Something has to be done about the user list at Just Orb. It’s enormous, there have been a bunch of spammers or bots signing up lately (a new exploit going on?), and as usual, one thing leads to another. So here’s what is happening at Just Orb:

I have put a fresh install of the latest Wordpress in my sandbox. I am putting in plugins and looking for new ones. The newest WP has a lot of new functionality. It’s time for a fresh upgrade of my blogging practices as well as my software.

Once I have the background functionality I want, I am going to do a complete redesign of templates and make them work with widgets. Widgets have been out a while now, and I haven’t been using them. It was too much trouble to retro-fit my themes and whatnot.

After I get the sandbox version working and looking the way I would like, I am going to back up my old install and databases at Just Orb and then … delete them and start completely fresh. Won’t that be exciting? It’s been years since I did that.

Now, I am going to try to save some of the user logins. If I recognize your name or email, I am not delete you from the database before exporting the user list. I am sure to miss some people who should not be deleted, so I will apologize in advance for anyone having to sign up again. Really, it’s not anything personal. You might be a lurker, or you might not have commented in a long time, or I know you by another user name elsewhere, so if you find you cannot log in and you should be able to, please, please do sign up again!

Obviously, this is a very long list of things to work on, so there is no way I am going to get it all done in a few days. I just wanted to give everyone advanced warning and a little heads up that there’s going to be some major updates and changes around here likely in the next few weeks.

I’m going to install a few more plugins at my sandbox, and then I have to get on with the real life part of my day, which may be long. That list just never gets shorter!