Recently I have received a number of comments about how MT-Notifier appears to be working fine, then suddenly stops functioning. The most often factor in this change is a larger number of subscribers. That is to say, things are working fine with a few subscribers, but as that number increases to hundreds, so to do the apparent failures of the system.

Let me say that I don't know what causes this. I haven't seen the problem personally, and I know of at least one installation that has a very large number of subscriptions that continues to work fine. This would lead me to believe that it's a resource issue. Specifically, I think that much of it may have to do with the use of the...

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In the early days of MT 3, when I had unreg'd comments set to moderate, I really wanted to have an approval all button as I would read the comment in the email notification I received. Since then that feature request has not progressed so I decided to take matters into my own hands. As the screenshot shows, at the end of this hack you will end up with two buttons on the comments listing screen. This buttons will allow you to mass approve/moderate comments by checking the boxes of the corresponding entries.

First of all open lib/MT/App/CMS.pm and find on approximately line 32 the following

'approve_comment' => &approve_comment,

and right after it

'approve_confirm' =>...

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Question

When someone tries to add their address to my notification list, this error comes up:

You need to set the EmailAddressMain configuration value to your own email address in order to use notifications at lib/MT/App/NotifyList.pm line 33.

Answer

You need to set the EmailAddressMain variable for your email address in mt-config.cgi1. Download the file from your server in ASCII mode and open it in a plain text editor. Look for this setting2: EmailAddressMain you@alternate-email.com

Replace you@alternate-email.com with your preferred email...

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I've finally finished up with MT-Notifier version 2 (technically, 2.0.1). There aren't a whole lot of changes on the surface, but it should be faster and it has been upgraded to work with the Movable Type 3.0D interface. I've greatly enhanced the management functions for both administrators and users. I've also pulled the email notification out into a template, for those of you who want to muck with it but don't like changing the code.

This release includes an upgrade facility from v1.4.0 subscriptions, and also includes the Scripty Goddess conversion piece. I'm working on a conversion for EZ Subscribe to Comments, but I haven't had a chance to finish it up yet. It should be done...

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2.5 (2002.10.08)

• Localization: the MT interface can be available in multiple languages, on a per-author setting. • Integrated Jay Allen's mt-search (Thanks, Jay!). We've made the following changes from version 1.31b: • Rewrote ``new comments search'' to make it more scalable (using recently_commented_on functionality) • Added a search log through the Activity Log. • Added search request throttling, to help against denial of service attacks. • Merged mt-search.cfg directives into mt.cfg....

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Question

I have a paid license. Do I have to keep the "Powered by Movable Type" links on my site and in my notification emails?

Answer

The "Powered by Movable Type" link in the default templates and the slug in the notification emails are governed by the license terms of "A Little Credit".

So, for those who hold a paid Personal or Commercial license, maintaining these credit links are optional; for those using a free Personal, or any Educational or Not for Profit license, maintaining these links is required. • To remove the credit links from your pages, edit your...

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Updated August 29, 2005. Originally posted in 2004.

Spammers have discovered bloggers and sooner or later if you allow comments or trackback pings on your weblog you will get spammed.

Blog spam appears in many flavors:

1) Basic comment spam. The spammer leaves a short uneventful message in a comment field in one of your entries. The spam comes from the URL placed in the comments URL field. These URLs link back to every conceivable scam. The spammers leave URLs here to create a link from your site to theirs, thus increasing their Google ranking. Spammers are also now linking to legitimate sites that have not cleared their pages of comment spam, thus increasing the Google rank...

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Updated

Occassionally databases get corrupted, servers fail or web hosts go out of business. So it's a good idea to back up your Movable Type blogs. There are many methods for doing so, a few of which I will cover here. The back-up process is much easier if you are using MySQL as your database, which, by the way, is one good reason to use MySQL over the default Berkeley DB.

TypeMover

TypeMover is a new plugin for the purpose of backing up, restoring, and/or migrating your Movable Type weblog. It is compatible with MT3 and later versions of Movable Type. From the TypeMover website:

TypeMover is a MovableType plugin. It adds backup, restore and migration features that let you get...

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Question

What is the definition of "Basic Support" as included with my license?

Answer

Basic Support covers reasonable use of the online ticket support system to request assistance with using the features of Movable Type in the manner for which they were designed.

Basic Support does not cover items such as the following: • Logging into your installation or hosting account to perform standard user functions • Server configuration or set-up • Installation of required or optional modules • Step-by-step assistance with installations or upgrades1 • Third-party plugins or any of the...

