I upgraded to WordPress, an open source content management tool (think Firefox, Linux, or Open Office for blogging). It took a while to import the old database (MS-Access) and it wasn’t completely accurate (some of the comments were lost, as were accompanying photos). Brian and I had already built a content management system, but it had fallen hopelessly out of date…so why bother building what was already out there for free?
What you’re seeing now is the guts of the site…but I’ll be changing the look shortly. WordPress is one of those things that it can be really simple if you want a simple blogging site…or it can be really complex if you want a blogging site that doesn’t look like a blogging site (seriously).
I’ve already learned a bit of PHP…doesn’t seem too tough, though more difficult will be using MySql, a free database (once again, open source). The problem with free is that there are a 1000 different versions. So what works on one part of the server (where experiencenathaniel.com resides) doesn’t work on another part (such as ryanmcfadden.com).
But I’m a geek, so these kinds of things interest me.