Well, we're up and running on a new server (and if you can see this, you're looking at it). I took the opportunity to do a major release upgrade on the software that this site runs on, and the style sheet for this blog appears to have been clobbered in the process. Normal visuals will be resumed as soon as possible; meanwhile, the basics appear to be working ...
Update: and we're fixed!
Not only is it working, but right now it feels like you've got a "hot ship".
Testing threading... and I'm glad the server update didn't seem to give you too much trouble (i.e. I can read this site as we speak only 12 hours after you claimed it would be done).
Same threading as before (for now ...)
I posted messages circa 9AM (to me and the server) local on what felt like the old server; they've come across, and it's now circa 13:30, so I make that under 5 hours (maybe 3 or 4) down time. Impressive.
Ah, sweet...full OpenID login support! (note: this may have been here for awhile, but I hadn't checked recently) I'm myself again! grin
It looks like user icons are not yet working -- your comment doesn't have the usual headshot of you. (They seem to be gone for old posts too, actually.)
We did some, ah, "extensive preparatory testing" last week. (Read: a dress rehearsal wherein I broke everything then got it working again, so that when we did it for real I had a checklist.)
OpenID seems to have come un-broken with the upgrade from MT4.2 to MT5. User icons not so much ... we're looking into those.
The links to them have got broken, yet the system gives no indication as to where it thinks they are. The best thing, I'm afraid, is to go to your profile and re-upload them, as I have done. Sorry about that.
test ...
Okay, looks like you may need to re-upload your user icon (if you want to have one). Updating my user profile didn't work properly, I had to go via the administrator's interface.
Can one of you (who isn't an admin) please click on your name (next to a comment) and update your profile by uploading a 100x100 pixel jpeg? To test if it works for ordinary users.
Personally, I don't mind there not being icons other than y'all's - makes it easier to find your responses (and yes, I suppose I could just type "charlie stross")
let's see if my icon shows up from a Google Account login...
mmmm. not so much, but I can't be 100% sure that's not a Google issue rather than a moveable type issue...
I'm not sure which of the various third party icons were showing up beforehand.
Want Gravatar!
(Just a test if this is going to work maybe with the new server and all ... or if the nice evil Gravatar cloud still isn't supported for user images ...)
Testing with a LiveJournal icon
Not ATM; what sensorship rating is your Gravitar? It probably needs to be "G" rated. Also, you may need to clear your cache before it shows up.
Or Gravitar could still be blocked, but those hints might help if it's not.
Gravatar: Should look like this http://en.gravatar.com/tillwe and is G-rated. So I guess, Gravatar is still blocked.
It's G-rated - and works with other sides, so I guess Gravatar is still disabled here.
Gravatar on MT requires, as far as I can tell, a plug-in, and that plug-in blocked every other type of userpic when I played with it.
RSS feed seems to be working; at least LJ picked up your post!
Login appears to be... intermittent. Twice I just got the "busy" indicator but no activity. Third time I got the "how do you want to login" page, but it looked badly formatted and when I clicked on the LJ option I got a box filled with the "pencil" icon. Entering my name into that box worked, so technically functionality worked... but messy :-)
Ditto on the messy formatting on Livejournal login.
Testing.
Hmm, didn't pick up my avatar. Try again.
Hmm, trying my googleid login...
Yes, the LJ login is ... odd. I can't imagine how to achieve that effect deliberately, but I have to assume it was so. Possibly, it's meant as a security feature - if the person typing can't see what's there, nor could a shoulder surfer?
Long time lurker first time poster, etc,etc. Just wanted to test out and say I've just finished the special edition of Toast,164 of 700, that I received as a birthday gift. Thanks for writing.
TEST - testing -from E. Canada. Just want to say, the description about the Merchant Princes is riveting -- I wonder if those other intelligences are evolved dinosaurs, or other species? Many possibilities....
Way back in the Cambrian age
So no, not dinosaurs. The Cambrian finished long, long before dinosaurs appeared on the scene. The only vertebrates around then hadn't even invented the leg or the jaw (their descendants are lampreys and hagfish).
Most of what was around was much weirder.