Sunday, October 30th, 2005
The TypePad TrackBack Solution
Posted October 30, 2005 at 10:24 am by basil
It’s called WordPress.
I’m not a patient man. But I do try to be fair. Sometimes I’m more than fair. Sometimes I’m less than fair. But I try.
When I try and fail, I must suffer the consequences.
And so must TypePad.
Quite honestly, I was generally happy with TypePad. They do a lot of things right. But things happen. And I realize things happen. So, when things … bad things … happen, I try to be patient.
But some things I don’t tolerate well. That includes ignoring my concerns.
To summarize what happened:
- TypePad “improved” their system by putting into place improperly designed or improperly tested TrackBack spam filters.
- TypePad responded via e-mail (a good thing) but wasn’t listening to what I said was the problem.
- TypePad went over two weeks and the problem (as of this writing) is still not fixed.
So, if they won’t fix the issue, I will.
That’s why this little blog is now a WordPress blog. I’m presently hosting it myself. But that won’t last long, I’m sure. I have other options available to me that I expect to use. But, I’ve spent over two weeks getting a server set up to host a WordPress blog (didn’t take as long as I thought it would) and moving all content over to my local server (took longer than I thought it would).
Oh, the move isn’t complete. There is still more content to move. But I have enough moved and everything configured sufficiently to re-launch. And because there is more to move, I’ll be busy doing that. But I am returning to blogging, although not quite at the pace I was at prior to the TypePad issue.
So, perhaps Don and TJ … and hopefully phin, Joe, Beth, Vinnie, moehawk, and the sisters … will continue to post here. I wish they would and hope they do.
Anyway, I thank Don, TJ, phin, and The Mean Sister for posting during this fortnight of frustration. I really do want them to continue to post. They good. And fun to read.
But I’m back!
And let’s celebrate with an Open TrackBack party!
October 30th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Takei gay, Sulu straight, Trekkers confused
Although Takei is gay, the Star Trek character he played, Hikaru Sulu, is married and has a daughter, Demora, born in 2270. Trekkers, commonly called “Trekkies,” were confused by the news.
…
October 30th, 2005 at 11:57 am
Will Prof. Sami Al-Arian be released?
That’s the speculation being raised recently since his lawyer rested without presenting any more arguments in the trial that’s been conducted against this terror-supporting professor who worked in South Florida, who also happens to have been a guest …
October 30th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Congrats on making the switch. Here’s another reason to feel good about it.
October 30th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Basil,
I cannot tell you how frustrated I am regarding the same issue.
Yes, typepad do respond and often solve the problems.
However not until recently, and that is I am sure because I have bombarded them with complaints, have they bothered to inform us when typepad is actually down, instead of letting us struggle without answers.
Previous to that I would be tearing my hear out, every single day with issues where clearly things were not working and the staff would refuse to acknowledge that the system was downright DOWN!
Then the times I would write a very long and explicit complaint, believe me for me not so easy to articulate, as I don’t have the techi language at my fingertips, only to receive a response can you explain further, as we are always interested how we can improve the system. Improve the system? The system was not working FULL STOP!
The trackbacks in particular have always been a huge issue where I would spend COUNTLESS hours pinging people to no avail.
In all the times, and believe me we are talking about at least 35 complaint tickets, each one having at least 3 – 5 responses on either side going back and forth, has anyone told me that they have installed this inefficient trackback spam solution.
I am not a technical person and simply don’t have time to get myself involved with issues that quite frankly when I was a non-paying client with blogger, I did not have!!! In addition to which they are incredibly time consuming! I spend an eqiuivallent amount of time blogging and sorting out typepad!
Every time I have had problems and believe me this is really every time I actually try to send any pings, I was told, give us the list and we’ll do it for you.
But Basil this is not the same. By the time I have written the complaint ticket, by the time they have responded, by the time I then have to produce the list….the train has gone, and on very hot issues I end up simply being the last, when actually I was often first…
Tell me, the info about trackback spam filter, was that mentioned in a serial letter that I may have missed?
October 30th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Conservative Cat describes the spam filter here.
October 30th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
That’s a good Basil
Basil has come to his senses. Instead of waiting on a fix for the trackback issues TypePad is having, he’s decided to switch over to WordPress.
I don’t think there could be a more obvious and elegant solution, congratulations on your new…
October 30th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
Basil Is Looking Good
I have been cross posting (or transpostering as we prefer to be known) over at Basil’s place while he switches from Typepad to Word Press. He’s finished. All I can say is wow. Nice and clean look. Visit Basil’s Blog’s new look. Linked to, who else,…
October 30th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
SCOTUS Survey – Facts and Figures
Before I get to the results, let me lay out a little bit of information about the survey itself. I gathered the email addresses of a diverse group of right-of-center bloggers and sent them the following:
This is going out to a group of right of cente…
October 30th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
Jeralyn Merritt thinks she smells a rat
I was just browsing the headlines in Google news for all the latest stories about the Fitzgerald grand jury affair and stumbled upon this amazing report from Jeralyn Merritt which was originally posted in Huffington’s Post.
