The first migration I have to do is this blog.  That will be soon.  I need to get this migration done before I start on the next one.  Everything is sort of hanging fire until I get this blog sorted.

Migration #2.

Steps:

1. Backup everything, both Wordpress and WSNLinks.
2. Pay WSN support to somehow separate WSNLinks from Wordpress.
3. Install WSNLinks index page at the root domain as a stand alone script.
4. Then I have to Unistall Wordpress.
5. Install B2evolution at a subfolder: probably /blog
6. Set up B2evo and configure.
7. Import Wordpress posts into B2evo.
8. Clean up loose ends and any mess.
9. Test everything.

Just a quick note: You can import your Wordpress comments into Disqus.

Good to know.  If I ever had to use a hosted comments solution like Disqus, I think I would start out with Disqus.  Why?  They have the most tools to import your old comments AND most other hosted comments services will import from Disqus.

So start with Disqus, see how much it is actually used and if need be you can always move to another service.

Do you ever get a song in your head and it just won’t go away?  Well this is what keeps repeating in my brain:

Tubular Bells: “Piltdown Man” by Mike Oldfield.

Really.

A platform move for this blog is coming.  Wordpress is frozen on ver. 4.9.9 which is fine by me, but untenable in the long term because eventually I will start missing needed security upgrades.  Also, I’m beginning to suspect that my Indieweb stuff is not working everywhere with everyone and I’m not willing to put the time in tracking down where the problems are on a platform I intend to leave.

So I need to prepare to migrate.

I’m not sure if WP Pages get moved with backups or not, so today’s project is to manually copy the content of all important pages here on the blog so they can be easily recreated wherever I move.

Not hard, just busywork.  And right now it’s 1 degree F outside with a high of 11 degrees F so it’s a good day to stay home and tackle it.

Okay I lied, I do have to make a store run for weekend food, plus doughnuts er, because doughnuts are a food group

The subject came up via John Philpin and Gray Areas.   And using a webring to denote sub-communities within Micro.blog.  For example:

1. Analog things.  A big catchall for stuff below.
2. Fountain pen collectors.
3. Paper journal keepers.
4. Typewriter collectors
5. Paper note keepers.
6. etc.

A webring plays to the strength of MB users actually having a blog.

Currently, Micro.blog hosted blog users can put a webring code in their footer area.  The size is a bit cramped but it is usable.  I expect this to get better in the near future when Micro.blog rolls out improved template/theme editing capabilities.

The easiest, off the shelf, webring hosting solution is Webringo.com.* It works and has some nice features.

1. People joining a Webringo ring have their choice of 3 stock ring codes: A. HTML (either vertical and horizontal), B. an I Frame, C. a JavaScript ring code (like Webring used to have).
2. Webringo automatically produces an Index page of sites within the ring. If you link to this it gives people an alternative way to explore the ring.
3. A webring is opt-in, that is membership is voluntary.  A @JohnPhilpin noted it can denote a club or tribe.
4. I would strongly recommend that the ring owner provide some example, optional, “minimalist” HTML ring codes that members can customize to work with their membership if they want.
5. The advantage to using Webringo is it makes managing the ring much easier and joining the ring less labor intensive.

I’m just throwing the idea out there, for whoever is interested to think about.

I will make this offer: If people start forming webrings for sub-communities within Micro.blog  I will create some sort of index of the webrings so people can find different rings.

Reference: Webrings.

*  I’m not married to Webringo, it’s just that when I investigated the other two ring hosts, Webring and Ringsurf, I was getting error messages when I tried to sign up and they were still giving errors when I came back a couple of weeks later.  Whereas, Webringo is still fully functional.

This was also posted to /en/linking.

I wrote a review of B2evolution CMS, but I didn’t get into too much detail.  I’ve taken a closer look and here are some thoughts.

Blogs: you can have multiple blogs on one install. You can control who can see each blog.  This is handy if you want to keep a journal or diary something only logged in members can see.

Manual:  This is really neat.

1. You can create a manual.
2. You could use this for a diary or journal.
3. You could outline a book with this.
4. You could write a web book with chapters and/or sub chapters.
5. Moreover the manual has wiki features.

