closer to home
TypePad has this nifty new feature that lets users build stand alone pages using the TypePad interface that so many of us love, so building a more complex and complete website to go with our TypePad blogs just got a whole lot easier. This is really good news, because it means I'll be leaving Exile sooner than I thought.
To be honest, I'd actually kind of totally decided that I wasn't going to bother building WWdN 2.0, because it was too much work . . . but not any more! Now that I can easily compose page content without leaving TypePad, I no longer have to wonder about tracking down some CMS software, or paying someone to build it for me (because the days of me doing this stuff myself are long, long gone.) It should be trivial to take all the non-blog pages from WWdN and turn them into TypePad pages, so I can merge WWdN and WWdN:iX into WWdN: A Metric Assload of Awesome. I copied over the old WWdN (horribly out of date) FAQ as a proof of concept. Check it out.
In what I laughably call my free time, I'll be combining all the WWdN and WWdN:iX blog entries and importing them into one überblog. Then, I'll get domain mapping set up with TypePad, so I can continue to use this software I've come to love and enjoy the stability and scalability that TypePad offers . . . but as far as anyone is concerned, be living at wilwheaton dot net.
As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm pretty excited about this.
I for one, would love to hear how this goes. You don't need to write a book about it ( :-) ) but just a post shen a significant part is done. ("I finished porting all the old posts and it's easier than I imagined" or "the import tool is great, but make sure that X setting is turn off or it makes a mess").
Given that you just lost and recovered some blog posts, you don't need this, but remember:
save early
save during
save later
save to another physical drive
SAVE OFTEN
Good luck! Can't wait to hear all about it.
Looked at the FAQ: Yes, it transfered over nicely. It's in the super-narrow-central column format like the rest of WWDN:iX. Blogger's like that too; is that a CSS artifact? I seem to vaguely remember that I managed to widen my Blogger blog out by changing paramters in the preamble. [This isn't a complaint, just noticing and wondering if the cause is the same]
Posted by: Craig Steffen | May 21, 2007 at 09:57 AM
The FAQ looks good. It will be nice to have a unified WWdN site again.
Keep up the great work Wil!
Posted by: sorakirei | May 21, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Hi Wil,
I too am excited about the new Pages feature. Now we only need a 'tabs' feature.
You might want to check with the folks at FMP because they're running some political ads that don't appear to jive with the rest of your site.
Posted by: John Frost | May 21, 2007 at 10:47 AM
What is the conversion rate between a metric assload and the English assload that we use here in the sates?
Posted by: edgore | May 21, 2007 at 11:04 AM
"in what I laughably call my free time"...ROFL I have the same thing. usually my boss will say "when you get some extra time, can you take care of X" and throw something on my desk.
I have never found any "extra" time or "free" time anywhere. If I do, I will let you know.
Posted by: MJBUtah | May 21, 2007 at 11:04 AM
Definitely use in-blog pages. They're amazingly convenient. I recently created a friend's site entirely in Wordpress even though it's not technically a blog, because it was so simple to use and easy to style. It took care of the hard bits, and I was free to work on the style and organization. I was even able to create her an account so she could manage content on her own. Nice!
Posted by: Chris Radcliff | May 21, 2007 at 11:20 AM
Wil Wheaton dot Net . . .
. . . now with more Wheaton!
. . . now with more Wheaton-y goodness!
. . . now with added chunks of Wheaton!
Ideally you'll come up with a better way to hype this.
Posted by: LinksMonkey | May 21, 2007 at 11:49 AM
I never tried Typepad, but now that you have enlightened me on some of the features I may give it a go, it would be nice to get away from blogger... hehe
Posted by: Keith L. Dick | May 21, 2007 at 11:53 AM
Woot!
From Burrito to Assload, it's logical.
Posted by: Becky..Absent Minded Housewife | May 21, 2007 at 11:57 AM
"WWdN:iX into WWdN: A Metric Assload of Awesome"
Please tell me that is going to be the official title.
Posted by: kaellinn18 | May 21, 2007 at 12:25 PM
"WWdN: A Metric Assload of Awesome"
Please tell me that is going to be the official title.
Posted by: kaellinn18 | May 21, 2007 at 12:26 PM
WWdN: A Metric Assload of Awesome
I throw my wholehearted support behind this title. WWdN:AMAoA in '08!
Posted by: Kristy | May 21, 2007 at 12:43 PM
Have fun with your domain names. They -tend- to cause problems.
Posted by: Aaron Dunlap | May 21, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Hey Wil,
I was checking out your old FAQ and reread that "best interview you ever did" and came upon the part about how you didn't get to do a commentary track for the Stand By Me DVD. I'm sure you're plenty busy with everything on your plate, but have you ever considered putting together your own commentary track in like mp3 form that people could sync up with the movie? Maybe it'd be more trouble than it is worth, but I bet a lot of people would be interested in hearing it. Even if you just put the movie on and ran through in one take, commenting on the scenes, I think it would turn out well.
Posted by: InfinityPlus1 | May 21, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't switch to WordPress a long time ago. You can import all your old posts and comments.
Of course, I don't know the whole story about this exile business since I'm a new reader. So maybe you've been over that option before and rejected it for sound reasons.
Posted by: Andrew | May 21, 2007 at 01:01 PM
I'm with Keith... Just might have to start using Typepad ;)
Posted by: starshine_diva | May 21, 2007 at 01:27 PM
This is a feature that WordPress has had for a while, but then if we all used the same stuff and liked the same things then the world would be an exceedingly boring place to live. Looking forward to seeing WWdN revamped, revitalised and reanimated.
Posted by: BenPaddon.co.uk | May 21, 2007 at 01:58 PM
Obviously there's no NEED per se for you to be at WWDN... but... but... but it's WWDN, man... it'd be really cool to have you back there.
Posted by: James Casey | May 21, 2007 at 03:10 PM
Hawesome!
*does gleeful dance*
Posted by: Princess Anna | May 21, 2007 at 05:42 PM
As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm pretty excited about this.
Here ...have a towel. :wink:
Posted by: xanadian | May 23, 2007 at 06:05 AM
This has nothing to do with this post but I wanted to send you this link of a picture I saw on Photobucket of a young William Shatner as James T. Kirk. It's really the caption that makes it.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q191/FinnanHaddie/captain_kirk.jpg
Posted by: xinher | May 23, 2007 at 04:44 PM
...paying someone to build it for me (because the days of me doing this stuff myself are long, long gone.)
Geez. How true is that? I am thinking by the time I am ready to build anything again, I will just ask my nephew to do it. (He's two now, and already showing his geeky tendencies.)
Posted by: Lynda | May 24, 2007 at 01:25 PM