I don’t have a specific launch date set in place, but yes, SOP is pretty much done. I’m just doing browser compatibility, which I hope I can finish off next week or the week after. It will mean a return to normal puppetry-related posts in due course. More on this in a second…

A few related updates: Those who subscribe to RSS/email updates will discover that I have now solved the problem of combined feeds. You will automatically be updated of posts both on PIM and SOP, once the two bunches of posts are split. I thought it would be better to do a combined feed than have two separate ones, so people don’t have to resubscribe or anything.

I have however created a Facebook page for SOP, as well as a separate Twitter account. It’s most likely that the SOP Twitter account won’t be used that much though; I’ve also made auto-retweet bots, which means you won’t miss out on anything if you subscribe to the PIM account (or vice versa). I have also decided to make two Youtube accounts. This will mean reuploading all the videos, and losing viewer numbers/comments/ratings, but it doesn’t bother me too much - one, I can always gain the ground again, and two, it’s much better to separate out what PIM does in video (ie. shadow puppets) and what SOP does (ie. everything else).

I’ve fixed up the commenting, having given up on lightbox commenting - which worked all bar the link text - and done something else instead. Head here: http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/books.php/book-review-the-foam-book#comments . For some reason, IE hates something on that page, and commenting doesn’t show up. Stupid IE. Note that you should see comments against a black background. … Scroll up…. Yeah, not being a fan of the whole ‘comments under the blog post’ thing, I figured out that you can’t really get away from it without some creative design (like lightboxes!), and instead did something slightly subtle. By sticking the comments below the footer itself - and note that the page design is actually bordered by black anyway - the comments actually seem ‘out of the way’ despite still being quite visible on the page. Clicking on the ‘close comments’ will just take you to the top of the page, but if you click the ‘comments’ link itself - from the main page, the top of the single page, or the comments list on the home page - then you would quickly assume you had just arrived at a lightbox or separate comments page. I’m not entirely happy with this, preferring the lightbox, but it’s a decent enough compromise.

I’ve also sorted out the little thing of page headers and category headers; whenever someone views, say the Tutorials page, there should be something to tell them they’re on that page. I was intending on adding a slogan or page header, but discovered it’s redundant due to the menu links being highlighted in a different colour according to which page you’re on. I have however added a small text under the site’s logo on non-linked pages (ie. the Archives). This is the same area where category headers go; as on the ‘Puppet type‘ category page.

… Ok, that’s the main crux of what’s been done. But now for more about the actual migration.

As mentioned, I hope to complete everything within the fortnight - there’s still a lot of editing of the content already there to be done, but that’s minor stuff and can be done quickly - but some news today means that I may take longer than expected.

See, I just landed myself a brand new job! (Hmm, where’s the smiley for throwing streamers? Oh well, never mind, have this instead: ) My good friends and previous employers, David and Fiona, have some more work going and on hearing that, ‘applied’. It’s in apostrophes because really I just replied to a tweet. But anyway, we had an informal chat today and I’m happy to say I’ll be working part-time on doing content for one of their new ventures (being entrepeneurs in website businesses, they tend to have a lot of projects going at once).

This is good news in more than one way: money for me (yay!); good work with great people; part time hours… and best of all, I can work from home. It may take me longer to finish SOP… or it might not.

As a little side note, I briefly chatted with D&F about the new site, and what I was doing with it, and am pleased to report that they thought the teachers’ packs was a good idea. These are the guys who sold their online business - Arts Hub - for an undisclosed large amount of money, so I’m especially pleased that my ideas that I’ve developed on my own seem to have some merit. Yay for being on the right track!