The blog is go

[randy_byers]

So I guess the blog is live now, although at this point there's only an introductory post up. I'm still not completely sure how the existence of the blog will change what I post here. Anything with multiple screencaps will go on the blog instead of here, and I'll probably stop posting about old movies here as well. However, I'll probably continue to post the occasional image of the day here, as well as reviews of movies currently in the theater. We'll see what makes sense in practice.

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas and advice for setting up the blog.

By the way, does anybody know how to do the equivalent of an lj-cut tag in regular HTML?

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yes, that looks like what I'm after.

[wrdnrd]

That's a Wordpress function. It's a button on the visual editor (row 1, #12 on that page). Unlike an LJ cut, you can't assign the text when you're creating the jump. I think it is possible to change the text from "Read more" to something else, but it's not a post-by-post customization -- it will always say "Read more" or whatever you change it to. But i've never changed mine and i'm not entirely certain where you go to change the setting.

[wrdnrd]

Oh, look! You CAN customize the message on a post-by-post basis. Here's the Codex page on the more tag.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

You're brilliant! Many prostrate thanks!

[wrdnrd]

Well, i've had a Wordpress blog for 2+ years now. I am glad to impart my knowledge, grasshopper. ;)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's a dumb question: I just got my first comment, and it required moderation. I didn't think I'd set things up for comments to require moderator approval, and I can't find anything in settings indicating that I have. The comment doesn't have any links in it that I can see, so the moderation can't have been triggered by having more than 2 links. Any suggestions?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Never mind. I figured it out. I have "Comment author must have previously approved comment" checked off. Now I'm not sure I want that or not.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

I love that setting. Most commenters will be regulars; after you've approved their comments for the first weeks you'll only reap the benefits: No spam!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Okay, I guess I'll leave it that way. One thing I worry about is that I'm leaving the country for a week in a few days, and if anybody new comments while I'm away I won't be able to approve the messages until I get back. Not that I'm actually expecting to get many comments on this blog.

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Well, you can always switch off comments moderation while away travelling. Blogs seldom attract much spam the first weeks anyway.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

A very sensible solution! Let's see if I remember to do it.

[wrdnrd]

On the other side of things, i chose to not turn on that setting when i established my blog back in 2008. My thought was (a) Akismet was there for spam protection, and (b) most of my commenters would probably be friends or friends of friends (it's not like i'm a high profile blogger or trying to become one). I figured if i started to get an influx of new commenters, *then* i'd turn it on -- especially if i started to get trolls on, say, my posts about class issues.

If you don't currently have Akismet set up, i do HIGHLY recommend it. I've rarely had a false positive, and it learns from its mistakes.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'm remember seeing something about Akismet when I set up my account with the web host, but I don't remember whether I said yes to it or not. How can I tell?

[wrdnrd]

On the left-hand navigation in your user panel, look for Plugins (looks like the plug on an electrical cord). In there you should find an option for Akismet. It requires an Akismet API key, so if you didn't go thru' the steps to request one, then you're not running Akismet yet.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I have now set this up.