Archive for Other Services
Clean your comments, sir or ma’am?
Update: I’m taking a bit of a break from this service – but if there is an emergency, I will still do it.
I’ve got a WP client who I have admin access to and had left my own email address in the admin section. So, needless to say, I get the moderation queue notifications. Recently, that blog has been getting harrassed by permutations on one theme. They all go to something-top-pharmacy (dot net), and I’ve seen hundreds of permutations of it. It was this particular client who inspired me to go and change the moderation.php to make it check ‘delete’ by default, instead of ‘do nothing’. I got tired of clicking.
So, I did a search for this bottom-feeding-scum-pharmacy along with the term “comment spam” to see if anyone had gotten tired enough of them to come up with some sort of block (from the site, not just via a blacklist or moderation queue). Didn’t find any, but boy did I find blogs, mostly MT blogs, with lots and lots and lots of comment spam they’d never gotten rid of.
So, I’m offering a new service. Call it “blog cleaning lady, if you will”. If you have a blog with spam problems, or know someone who does, please read on. And if you like the idea, please link, so I don’t get tempted to start spamming blogs with ‘remove your spam’ offers. 
Moving from MT to WP?
This is for a move from MT to WordPress. I can also do moves to/from other blog software, prices may vary. Just ask!
1). Install WordPress, including setting up a new database (or insuring WP won’t mess up your old one if you are on a host that doesn’t allow multiple databases), uploading and running the install and setting you up a cron-based daily database backup if your server allows (I just throw that in because it can save your butt — it did mine once — and almost no-one does them). $25, unless you are on a host with a really odd setup.
2) Moving the database: $30 for the first 1,000 posts, $10 for each extra 1,000 (or portion thereof — though I won’t charge extra for just a few over). That’s because I have to make sure the database (both comments and posts) is ‘clean’ of things that can mess up export/import, plus which huge data files often time out on import and/or export). So the bigger the database, the longer it takes. I’ll throw in the necessary .htaccess redirects from MT to WP (if possible). I also use my own export/import methods to try to keep ID#s for posts and comments the same.
3) Translating your design to WP, straight out. $75. New design… depends on how fancy you want to get (Note: I’m a wiz with CSS, but I am NOT a graphics artist). Use of the default WP style or one of these styles is no charge. Note that using the default or one of these designs means that you get to put all your links and suchlike into the template. All I do is set up the theme.
4)I’ll also install extra plugins, for anything from $1 to $10 each, depending on whether they are ‘plug and play’ or need some reconfiguring of templates or settings setups. If I have to write a plugin just for you, we’ll negotiate…
