuviana, but the blogs themselves will sometimes have good technical information.

Posted by: Madfish Willie at October 16, 2004 07:43 PM (iCGe/)

2 Rachel Ann, if there's a determined human out to f*ck with you, there's almost nothing that automated technology can do to stop them, unfortunately.

Blacklist needs something that is completely consistent from one crap comment to the next, in order to function as either a pre-emptive blocker, or an after-the-fact removal tool. Also, that element common to all crap comments must be very unlikely to occur in a real comment, or real comments will get clobbered as well. (Things like names, or common phrases used are risky.)

If you can post or point us to examples of some of the crap, we be able to help find a way to protect you. In particular, depending on the content of the messages, ISP's can sometimes be involved to shut them down.

Let's at least take a shot at him.

Paul

Posted by: Light & Dark at October 17, 2004 06:16 AM (eT6wp)

3 Hi Madfish, and thank you. I've done the blacklist thing as far as I'm able. I didn't want to add urls and such to the list because I don't want to create a problem with blacklist.

Paul, this guy changes his ip frequently. I have him banned several times in my list. I then erase the comment. I can't get into my g-mail now, to give the last comment (I've spam banned him there too!) but when I can I'll post the comment and all other info later.

He generally goes into the old stuff, so I'm slowly closing comments on all posts older than a month. Is there a way to do this quickly? Helen, I know you mentioned something about it.

His spam goes from the just annoying to yuck; he usually doesn't make more than one or two comments a day but they add up and I'm tired of him.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at October 17, 2004 07:29 AM (oW3zc)

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October 15, 2004

A Munuvian (Me) in the News!

On Tuesday I was interviewed about liveblogging by James Hebert who writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. This morning the article is up, and Mr. Hebert has done a great job with the subject:

Sometimes serious and substantive, sometimes as snarky as the hecklers in a ballpark's bleachers, the liveblog is an offshoot of blogging (or Internet journaling) that harnesses the instantaneity of the Internet to offer real-time commentary on live events.

Whatever else they are, on Wednesday night the liveblogs were almost invariably more entertaining than the actual event – and they often served as a satisfying stand-in for debate viewers' own frustrations.

Go by and read the story!

Posted by: Nick Queen at 04:10 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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