Creek Running North

So let’s recap.

1) I create a dummy blog Friday to play with some redesign possibilities, and MovableType takes that opportunity to corrupt not only itself but my mySQL database.
2) in the process of repairing the database, phpMyAdmin deletes the item in the database table “mt_blog” that is the main database definition of this blog.
3) I recreate the missing item in that table by hand. I delete the entry for the fake blog, which MovableType failed to do.
4) MovableType then fails to run. I get an error message mentioning “permissions” in the database, and referring to a particular line in a file I cannot read. I can neither post nor approve comments.
5) I go to bed.
6) In the morning and on my second double espresso, I realize that if MovableType failed to delete the dummy blog entry, it probably failed to delete references to the dummy blog. And since the error message involved permissions, I might find something in the “mt_permissions” table in the database.
7) I find a dozen entries in the “mt_permissions” table that refer to the deleted blog. I delete them.
8) Just to be on the safe side, I run an SQL query that deletes any items that refer to the missing blog.
9) MovableType works again. I enjoy an 18-hour period.
10) My web host has a space problem on Sunday morning, in which they unanticipatedly run out of room on the partition this site lives on. This is an annoying but minor problem, and Jeff fixes it within 20 minutes of my phone call to him, and that should be all that happened, except that:
11) MovableType has a known but undocumented bug that causes the software, when faced with a server space error message, to rebuild pages as completely blank empty documents, and then require reinstallation.
12) I find this out when my homepage turns up blank, as well as the page of the most recent post.
13) I do not find out about the mechanism by which the pages went missing until I rebuild the entire site.
14) I spend an hour waiting for Jeff to fix the problem, then reinstalling Movable Type, then waiting for the new version to update my mySQL database, which I at this point do not entirely trust it to do but it seems to do without incident, then rebuilding the blog.
15) I try to post this entry unsuccessfully: the “save” button won’t do anything.
16) I decide I must have missed a file in the installation — possible, as I was doing a few other things at the time — and reinstall it again.
17) And then again when it still doesn’t work.
18) Neither of those reinstalls was necessary, as my problem was a CSS-based incompatibility between MovableType’s new update and Safari. Fortunately, I have Firefox installed.
19) Oddly enough, none of this has particularly dampened my mood for the weekend. But I sure am motivated now to find other software to use. The main contenders are Word Press and Expression Engine. I’d prefer something that would allow me to keep my old URIs intact, and whose template markup is at least moderately penetrable. Suggestions and advice welcome in the comments.

Posted by: Chris Clarke
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