Well, what do you think?
On Friday, after playing around with my WordPress.org download and messing with the theme, I figured, “shit, why not?” I bought hosting space, uploaded my files, and began a weekend-long project to bring the new Newton Poetry live.
Was it easy? In a word: heck no.
Finding my way around FTP (I’m using Fetch), uploading WordPress files, and having to do a reinstall of everything I worked on – including a lengthy XML file upload – all came to a head at about 6 p.m. today, when newtonpoetry.com switched from WordPress.com to a self-hosted site.
I miss some things from WordPress.com already. Most of all, I miss the handy Blog Stats page, with its graph and referrer list. All the YouTube videos I posted had to be re-posted with the embed code. And, you know, free hosting was nice.
But the original Newton Poetry never looked like I wanted it to look. For one, there was too much blue. Two, I dig simplicity. I took notes from the other blogs I visit and built my theme, based on the Infimum theme, around what I like.
Let me know what you think. I know there are a few dedicated readers out there, and I appreciate your thoughtful feedback and support. Is something missing? Is there something you’d like to see me cover (I know, I know – the wifi stuff is on the list)? Drop me a comment and let me know.
A side note: the focus of Newton Poetry will broaden a little bit to include some other Mac- and tech-based stuff I find interesting and want to share. But fear not. The Newton MessagePad will always be the mainstay.
Thanks again, everyone, for all your support. Make yourself at home.
It’s OK, but in Opera 9.21 (well, at least on Windows) the page appears to be like, ten thousand pixels wide, even though there’s nothing that wide.
Posted by Matej Horvat on January 12th, 2009.
Yeah, I tend to like a little structure…maybe lines around it to kinda corral it all in?
I like the favicon though :P
Posted by Erik on January 12th, 2009.
[…] internet. Dave Lawrence, Newton Poetry’s chief architect has just brought his site through a major redesign and independence from WordPress.com. Although he is missing some of the features WordPress.com provided, I think he […]
Posted by My Newton Blog | Newton Poetry on January 12th, 2009.
Thanks for the feedback, gang.
@Matej – it looks even weirder on my roommates IE5. The fonts are pixelated and yucky. But I tested it on IE7, Firefox, and Safari (including Mobile Safari) and it looks decent.
@Erik – thanks. I love the fine art of favicons, and mine – naturally – had to be a Newton. One of my earliest revisions had boxes around all the sidebar stuff. Maybe in the future.
Posted by davelawrence8 on January 12th, 2009.
[…] I switched away from WordPress.com and onto my own server, I have access to accurate numbers regarding visitors and page views. Even subtracting […]
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[…] bit over a year ago, I switched Newton Poetry from a WordPress.com-hosted site to a self-hosted site, using 1and1.com. Earlier this week, that decision came back to haunt me when the 1and1 MySQL […]
Posted by Newton Poetry — The aftermath on March 10th, 2010.