Since Lin had to go to work today, and we didn’t get to work on the yard this morning, I have spent a while looking at other blogging systems to use instead of Wordpress. Even though some of them look very interesting, I won’t be switching. I simply don’t want to change my work-flow or be forced to learn a whole bunch of new stuff just to run my web site. I don’t have the time, energy, or desire to do so, and I really do like Wordpress.

What does this mean for Just Orb and its users? Not much will be changing. I started deleting the user database the other day, leaving only those people I personally knew or who visited and commented regularly, in case I decided not to do away with user registrations for good. I will delete the rest of the user base. Registrations are going away for good, and what that means is no more filtered or “friends only” posts at Just Orb. With the last upgrade, they had become something of a hassle anyway, so I am not sorry to see that functionality lost. It will simplify my blogging life significantly and solve a few database problems I was having as well.

Unfortunately, it will not simplify my readers’ lives. Though there won’t be anymore “friends only” posts on my actual domain, which has been true for a couple of months now, I will still be making filtered posts. I will be making them over at Livejournal, where I have been making them lately anyway (such as they are, you really haven’t been missing too terribly much — my life is not so full of drama these days). Livejournal is significantly better at the whole “friends only” thing, and it has always given me much better control over who gets to read what. As annoyed as I sometimes get with the people who run LJ, I have been using it for a very long time, and I do love the system over there.

What does that mean to someone who wants to have access to the stuff I don’t want to post publicly? It means they will have to create an account at Livejournal, visit my LJ profile, and “friend” me to get on my friends list (it’s a little button near the top of the profile). I hate to cause anyone any hassle to read my private drivel, because so many of my regular readers at Just Orb are more than just “readers” to me, but I need both my web site and my data to be secure. Right now, this is the best way to achieve that goal. It won’t be all bad for those choosing to sign up at yet another web site though! After pay day, I’ll go ahead and pay Livejournal again to remove the ads and get back the paid user features, some of which people who do sign up may like … like getting to send text messages directly to my cell phone. Yes, you’ll be able to drive me crazy with text messages anytime you want, and won’t that be fun!

So, bottom line is there won’t be too much changing around Just Orb for my readers, at least not all of them. There will be no user registrations and no filtered posts at Just Orb, and anyone interested in hearing my really intense griping can sign up at Livejournal and get on my friends list (actually, most of the people who would care already have LJ accounts), and all I really have to do is find some money to may Livejournal to get back full functionality and get rid of ads. In theory, that all sounds easy enough. Let’s hope that theory of ease holds out as I start making the changes, which will likely happen sometime early next week (or sooner if the weekend laziness doesn’t set in too thick).

I apologize for any weirdness or hassle this all will cause anyone, but I have to have a web site that isn’t getting hacked and isn’t trying to infect other people’s computers. If it’s any consolation, I am the one who will be dealing with the most hassle as I try to get things done in the background quietly and without disturbing the Just Orb flow.

If anyone has any questions or needs help figuring out how to sign up for a Livejournal account and getting on my friends list, do ask! I don’t want to lose anyone during this transition, and I still want anyone who wants to to be able to read anything I have written. I love all the people who visit Just Orb regularly … some of you are almost like family, and many, many of you I consider good friends!

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the ever increasing archives at Just Orb. There’s been some problems with them since the last upgrade, and while they are all mirrored at Livejournal, the comments made at Just Orb are not mirrored over there. That’s just something I will have to work out on my own. It isn’t like all that many people bother with reading any of the stuff from the past years. I suppose I will deal with the current crisis first and then worry about the somewhat busted archives at Just Orb. And by “worry about” them, I do mean going back to just ignoring the problem in the hopes some webmaster fairy comes along and sprinkles fairy dust on them to solve the problem for me. The archives, they are easy to ignore.

And so ends a long and boring post about the to-doings at Just Orb. I’m going to go eat some leftover pizza and then putter in the yard a while. It’s too pretty outside to be sitting in front of a computer.