armchair quarterback :: the new blogger

despite the fact that i had to burn my old template to the ground and start building off a new one to get to the new features, i really like the new blogger. actually, i didn't have to burn it to the ground. i was just using php includes and all sorts of other trickery to get the page dialed in. pile four years of tricks on top of one another and they start to wreck the shit out of everything.

and even tho i'm a newly minted resident of the cookie cutter nation - even if only for a little while - i do like the new template i ended up choosing. it's a slinky little number from mr. dan cederholm that i'll eventually end up perverting. still, it's nice enough to keep in place while i get everything sussed out.

as for the new blogger, i've got a list of reflections...

• it feels like they jacked the new per post archive format from typepad/movable type
• the commenting features feels as if it's been lifted from livejournal [sans threading]
• the design on the front page [and thru the rest of the site] is a breath of fresh air
• the dashboard is a real improvement as far as user friendliness goes
• i'm glad they ditched the classic post interface in favor of an adapted version of the lofi one

all over it feels a lot cleaner and way more friendly than it was before.

oh, before i forget... i wanted to expand a bit on the new commenting system while i had a chance. when you want to add a comment the first thing you after clicking on the comment link is go to a page on the blogger servers. there you are presented with not only a comment box but also the text of the post you're commenting on below the text box. after you add your comment blogger ftp's [or sftp's] a new page with your included comment to your server. there's probably a cleaner way to do that last step [see: less impact on ftp/sftp traffic], but i'm not sure how offhand.

i haven't tried to add malicious code into the comment box just yet, but i plan on fucking with it over the next day or two. i'd expect that they strip most open tags and malicious includes. i'll find that out soon enough, won't i?

[note: just like j.ko i'm a bit disturbed with the way they seem to be tracking links in comments, but i'm curious to see what exactly they're doing. time to start sniffing my own traffic too.]