Main features:

• Similar to a Wiki but with added hierarchical structure
• Unlimited nesting of Chapters & Sub-chapters
• Easy linking between pages via WikiLink syntax – links stay valid even if you restructure the table of contents differently or if you rename the pages
• Collaborative editing, including versioning of edits, history, diffs and rollback.
• Multiple markup options making editing easier and more consistent than HTML editing
• No frames, so each page has an URL and it’s easy to share links to individual pages
• Allows user comments
• Allows user rating of manual pages
• and of course all the other b2evolution standard features (Analytics, Antispam, etc.)

All said, that Manual feature is a very powerful thing to have at your beck and call.

Forums:  A full featured forum. See Forum Demo.

Tracker: For Issues or tasks.  See Tracker Demo.

There’s more!

You can manage your own email mailing list and newsletter.  Plus you have polls.

As far as I can tell these things are not half done.  They are tested and robust.  That’s a lot of stuff to have available with one install and for free.  The more I look at B2evolution the more impressed I get.

The Hardy Boys 1 -58 collection I bought on eBay has arrived.

These are from the 1960’s to the early 1970’s which are the editions that were for sale when I was a boy.  Much to my chagrin these are now “vintage” editions.

These are not the original text versions.  Around about the late 1950’s the Hardy Boys books from the 1020 and 1930’s were edited to change some out dated language and technology references.  If I wait a few years I can start reading the original versions as they become public domain.  I’m keen to do that.

Read: Deadly Secrets, Mapleton Mystery #1: By Terry Odell.

This was a good page turner with suspense, danger and mysteries piling up right from the start.  Kobo lists it as a police procedural which is probably the best fit, although it would be small town police.

Characters, setting and writing are all good and compelling.  Just enough romance so you know characters are not dead, but it never crosses that line to where is is really a romance novel with a mystery thrown in as an afterthought.  Good.

I liked this enough that I will definitely be buying more books in the series.

📚

Sometime in 2019 I will move this blog to a different platform.  Here is my current shortlist.

1. Micro.blog - if I migrate to MB I will probably consolidate this blog and Rantinggit.com, my current hosted MB blog into one.  At MB I’ll be trading lots of WP features for simplicity and focus on posting.  This is the most likely solution but I’m waiting for certain key elements to be implemented first.  I think I can replicate some WP sidebar widgets with pages on MB.
2. B2evolution - the only thing keeping holding me back from moving to B2 is it lacks Indieweb capabilities.  I would have to rely on 3rd party services and old fashion trackbacks.  B2 is looking at adding webmention support but no time frame as to when that would be implemented.  I would be moving and then making do until B2 implements webmentions and stuff.  Other than that, B2 is ready to roll.
3. Known - it’s impressive.  The big hurdle is there is no working way to migrate my posts from Wordpress.  That makes it a non-starter.  There is the off chance that somebody will roll out a migration tool for non-coders but nothing is in sight for now.  My other worry is support and updates.  Still I’m keeping Known on the short list in case these things get fixed.

The thing is, this is my main blog so whatever I move it to has to be solid, dependable, durable, and capable.

I also have to find a new blog for Indieseek.xyz, but the criteria are different there.  Micro.blog won’t work there.  It’s looking like B2 will be the choice there.

Read: Involuntary Turnover Kat Voyzey Mysteries, #1 by Cheri Baker

Straight up, I enjoyed this mystery novel.  I’m glad I chose it as the first book I read on my snarfie new Kobo ereader.

The characters and setting are extremely well drawn. The writing is clean, crisp and clear.  Plot is pretty good and believable.  Everything about this novel is competent and it all comes together into an enjoyable read.

The first half of the book establishes setting, characters and the mystery.  That might seem long but all in all I think that is fair, this is the first book in a series so these elements need to be setup properly right from the start.

I don’t know exactly how to categorize this as a mystery these days: contemporary traditional mystery?  I won’t call it an American cozy, because that has become a realm of insipid cats, recipes, cloying cuteness and romance drama.  No, this is better than that: just the right dash of cat, a bit of awareness in the opposite gender, take out food, lots of coffee and not a single doily anywhere.   Solid Like.

You get a double bonus with Involuntary Turnover: it’s free, not just on Kobo but also on Barnes and Noble and Amazon as well.

Recommended.