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Just posted a new version of MT-Notifier. This version adds support for transferring Movable Type notifications into the Notifier system. These are created as entry-only subscriptions, as that's what they are in MT. As such, if you have a blog configured to send comments only (either directly, or through the site-wide option), these subscriptions will not be created. This behavior is by design, to mimic the MT function as closely as possible. Thanks for the suggestion, Simon!

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Weblogs are not just a one-way medium for publishing. With the use of a singular, often conversational voice, enhanced by the loosely coupled nature of the Internet and lightweight syndication formats, weblogs are akin to conversations, regardless of the size and makeup of the audience. "A" writes about something on their mind -- an experience, the news, or a project's status. "B" reads it and expresses their take. "C" finds both posts interesting and notes something A and B has not mentioned and so on.

Not everyone has a weblog (sadly) and not everyone wants to make a post to their weblog for everything...

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Question

My database has been corrupted. Is there any way to avoid losing my data?

Answer

This answer depends a great deal on the level of corruption, the type of backups you have, and how much information is still accessible from within your existing installation (as opposed to being in external files such as the static pages Movable Type has generated from the data).

Does your host maintain backups for your account?

If so, do they have any which would include copies of your database files prior to the time corruption appears to have occurred?...

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Question

How do I convert from one database type to another?

Answer

Convert from Berkeley to SQL

To determine whether your server supports a SQL database, and the Perl libraries required to connect to it, run mt-check.cgi and look at the status for any of the following modules: DBD::mysql, DBD::Pg, or DBD::SQLite. If any of these are installed, your server will support that version of Movable Type. If none of these are installed, you will need to contact your host to have them installed if you wish to use a SQL database.

If you are interested in...

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With the most difficult part of running Movable Type -- the installation -- behind you, it is time to get started using MT.

It all begins with The Movable Type Content Management System (CMS). This script is the heart and soul of what makes powerful weblog publishing possible.

The CMS contains the majority of the intelligence and work flow that makes Movable Type what it is. Whether it involves posting an entry, adding a colleague as an author, or publishing your content with a whole new style, it is the CMS that is doing the heavy lifting.

By default the CMS script is named mt.cgi, although this...

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Thanks to the astute comments of Bob and Iki, I became aware of an issue in MT-Notifier for the display for the site-wide configuration - specifically in setting the type of notifications to be sent. The value would be set correctly, but the display would not reflect that setting. It's fixed in version 2.4.2, available now.

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We should probably included a full explanation of TrackBack and how it works, but there isn't enough time to do it justice.

Needs refinement. This comes in out of nowhere. better define "resource" and "communication."

Weblog comments still require the use of that particular site's interface and the content is limited to that one weblog unless it is cut, pasted, and posted elsewhere.

Released in August 2002 as both an open protocol and new functionality in MT version 2.2, TrackBack was designed to provide a means of notification through a small message called a ping that establishes a link between...

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Setting Comment Policy

Problem

You want to set commenting policy for your weblog.

Solution

Use the controls under the Feedback tab of the weblog's Settings screen.

Discussion

When Movable Type Version 3.0 was released, its most significant enhancements came in the area of comment and TrackBack management and moderation, providing publishers numerous means of controlling the community elements of MT-powered sites.

While the Comments and Commenters Listing screens provide the ability to manually tend to comments in a more efficient manner than previous versions, MT also added...

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If you are putting hours into writing content for your blog, you may want to make a few bucks (or more) to help pay for hosting charges and other costs associated with running it. Some bloggers find that they can make more than just small change, but most not enough to quit their day job. In any case, here are a few of the more popular methods.

Several ways by which you can make money with your weblog include Google Adsense, Amazon Associates, various other affiliate programs, advertising, and donations. Keep in mind that the success of these programs is highly dependent upon your content and the level of traffic you get to your site.

Google Adsense

Since its launch in the spring...

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2.64 (2003.05.28)

• Replaced RSS 0.91 template in default templates with an RSS 2.0 template, from the RSS validator site. (Thanks to the RSS validator folks.) • Fixed some XSS bugs (comments, TrackBack, notification addresses, and search queries). (Reported by Dumky and others) • Fixed width of #content div in Clean stylesheet so that it doesn't require scrolling in Windows IE. • Fixed TrackBack auto-discovery and text filters--auto-discovery is now done against the filtered entry body rather than the unfiltered body. (Timothy Appnel) • Added <q>...

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Question

Can I pay Six Apart to install Movable Type for me, or upgrade my existing installation to the latest version?

Answer

Yes, we offer these services to those who have purchased a supported version of Movable Type.

Requirements Before We Begin

Please make sure to confirm that your host/server meets the requirements before requesting an installation, as the fee is non-refundable once we begin.

You can view the system requirements and get helpful information on choosing a web host in the Introduction to Installation and Upgrade in the Users Manual....

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