Server Move and Some Coding
As you may (or may not, it was fairly seamless) have noticed, I have moved to a new server. Site5 cocked something up during a supposedly routine server upgrade last week, and after contacting the CEO and having a level 2 tech supposedly fix the problem 3 times, most of my site remained unavailable. I got fed up; I was losing valuable hits from StumbleUpon to tutorialtastic and had an inbox full of messages to let me know Mr Ken Marx was hogging my space (this is not a complaint.. it made me feel that tutorialtastic is worthwhile :) )
So, long story short, I’ve moved to Clook. I know they’re reliable because we use them at work. Everything was set up and I was able to start copying data across within less than an hour.
Although I took a copy of the guestblock database from the Site5 server, I was hesitant to reinstall the script yesterday as I’ve been having problems with spam. The script is old and the website retired. I decided to sod with it all and have spent the past two evenings indulging in some random coding… of BellaBlocks.
BellaBlocks will be my flat file ‘replacement’ for the old Guestblock script. It will be easy to manage, easy to update, and will have some decent bloody spam protection. You can see my live beta but bear in mind it may be broken at any point. Thoughts?
Kaylee said:
On 26 Jan at 9:57 pm
I want to use it! Hurry up and finish ;)
Jordan said:
On 26 Jan at 10:02 pm
Glad to see that the transition went smoothly :) It really is a shame that things went downhill with Site5 so bad, especially given all the positives you’ve had with ’em.
It’s almost always support that seems to cause problems. I know I’ve left a few hosts in the past due to incompetent support :(
Vasili said:
On 26 Jan at 10:04 pm
I’m waiting for BellaBlog, the replacement to WordPress. :P
Jem said:
On 26 Jan at 10:05 pm
@Vasili: not going to happen.
Manda said:
On 26 Jan at 10:42 pm
Oohh, I’ve always wanted to be able to use GuestBlock but the site has been gone for as long as I can remember… I’m excited for when BellaBlock will be released as it looks really cool :D
Stephanie said:
On 26 Jan at 11:29 pm
If Jem ever tells me she is making a blog script, I will go to England and have her committed myself.
But, I mean, a photo gallery script would be cool…
Melissa said:
On 27 Jan at 12:57 am
BellaBlock looks cute, but I never did get the point in the original GuestBlock site.
Might just have been me, though.
Katie said:
On 27 Jan at 2:03 am
Looked at it at work earlier and it looked great! I’m getting a ton of PHP errors right now, but you’re probably mucking about with it :)
It looked great earlier. I didn’t ever get the point either but it still looks cute and like something I’ll put on my website anyway hehe.
Gabrielle said:
On 27 Jan at 3:20 am
I used to want to use GuestBlock because it looked so cute. I’m glad to hear there’s going to be a replacement for it. Don’t think I’d have use for it anymore but maybe one day. :)
Sarah said:
On 27 Jan at 3:44 am
I went to your live demo and my first thought was "Holy fuck, Jem!" :D There are tons of "Notice: Undefined offset: 6 in /home/jemjabel/public_html/gb/index.php on line 31" type errors down the page.
Vera said:
On 27 Jan at 5:03 am
This will certainly make a lot of people giddy.
As for the live beta… just as Sarah said, but I can see the blocks down under :)
Louise said:
On 27 Jan at 7:05 am
Oh cool! BellaBlocks! :D I’m glad you’ve decided to revive the old Guestblock thingy – I could never get it to work properly. Hows about some new sets of blocks for it? ;)
Tracy said:
On 27 Jan at 7:44 am
So you did move servers now? Good for you, you’ve been having problems with site5 every now and again, it seemed.
I’ve never used those Blocks. I’ve seen them around, but I never really understood what you do with them (maybe I should have read more into it). Once your script is done I might consider installing it. Those blocks look so cute and I like cute things :)
Marieke said:
On 27 Jan at 8:37 am
Hmm, I might check your new script… since everyone says it’s so cute ^^.
Tanya said:
On 27 Jan at 10:06 am
I’m really looking forward to BellaBlocks. I’ve wanted to use GuestBlock for ages but the site seems to have disappeared.
Glad to hear the move to your new host went well.
Mat said:
On 27 Jan at 11:04 am
Thank goodness you shifted.
Site5 are shit, i’ve said it for how long?
This bellablock is all well and good even if the markup is bloated with inline styling but it’s not threading is it…hint hint nudge nudge wink wink
Hope you and Karl are well :D
karl said:
On 27 Jan at 2:02 pm
@stephanie….
..erm…I don’t quite know how to say this, but..this ISN’T WP…Jem wrote this "blog engine"..:)
Jem said:
On 27 Jan at 2:26 pm
Stephanie was referring to a free one for other people’s use, deary :)
Stephanie said:
On 27 Jan at 6:14 pm
@karl yeah, I know she wrote this (god love her), but if she ever attempted to distribute it, i would have to ask her if she was out of her damn mind ;) just the support emails would drive her to the bottle, let alone trying to keep up with security and stuff :P
Jennifer said:
On 27 Jan at 9:09 pm
I have had some really good luck with HoldFire. I am in love with them. But in the past I swear, I could shoot my server. I have been on systems that wouldn’t run some php scripts on one site. Then on another site hosted by the same service run the same script fine. That was fun for a bit. Not so much. LOL
Can’t wait until the script gets done. :)
Noellium said:
On 27 Jan at 10:20 pm
Ohhhh, BellaBlocks. Awesome, looking forward to it. :)
Julie said:
On 27 Jan at 10:28 pm
I keep getting the same error when I try adding a comment (on BellaBlock). The error is on line 99.
Jem said:
On 27 Jan at 10:36 pm
It’s fixed now :)
Anita said:
On 27 Jan at 10:37 pm
@Julie: Same for me. :/
Bellablog…?? It sounds too good to be true! Oh wait. It is.
Hev said:
On 27 Jan at 10:47 pm
Jem, I have a copy of all the blocks on guest blocks. But would that be wrong. Do you want the blocks? I will defiantly implement the script when you release it.
Jem said:
On 27 Jan at 10:48 pm
Thanks Hev, I have the blocks but they’re not really mine to implement. I will make some and Melissa said she might make some for me, so hopefully there’ll be plenty to release with the script when it’s done :)
Chans said:
On 28 Jan at 10:11 am
hooray for smooth moves! BellaBlocks looks awesome, I never used guestblocks myself but I can see how people would want to use something like that especially in flat-file style!
Meggan said:
On 29 Jan at 2:39 am
I might have my old blocks somewhere too, I’d give them to you. :D
Mimi said:
On 29 Jan at 10:55 pm
I think it needs more blocks! I know someone who loves to pixel and who is named Mimi that would donate blocks for the cause! You know, just saying. *snicker*
Mimi said:
On 29 Jan at 10:55 pm
Oh and I just totally failed for not reading other comments first. *face palm* Oh well, I’d still make some blocks for ya!