My good friend Michael Park has been hosting the official unofficial message board since 2005, for the few of us who still use the b2 blogging software on our websites. But four days ago Michael made it clear that the long-pending closure of the board has been decided for January 2008, due to the non-existing activity the last months and his own switch to WordPress the 10th of November this year. Some of you may already know that WordPress is the successor of b2, and is in many ways what b2 would’ve become (or became, even). In any case, I’m glad that he bothered to run it because the community was very much alive back in 2005, and I also completely understand why he doesn’t bother running it the way things are today. Thank you! And thanks to all the participants who drove us forward after the b2 makers abandoned ship or disappeared.
Myself I’ve hosted the b2 Cafelog Resource Center for those who needed access to any of the source code or hacks (especially the hacks), and will continue to do so, since I have no reason to delete the files. But unless you see the need for it and want to host it yourself the message board will be taken down in January. I am not going to do it myself. It’s a bit sad but it’s time to face the facts.
WordPress (and others) is better and more modular than b2 is.
I’ve had the dubious pleasure of setting up a WordPress blog for someone at work @ wordpress.com, and although I was impressed at the simplicity and sense of data safety, it is way over my head in terms of use. But I’m old school/old fashioned. I started with a text-file, moved to flat file databases and ended up with b2. Ended up? Well, I will have to migrate to something else one time or another, because my PHP version will be lagging behind the rest of the world, and recently I have paused my efforts to redesign this site because I realize I will have to change the underlying cogs and wheels.
Anyway, here are the steps I [Michael] took for those of you wanting to migrate:
- Make a copy of your b2 database, duplicate it under a different name and drop extra table/fields
- Install WordPress 2.1.3 and this script
- Run that script on your duplicated b2 database and the new WP database
- Install WP 2.2 and upgrade your WP database
- Repeat #4 with the latest version of WP
That’s all! :)
It looks like a cumbersome process, but since Michael managed to keep all of his posts there is no reason not to do it.
I just have to find out whether WordPress is the way I want to go:)
And it was about time for me to redesign the site. :)
R.I.P b2. Short and simple.
I know the wordpress would be the natural progression of b2, but your site is much more than a blog. Your site really calls out to be a drupal site, with the blog being just one part of the portal. My own blog is wordpress, but any other site I do for a client is drupal. Dooce.com just went through an upgrade and they choose drupal as the platform. The Onion runs on drupal too.
Drupal is a pain in the ass to set up, but it’s super robust, secure, and has a tight object oriented framework.
I could help you out if you want (wordpress or drupal depending).
How about MovableType? It’s free for personal use and it looks like it’s got a lot of great customizing features.
Actually, Movable Type claims that Dooce.com is powered by them (below header “Movable Type at work”). Though I don’t know about conversion, from b2 to MT.
There was a script for transferring content from b2 to MT, methinks.
I’ve been drooling over Django @ djangoproject.com. But it might be a bit overkill on the database side..
My cellphone also supports Typepad, which I’ve never seen.. but I guess it’s a livejournal kind of thing. E.g. sucky.
Django would indeed be an overkill. Not just on the database. I believe it would be something like a soft-version of EPiServer, but only for blogging purposes. Though you should test it and see what ‘feels good’. Here’s an “MT. vs. WP”-article.
Up until just a few days ago, yes, dooce.com was powered by movable type, but now it’s drupal. I wouldn’t use moveable type just for the not owning the code part of it. Free for personal use doesn’t satisfy me. I’ll share the code, as long as I know I own it. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Django, Ruby on Rails, etc, all satisfy that requirement.
Django is nice, but it’s more of a framework than a CMS. It’s more like Ruby on Rails (but in Python). It’s a lot more flexible, but (to quote a Spider-man corollary) with great flexibility comes a buttload of work.
I’d vote for WordPress or Drupal.
WordPress pros:
Easy to install, migrate, theme. Quick and easy.
Wordpress cons:
Code is a mess, more security problems, less flexible for things other then straight blog.
Drupal Pros:
Easy to install. Robust, flexible, extensible, tons of plugins (modules), secure. PHP code is beautiful, tight.
Drupal Cons:
Probably not easy to migrate data from b2, flexible=”lots to learn”, heavier on the backend (i.e. slower), Documentation on drupal.com is all over the place.
Drupal WILL subtract years from your life, so it is only for the brave or the foolhearty.
Well, if there’s a WP 2 Drupal script I could always take the long way home..
http://wp2drupal.teodorani.com/
Not tested by me, but it’s worth a shot.