The BradLands: Must See HTTP://

Monday, July 9, 2007

The BradLands version 6.0

I'm bringing ~~sexy~~ Helvetica back! Yep, The BradLands were closed over the weekend ("Moose out front should'a told ya") while I ported the site over to run on Expression Engine (EE) and gave the place a new coat of pixels. Not everything is back in place yet—this here weblog and The Daily Brad are good to go—but I'll be adding content and tweaking things on a continuing basis. The oldest content that hasn't made the transition during the past two redesigns will eventually make it here as well.

This is the third site—after SXSW Baby! and the site for The Rep—that I've built with Expression Engine and it just continues to impress (and, occasionally, frustrate) the hell out of me. It has given me the opportunity to learn quite a few new things, though, and developing all of the sites I work with regularly on the same platform certainly has its advantages. I'll have some more to say about EE in a while, including some tips and tricks I've picked up along the ascent of its learning curve.

I'd decided to port The BradLands to EE a while ago, but I was still a bit reluctant to move away from Movable Type, particularly after having the opportunity to beta test their awfully slick new 4.0 version. I still have a few small projects running MT, and when the new version is finished, I'll give it a good look before making any other transitions.

One final bit of housekeeping: If you're subscribed to the old site RSS or Atom feeds, the redirects I put in place should flip your feed reader over to the Feedburner versions. Just to be sure, though, you might want to check your subscriptions. This weblog is now feeding http://feeds.feedburner.com/MustSeeHttp and The Daily Brad is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheDailyBrad (and yes, I am planning to resume writing over there, thanksforasking).

Let me know if you find anything terribly wrong with the site, won't you?

Posted by Brad on July 9, 2007 at 12:16 AM | (2)

Comments:

No matter what platform you choose, I am very interested in hearing from you what you think of the beta and what we could possibly do to the product to make the decision making process a no-brainer for you. An important part of this beta process is not just listening to users, but to respond and manifest their feedback in the product.

If you have any feedback you would like to share, please I am all ears.

Byrne Reese
PM of MT

Comment by Byrne Reese on July 14, 2007 at 12:54 AM

Thanks for the note, Byrne. I'll be writing up my impressions of both Expression Engine and the new version of Movable Type a little later. My decision to port The BradLands to EE was based in a no small part on my limited ability to hold more than one CMS in my brain at any one time. Since I was already working on sites built in EE, it just made sense to use it here, in my personal playground, where I can learn more about it.

MT (along with Blogger) is still a sentimental favorite, and I continue to recommend it to friends who have projects suitable for it.