I’ve upgraded the site to the latest version of WordPress in response to reports of a serious attack on older versions (if you’re running any version earlier than the new 2.8.4, go read about it immediately).
Every time I upgrade, there are user problems for a while, which for readers with some browsers take the form of a front page frozen in time at the last post just before upgrade (in this case, “NYC: tobacco shops can’t give away coffee“). I’ve tried to avert this problem with more careful attention to the cache file, but if you notice this problem (or any other) with the site, please email me at editor – at – thisdomainname – dot- com.
Tagged as:
blog mechanics,
WordPress
This happened back in January last time we upgraded WordPress, and I’m afraid it’s happened again: some users of Internet Explorer and Safari are reporting that the front page of the site is stuck for them in its July 5 form, as of just before the update. I think I’ve fixed the problem now by restoring the missing cache file, but you may need to do a forced refresh (SHIFT button while clicking “reload”) to see the results.
If you’ve tried SHIFT + reload and still get the July 5 version, let me know via email (editor – at – thisdomainname.com) or post a comment.
Tagged as:
blog mechanics,
WordPress
If the site is temporarily unavailable, it’s because I’m updating to the latest version of WordPress. Back soon, I hope. Update 11 p.m. Eastern: Looks like it worked, if you see a problem let me know.
Spoke too soon: there was a caching problem which has prevented many readers with IE or Safari browsers from seeing newer posts (details here). I’ve put in what I hope is a fix.
Tagged as:
blog mechanics,
WordPress
I upgraded last night to the latest version of WordPress, and whether relatedly or not, a couple of strange things went wrong this morning with recent entries: in particular, the short post from over the weekend on the Phoenix police blogger disappeared and was replaced by a draft post on a different subject. I’m working to fix and restore things. If you notice other aspects of the site that aren’t behaving as they should, drop me a line. P.S. Post restored with its comments; most broken links should be back working.
Tagged as:
about the site,
WordPress
Many of our RSS feed subscribers lost their Overlawyered feeds when we switched platforms to WordPress this spring. I’ve just installed a plugin that should get things moving again, redirecting everyone to a single main feed for the site; those who want to follow comments can subscribe to this separate comments feed. If it doesn’t work for you, let me know.
Tagged as:
about the site,
feeds,
WordPress
As we’ve begun filling in tags to the thousands of posts, the “tag cloud” became less and less interesting and more and more distracting on the front page. We’ve moved it to a back page and replaced it with three hand-made lists of tags:
- Categories, with tags roughly corresponding to the categories from the old website;
- Favorite topics, featuring tags corresponding to popular reader favorites from years past and today; and
- Good copy, attorneys and law firms you want to read about.
Are we leaving anything out in those tag lists you’d like to see there?
Don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail with a link if you see something that was improperly auto-tagged or is missing a tag that would be useful.
Tagged as:
about the site,
blog mechanics,
WordPress
Continuing our WordPress site overhaul, we’ve added two new ways to navigate through Overlawyered to find relevant past material.
Our new browse by tag page lets you zero in quickly on posts that relate to your topic of interest or locality. We’ve assembled an uneasy mix of the old post categories, automatically generated new tags on old posts (e.g., “Detroit” will yield stories linking to the Detroit News even when there is no local angle) and tags newly selected by Ted and me, with the balance, we assume, gradually shifting toward the latter over time. We’ve tended to avoid autotagging the most common terms as well as the very largest cities and states; remember that you can still try our regular search function.
And here’s a neat trick: by tinkering with tag URLs, you can combine tags to find a subset of posts with overlapping tags. For example, the URL http://overlawyered.com/tag/illinois+family-law/ calls up all posts that are tagged with both “Illinois” and “family law”. (Note the required placement of the plus sign and hyphen(s).) Likewise with “Bill Lerach” + “politics” or whatever other combination of tags you like.
Finally, we’re experimenting on individual posts with suggested “Related posts”. These are auto-generated by the tag program based on shared tags, so they will inevitably be less than perfect, but may make a helpful place to start.
Tagged as:
about the site,
blog mechanics,
WordPress
I’ve now succeeded in transferring the site’s pre-2003 archives to the new WordPress platform, which means they’ll be indexed along with more recent posts; no more having to do separate searches in each of two indexes. Moreover, I’ve gotten the old URLs of those archives to redirect seamlessly to the new. Coming up soon: getting the old URLs of the MT-based 2003-2008 archives to redirect to the new, as much as possible.
One unexpected result of the archive changeover: Google News interpreted the arrival of the archived files on WordPress as if they’d been newly published, which has (temporarily) much expanded our presence on that site. Fortunately, the archives are prominently marked as such, which should keep readers from mistaking them for recent reportage.
Also, Ted and I have been busy “tagging” a selection of recent and older posts. Tags display on the post itself, and those most used appear in a “tag cloud” toward the bottom of the rightmost column. Bear in mind that we’ve only made a small start toward tagging past posts, so if you follow the “California” tag, for instance, it will lead you to only seven California-related posts as of the moment.
Finally, the little gavel favicon in the navigation bar is back.
Tagged as:
about the site,
Google,
WordPress
