Aaaarrrrggghhh- Typepad Put This Blog on New Editor, Which Sucks
The new Typepad editor is not at all ready for prime time. I cannot find a single new feature in it, but it is rife with bugs. Ones I have found so far:
- Certain images will not upload correctly into a post. The Typepad folks do not know why
- Twice I had a crazy error when all of the text and buttons in the "add link" popup window suddenly were inserted into the post
- All my category setup was overwritten and I had to redo it all
- The spell checker is awful. There is no "skip all" button. I used "IPCC" 50+ times in one post at my other blog, and had to hit skip 50 times over and over
- The eliminated the blockquote editor option. Good job on a blog editor!
- It is slow, slow, slow.
This is one of those enforced beta situations where all of use users are forced to do the beta testing they should have done. This is the one downside to web-based applications, because there is no way I can do a rollback to the old version.
Update: Also, publish is way slowed down. Sometimes it take several minutes to be able to see new posts on my blog. This one still has not appeared after hitting shift-refresh now for 3 minutes.
Update #2: They sent me an article to trumpet all the new features, but I could find not a single new feature listed. And it is probably a bad sign they felt the need to put this up front in the article:
If you are seeing the new compose, please be aware that it is not a beta version, it's an upgraded editor that you should be seeing.
LOL
Update #3: Getting good comments about WordPress. I may have to check it out.
Steven Borg:
You can always try working with Live Writer. It seems to work quite well for both WordPress and TypePad.
October 24, 2008, 12:25 pmKaren of Scottsdale:
WordPress (self-hosted) is good because you don't have to upgrade every time a new version rolls out.
October 24, 2008, 3:38 pmShamus:
I know "change platforms" is an annoying response, so I will just say that WordPress is quite good and hasn't failed me in the 3+ years I've been running my blog. I've been doing 1.5 posts a day for 3 years with heavy comment traffic, so I think I've put it through its paces.
I used both TypePad and Greymatter (defunct now, I think) in 2001-2003-ish. I disliked the batch rebuilding they had to do, which would make even minor formatting changes take forever. (Actually, I guess the problem was that minor changes and a complete restructuring of the site layout required the same rebuild process.)
Sorry to go all WordPress fanboy in your comments. Good luck sorting out your current difficulties. I enjoy your blog, keep up the good work, etc.
October 24, 2008, 4:54 pmBill:
I recommend WP as well, even though it might be a pain to switch. Good luck. Your blog is fantastic.
October 24, 2008, 5:14 pmxpatUSA:
Google's Version 2 Gmail went through a bad patch some time back, but at least you could revert to their basic HTML version. Then I found their previous Version 1 to be still accessible and have used that successfully for many months now.
However, their home page thingy (iGoogle) has suddenly moved all the tabs to the left and no way to put them back up the top, grrrr :-(
If it ain't broke . . .
Good luck and please keep up this excellent blog!
T.C.
October 24, 2008, 8:28 pmMesa Econoguy:
Typepad_sucks_ass.com?
October 24, 2008, 11:53 pmdr kill:
Hahaha, I didn't understand any of your post except the not happy part. But whatever it is that you see as problematic, I beg you solve it soon. You write a wonderful blog.
October 25, 2008, 5:28 amdr kill:
Actually, I'm pretty sure that enforced beta situations are a bad thing. I'll try to avoid them.
October 25, 2008, 5:31 ammostly cajun:
Put me down as a WordPress vote.
Geekhood status is NOT a requirement to run a WordPress blog, BUT if you want to get under the hood and poke around, you can do that. The biggest hassle you may face is getting your old 'look' into a WordPress "theme".
Swapping archives and things over has gotten a lot easier.
Good luck!
MC
October 25, 2008, 9:52 amBrad Warbiany:
I'm a very happy WordPress user. Of course, the question is whether you run WordPress on their site or on your own paid host. If you run it on their site, you're subject to the same forced upgrades that you are trying to avoid. I haven't seen any problems with WordPress yet during their upgrades, but you never know.
On my blogs, I self-host. One (my personal, low-traffic site) is on an ultra-discount (read: garage shop) host. I spend $1 or $2 a month for the hosting. The other (The Liberty Papers) is on a more reputable hosting service, but still in a shared server. I spend $7/month there, and have been VERY happy with it so far. Thus, having my own paid host allows me to decide whether or not to upgrade to new versions of WordPress, and so I can read the feedback from users (or upgrade my personal site before the group blog for testing) before I decide whether to make the jump.
October 25, 2008, 2:04 pmJames Barlow:
Drupal is worth a look: http://www.drupal.org
October 26, 2008, 8:34 am