Dark Matter Zine new version arrives sometime this week! is here!
If anything is broken, PLEASE TELL ME.
Silkie says she’s tired of waiting.
Meteor and Aurora await the update with interestIn the new version, all pages, posts and podcast urls will remain the same and on the website.
Once the migration is complete, DMZ will look fairly similar but not identical to the current version. We’re keeping the color scheme, banner and basic format.
However, it’s not called a “new and improved” version for nothing!
The new search function allows selection of a few different fields at once. (Pick a category and a tag, for example.)
We’re bringing back free subscription to email updates, which died after Google ended its support of that function.
New subscription allows for all updates or just the podcast. We used to have something similar then… you guessed it, Google or whichever company/individual provided that function terminated it.
DMZ’s new version has a new 404 page. You’ll want to see this. The minion saw the location, organised the photoshoot, took the photo. He wanted this photo. Later, much later, he said “how about that for a 404 page?” And I was all “YES YES YES!”
Two ways to access categories. I’m concerned this might confuse some people but hubby reckons it’s good. In the new version, if you click on the podcast category in the top ribbon DMZ will be in tile view with the index as the top left tile. However, if you go through the search function there is no index at the top, it’s not in tile format… and all the podcasts are listed so you can start at the most recent and work your way back. Or start at the end and work forward.
I’ll update this so it’s more precise plus has links to examples after the migration.
Gains and losses – and backups.
During the coming week, DMZ’s minion will back up this website, including readers’ comments. Then, sometime this week or next weekend, he will migrate DMZ to a new HTML5 platform. This new version should help DMZ run faster and be more stable.
We plan to keep EVERYTHING. This includes your precious comments, your contributions to our little community. I’m not 100% confident the comments will stay. But I’m pretty sure when the minion says “everything” will be migrated, he means EVERYTHING. He doesn’t do things by halves.
However, we can’t make iron-clad guarantees.
Behind the scenes
Luckily the minion’s day job is as a database engineer. DMZ’s database is far from the well-sprung sleekness of an SQL Server database run by a large company or govt department. But he descended to DMZ’s level to smooth the way. And to stop me tearing my hair out and ranting when DMZ breaks. DMZ has been breaking a lot lately. Maybe (hopefully) not in ways you’d notice, but behind the scenes I’m fixing things or ranting fairly regularly. Seems almost weekly or fortnightly.
Our current WordPress theme uses HTML4 and is no longer supported, HTML5 has been around since – cough – since I lived in Melbourne before the minion forced me to move to the isolated wasteland that masquerades as our federal capitol. (Canberra.) So I knew we had to upgrade but I put it off.
And put it off.
An__ you get the picture.
Possible interruptions in the next week
DMZ might struggle a bit while hubby backs up the website. Apparently he’ll do this a few times. Because he wants roll-back options.
Then he expects the migration itself to take an hour. OMG I love having actual broadband and not limping along on ADSL2+ any more!
Although, come to think of it, he’s probably migrating on our host server and just controlling it from here.
Language barrier
I ask questions but they’re so “dumb” I have to ask 2 or 3 different ways before he understands what I’m asking. Like, he was talking about the migration and I wanted to know how long we’d be offline for, could he walk away from it while it’s happening, etc. In the end he said he’ll be sitting at the computer monitoring closely. But he hopes the actual migration will only take ONE HOUR.
I guess usually it’s an employer asking questions so he answers regarding the entire process instead of just one bite (byte?) of the process.
If it’s broke…
If, after the migration, you notice any breakages, anything that doesn’t seem to be working properly, and problems with text sizing or wrapping or anything, please let us know. Commenting below would be best but using the contact form is also a great option. And I still check Twitter frequently although it’s a dumpster fire. Plus I enjoy dabbling in Mastodon these days, it’s like Twitter used to be although I don’t have the same vibrant community I enjoyed 10 years ago. So you can contact me there. Anything to make it easy for you to tell me what’s broken.
