It has been a decision that has been brewing for quite some time. I have changed Darker View over to using WordPress as the underlying software.
For the last four years Darker View has run on Serendipity (known as S9Y) as the underlying blogging software. The software has served me well, it is easily customizable and has proven quite stable. Unfortunately it is also beginning to show some signs of wear. It is getting slower and slower as the size of Darker View’s databases have grown. Any number of new technologies and features I would like to add to DV are not available.
Serendipity is not supporting the blogging community to the degree that WordPress is. The development behind WordPress has reached such an overwhelming critical mass that it is hard not to make this switch, if just to avail myself of the features and support available from the WP community.
When my father asked me to setup a blog for him I knew I would use WordPress to do it. Using WP to setup NordicQuest.com allowed me to get a good hands-on look at the software. I was expecting a good experience, what resulted was even better. I was consistently pleased with the features and ease of use offered by WP. This cemented my decision to convert Darker View to WP as soon as possible.
This will not be without a lot of pain. There are over 2350 postings, hundreds of images, and a lot of history contained in the databases of Darker View. I have attempted twice to automatically convert the mass of material contained in the S9Y databases to WP. Both attempts were dismal failures, resulting in a couple FTP and SQL sessions needed to delete and clean up the resulting morass. Thus I have simply setup a clean WP install and started afresh. I will probably make an effort to cut and paste the most significant articles over to the new platform.
I will leave the old blogging software in-place for now. All of the old links and articles will remain online. Fortunately the choices I made when structuring the site years ago when installing S9Y will allow me to run both blogging packages in parallel. But for 2012, all new material will be on the WordPress platform.
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Andrew- Looks like the conversion is going to be painful… I started a blog for the Hawaii trip based on my enjoyment of yor site, and inspiration. WordPress was what was recommended– http://davealex.com/Crypto/
Learning the ropes of image hosting and all the ‘add-ons’. I’m a Luddite! -Jeff