I keep hearing people flip out about Internet retail in general and Amazon specifically, killing Big Box and department store retail, like nobody had ever heard of it before.  But if you look at it historically, in pre automobile days, the whole idea of retail-coming-to-you is nothing new.  If you look at a reprint of the Sears catalog from the late 1800’s you could buy anything from cement mixers that made cement blocks, watches, furniture, pens to whole house kits delivered to your door.  The only difference was you ordered through the mail.  Most of America was still rural and travel was not easy.  Ordering “city quality” goods by mail order made sense.

He observed that rural customers often wanted “city” goods, but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and did not offer any guarantee of quality. Ward also believed that by eliminating intermediaries, he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to rural customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the nearest train station.

Wikipedia Montgomery Ward

Note in that Sears article, that Sears didn’t seriously start opening department stores until the 1920’s when the automobiles were really taking off and because of automobiles roads were starting to be paved for the first time.

In addition, in pre automobile and early automobile days, delivery of goods by local merchants was a common thing: Ice blocks for the Ice chest, groceries, dairy and produce, specialty retail like Fuller Brush salesmen.  Even services like knife sharpening came to you.  Remember, keeping house was hard physical labor, cooking alone was all from scratch with no convenience items or cooking shortcuts that we have today, so a housewife found it hard to get away and shop.  Moreover, shopping in cities meant walking to the nearest streetcar line in cities or making do at the small corner store, in the country, it meant hitching up a team of horses and journeying into town once a week.

Family story: My 4 times great-grandfather was blinded in an accident.    At some point he started making mustard and it caught on. Soon he was delivering pots of mustard to his many town and rural customers from a wagon drawn by ponies.  The story goes, the ponies knew the route and would stop at each customer’s home.

The point here is that at one time it was common for the merchant to come to you either in person, through a salesman or by catalog and postal mail.  Particularly with the catalog houses (which depended on rail service) all of this is just a short leap away from what Amazon is doing.  The technology has changed.

I’m not going to get into how bricks and mortar retail has changed other than: the suburban malls damaged High Street retail, later Big Box stores damaged suburban malls, department stores and what was left of High Street retail.  Now Internet retail has brought catalog retail shopping from the home and from your smartphone, back and it’s killing the Big Boxes.

There is more to it than that, I’m simplifying things.  But here we are, we have come…

Full circle.

I got my Kobo Clara HD ebook reader a couple of days ago.   I’m nearing the end of reading my first novel on it and here are my observations.

The reader shipped from Canada via UPS, signature required.  I’m not a big fan of signature required, but I understand it in this instance because I had no prior customer history with Kobo and suddenly I order a $130 reader.  I did like the Paypal option on checkout.

You can order these from Walmart if you prefer, and Walmart has 2 day shipping.

Hardware

The screen is much higher resolution than my old Kindle Touch yet the have the same size screens.  The typography is very sharp and clear.

The Clara comes with ComfortLight Pro which is a front lighting system that adjusts automatically to the light conditions around you.  You can set your usual bedtime and the blue light filter kicks in an hour or so before bedtime automatically.  This turns the front lighting sort of an amber color as it filters out the blue light.  Blue light spectrum is what can keep you awake in bed.  I’ve used this the last two nights and had no trouble reading even in a dark room.  I found the front lighting to be very uniform across the screen.  I like this ComfortLight Pro.

Using the default font and type size I am very comfortable reading this at the same distance I would hold a paperback.  The white on the e-Ink display is pretty white so reading is comfortable.

The case from Kobo looks very nice but I thought it a little expensive.  I ordered a Finite case for the Clara on Amazon for a lot less and I like it.  The case has a magnet in the cover which awakens the reader when opened.

One nice touch: when the Kobo is sleeping the screen shows the book cover artwork of the book you are reading.

There are no advertisements on the Kobo readers.

Software

You don’t have to buy a reader if you don’t want to.  Kobo has free apps for smartphones running Android, iOS or Blackberry 10, plus apps for Anroid and iOS tablets and free reader software for Windows 10 and macOS.  Plus the Kobo ebook store has a bunch of free ebooks so you can try Kobo for free and read free ebooks.  I tried the app for Android phone and it works just fine.

Conclusion

I would buy this again.

Review of the Kobo store coming.

Read: Death of a Maid by M. C. Beaton, A Hamish Macbeth Mystery Book 22.

