jtnt://life/unedited

MT3, Comments, TypeKey, Registration? Oh my! (Help.)

Update: Reloaded all the Comment templates, and it all seems to work more sensibly. Did I miss this part of the upgrade instructions or are they not there for me to miss?

I fancy myself a pretty intelligent and web-savvy guy, but I must admit that I need some help figuring out comment registration and MT 3.

I would like to only accept comments from registered users. However, when I enable this, upon submission of a comment, one is given the rather unhelpful message, "Registration required." No further information is given, such as how to actually go about registering.

The MT docs say that all I have to do is enter my TypeKey token. I've done that. I see nothing about any other configuration or code changes I have to make.

So, what am I doing wrong? What am I missing?

FYI: Right now, I have unregistered comment moderation enabled, so as to not make commenting impossible, but still enabling me to deal with comment spam before it infects my site.

This is not simple and it sure ain't graceful.

Battling atrophied creative muscles to put into pixels a new design idea for this site. Conspicuously drawn to the grace of simplicity and the captivating nature of top-notch content.

Blogger region?

Couldn't figure out how to get comment registration working since I upgraded from Moveable Type 2.64 to the fancynew 3.0 release (still can't, by the way). So, figuring TypePad would be using the latest version of the MT software (which is inaccurate, as they use entirely separate systems, I think), I went over there to check out some blogs that had comment registration enabled.

My mouse wound up over a link to "Buttermilk and Molasses," so I clicked over to the site. As coincidence would have it, the author was from Richmond, Virginia, my hometown.

That's incredible.

The likelihood of a person happening upon a blog written by someone from their hometown has to be remarkably small. In fact, if there are an estimated 10 billion web sites on the internet, it's likely you would be underestimating the odds with the phrase "one in a million."

Hi, Richmond. Fancy meetin' you here.

More Pirate Talk? Really? Arrr.

What's with all the pirate-related blather going on around the blog world? Honestly, I just posted that Talk Like a Pirate Day link, because I randomly found it somewhere one day. I had no pre-existing obsession, or even thoughts in the slightest, on pirates.

I saw Tony's mention of pirates awhile ago, but now Webcrumbs points me to yet another blog on pirate-speak. I really can't comprehend how this is happening.

I'm glad this third site is not local to the DC Metro area. I'd think it was something in the air, and I would truly be frightened.

I just have one thing to say about all of this: Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.

Blog Blow Up

I've given up on redesigning (really, designing in the first place) this site myself. I've posted a Matchmaker project on k10k.net. Gotten one response, which I'm really excited about. I'm setting my hopes high for what this guy can do, but really anything is better than what I've got.

Here's the ad:

Blogs are old and so are the default templates that come with MoveableType. I need to break out of "default" mode and get something fresher out to the world. Simple, clean, straightforward. Nothing fancy. Just a template design or two - one for blog, one for photo gallery. I can't pay (much), but I can help you with your web projects.

If you want to help me out with sprucing up the house a bit, just let me know.

Why do I do this?

I've been thinking lately my goals for this site. What is the reasoning behind updating this when I do?

Sometimes I see it as simply an online diary. For years, from about the eighth grade until sometime in college, I kept a regular paper journal. I'd write about any random thought that came to my head. As time went on the journal was mostly updated only when a major event occurred in my life, mostly relating to girlfriends.

Sometimes I see it as an historical record of major world events. But for it to truly be this, I'd have to post way more often. I'm much too lazy and out of the loop for it to be comprehensive. Plus, a focus on a certain kind of event would be necessary. Politics. Sports. Technology. Something.

Sometimes I see it as a soapbox. See previous post. I'd have to think that people actually read this at all for this to keep me going on this track, though.

In the end, I do not know why I update this site. As I reach the end of this thought pattern, I do not know why I am posting this very entry. I think I like the notion of an online, permanent, universally accessible time capsule of my thoughts and travels.

As I have done with my paper journals, I think it will be interesting to revisit these old posts years in the future. So, I guess I update this site for my future self. (In which case, it can be all of the above and more.) I like that thought. Completely selfish and utterly harmless to others. I wish more things in life could be like that.

Strange Referers

Checking my stats today, I found the following referers in my logs. I can't seem to find where they link to me, and some of them are seriously weird sites.

• http://www.tourthai.com/index_t.shtml - This one sent over 30 people my way! Huh?
• http://www.upsaid.com/justdevin/
• http://www.tienneti.com/sezioni.asp
• http://andysucks.org
• http://www.noboys.org
• http://meredith.flutterglubmeow.com/blog/
• http://www.renaissancesistah.com/journal
• http://www.forever-star.com/journal.html
• http://aekituesday.blogspot.com/...

I'm not an active member of blogsnob or any other traffic-enhancing services, so I am really at a loss here. That's not totally true, as one blogsnob ad does appear in one post a few weeks ago. But after checking my blogsnob stats, I have only received 17 impresssions from those guys. This doesn't even begin to explain all of the above.

Local DC bloggers

I got an email about a new Meetup.com MoveableType event today. After not voting for a venue (simply becuase all the venues listed were awful), I clicked around to see what some of the locals were up to.

In the internet alter-world bloggers live in, geography is forgotten and indeed looked at as irrelevant. I disagree. And I think Meetup.com is a testament to the fact that geography and the internet can come together. In fact, I think each enhance each other or feed off each other.

Without the desire to get together with like-minded people, meetup.com would not be as successful as it is. Without the internet, it would obvisouly not exist at all.

The very fact that everything is so placeless on the internet makes me even more curious when I do find a site (especially a personal blog) that is produced locally.

Here are a few sites I found while poking around on Meetup.com that were either interesting to read or pretty to look at. All local to the DC area.

• Webcrumbs
• samLife
• Farrellyville