6 March 2008

I've removed all comment-form validation requirements, which I hope will (a) reduce the number of "lost" comments, and (b) eliminate some problems I was having with proper functioning of said validation requirements. The only reason I'd reinstate them would be if I start getting overrun by spam.

5 March 2008

I replaced (again) the "accordion" code to improve its performance.

2 March 2008

A couple of very minor changes:

• I replaced the "accordion" code that opens and closes section of the sidebar. It was conflicting with something else.
• The commenting system now allows registration through a variety of services, or simply through this site.
• The pop-up windows for various feedback functions have been fixed.

24 January 2008

Upgraded the publishing system to Movable Type 4.1.

19 December 2007

Polls are back up. A tutorial at Slapnose addressed the problems I was having.

12 December 2007

For reasons that defy my highly limited understanding, my host's upgrading of its PHP has caused two separate problems with my polling functions. One might be easily solvable; the other I haven't the first clue how to fix. So for now, there are no more polls at Culture Snob. Sniff.

29 November 2007

Made the site stats a public page, so that you can appreciate the elite company you keep by reading Culture Snob. We're very selective, you know.

28 November 2007

Changed the site's feedback form, report-a-problem page, and suggestion box to popup windows.

12 November 2007

Changed the site's CAPTCHA provider and revised the comment-response page so that, hopefully, fewer people will get their comments eaten by the system.

Also, I replaced the e-mail form with with an internal mechanism. It seemed that the old one wasn't working properly, and I fear that some people had their messages swallowed by the ether.

And I turned off TrackBacks.

7 November 2007

Added Visitor Stats Pro from MT-Hacks, mostly for my own use but also to provide some visitor and page-view statistics for readers.

17 October 2007

Replaced the native Movable Type 4 search system with Fast Search from MT-Hacks. I hope the only difference you notice is an improvement in performance.

I also fixed a very minor issue: the display of the size of audio files. It's now in megabytes instead of bytes.

27 September 2007

Re-launched Culture Snob on the new Movable Type 4 platform.

Hopefully, old permanent links still work through the magic of redirection. Links to audio and image files are unchanged. However, if you subscribed to the comments feed for a particular entry, that Web address has changed.

The upgrade process was arduous, and I'm certain there are things I've overlooked. Please, if something doesn't work the way you think it should, tell me about it.

The need to re-write my templates from scratch gave me the opportunity to evaluate what I liked and didn't like about Culture Snob. Through that process, I've made minor but voluminous changes throughout the site.

Some highlights:

• You can now subscribe via e-mail to comments on a particular entry. Simply make sure that box is checked when you submit a comment.
• Comments are now verified through the use of CAPTCHA (in which commenters verify that they're human by typing the letters they see in an image) rather than a not-so-secret word. And for the time being, you can submit comments without giving an e-mail address.
• TrackBacks have been enabled. If spam overwhelms the system, they'll be shut down again.
• The basic category structure has been simplified to movies, music, books, sports, and miscellany, without subcategories that were probably meaningless to most people anyway.
• You now have more options for browsing the site, including by date and by category. A catch-all archive index can be found here.
• The full archive (which starts on the front page and moves backward through time) has been broken down into multiple pages, reducing load times. Longer archives are also paged.
• The alphabetized movie-review archive is now its own stand-alone index.
• Site-wide feeds (the main feed, the comments feed, and the podcast) have been switched to FeedBurner. Old links should work fine, but changing your feeds should ensure maximum compatibility with browsers and feed readers.
• The site has been made "future-proof," which means that the URLs should work no matter how Web technology changes. The major change is that file extensions have been removed from Web addresses. If you have older links to Culture Snob, they should still work. If they don't, please tell me.
• There are no longer individual printer-friendly pages, but the stylesheets should automatically produce the same effect. If your printouts look funky or bad, report the problem.