I never really tire of the Hamish Macbeth mysteries.  I’ll read 2 or 3 and then try something different, but I keep coming back.  This series is reliable.  You really don’t need to read the series in any order as each book stands alone fairly well but it’s probably wise to read the first 5 or so books first to get the character and setting development down.

Watch: The Brokenwood Mysteries - Series 5, Ep. 2

This episode really brings back the quirkiness of the first 3 seasons.  Much of that is in the dialog and characters.  Excellent.

Watch: The Brokenwood Mysteries - Series 5, Episode 2.

You will really want to visit New Zealand after watching this series.

Watch: The Brokenwood Mysteries - Season 5, Ep. 1.

This is a fun series.  Seasons 1 - 3  were the best so far.  Great characters, setting and mysteries.

📚  Read: Death of a Ghost, (Hamish MacBeth Mystery Book 32), M. C. Beaton.

The Hamish MacBeth novels are my favorite M. C. Beaton series.  This one did not disappoint.

My recent decision to try a Kobo ebook reader and the research I did as part of that decision made me remember things about my history with ebooks.

1998 - 2003

No major publishers were selling ebooks, the publishers were all small with varying degrees of expertise.  Most ebooks were being sold on CD-ROM disks usually in HTML, TXT and sometimes PDF formats.  Many ebooks were self published.  eBook publishing was tiny but growing rapidly.  I took an interest in the technology of ebook even though I wasn’t actually reading them myself.  Somehow, reading books on my desktop computer had no appeal.

But about this time I bought my first ebook reader: the Rocketbook.  The Rocketbook was actually a very comfortable device but the problems were lack of titles and very limited battery life.

2003 - 2008

During this time I was mainly reading free public domain ebooks but I also started buying from publisher Booksforabuck which is still around!  I also started buying from the best ebook store ever: Fictionwise.  See what Fictionwise looked like at Archive.org.  I really liked that store.  Unfortunately it got bought up by Barnes and Noble and discontinued as reading on PDA’s declined in the wake of dedicated readers like Nook, Kindle and Kobo as well as the new iPhone and later Android devices.

Barnes and Noble was very good about letting me migrate all my 160 Fictionwise ebooks to their Nook platform and I can still access them using a Nook reader app.

2008ish - Current

I’m finding as I get older that I like reading on my smartphone less.  I kind of prefer a larger reader screen.  I also like some kind of lighting for the screen as my eyesight is weaker.   Full size tablets seem too heavy although I do like that smaller 8” Kindle Fire tablet.

Which leads me back to the Kobo reader mentioned at the beginning of this post.  The Kobo accepts a lot of different formats for ebooks and lets you load them from your computer using software like Calibre.   With new books finally entering the public domain again in 2019 and each year from now on, I wanted a reader that would let me load these.

Last night I ordered a Kobo Clara HD ebook reader.   The confirmation email told me to expect delivery in 7 to 10 business days.  That’s pretty slow fulfillment in 2019.  This is not an auspicious start to what I hope will be a long term relationship.  Hopefully it will arrive faster than that. We will see.

I am already heavily invested in the Amazon Kindle and also the Barnes and Noble Nook ecosystems but I always worry about DRM and silos so I have been contemplating diversifying further.   My intention is that all new ebook purchases will be through Kobo, although I’m by no means abandoning Kindle.  Eggs/basket - all that.

Kobo has only a small market share in the US, but is popular in Canada, Europe and Japan.  Kobo’s hardware gets good reviews.

Before buying the Clara HD, I checked out the Kobo eBook Store and I liked the clean less cluttered look.  They have many apps for reading ebooks on Android, iOS, and other operating systems.  So I tried the free Android app on my Samsung tablet and liked it although the Samsung is way to heavy for comfortable book reading.

All that convinced me to try a low end Kobo ereader.  The Kobo Clara HD is a big step up from my elderly Kindle.  Both are 6 inch screen models but the Kobo has these improvements:

• Paper white screen background. My Kindle is murky grayish.
• Light up reading screen.  No light on my Kindle.
• Nighttime reading light.
• Lighter, thinner, faster, more memory.
• Kobo supports a lot more ebook formats than Kindle.  This is key because I can import books from elsewhere and read them on the Kobo.  With more books finally entering the public domain in the US this is important.

