The Tavern’s Back – Update: Look, Feel & Platform

IMG_0588.jpgRemember “The Digital Tavern“? This is the blog I started in 2002 before anyone knew blogs or blogging. There are seven years of my ramblings on music, wine, marketing, macintosh and of course my favorite, travelogs. But I couldn’t keep up two blogs while riding a motorcycle around the world. So The Digital Tavern was neglected. Sure I posted stuff when I was recovering from my Bolivian broken leg incident. And occasionally I’d post a story from the road. But it’s been sadly stuffed in the storage bin and neglected.

This week yanked it from storage, dusted it off and gave it a little exercise. I hope you’ll stop by more often as I’m sure to continue the musing. Now the Tavern is searchable. And there’s more.

You see, for quite awhile my Digital Tavern blog has been replicated at two locations. Here at www.blog.digitaltavern.com and another at www.digitaltavern.com which resolves to my old host at the early Blogging platform, Radio UserLand. I longed for a solution to migrate to a more robust and flexible platform and one that I could self-host with my other sites at www.dreamhost.com.

I considered Movable Type which I use to author my WorldRider blog, but managing updates to the server software are always time-consuming and as a result I’m late and don’t get to quickly leverage new features nor take advantage of de-bugging. That’s where WordPress comes in. It’s free and my host offers “one-click installs” and upgrades/updates.

Today marks the implementation of the first new design to my original blog since 2005 – where I first tested WordPress and simply used a stock template with a modified header image. While I’m using a new template for this new design virtually every componenet of that design has been customized to closely match yet update the classic Digital Tavern design.

New features will be added over the next couple months including integration with social networks, photo sharing and geo-data moblogging. You’ll also be able to subscribe to comments and use other tools here in the future.

It’ll be touch and go as I continue to tweak things. So strap on the seat belts and let’s take this new look for a test ride. Drop me a note in a comment here. Tell me what or who you’d like to see at The Digital Tavern.

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