Moving to Wordpress, except…

[chrishansenhome]

I have saved my LJ to archive, then (with very great difficulty) uploaded it to Wordpress. This new blog area is still a work in progress. However, I'm really annoyed about lots of things.

First, I use some codes in my posts to put in such things as ellipses (…) and em-dashes (—) and the like. These codes do not come out right and, in some cases (such as é) actually truncate the entry. This is majorly annoying.

Second, it seems that embedded videos are not carried across in all cases. This means that some entries end up looking really stupid, as there is a comment about the wonderful video I've embedded, and then nothing.

Third, the import facility in Wordpress says that it will take files up to 40MB. Don't believe 'em. As I got into my blogging stride I had somewhere between 3 and 4 thousand separate entries, and the whole archive couldn't be uploaded. I then split it into years, and starting in 2007 that year file was too big to upload! I had to split 2007-2010 into two pieces each in order to get them to upload. The swearing as I tried to do this was intensely annoying to HWMBO, although he hasn't said anything. I must be careful as I don't want to do anything to upset him.

Fourth, I want to automatically share my Wordpress blog with Live Journal, at least for the present. I don't know how to do this—anyone have any advice for me?

Fifth: I need a drink desperately but it's now 2315 and it's too late for that. Drat!

Comments

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Can you give me the URL? I've been going to Tools ---> Import ---> Livejournal but I only got my first hundred posts. This is an issue for me given my volume.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Sorry, URL for what? LJ Archive? (If you Google that you'll find it right away, but I don't believe that it will help a lot, given your volume.)

Another friend of mine, danlmarmot mentioned a Python script that he might have to write to do this. I'll ask him for more details.

I am finding replacing text that's deleted because I put an accented character in (it chokes not only on foreign accents like "é" but also on the diaeresis in "naïve") most annoying.

However, I at least have the bones in Wordpress. And once I've gone through the entire corpus, I suspect that the text will be better-protected and easier to get to.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Sorry, the URL for the import facility you're using. How are you--where are you--importing the months of posts exported from LJ into WordPress? When I got into my dashboard, I can only find the Tools --> Import --> Liveournal pathway that doesn't let me import month by month at all.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. First, I exported my LJ posts to my computer using LJ Archive. Then, I split up the resulting XML file manually into sections (there is a header and trailer that you have to copy through; if you look at the file you'll see it). Then I used the import facility (Tools/Import/LiveJournal) to upload and import each file from my own computer. You have to do each one separately.

I barely retained my sanity while doing this, and I am finding going through and repairing the posts that need repairing is a heavy slog for me. With your much larger corpus, it would take a much larger effort to do this in the same way. While I'd recommend keeping a local archive in case LJ goes titsup, I don't necessarily think that what I did is appropriate for you.

My fear is that, after I've finished and everything is imported and cleaned in Wordpress, someone will come out with an easypeasy way to do it that doesn't involve .xml files. I haven't got much hair to tear out, but if and when that happens I might just tear the rest of it out.

What I am finding is that I'm able to correct some problems with the old blog posts (such as minor typos) and supply new pictures in some places where I'd promised them but never actually provided them. It's also interesting to go backwards and review your life like this.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I don't know about automatically updating, but you can definitely create an RSS feed for it (as in enter your RSS feed address and give it an unused LJ RSS feed name) on LiveJournal that people can subscribe to and see the updates mixed in with their friends lists that way.

[legalmoose]

If you're using a version of Wordpress that allows for plug ins, there are a couple of them that allow you to cross-post from WP to LJ. I use Live+Press and that seems to do the trick.