Popular Alternatives to Disqus for Web, Self-Hosted, Linux, Wordpress, Windows and more. Explore 25+ apps like Disqus, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community.

For your reference and mine.  A lot of these want to charge $10 per month!  Hard to justify when the blog only costs, say $5 per month.

Just a quick bit of good news: per Francois Planque,  B2evolution maintainer, in a comment:  webmentions support is on the todo list at B2evolution.  No time frame but good to know.

This makes my migration path to B2evo clearer for one project so it really helps.

I installed B2evolution on a subdomain using C-panel one click install.  Flawless.

(The point of these tests and reviews is I’m looking for potential replacements for Wordpress as my standard. go to, blog/CMS of choice.)

Confession: when I first logged into the admin panel after installation, I almost panicked.  There are so many controls, layers of controls, that it almost seems overwhelming.  This is a true CMS so there are menus and settings for 1. the entire installation, 2. each blog or forum or photo collection.  You can have more than one blog and more than one user so each blog can have it’s own templates, plugins, settings etc.  Each blog can have it’s own access rules of who can post, read, comment etc.  It can be a bit daunting.

Moreover, the control menus in the admin are not laid out like those in Wordpress - no sidebar menus here, the menus are in the header of the admin with options in rows.  It actually works real well, its just after so many years of working with Wordpress and a different menu logic it takes some getting used to.

The big thing is: Don’t Panic!

Take some time to poke around and explore.  I did this, then set it aside, and then I came back the next day and poked some more and it all started to make sense.   This is a very mature well built CMS script.  The roots of B2evo are blogging, which is good, blogging is not an afterthought  as it is on some scripts.  This is a serious bit of blogging kit and a serious CMS.  Make no mistake, there are a lot of controls but just take your time and address each one in a logical order and you will be fine.

The standard install comes with 1. a custom index page, 2. a public blog, 3. a blog only logged in members can see, 4. a photo gallery, 5. a forum.   These are working demos that showcase what B2evo can do.  These are all populated with posts and comments that tell you about features of the script.  It also lets you practice doing things like approving comments in the moderation que.

More Features:

• In addition to the features described above you have: polls, Private messaging, server analytics (very nice that), task tracker, widgets and plugins.
• I don’t want to make this review overly long so I’m going to focus on the blogging aspects.
• You can deploy a new blog, for yourself or another member, with one click.
• Each blog within the installation can have it’s own Title, metas, template, settings, widget arrangement, RSS feed, comments, access rules. In short it is a stand alone blog. (If you think about this you can save on hosting.)
• If you are on a root domain (ie. example.com) you can even set up the script to put each new blog on it’s own subdomain (ie. joeshangout.example.com, buffy.example.com, etc).  This is very nice if a group of individual bloggers want to go in together on one install or if you want to provide a blog to a friend or two, or if you want to start several different blogs.
• Posting is with a WYSIWYG editor like Classic Wordpress.  Markup and Markdown plugins available.
• Categories and Tags.
• Basic Anti-spam plugin provided.  Honeypot and Akismet plugins are available.  Two things: 1. I wish they had better and more fine grained protection for Trackbacks. 2. I’d like to see more choices like AntiSpamBee as alternatives to Akismet, although I’m happy they have Akismet as an option.
• Documentation is serious, written by grownups and pretty up to date.
• Forums are full featured and attractive.
• Themes: I really didn’t play much with these.  You do have a selection of several provided plus a repository from which you can download additional themes.
• Migration: there are import/export filters provided for most popular blogging platforms.  I have not tried them.  I hope they work because I may very well migrate at least one Wordpress blog to B2evo.

B2evo vs. Wordpress

The Admin panel is no worse than Wordpress, it’s just different.  But it does have layers: 1 site wide global settings, 2 setting specific to each blog, so there is some added complexity.  That said, I would argue that the admin panel on B2evo is much better laid out than Wordpress.

The eco-system of plugins and themes is smaller, because the supporting community is smaller. Despite this they have done a good job of providing choices.  Also, much of what Wordpress provides through plugins, B2evo has built into the core, so you don’t need as many plugins.

Initial Impressions

You are not going to install this and be blogging in 15 minutes.  It will take you just as long as it takes to set up and customize a Wordpress installation, plus some extra time to learn a new UI.