October 30th, 2005 at 7:48 pm
A Salute to Tel-Chai Nation Blog
I have in recent weeks become acquainted with an excellent, hard-hitting blog that is the product of an American ex-pat
October 30th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
This Is NO Way to Win a War, Mr. Dumbsfeld!
The ever-ready-to-lend-moral-support-to-the-Jihadists AP has once again eagerly stepped forward with yet ANOTHER military-bashing story
October 30th, 2005 at 9:14 pm
Yay basil’s home!!!
If there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll be glad to do so.
I’ve got a feeling Typepad may take a beating once folks start to realize that they can get their own server space, domain and Wordpress blog cheaper than they can Typepad.
October 30th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Basil, GOOD 4U. You’ve come over to the WP side. Sure, it’s got its ups and downs, and sometimes trackbacks in between WP sites can be a bit weird. But at least they generally… work.
Plus Cal Conservative’s little story is a bit, er, interesting…
October 30th, 2005 at 9:41 pm
Preemptive Strike of Limited Blogation
Today’s dose of NIF – News, Interesting & Funny … Friday’s are good, not so much for Scooter
October 30th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
The Scary Fake MSN Messenger Virus Thingy
The network of people who communicate via MSN Messenger are being subjected to a particularly terrifying joke. Essentially, someone has created a set of three animated smileys that appear to be a downloading virus. The standard method for applying the…
October 30th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
Basil on WordPress
Viva la Basil!
…
October 30th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Welcome to WordPress, Basil
Basil’s Blog, formerly powered by TypePad, has now entered the happy land of WordPress. Welcome, Basil. Glad you finally made it. We arrived here a few months ago, and never looked back.
…
October 31st, 2005 at 12:41 am
Sorry you’ve had so much trouble with your blog, Basil. I was wondering if you’d be interested in being hosted by mu.nu? I could recommend you. You could keep your domain and have it point to the mu.nu blog. If you’re interested drop me a line at everyman dot blog at gmail dot com and let me know. I’ll nominate you for hosting. They do use Movable Type software though but I’m sure you could transfer your posts easily.
October 31st, 2005 at 12:46 am
Carnival of the Magnolias I
Welcome, readers, to the first ever Carnival of the Magnolias. It is my pleasure, as your host, to bring you some of the very best from the southern portion of the blogosphere! We start things off In Tennessee with a…
October 31st, 2005 at 12:53 am
That’s quite kind of you to offer. I was not aware that mu.nu blogs could appear as other domains. Except for the old trick of using a frames page. That’s good information to know.
Again, I really appreciate the offer. I have enough of the TypePad on my local server to run from home for the time being, and will be making a final move after the entire TypePad contents are transferred.
Thanks!
October 31st, 2005 at 1:28 am
w00t! I love the new look!
And of course, I’m like an annoying Firefox evangelist with WordPress.
I’m going to send a trackback, mainly because (you don’t want to hear this, I know) I’ve been having T/B problems lately. I’m assuming you’re on WP 1.5.2, so maybe it will work… :sigh:
October 31st, 2005 at 1:43 am
Weekend Reading Assignment
See also the WLWOTPCFCD post for trackbacks and the Comments post
Military/Support the Troops:
Janette (Common Sense Runs Wild) and SondraK have the story of Army Sgt. Walt Gaya who was injured in Iraq, and as an Argentinian citizen, is now ha…
October 31st, 2005 at 8:58 am
Finally, a machine that goes “Ping”
TypePad’s TrackBack handling is still eccentric (a euphemism for “screwy”), which has motivated Basil (you may remember this) to come up with a solution of his own: move to WordPress….
October 31st, 2005 at 9:21 am
CA Con:
I never did thank you for pointing me to that. Somehow, I had missed that earlier. But I’m not surprised at what I read.
October 31st, 2005 at 9:28 am
Phin:
Just wait until WordPress MU is finally released!
TMH:
I’m finding out what you mean by WP-to-WP pings.
Beth:
Yes, it’s WP 1.5.2 running here. Just downloaded it two weeks ago. And got your ping!
October 31st, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Thank god — the world is right again .. Basil is baaaaaaaaaack .. hugs and mucho kisses darling
October 31st, 2005 at 5:15 pm
Jo:
I appreciate that! Thanks!
November 1st, 2005 at 9:56 pm
Basil,
Hope you’re using the Spam Karma plugin.
We wasted a lot of time (and spent a LOT of time moderating comments) before trying it– so far, it’s working great.
November 2nd, 2005 at 6:33 am
a4g:
I am now!