This is perfect for individuals who: want to have separate long form blog, micro blog, photo blog, link blog etc all on the same installation.

This is perfect for several individual bloggers or a community of bloggers.

This is an impressive blog/CMS platform.  I think it is a worthy replacement for Wordpress if you are worried about all the current and forthcoming Gutenberg changes.  I’d say install it and see if it will work for you.

Cautions: Indieweb and FTP

1. To upload new themes and plugins you need to know a little bit about how to upload files from your hard drive to a web server.  C-Panel can handle this so you do not need a separate FTP client.  But if you have never done this before it might be a barrier.    [Added: I was wrong, there is a built in File Manager in B2evo which you can use to upload plugins and themes!  W00t!  See Comments below.]
2. Indieweb: There is no Indieweb support.  You are going to have to do this yourself with the help of third party services.  (This is why I wanted more Trackback spam controls - if you can’t use Webmentions etc. you have to fallback to old school Trackbacks.)  [Added 9 Jan 2019 - Per Francois Planque,  B2evolution maintainer, webmentions are on the todo list. Great news.]

Continued:  A Closer look at B2evolution Features

This was also posted to /en/blogging.

I have a couple of new blog projects and a couple of eventual blog migrations coming up in 2019 and I thought I should investigate what else is out there besides Wordpress.  Therefore, I’ve spent way too much time reading the documentation of about 6 - 8 blog and CMS systems to the point where they were all starting to blur together.  The devil in in the details on these systems and you kind of have to dig to find answers.

I limited my quest to open source scripts that are available on most c-panel installers.

One of the scripts that caught my eye was Serendipity which is a mature, actively supported blog platform so I decided to install it on a subdomain and try it out.

One click installation from c-panel was fast and easy.

Serendipity admin area has a nice clean look.  Like Wordpress, Serendipity has their own repository of plugins and themes so you can install these with ease.

I started poking around trying different plugins.  Plugin descriptions are rather minimal so you don’t always know exactly what they do.

Goodies:

One thing I liked is they have some nice spam controls for Trackbacks which are important on a blog that does not do webmentions or Indieweb stuff.

Plugins: While you won’t find as many as Wordpress, there are close to 150 plugins available, some are widgets, some add features.  I found a plugin for a forum add on which is a nice option to have.  And all the basics are there, most bloggers would be happy.

Like any blog, there are a lot of settings and details to attend to but if you have ever blogged before you can find your way around the Admin Panel fairly easily.  Good interface.

Posting:

I posted a test post.  That went well.  I then posted a comment to that post.  But when I click to read comments I get a Password login box.  I’m the author, I’m also the Root Admin with god-like powers but I can’t read my own comment without a separate login even on the public side.  What gives?  I checked the settings and as far as I can tell anyone should be able to read the post and the comments. Dunno.  I did not try and look this up in the documentation because I wanted to simulate real life learning by poking around.  It must be a setting but I’m not sure which.

Templates:

Migration:

Conclusions:

Perhaps if I was more PHP savvy or starting out without wanting to migrate from another blog I would feel different.  Maybe if I combed through the documentation I would solve the mysteries, but for me it’s just not right as I’m seeing it.  YMMV.

See also my review of B2evolution.

This was also posted to /en/blogging.

I need to really try and understand Webmention.io - to wrap my mind around it and how it works.  Because it looks like I may need it on some projects.

Might install b2evolution on a subdomain today and test. No Indieweb but it actually lets you import posts from many famous blog systems, including WP - what a novel idea. It has multiblogs, forums and a mature set of features and templates. It does have comments, trackbacks and pingbacks.

And it has real documentation. Old school, that actually tells you something useful - tells you what it does in detail. What that tells me is that it is intended to be used, seriously, used for serious work. It’s not just a toy.

If Wordpress is a heavy weight blog platform, then B2evolution looks to be a middle weight.

Serendipity also looks interesting. Again, you can import export posts, which means you don’t have to leave your old blog posts behind in some sort of archive on your old blog script (which sort of defeats the whole use your own domain thing.) Documentation is good. The script is not quite as feature rich as B2evolution but it has a pretty full suite, plus plugins.

One click install for either from c-panel. No nursemaiding the script all the time.

See, I gotta be able to customize my blogs. I want features.